Principles count – particularly awareness

When I first got started in the martial arts it was in Taekwondo. We did a lot of kicking, punching and “blocking”. I was told at the time that “the power comes from the hips”. This was good advice up to a point. I say up to a point, because I wasn’t told what principles came into play if I wanted to generate power from the hips - for example, that the power came from the ground or how to get the power from the ground, up the legs and spine and out to the limbs. Stance was considered important, so we had to put our feet in the right places and then we twisted our hips and drew our arm back and executed whatever block or strike we were working on.

While what I was told was basically correct, it was only part of the story, the tip of the iceberg actually. The root principle that was involved was a balance of energy. In Chinese terms this balance of energy was represented by the constant interplay of yin and yang. And, it wasn’t just about my hips but about balancing the forces through my entire body. It’s really important to understand the need for a balanced body structure and energy flow from a conceptual perspective, before to try to apply it.

There was a lot of grunting and straining that went on too. Nobody said to do that, but you could see the upper ranks move through the drills and at each movement their dobok (uniform) would snap, and of course I tried to emulate that, essentially by being tense and straining. Then later I discovered I could generate even more power by not straining, but relaxing. At the time, that seemed counter-intuitive.

Then one of the final pieces was to ask myself how I could have figured this out sooner. The answer was that I could have paid attention to what I was doing. In other words I needed to be aware of what I felt as I practiced the techniques. Was I on balance or off? Was I using all of my body or just part? I just needed to be aware. Awareness can come if you are relaxed. When you are relaxed, you can listen and feel.

There are basic foundational principles that underlie all efficient technique.

1. Everything is energy and balancing energy is critical

2. There is a constant interplay of yin and yang

3. Posture is utilized to create an appropriate balance of forces through the entire body

4. The entire body is responsible for either projecting or absorbing energy

5. Relaxation is just as important as muscular tension in generating power

6. Awareness enables everything

The most important element of all of those is awareness. Consider that martial training is both neuro-muscular and neuro-sensory. We often pay attention to the neuro-muscular aspects, building speed, power and flexibility through muscular conditioning - and this is a good thing. However, the real enabler is neuro-sensory training; awareness.

All of these principles have to come first, so that any technique is learned correctly. Repeatedly practicing a technique with tension and an unbalanced body structure simply means you are reinforcing a bad habit.

Awareness is the key.