Martial Arts Skill: Balance
Balance is the next place where we
want to develop our martial arts skills, and for many of us it is a one sided
issue- we train and practice to make sure we are in balance in our movements,
kata, and techniques, but what about our training partner?
I hope you are not neglecting their
balance, by neglect, I don’t mean helping them to stay in balance but rather
helping them to take their own balance!
Balance equates strength- control
the balance and you take away your training partner’s strength and ability to
resist you.
Building on the understanding of
distance for the moment, this concept of balance is VERY important because
although we are going to be doing our best to control the distance so we never
arrive at the third distance, mistakes and bad days happen, so if you suddenly
find yourself at the third distance, and you can shift away or correct it, then
you shift into taking balance to keep yourself safe.
So in a nutshell, stripped down from
style, dogma, and hard to understand martial arts teaching what is taking
balance?
Imagine I asked you to hold a twenty
pound rock with both your hand- how long could you do it for?
Without thinking you would probably
hold it naturally with two hands and close to your body- our bodies by design
want to remain in balance.
I bet you could hold that rock that
way for a good ten minutes, not that you need to try, but you get the idea.
Your body is in balance.
Now what if I asked you to hold that
same rock, again with two hands so it is easy, but now you had to bend forward
or backwards 45 degrees with your back/spine.
How long would you last?
A few minutes at best?
Or even if it was a long time since
you are strong and well-conditioned, it would require much more effort to
maintain, and in that position you would not be able to do anything else in
terms of movement, while if you were holding the rock normally you could move
and walk around with it, even If it was heavy.
THAT is taking balance, getting your
training partner to bend their spine when they move, and as they move so to the
point where they can no longer move.
Accomplish this and they can’t use
their strength against you.
Take it a step simpler- back to the
center of the mat with your training partner at the third distance and ask them
to throw a punch at you- very dangerous and a great place for them to be to hit
you. After that, go back to the same distance and ask them to bend their back
and touch their toes, and while holding that posture to throw a punch.
A bit more dramatic, but you get the
idea.
So how are we going to get our
training partner to bend their back when a body naturally wants to stay in
balance?
Well, that is the next point to
explore of course…
Taking balance is something that
happens bit by bit in such a way that your training partner does not notice it
until they attack and then when they do attack they are not readily aware of
it- so it takes them by surprise and they become trapped by it- they have
already started the attack and can’t stop, but at the same time they are out of
balance.
They key to the lesson here is of
course to use what martial arts skills you currently have and to break them
down bit by bit in application to make this idea work. Let’s take a look at an
example of taking balance in action common to many martial arts to help get you
thinking…
Here is the setup: You and your
training partner stand across from each other and they begin by stepping
forward to grab you with their right hand to your chest- a simple chest grab.
You are going to respond by taking their grabbing hand in a wrist lock (kote
gaeshi) and then apply a leg sweep to take them down (osoto nage).
Perhaps simple stuff that you have
practiced dozens if not hundreds of time- but have you done so with an eye for
taking balance?
And if not done hundreds of time, in
a moment you will know the place to start so you can develop that eye (martial
arts eyes).
Remember, taking balance stars bit
by bit, and this will again lead us into the concept of timing in a moment,
just as distance took us into balance…
So, your training partner is getting
ready to grab your lapel, and in preparing for that, there is a moment in their
mind where they line everything up and say “OK, now I can go for the grab and
have it work!) When that happens, their feet, knees, and hips will be in
alignment and directly facing your chest for the grab.
As they move to grab, you are going
to step off the line of the grab just a little big causing them to move off
center a bit, tracking you for the grab. This will have the effect of grinding
and locking in place their ankles, knees, and hips- not enough to stop the grab
but enough to begin slowing it down to give you some more time (distance) and to
begin taking their balance without even knowing it.
Next as they grab there is a moment
where the hand grabs your lapel- as this happens you want to move with it,
extending the reach of their arm just a bit more than they would like- again
not avoiding or breaking away from the grab, but causing your training partner
to further extend a bit more than they would like.
Further taking their balance…
NOW, when you apply the wrist lock,
use this technique not to take them down to the ground or flip them over, but
rather to lock their body in place and bend their spine- which THEN allows you
to sweep the leg in such a way that your training partner can’t resist or
attack you back- you have taken their balance form them and by the time they
realize it, the time is late.
Of course this is just an
illustration, an attempt to capture an idea of motion into words, so the
challenge again is going to be to review your own martial arts techniques-
stuff to throw, flip, and strike your training partner, and ask yourself, how
can I get them to bend their spine as they move leading up to the technique so
that when I apply it they cannot resist it or attack me back in the moment.
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