What's Om got to do with it?

The popular image of meditation goes something like this:

Seated in lotus position, eyes closed, hands forming esoteric signs, the adept repeats the mantra Om mani padme hum and seeks oneness with the Universe.

This all looks and sounds very passive and peaceful (and more than a bit New Age); almost the exact opposite of the stereotype of martial arts as active, violent and blood-thirsty.

But there is more to meditation than passivity and navel-gazing, and there is more to martial arts than beating people up. A significant component of meditation is a state of mind that is essential to the mental side of martial arts, and one that is of great value in everyday life.

So I hope you will join me on a brief tour on the nature and relationship of meditation to the martial arts:

What is meditation?
In reality, the meditative state is almost the exact opposite of being oblivious or pre-occupied. My working definition is:

A state of relaxed concentration on the reality of the present moment.

In other words, it is about being really awake, alive and tuned in to what is going on in and around you. I consider it to be the same as being "in the zone" or in a state of flow.

Anything that leads you to this state can be viewed as a form of meditation.

Note: While it is true that there are many types and techniques of meditation with varying aims and extensions, I take the above aspect as the common foundation. (At least, it is the aspect that I am going to stick to for the purposes of this article!)

Martial arts = Moving meditation
Clearly, in a life-and-death situation, such as being under attack, or needing to take quick action to save someone else in danger, being relaxed, aware, concentrated and undistracted is gold.

So rather than getting a huge adrenalin rush -- the fight-or-flight response -- and going berserk, the martial artist trains to enter a meditative state in which his (or her) every action is swift, accurate and efficient.

The Samurai called this state mushin or no mind, and it is characterized by the absence of fear, anger, pride and cogitation; a feeling of calmness and clarity; and the ability to act swiftly and decisively.

For this reason, any form of martial arts training which seeks to train the mind in this respect can be seen as a form of moving meditation, albeit one with extremely practical application!

So where the practitioner of a sitting meditation technique seeks to extend the meditative state into day-to-day life, the martial artist trains her- or him-self to be mentally ready for life's toughest challenges.

Explicit connections
Legend has it that the Indian monk Bodhidharma brought Zen Buddhism to 6th Century China. Furthermore, he is alleged to have introduced the then-puny monks of the Chinese Shaolin Temple in martial arts techniques to build them up physically and mentally to be able to withstand the rigors of hard-core meditation practice!

Similarly, the traditional aim of hatha yoga is not to become a contortionist and run off and join the circus, but to prepare oneself for advanced meditation techniques.

It is possible to regard meditation as a useful practice to "bolt on" to one's martial art, as a somewhat esoteric form of cross-training, but I believe that it is much more integral than that.

The Inner Game
The most accessible book on meditation that I have found is Tim Gallwey's classic, The Inner Game of Tennis. Without mentioning the M-word, Gallwey gives a compelling introduction to what are effectively moving meditation techniques that work on the tennis court.

Gallwey starts by asking a perceptive question about self-talk: When you criticize yourself for mis-hitting a shot, who is talking to whom?

Side-stepping more loaded labels such as mind/body, left-brain/right-brain, conscious/unconscious, Gallwey calls the vocal critic Self 1, and the listener Self 2. He suggests that Self 1 is a bit like an incompetent boss, while Self 2 is like a harried, but potentially highly able underling. Gallwey's introductory techniques aim to get Self 1 off Self 2's back by giving him something more useful to do.

Gallwey's classic introductory exercise is called "bounce-hit", in which the player is asked to say out loud "bounce" when the ball bounces on his or her side of the court, and "hit" when the racquet strikes the ball. This gives Self 1 something to do actively (say "bounce" or "hit"), while incidentally providing useful sensory input to Self 2 (about the location of the ball).

As a meditation, bounce-hit forces the individual to stop worrying about the past or future and instead focus on the location of the ball right now. It is a great exercise and most people get immediate results. (Maintaining the improvements as Self 1 starts to get self-congratulatory is the next challenge!)

I have personally adapted some of Gallwey's other techniques for teaching martial arts, I think with some success, but that's a subject for another article or -- publishers please note -- maybe part of a book. ;-)

Conclusion
Martial arts, meditation, yoga, excellence in sports, flow: If you are deeply interested in one, research the others. There is a common core that cuts through the lot.

Further notes on Gallwey and the Inner Game
Translating Inner Game techniques to other areas is not all that easy, even for Gallwey! There are several sequels to The Inner Game of Tennis including the follow-up Inner Tennis and the variations: The Inner Games of Golf / Skiing / Music and even Work. However -- for my money -- the original book is the best. (Interestingly, the current boom in life-, business- and executive-coaching has its origin with Gallwey.)

