The other day I was watching some Kali instructors practicing free flow with training knives. Of course, it was just a discovery exercise, but something resonated with me. Something didn't look right and it took me a while to figure out what it was. They were stopping after each movement: block/redirect, counter, finish. Each time I could see four distinct steps.
Filipino martial arts are difficult to learn. There's a lot to remember with your upper body, lower body, footwork, weight shift, rotation breathing and so on. There are many movements done in sequences, and the mind naturally puts them in ordered steps to that we can more easily remember them. To some, it feels a bit like assembling IKEA furniture or playing a board game. You simply follow the steps of the pattern until it is done.
However, I would argue that, except for beginners, FMA are not like building IKEA furniture or playing board games. Yes, there are steps/sequences, but I would more liken it to playing music instead. When learning to play music, at the beginning the student has to stop after every note, usually to adjust the fingers or to take a breath. However, playing music well involves linking the notes together seamlessly, so that muscle memory allows the fingers and breathing to occur without disrupting the melody of the song. Unless you can do this, in the end you can only play a sequence of single notes. That's just not a song.
In the Filipino martial arts, we refer to this concept as FLOW. It was a big deal for my teacher, and very hard for me to learn. Rather than predetermining every movement of every sequence in advance, we train the body to have awareness of itself and any opponents in 3D space, and to move instantly to the most appropriate position and technique until the situation is resolved. In the Japanese martial arts we use terms like Mushin 無心 ("no mind") and Zanshin 残心 ("remaining mind") to refer to this.
So, how to develop flow? My teacher was suggestive in some ways to help us achieve this important skill.
Daily Practice - he advocated at least some minutes every day for training. For FMA practitioners this should include empty hands, stick(s) and blade. For me I spend on average 15-30 minutes a day on these three just stepping through ideas and flows and concepts. I include all subsystems so that when I use them my body can move through them naturally without pauses.
Carenza - linked to the above, carenza is often called "Filipino shadow boxing" and is akin to kata in Japanese martial arts (although in general FMA use drills but not fixed kata as such). It refers to practicing the movements alone including footwork, timing and combinations, sometimes to rhythmic music. Carenza is wonderful for exploration and developing timing and focus. I can usually gauge a practioner&s level immediately if I see their carenza. Again, this is great to do with every subsystem and weapon. I personally feel not enough training time is spent on carenza by most FMA practitioners.
Slowly, Constantly Moving - When working with partners in the dojo, I think it is very important to try deliberately to remove the pauses from the movements so the muscle memory won't have them. In the beginning, this can mean going very slow BUT not stopping. Trying to get the mind to connect the steps so no pauses remain. Over time, the sequences can be sped up to be faster and faster. This will not become fast if the pauses are kept.
One example of this is weapon disarming techniques. When we learn them, they are taught as a series of steps, each of which must be done correctly for the technique to have a high chance of success. However, to become truly good at doing disarms, one must perform the steps together as one motion rather than a series of small movements. Another are the locking techniques, particularly those of aikido. Each step has a million little details, but just like a gold swing or a bowling strike ball, in the end the whole body must move together as one from start to finish for the technique to be successful. Each can be trained in isolation if needed, especially the gold swing, however it is the integration of the movements that must be burned into the muscle memory to be good at the sport. Boxing is another area where pausing prevents fluency. Good boxers master each punch separately, but good, competitive boxers execute the movements from muscle memory, since that speed is essential in creating the knockouts that win matches.
I'm grateful to those instructors for their video, which reminded me of a very important element of training. Flow is the goal!
See you at class!
