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Old 06-01-2010, 09:53 AM   #39
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
United_States
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Re: Control in the martial arts.

Control in any art
I just had this entire discussion revisited and compacted at an MMA school. I will leave out how the conversation "came about."
We ran the gamut of
1. Power, to hit, kick and grab and control to assert your will.
2. Power, to change their aggression and direction of force and their means to control...you.

What captured everyone's attention was their needing to move in different ways, for #1 and #2 and transferring their weight to "launch" to either throw or hit. We broke it down and I showed them that they were able to "be read" whenever they did so and at the inception of the change in what they were going to do, they could be; up-ended, off-lined, or stuffed.
Then I showed them a way to move in a supported fashion that offered no transfer of weight that could be read as they moved, and additionally at the moment of change the body remained supported through and through. For several of the guys it was this consistency in control of yourself that controlled them that floored them-literally and figuratively- and became the tool they wanted to focus on. They felt comfortable enough in what they could deliver and dish out that they didn't care about technique, or punching and kicking at all that day. So we spent hours with the idea of "Balance, as a weapon."

So, by experience they instantly caught on to what shear balance and supported power could add to their own game for control and wanted to pursue it vigorously. They were stunned to have me tell them the best way to do it was by solo work; standing still and moving dead slow and in paired work, done dead slow as well. One guy actually thought I was having them on about it.
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