The Secret
(aka Simplicity)
It seems that everyone is looking for the secret, or the Holy Grail, of combatives. Many Reality Based Self Protection (RBSP) systems and or martial arts (MA), market their wares on the fact that they, and no one else, posses the secrets needed for survival. To me the “secret” is blatantly obvious; the secret is in fact “SIMPLICITY”. Simplicity is not about combative frugality, it is about being focused on combative essentials, understanding that principals stay the same and should be able to be used in diverse applications. Someone once said, “there are far more people in the world who have successfully defended themselves in a use of force situation who had no training, than there are those who do train to defend themselves.” Why????, those with no training defended themselves at a feral level in which simplicity is king at an unconsciously competent level. In fact, I would argue that many who do train in “some” combatives and martial art systems begin to push simplicity aside in favor of form, style, rote, and complexity, and it these demons that cloud one’s mind during life and death combat where the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome is a needed attribute. Form, style, rote, tradition, and complexity, however, are what tantalize us as human beings especially when it comes to combatives or martial arts training. It is this fragmentation and complexity of many combative motor skill training systems (not all) that defeats us, the complexity of choice, the sensory overload so that the outer chaos of real combat, or what is known as the “Fog Of War”, begins to invade our minds thus causing analysis paralysis at the cognitive level, thus giving the advantage to our attacker. The KEY to combat is to hold in the mind a clear and detailed picture of not the “PROCESS’ but rather the “RESULT”, remembering that combative behaviour will automatically align itself with any deeply and clearly visualized intention.
An interesting quote that I read in an article written by a fellow hypnotherapist by the name of Barbara Julian, specific to overcoming the issue(s) of complexity in life, defines simplicity as the ability to:
“ Dance with, rather than resisting or controlling circumstances, until simplicity is achieved as an experience of flow”
In this forum we have read many threads on “flow”, and although Ms. Julian’s article had nothing to do with fighting, it does make the point on the “principal” of simplicity in combat specific to the issue of flow (principals stay the same diverse in application). To me, simplicity in combat is in fact something that I have called “Combative Flow” which is the ability to morph (or as Ms Julian stated “Dance”) with circumstances faced at an unconsciously competent level when the sh*t hits the fan. It is my opinion that form, style, rote, and tradition is what causes complexity and thus truly stunts or even prevents the “dance” of simplicity in combat.
Cerebral Food For Thought
Darren
January 18, 2009 at 6:44 pm | Uncategorized | No comment