Refining Gross Motor Skills

Refining Gross Motor Skills

Many new schools have sprung up that will make you a master of real combat arts in 48 hours or less. No I am not kidding, check out the Internet and see for yourself. I’ve talked about this before so you can assume that it bugs me. Why? Because I hate to see people scammed, and I also would hate to see you attempt to defend yourself with any of these new-found techniques. The human body, by design, can only move in so many ways. It is after all a mechanical contrivance, complete with hydraulic and electrical systems, animated by a life force that you may call a spirit, soul, etc. Despite that life-force it still has certain limitations.

I will readily admit that the human body is ingeniously designed with self-healing properties, redundant systems (for most functions) and a computer the likes of which none has been able to fully duplicate. And yet for all of its marvels, knees and elbows still only bend one way, the neck can only swivel safely so many degrees, and there are certain critical organs that must remain inviolate if we are to remain alive. We begin life with very limited mobility and coordination and travel a long path to refine our motor skills.

Refining what is referred to as Gross Motor Skills is only possible through endless repetitions. You did not learn to walk by standing up one time and heading across the carpet. That once wonderfully complicated, nearly insurmountable task, is now a part of your gross motor skills. Its "just" walking. Once you have a child you rediscover how incredibly difficult walking is, all over again. Or maybe you have been seriously injured, or lost a limb and have to relearn the process of "just" walking again. No one can teach you to walk again in two days, and no one can teach you refined fighting skills in two days, or two weeks. It may take you two months or years, but not two days. You will not absorb and master complicated self-defense techniques with one repetition. I really hate to burst your bubble but that is not how learning takes place. You know it, and I know it, but the people selling 48 hour self-defense classes do not seem to know it! Why is that?

If you fail to master their self-defense or combative skills curriculum in one weekend these same people will tell you not to worry because in a "real fight" you can only rely on your gross motor skills. Gee, is this a different reality than they were supposed to be teaching me in the 48 hours of Reality Based fighting? What the heck, when you came to class you already had those gross motor skills, kicking, biting, arm twisting, and eye gouging! But now you have spent a lot of money and call it reality based ground fighting. You already knew how to run away, so what exactly did you get for your money? I’ll let you answer that question.

You can refine your gross motor skills to higher and higher levels to where eventually techniques that you could not perform after dozens of tries become natural, instinctive movements. This won’t happen in 48 hours. It won’t happen because you spent a lot of money or attended one seminar. It will only happen if you spend the time, however much time it takes, to find perfection through endless repetitions.

Let me give you an example of how you can tell you are making progress. Sometimes when Gwynne and I are working on a new technique I will throw a punch or kick from an odd angle or using interrupted timing. Without a moments thought, she blocks or sweeps away my attack. She doesn’t have to launch into her fighting stance or engage some ancient mental mudra, she just moves. Its not the technique I wanted but I caught her off guard or attacked while she was pre-occupied. It doesn’t matter her block was in place and my attack was foiled. Her natural defense is the result of countless repetitions, not a weekend seminar or a ninety-minute videotape. The important point to recognize is that her natural reactions are not the same gross motor skills she started with 12 years ago.

There are no shortcuts in the learning process other than limiting the number of techniques you learn. It is better if you only have four techniques and practice those four thousands of times, rather than have thousands of techniques and practice them only four times. But I guess deep down you really knew that didn’t you. Go find a good teacher and spend a few years with him or her.

Gross Motor Skills

Gross Motor Skills

The rain pasting the windshield seemed heavy with the chill of winter. As the car enters the curve the driver feels the backend losing its grip on the pavement. He silently wished he had been paying closer attention and noticed the ice forming on the shiny steel road signs, especially the one marking "curves ahead." As the rear of the car spun rapidly out of control he hit the brakes hard only milliseconds before the sound of the car hitting the tree broke the black silence of the night. Sirens wailed in the distance.
Let’s rewind this scenario. The heavy rain began forming a thin layer of ice on the chrome strip surrounding his windshield. The driver relaxed his grip on the steering wheel so he could feel the slightest feedback between the road’s icy surface and his tires. As he entered the turn the backend began to slip slowly toward the waiting ditch. Deftly, he feathered the gas and tapped the brake pedal several times. Smoothly easing the steering wheel to correct for the slide. He found himself breathing a sigh of relief as the road straightened before him.
How many times have you heard that in a life and death situation the only thing you can depend upon are your gross motor skills? I am sure that I have said the same thing. So what just happened here? The application of gross motor skills got our first driver killed. He followed his basest instincts and died in the process. That’s not what we wanted to prove, is it! It has taken me many years to realize that you can spend a lifetime learning stupid, overly complicated, suicidal techniques that will fail you when you need them most. You could sit back and do nothing, saying, "When push comes to shove I’ll just fall back on my instincts," like driver number one. Or, you could work at improving your gross motor skills and gut reactions raising them to a higher, but reliable, level.
Some schools I know would not give you a passing grade unless you could tell them the exact degree to turn the steering wheel, the specific number of taps to the brakes, and the correct exit speed for a corner of such and such radius. This is what I mean by stupid. over complication. Another curve, a different speed and you would still die. Other schools say, "Hey if it works you’re good to go." Is the second driver a sissy because at some point in his life he practiced correcting for a slide? If all that can be relied upon are gross motor skills, didn’t he waste a lot of time practicing? There needs to be a reasonable mid-point, a rational approach to your training and education. By the way, don’t ignore the peripheral look for icing on the windshield, or the relaxed grip on the steering wheel for feedback. These are two critical components to any survival situation. Icy roads and knife-fighting may not seem like related topics. The martial arts do not grow in a vacuum, they are an integral part of your life and how you approach life is how you will approach the arts.