Going in the other direction, Gallwey seems to have derived his techniques from particular Yogic teachings brought to the USA by controversial Indian "guru" Prem Sawat (also known as Maharaji). The consensus seems to be that the techniques taught are real enough, but Sawat himself gets mixed reviews.

Japanese Jiu-Jitsu or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

In a comment on a previous post, John asked:

Which is better for self-defence, Japanese or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
These are both fine styles, and while I am trained in a Japanese style of Jiu-Jitsu I have taken a few classes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, attended a seminar given by Carlos Gracie Junior, taken a few classes at the main Gracie dojo in LA, read the books, and followed the buzz.

In this comparison I say go for instructor and school over style.

Look for:

• Safety in training
• Technical excellence
• Skilled and well-behaved students
• Good training atmosphere
• An emphasis that fits your goals
• No lock-in contracts

An experienced martial arts practitioner is going to be in a better position to be discerning than a complete new-comer.

Some more on emphasis. Consider:

• Self-defense vs sport
• What are the main areas of technique that you are training?
• Balance between drills (kata) and free practice (randori)

These factors vary from style-to-style and instructor to instructor.

The broad technical areas in martial arts are striking techniques, throwing techniques, standing grappling techniques, groundwork techniques, and weapons.

Japanese Jiu-Jitsu

In the style of jiu-jitsu that I practice the main areas of emphasis are throwing, groundwork, and standing grappling (what we call restraint and control). Striking is there from the outset, but has less emphasis, and weapons enter later. I personally emphasise the self-defence and health aspects, with a little competition for fun and stress-testing, but not an aim in-itself. We do mainly drills, with a little free practice. If we are optimized for one thing, it's general self-defence.

Because there were many styles of Japanese Jiu-Jitsu -- not to mention the "reconstituted" styles -- technical emphasis and training methods will vary from school-to-school.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the main emphasis is going to be on groundwork, because that's their speciality. So if you opt for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu you can expect to get good at ground-work comparatively quickly, while development in other areas seem to be taught later, if at all. Sports / self-defence seems to vary between instructors, but since they are into no-holds-barred, my primary concern would be about safety-in-training. Expect lots of free practice, but this may vary between instructors.

While it is true that a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner can bring a fight to the ground, in self-defense against multiple attackers you need to keep your feet to escape. You may need to look for a school that teaches a separate class in self-defense to complement the usual classes. The Royce and Charles Gracie book Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Self-defense Techniques shows what to look for, and the techniques shown look very familiar to anyone schooled in the Japanese techniques.

Conclusion
Instructor and school over brand. Talk to the instructor, ask around, see if you can try out a sample class. If you can find an "old-timer" who has been teaching for more than -- say -- 25 years, (s)he should have a good perspective on all these issues.

For those in Australia, especially Melbourne, come and have a look at what I and my instructors teach. After you have seen what we and our students can do, you will at least have a handy benchmark.

Ideas for articles

In no particular order:

1. What came before? (On respect for masters teachers, and older traditions.)
2. Favourite martial arts books
3. Intrinsic motivation
4. Feldenkrais and his technique
5. The martial arts begin with trust
6. Health or Self-Defence (A false dichotomy)
7. The higher goals of martial arts
8. The subtle and the spectacular (cool stuff in martial arts)
9. On the limits of book-learning
10. Diversification or Unification
11. Points of Focus
12. On Ki / Chi
13. From Skill to Art
14. Elite selection or elite training?
15. "Make haste slowly"
16. Learning a martial art vs conventional education
17. Super-Efficient Learning in the Chinese Martial Arts
18. Portable Principles
19. Getting started in the martial arts

To suggest another topic, or vote for which one I should write next, just leave a comment.

Training at Caulfield Resumes on March 5 2007

It is almost time to re-start the regular weekly class, after the Summer break. It will be at the same time and place as in previous years: Monday nights, 7.30 pm, in the Aerobics room.

When I say Summer break, it's been more of a break from routine than any kind of rest for me. I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching a course over January, and as is usually the case, I learned a lot from teaching and trying out my ideas. Thank-you to everyone who participated.

I also had the opportunity to learn from other instructors in a range of different classes. In particular, I participated in Sensei Jay's course on "Attacking Skills and Drills", which drew inspiration from the words of the great swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, continued to learn the Dragon Pole set with Shihan Chris, and studied some of the finer points of Judo randori with Sensei Leonard.

All of these classes were held as part of the Summer Program at the Honbu (HQ).

Training with several different Federation Instructors is always exciting because you experience different perspectives on our martial art(s). As a student, this means that there is a greater chance that a particular technique of principle will "click", since it gets presented in a variety of ways, and the different angles also help to fill in a bigger picture. As, an instructor, I get to see how different approaches work, and expand my bag of teaching tricks.

