Theme of the month February 2009: Juicy Kuzushi

This year my first theme of the month is "Juicy kuzushi".   Kuzushi is the art of disrupting your opponent's balance.  Even if (s)he is stronger,  faster, and/or swifter, once balance is broken these advantages evaporate, and resistance becomes negligible. The "juicy"-ness refers to my ambition to squeeze a lot out of the kuzushi concept.  Plus: It rhymes.

I have written about the broader concept of kuzushi before, and intend to explore all of the aspects of  kuzushi that I listed in that post:

Looking more broadly at the problem of "leveling" an aggressor, any or all of the following means can contribute to the cause:

• Unbalancing: Bringing the aggressor's center of gravity beyond his or her base of support
  
• Mis-alignment: Moving parts of the aggressor into an awkward configuration
  
• Distraction
  
• Pain (which can also be a distraction)
  

All of these measures help to reduce the aggressor's ability to resist the remainder of the technique. However, for subtle kuzushi, it is best when there is neither too much nor too little of the contributing components. Too little, and there is no effect. Too much, and your intentions are telegraphed.

These seem like a fine four points to look at over each of the next four weeks.

Some more specific ideas:

• The kuzushi exercise: Use of the hands, role of the elbows, weight distribution
• Same throw / multiple kuzushi
• The base of support; the dead angle
• Misaligning the hips and shoulders
• Twisting in restraint and control
• Combining unbalancing and misaligning
• Examples of distractions: kiai, feints,  strikes, annoyances
• The effects of pain; a few pressure points

* * *

The next time we revisit kuzushi as a monthly theme, I might use another decomposition.  For example:  The role of kuzushi in:

1. Throwing techniques
2. Groundwork
3. Restraint and control
4. Striking techniques
5. Day-to-day life

Also: The flip-side of applying kuzushi is establishing, maintaining and recovering balance and alignment.

Urban Training: Part II

I would love to train every day, but at the moment my life is very full, with a young family and career taking up the majority of my waking hours.  Martial arts is what I do in "my time" and other interests take a back seat.

While I am working on breeding my own regular training partners they are both still too young for serious practice.

So what to do?  

Most weekday mornings I get up at 5.30 am and practice some of my hung gar kug fu sets (kata), before breakfast and work.  But I am also on the lookout for mini-training opportunities throughout my work-day.  This has the following benefits:

• It's exercise, fun and relaxing
• It offsets an otherwise sedentary chunk of the day, giving me energy and de-stressing
• It helps me in my quest to apply what I learn in the martial arts elsewhere in my life
• It helps me to rack up more "training hours"

How I do it

Each morning I drive to the local train station.  If I have to wait a while I get to do some loosening exercises.  Alternatively, if I haven't done my early morning work out I might wait until the train comes in horse stance.  Then I take the morning train into town:

I like to catch an early train so that I can get a seat and do some reading, but if I miss out on a seat standing up on the train is a good way to test my balance.  Inside the 7.10 am train:

I always walk up the long escalators from the underground city loop.


I have read that some of the Olympic Judo guys find themselves compelled to  go up the down escalator, but that's a bit demonstrative for me!  Stairs are also good:

There's also a pleasant walk to the office, downhill in the morning, but pleasingly uphill on the way home:

Because I get in so early I rarely have to share the lift (elevator in American) to the 9th floor:


I am in the habit of using the 40 seconds of privacy to practice either horse stance punching or circular punching. The mirrors help me to check my alignment.

But wait, there's more ...

Roof-top practice

Withour doubt, the training highlight of my day is roof-top practice.  Having obtained the code for access to the roof of the office building:

I was delighted to find an area ideal for a spot of lunchtime practice:

The views of the city of Melbourne are terrific:



so on most days I take 10 minutes before my lunch-break to do a couple of runs through the 1st set of hung gar kung fu, plus a few minutes of standing relaxation.  Some more views / stances: 

These photos were taken on a hot sunny day, hence the sun-glasses, shorts, sandals, and shadows.  

Among my colleagues this time when I disappear is known as "going off to fight ninjas on the roof".  Actually I am yet to spot any ninjas, or Spiderman, for that matter.  Occasionally I have also had resting window-cleaners as an (appreciative) audience.

I find that doing the set in the middle of the day results in extra energy in the early afternoon, where in the past I found I would often find my energy levels flagging.

Also: Before I go to bed at night I also try to do this set two more times.  The routine suits me, and adds up to a little bit of extra training every day, in addition to formal training in-class, even on those days when I sleep in and miss my morning work-out.

Over to you

So that's how I do it.  What do you do to weave some extra training into your day?

Neighbour jailed for sword death

"A man who killed his neighbour with a samurai sword in a row over a football has been jailed for 11 years for manslaughter."

Mr Martin died when one of his major heart blood vessels was cut.

Kelly told the court he acted in self-defence.

Judge Christopher Moss said to Kelly: "You had lost your self-control by reason of provocation.

"Your use of the sword was quite deliberate."

BBC site.

The Telegraph's view.

Note the use of the word 'samurai' in this piece's header.

While this may be seen as fodder for the ban the sword lobby (see the Mail article below) I see it more of a case to keep one's level-headedness and cool approach to conflict. Don't lose your cool! (or bring out the 'samurai sword' to settle domestics...!)

Whilst digging around for references to this article I came across another sword related death. This time (unsurprisingly in the Daily Mail) more samurai scare-mongering over this sword. Samurai sword mentioned in headline and in the image caption.

This is the sword.

Martial Arts Festival UK

Will it be worth the trip along the A14?

I'd like to think so, plus if we get booked into some seminars then it's more likely to be useful.

http://www.maf-uk.co.uk/

I would snip in a synopsis of the site but ALL of the text is saved as images..

