Developing Social Qualities - Part I: Trust

Kancho, the grand-master of my style said: "The Martial Arts begin with trust".

I had just given my first martial arts seminar on The Science of Judo, in which I likened the training hall to a laboratory for personal experimentation, and it was generally well-received. But Kancho was making a fundamental point: Without trust between student and instructor, and between training partners, there can be little learning.

When you first step into the world of martial arts you need to make the decision to trust your instructor. This is critical, not only to learn, but for your own safety and that of your training partners.

Training in the martial arts involves learning deliberately dangerous techniques which must be practiced safely:

• There are throws: You need to learn to fall safely as quickly as possible, and to learn how to throw your partner safely
  
• There are strikes: You need to learn how to strike safely so that you are learning proper technique and distancing, without damaging your partner when (s)he fails to evade or redirect the strike
• There are joint-locks and strangles: You need to learn to apply these techniques slowly and gently, and when receiving signal submission when the technique takes effect and not be a hero by "toughing it out".
  

Maybe you are a skeptical person who thinks that trust must be earned and cannot be given. Then you should observe closely before joining a new class and ask yourself,

• "Is this instructor trustworthy?", and
• "Do the students trust each other?"

If the answer to either question is no, you should not join the class. If the answer is yes, then you can trust your own initial assessment and begin by trusting the instructor and your new class-mates.

Through on-going training, your trust for your instructor and training partners -- and their trust of you -- should grow, as you all practice in a sincere, safe and trustworthy manner.

Developing Personal Qualities - Part I: Resilience

Personal Development is a a fairly fuzzy concept. As a notion, I like it. Develop yourself in deep ways. But what does it mean?

We can make the concept more substantial by formulating a list of desirable qualities, and then look at how these can be developed in concrete ways. In doing so I will explore how the martial arts can act as a vehicle of personal development, not just in physical skills, but in mental, emotional, social, and -- I have to be careful here! -- spiritual dimensions.

The key idea is that the physical and social aspects of martial arts training lead in to the other dimensions.

Training physically, observing etiquette, and working with others act together to develop the individual as a whole.

Desirable qualities
If -- like me -- you are a parent of young children an easy way to come up with your own list of desirable list is to think about what qualities you would like your children to develop. [Be sure to include ones you would like to develop or further in yourself to avoid an exercise in narcissism.]

Other approaches are to think about the qualities that you admire in others, especially friends and your own role models. You can even make a game of it: What are your the top three admirable qualities?

You may wish to construct your own list independently at this point, before reading mine. Leave a comment if I have missed a quality that you hold in high esteem.

Here is my working list, ordered mostly according to whim:

1. Resilience
2. Perceptiveness
3. Decisiveness
4. Patience
5. Humility
6. Perspective
   
7. Compassion
8. Loyalty
9. Honesty
10. Reflection
11. Scepticism
12. Love of learning
    
13. Sense of humor

Resilience
This is my number one quality. Resilience, especially the dimension of mental toughness, is what gets you through when external circumstances conspire and you are hit with more than you you can handle. You may have all the qualities and skills in the world, but sometimes you just cannot hold your ground or get out of the way, and you get knocked down. In the words of the old and much-covered song Pick Yourself Up:

Now nothing's impossible,
I've found for when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.

Life, with its slings and arrows, is kind of a school for resilience. Just wait for disaster to strike, and see how you cope. It will happen! "What does not kill you makes you stronger."

But can resilience be learned in a less chancy fashion? Organizations such as Outward Bound have quite a good recipe: Put people into new circumstances and give them challenges outside their comfort zones, but within their capability, and do it in a social group with competent leadership.

This description also applies to martial arts training:

• The initially unfamiliar setting is the traditional training hall
• The challenges are the physical techniques
• The social group are the other beginners
• The competent leadership is the instructor
  

Additionally, there is a physical metaphor for resilience in learning to fall correctly (an essential skill in martial arts that use throwing techniques). Each time that you are thrown to the mat you literally -- and repeatedly -- need to pick yourself up and start all over again. This is a metaphor, model and practice opportunity all rolled into one!

And there are many other benefits to learning correct falling technique.

* * *

I will look at how the other qualities listed are developed through martial arts training in future installments. Which reminds me of one more:

14. Persistence

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.