The Inevitability of a Technique

When we practice budo we hear a lot about "empty mind" and "let the technique happen" and "don't think of which technique to do" and how the best technique is "no technique". This has always been a good and laudable goal and is reminiscent of the way you drive or walk or do those many things that don't require conscious thought.

Of course, while practicing we do think about the individual points of a technique and our instructor will tell us what technique to work on and what aspects of a technique to think about. The thought above is held as the goal in an actual application of a technique in a non-practice situation.

I'm going to take the simple and easy to understand thought expressed above and make it a little more complicated and a lot more alive:

I had a long and rambling and fantastic discussion with a fellow Yoshinkan person the other day and we started talking about how a technique sucks or carries shite along as part of the technique. My friend made the excellent point of that if you are in the midst of a movement and then you decide to apply "a technique" then you have changed what the technique should have been. I equated this to the "observer syndrome" where the process of observing changes what you are trying to watch.

Which lead me to the idea of the "inevitability of a technique". This idea is that a technique will manifest itself if you let it. If you apply thought in the midst of the technique manifestation and try to decide which technique to do or when to apply it, you will have added something new and different to the technique and it will no longer be the technique that "should have been".

To me, this is a good way to describe what is probably meant by the term "empty mind" or "no technique". Accept that a technique is an inevitable consequence of an attack and actively go along with it...like a kayak in a raging river you stay balanced and ride the crest of the technique all the way to the end.

The inevitable end of the technique is uke ending up splatted or sprawled or somehow no longer a threat. As the technique progresses from start to finish it gets to the point where all the energy of the technique needs to be released. I would liken this point to the compression of a spring, or to the winding up of a toy because there will come a point where the technique can't be "compressed" or "wound" any further.

It is at this final point in the technique that the dynamic power of Yoshinkan appears because you add your "human spirit" to that final explosive moment and push all your power and all your focus to that single point at that single time. You haven't changed the technique by thinking of what to do or when to do it. Instead you ride the technique and at the very end focus all your power at the point where/when the technique must be completed.

It is often said that "spirit" is the most important part of Yoshinkan. This concept of the "Inevitability of a Technique" holds spirit as the only addition a person makes to the technique and is used to fuel the technique rather than to change it.

Taking Control of the Technique

I had an interesting email discussion the other day about how sometimes it appears that in Yoshinkan we push against a push or pull against a pull. I don't think that this is the case, however it is one way to teach the initial movement to the side in many katatemochi techniques that would be easily understandable for a beginner.

For example...

Katate mochi nikajo osae ichi:

When uke pulls shite's wrist in the initial attack shite moves to the side and makes a small "U" shape with the hand. This *appears* to have the effect of pulling against uke's pull to make the "U" properly.

Katate mochi nikajo osae ni:

When uke pushes shite's wrist in the initial attack shite moves to the side and makes a small "U" shape with the hand. This *appears* to have the effect of pushing against uke's push to make the "U" properly.

In both cases (ichi and ni) there is a point right at the beginning where it appears that shite is going against uke's power (ie. pulling a pull or pushing a push). This is a very key observation because obviously in Yoshinkan we don't want to do that! We want to go with the movement and change the direction of uke's power in order to have uke get all tangled up, unbalanced and splatted.

So the question is "What's happening here and why does it look like that?"

My answer to this question is that it all goes back to your kamae. When you have a solid kamae and someone pulls or pushes you your kamae should absorb that power so for an instant (a nano-second) you don't move. Thanks to Newton we know that if you push/pull against something immovable it will appear that it is pushing/pulling back even though it is not moving. I think that this is the case in the beginning of the techniques mentioned above. It is not that shite pulls against uke's pull or that shite pushes against uke's push but because the kamae is strong uke might feel that affect. In reality shite is not doing anything except standing strong for that initial nano-second.

The next question is "What does that give us?"

I think that initial nano-second is where shite takes control of the technique from uke. Uke attacks and by standing strong for a very brief (nano-second) moment uke loses their momentum, balance and initiative and shite takes it. Then the technique becomes fairly easy to do (okay...maybe not easy) because you already have taken the initiative from uke. Once that initial nano-second is over you move with and change the direction of uke's initial power, but now you are in control of it. Its also true that it is easier to change the direction of that initial attack because you've messed up uke's timing, balance, momentum and initiative.

This is often true when uke strikes and shite blocks as well. For a nano-second shite blocks a strike strongly and that bit of kamae strength used messes up uke's timing, balance, momentum and initiative long enough for shite to take control of the technique.

I would like to emphasize that I am not saying that you push against a push or pull against a pull, although I can understand this to be an easy "white lie" to show/tell beginners who many not have the concept of "strong kamae" and all that implies in their minds.

I am advocating a strongly balanced kamae that lets you absorb uke's attack for a very, very brief moment - just enough time to mess with their timing and expectation - so that you can take control of the technique away from them. Since they initiate the attack the initiative belongs to them in the beginning. You want to take that away from them as soon as possible so that you can splat 'em. Hard.

This method of taking the initiative does not apply to all techniques, however I think that it is something worth thinking about in most grabbing techinques and many striking techniques. Next time you're practicing a technique see if it applies.

Osu!