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Tactics V
by Woody Long, Author of Martial Mind For Martial Artists
(For more information on Woody Long and where to find Martial Mind for All, please click on the above banner.)
Maybe you’ve heard of the famous book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The first thought that might occur is what does zen have to do with that? Turns out there are two ways one can practice motorcycle maintenance. You can perform it in a zen mind state, or you can perform it in a cluttered mind state.
The same is true for any activity, and so we can also practice zen in the art of combat fighting. In combat sports, combat fighting is the activity that occurs inside the ring or cage. Generally speaking, this activity can be sorted into four realms: arm techniques, leg techniques, takedown techniques, and ground techniques, with the mission being to take down or take out (tap out/throw in the towel) the opponent. There are two ways you can practice combat fighting. You can perform your art in a zen mind state, or you can perform your art in a cluttered mind state.
Taking the simplest example, let’s say we know a boxer who knows exactly four techniques. He knows the jab, reverse, hook, and uppercut. He has them muscle memorized and he can snap them out instantly to his commands. He knows his goal is to either take down the opponent (KO or TKO), or take out the opponent so that he throws in the towel. Down or out. This is his mission, his desire, his single purpose.
Let’s say we were to build a robot boxer just like him. What would be in its memory bank, i.e., in its mind state? Well, we wouldn’t want to clutter it. The programmers say “keep it simple stupid” (KISS), so we would give it exactly six memory chips. Each of the four techniques would get a memory chip, the primary goal (take down) would get a chip, and the secondary goal (take out) would get a chip.
So our robot boxer would be able to execute a quick, hard, snapping technique on its own command, for the output of either one of the two goals. If the designated output occurs, then the robot raises his hands in victory. It chooses techniques to perform by asking a single simple question: will this technique cause the output or get me closer to it? If the answer is yes, it instantly executes the technique, and “feeds back” the result: output or not output. If not the output, then it keeps choosing a technique, until the output is achieved.
This is a good description of the zen mind state as found in combat sports. There is no clutter, no useless issues or information, no distractions or confusion. There is only quiet observation to a quiet choice and action for a precise, hard-wired combat sport victory, the output achieved: the opponent taken down, or the opponent thrown in the towel and taken out, memory chip five lit and hands raised, or memory chip six lit and hands raised. So this is an accurate depiction of zen practice in combat sports.
Put your baggage down. Empty your mind of distractions and issues outside the ring, which is "here and now." Enter this natural zen state of pure quiet observation of the opponent in front of you. By quiet is meant without emotion beyond calm fury, and without thought beyond using your hard-wired techniques, for your hard-wired goal.
So what would be the next memory chip to add? Keeping it simple, our robot boxer would next need a tactical memory chip. This chip would give the robot boxer the ability to move into a fighting position, and put a string of techniques together for one of two purposes: to shape the opponent into a weak position, or close on the opponent for major disruption, called a cracked opponent. This is based on the rule that the output (down or out) is easier to achieve if the opponent is first weakened or cracked. So now our robot boxer executes its hard-wired techniques for causing the sub-goal of a weakened opponent, in order to cause the other sub-goal of a cracked opponent, in order to achieve the mission goal, the output, of down or out.
So we would give the robot boxer a seventh memory chip, a moving chip, it would use to move into a fighting position. We would give it an eighth memory chip, the shaping chip, with which it would use its techniques to shape the opponent into a weak position. And we would add a ninth memory chip, the closing chip, with which it would use its techniques to close on the opponent for major disruption. From shaping the opponent into a weak position, and from there closing to cause cracks, the output of down or out is achieved, eventually. This is because "stacked cracks" eventually cause the opponent to go down or out. And if you cause them quickly, and in quick, additive, accumulative succession, the mission goal may be more efficiently achieved.
But this is still a zen state of mind. There is still quiet observation, without any thought beyond using your hard-wired techniques to achieve your hard-wired goal of down or out. But now there is no thought beyond moving and using your techniques to cause a weakened opponent, from which to cause a cracked opponent, to achieve your hard-wired goal of down or out. Thus there is still total focus on techniques and the mission goal. There is still detachment from all external issues and distractions. There is still emptying the mind to a quiet observation, without any thought beyond using your techniques (one way or the other) to achieve the desired output of down or out.
This zen mind state can be observed in the proverbial bull and red flag as well. Let’s say the bull uses the same four techniques as our boxer. What happens? The bull quietly observes the red flagged opponent and paws the ground. His memory cells tell the bull only to use his four techniques to achieve the output of down or out. So the bull is either not satisfied and furied because the opponent is not down or out, as he is now, or the bull is satisfied and content because the opponent is, as he is soon to be.
Now somewhere in these memory cells the bull is certain that if the opponent looks glazed, uncertain or out of position, then the bull will immediately jump into a shaping and closing set of techniques to achieve the desired goal. Plus the bull is certain that if the opponent looks cracked, or damaged, then the bull will immediately do the same thing, to achieve the goal. And the bull is certain that if the opponent starts running away, or retrograding, then the bull will immediately do the same thing once again, to achieve the goal.
Beyond these three conditions, the bull knows only to move into shaping techniques to weaken the opponent, and closing techniques to crack or damage the opponent, in order to achieve the bull’s desired output of down or out, at which time the bull snorts contentedly. So we can see that this too is a zen state of mind.
Of course, in martial arts, the red flagged opponent can only be a street attacker, as it is undisciplined (dishonourable) to use your martial skills on anyone else. Martial discipline, honour and duty, i.e., providing defense for your self, family and fatherland, is the foundation of the mountain of martial arts, from which all glory and self-respect flow. Well that’s all for now. Look for Tactics VI in next month’s issue of IronLife Online Magazine.
Note about the author: Woody Long has studied combat tai chi and US combat tactics since 1987. This article was adapted from his book, Martial Mind For Martial Artists.
* Article by Woody Long, Author of Martial Mind For Martial Artists.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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