DOH!

and

(sigh)

Free fighting

Last night I was struck how little of interest is on telly these days. Granted I don't watch a lot of tv (I have two young kids!) but a couple of times a week I want to sit down for an hour after all the chores are done and absorb something. As I said-nothing doing on tv so I rooted around and found a DVD about martial arts I'd forgotten I had! Smashing-beer and martial arts documentary...

The blurb on Deadly Arts (it was first shown on National Geographic) says:

"A martial artist with over 25 years of experience, black belt Josette D. Normandeau sets out to uncover the history and culture of six martial arts. At the same time she will train under each art’s top masters… to the very limits of her endurance and ability. Her goal: to win what the masters possess: a touch of invincibility"

Hmmm. I won't be too disparaging. If you can't say something nice...!

Despite some small annoyances the capoeira episode I watched was very well produced and gave a great insight into this martial art (I thought it was more dance-like than this show illustrates) and made me think about the different aspects of free fighting (sparring or randori ). Quite timely as Mokuren Dojo has a thread about kata and Dan Praeder makes an interesting insight in the comments. Plus I had a frustrating randori session the other day...

So what did I see in capoeira? an immense amount of focus and control. What seems to me as a dance interspersed with kicks is much more aimed at a flow back and forth of energy between the players. There is definitely an aim to trick the opponent and 'win' but there also seems an implicit rule of respect and 'conversation' within the fight. Each player gives and takes taking care not to crush the other's techniques but allowing free movement and expression. It doesn't seem to me that the players want to oppose their will or their crushing force onto each other but there is a level of playful deceit too: all done with a smile.

Following is a clip of the show with some controlled 'sparring':

This brings me to my frustration with my recent randori session: there are many (unofficial) levels of randori ranging from non-contact learning skills, to competitive point scoring or even full contact. At the more sedate end of skill learning in free sparring there needs to be this sort of precision and mutual respect. At that level it certainly is more of a conversation! Give and take is essential. Unfortunately it doesn't gel sometimes. Your opponent and you end up striking mid technique, neither gets into the swing of the conversation and you tend to stifle each others techniques. It becomes difficult and staid. When this happens I try and slow it all the way down and highlight each technique or string of techniques that I'm making-this way there's more a chance of a flow to develop. Sometimes junior grades go at it full pelt, thrashing away at you. Everyone wants a piece of the black belts. But I just don't think this is so constructive at an early stage of randori development. Slow and steady then building up the speed makes for solidand more accurate fighting. When this is achieved you can then vary the pace according to the situation.

Much like the player in the clip above sparring can be intensely accurate and controlled in slow motion, stretching and reaching for the opponent in an unrushed and mutual way.

William E. Fairburn and close combat fighting...

I read with interest an intriguing blog article over at Just a Thought about early 20th Century Jiu jitsu showing men in bowler hats attacking each other. What a fascinating thought! Here's me thinking self defence was a thoroughly late 20th Century concept but apparently not only was making sure your bowler hat was 1 inch above your ears and your collar clean and starched a main preoccupation for the well-dressed man of 1904, so was the issue of personal safety. 

I also mistakenly made the assumption that the author of the book, a certain captain H. H. Skinner, was the same military man who had learned jiu jitsu whilst in the Singaporean police force then came to the UK and instructed special forces during the second world war. I was wrong! The man who did this was called William E Fairbairn who developed the killing commando knife (along with Eric Sykes - the military man, not the comedian!) also known as the Fairbairn Sykes.

Fairbairn served in the army and as a police officer in Singapore. He attended the Kodokan and was awarded a 2nd dan black belt from Kano himself! Ref here. He was well known for his ruthless efficiency in fighting and killing which is epitomised in his handbook,written during the Second World War for servicemen called: 'Get Tough!'.

In his foreword he says: "I should like in conclusion to give a word of warning. Almost every one of these methods, applied vigorously and without restraint, will result, if not in the death, then certainly in the maiming of your opponent".

Not traditionally the idea of a fair play gentleman, Fairbairn had a reputation:

"British Major Fairbairn, who had been chief of police in Shanghai before the Japanese capture of the city, taught the Fairbairn method of assault and murder. His course was not restricted to Camp X, but later given at OSS camps in the United States. All of us who were taught by Major Fairbairn soon realized that he had an honest dislike for anything that smacked of decency in fighting" [Dunlop, Richard (1980). Behind Japanese Lines. US: Rand McNally & Co. ISBN 0-52881-823-6.]

In 'Get Tough!' he often talks about hits and knee strikes to the testicles. This, after all, was war. It was produced at a time when there was a real threat to the UK of a German invasion and the civilian population was being prepared for all-out war. The Home Guard was mobilised even having secret squads trained in Fairbairn's techniques ready to infiltrate behind the enemy lines and wreak havoc. Ref. If ever there were a time to 'get tough', now was it...

The techniques which he taught during the war were from his own style of self defence called Defendu.

Interestingly there is a separate jiu-jitsu based martial art called Defendo (apparently unrelated to defendu) developed by Bill Underwood who, while working in theatres in Liverpool in the early 1900s, saw and trained in Judo and Jiu jitsu. He subsequently moved to Canada where Defendo and the curiously named British Jiu jitsu still exist: a style with roots in ancient Asian martial arts but with a realistic modern edge.

References.

http://www.britishjiujitsu.com/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Underwood

http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/ug/mtcombat2.html

Urban training: Part I

I plan to do a little photo article about how I incorporate incidental training into my otherwise sedentary work day.  The photos are ready, but I don't have time to do it right now.  

In the meantime, here's how Christopher Walken and Fatboy Slim do it*:



Enjoy!

*Thanks to my colleague Ben Loft for showing me this.