So now I am looking forward to getting back into the regular routine, and seeing what 2007 will be like. I hope that you will share the journey.

See you at training ...

From Karate To Jiu-Jitsu

This post is written by one of my Jiu-Jitsu students, David Taylor. David has been learning Jiu-Jitsu with me since early 2006, after many years training in various Karate styles.

Switching to a new martial art can be a very rewarding and at the same time frustrating undertaking. The good bit is that you should have already learned valuable lessons in mind-set and culture. The difficult bit is unlearning incompatible principles.

Happily for David, he was prepared to "empty his cup", and is adapting well. Here are some of his reflections...

From Karate to Jiu-Jitsu
by David Taylor

I have just finished my first year of Jiu-Jitsu with Sensei Dan at Monash Caulfield (that's me in one of the early photo entries having my arm twisted and then reciprocating). In the previous 20 years I have trained in 4 styles of Karate and reached middle brown belt levels a couple of times. Sensei Dan thought that I might like to write about my experiences on this change-over in styles from the kicking and punching of Karate to the throwing and grappling of Jiu-Jitsu.

Before we go further: I do not claim to be an expert in either martial art. This article is intended to share some of my observations and experiences, not to be a definitive comparison on the relative merits of Jiu-Jitsu and Karate.

Why martial arts?

I started doing martial arts while attending University. This was just after the movie An Officer and a Gentlemen had come out with some good karate-style fight scenes in it. I wanted to take up an exercise that had other benefits besides keeping me fit. In our uncertain world no-one can guarantee that they will never be attacked. When that day comes it is no good breaking out into an aerobics routine!

Fortunately I have never had to use my Karate training for self-defence. Maybe the awareness that goes with doing a martial art has helped me from ever getting into a tight enough spot to resort to having to kick and punch. As one of my instructors used to say, "If you need to physically use your Karate you failed your awareness training".

Switching to Jiu-Jitsu

As I moved around Melbourne a couple of times I would join the nearest Karate club that had a good style I was familiar with. In my latest move I could not find a club that I was happy with. I remembered someone from one of my Karate clubs saying that they had tried Jiu-Jitsu and enjoyed the complementary skills of hand-to-hand grappling and throwing. At work there was a Jiu-Jitsu black-belt who lent me some of the Ultimate Fighting Championship videos where the Jiu-Jitsu guys blitzed their opponents with grapples and holds - more like the sort of messy fighting is likely to happen out on the street. When I found the Jiu-Jitsu club at Monash I thought that I would give it a go …

What is training in Jiu-Jitsu like?

Jiu-Jitsu is complex and intricate

How does it compare? Complicated right from the start! In Karate you start with a couple of basic kicks, punches and blocks and even if done half-right they sort of work. As a beginner you can sweat away doing the routines and get a great deal of satisfaction thinking that you are going well.

Immediate feedback from hands-on practice

With Jiu-Jitsu it is possible to throw someone twice your size, or restrain him with a painful lock, but in learning these techniques I found that they never ‘half-worked’. The immediate feedback on the effectiveness of your technique is much more confronting than in Karate training!

Lots and lots of techniques; infinite combinations and counters

The range of techniques — initially mainly throws and holds — is also much wider in Jiu-Jitsu. In Karate if an assailant punches at your head you respond with some sort of upper block, but in Jiu-Jitsu there seemed to be an almost infinite range of possible counters and counters-to-the-counter! Do I attempt a choke? A hold? A throw maybe? How do I choose?

Mentally challenging

As a beginner in Karate I used to come home physically exhausted until my fitness had built up. In Jiu-Jitsu I tend to come home mentally exhausted. The challenge is to learn the basics of a technique and get it to work well on a variety of partners, but that is only the beginning. How does each technique work in combination with other techniques? Where can it be used as a counter to an opponent’s attack? With practice the techniques become honed and more automatic, but the possibilities become more and more varied.

Works at a very close range, both standing and on the ground

Another big difference is preferred fighting range. In Karate training you strive to keep your opponent at something of a distance, and it is only at more advanced levels that you begin to work a variety of ranges. Through Jiu-Jitsu I have become comfortable operating at very close range, both standing and on the ground, even grappling from on top of or underneath an adversary.

Unlearning as well as learning

I had to unlearn a few things about how I weighted my stance, learning to be much more aware of my balance, and about varying the distancing from the opponent.

In conclusion

I enjoy the mental and physical workout of Jiu-Jitsu class. It is an on-going challenge to learn and combine all the different techniques, but as I do so I am improving my ability to defend myself, and widening my options in the event of an altercation. If the day comes when I have to actively defend myself maybe I will be able to restrain my attacker without throwing a single punch!