What's Up?

What's Up?

Our new book, When Two Tigers Fight, is getting there, slowly. Right now I am editing it again for the umpteenth time and shuffling topics around to where they best fit. There are still at least two knife makers holding up the process of reviewing their knives because, THE KNIVES AREN"T HERE YET! The knives are in fact over 6 months behind the promised delivery dates.

Gwynne and I are busy working on some left-handed techniques and also taking an Italian style fencing class. I am already mentally trying to connect the dots between fencing moves and knife work.

In November we are going to the NYC Custom Knife Show to pick up three new Cobras from Brent Sandow along with two new tactical, Chisel Point Commando knives. If you want a Cobra, now is the time to speak up. Yup the Chisel Tip F/Ss are something new that I wanted to try and Peter and Brent have humored me. You will see these knives featured in our new book too. Whether they will work or not is yet to be determined. I am waiting for a new shipment of knives from Noviar and there will be s few kerambit ready for immediate sale/shipment. Contact me if you are interested.

I recently bought this mini-neck knife from Dan Certo of Relentless Knives. He makes nice stuff and eventually I will order a bigger knife. For some reason I bought another Fer De Lance. Like I needed three of them huh! The Fer de Lance by Pacific Cutlery is my all-time favorite factory made knife and I am going to include a short review of it in our book too even though it has been out of production for a long time. Maybe some new maker will be inspired by its beautiful lines.

Keep checking back to see how our book is progressing and for knives we will have available for sale. I will also be listing Cobras on the USN Usual Suspects Network site. If you haven’t already checked the USN site out you should.

Bun Bu Ichi

Bun Bu Ichi:

In the pure warrior the fine arts and the weapons arts are one and this concept is known as Bun, Bu Ichi. A warrior devoid of any social graces is not a pure warrior but a thug or barbarian. A socialite without martial abilities is either a dilettante, a sportsman, or a potential victim of the aforementioned thugs and barbarians. What about the person who seems to possess, at least superficially, all of these sporting, social, and martial attributes?

Let me give you an example. The other day at our first fencing class the instructor passed around his elegant Small Sword so that we could feel the balance, weight, and aliveness of a real fighting sword. When it found its way to the senior-most student, who has reputedly been trained by the best, she ran her fingers all up and down the blade and made a cute wincing gesture as she pointed out to the other students the obviously pointed tip. I was almost hoping for a Stephen King happening, where the sword would do something terribly diabolical, and that we would watch, in suitable horror, as the sword redressed this insult by severing multiple body parts or perform a grand disemboweling. Nothing personal mind you.

I thought to myself, "What’s wrong with this picture," although I said nothing about it. Several days later my daughter brought it up. She wondered why so many people who ought to know better still act like complete idiots around weapons. Sure it was "just" a small sword and we were in a class setting, not heures de combat, locked in a mortal struggle, but whatever happened to common sense, courtesy, and respect. I can only imagine the physical response a Japanese swordsman would offer if some idiot were to treat his katana in this way!

What made this little exhibition all the more disrespectful was that the instructor was at that moment trying to impress upon the group his feeling that swords are animate objects and possess a desire to join in the fray, to be used in combat or the duel. All I could think of was the movie a Knight’s Tale where the beautiful maiden refers to her knightly courtier as, "a boy on a horse with a stick." To which the indignant squire responds, "Hello, its called a lance!" I felt like telling this advanced student, "Hello, it’s a live blade." Therein is one of the main differences between warriors, socialites, and sporting people, knowing the difference between a piece of inanimate equipment and a "Live" object, and showing it the proper respect.

If a person in their fifties, a student of the sword arts, lacks this understanding, then how can we expect to find it or instill it in our youths? To this day I find it very difficult to abuse or disprespect a weapon, even a piece of junk, unless it is for a very good reason like destructive testing. Yet I have seen people take up a priceless knife or sword and treat it callously, indifferently, like it was a disposable commodity.