The Martial Touch - Part III

“If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. More than anything, you must be thinking of carrying your movement through to cutting him.”

― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

In my last installment, I went over the type of movement you want to practice focusing on how your body feels as you perform the movement in order to develop your touch. So, in Part – III, I’m going to get into what you really want to work up to along with some “other stuff.”  In this part I’m going to focus on how to develop this for striking and walk through the striking methodology I use to help people strike not so much with power but to strike for effect.

The key understanding is the process is basically the same as how you learned how to move your body with greater control and awareness and really only changes when you add speed and intention (i.e., focus your will) to the equation.

Hitting Has a Feel to It

“Like a soldier, the carpenter sharpens his own tools. He carries his equipment in his tool box, and works under the direction of his foreman. He makes columns and girders with an axe, shapes floorboards and shelves with a plane, cuts fine openwork and bas reliefs accurately, giving as excellent a finish as his skill will allow. This is the craft of the carpenters. When the carpenter becomes skilled, he works efficiently and according to correct measures. When he has developed practical knowledge of all the skills of the craft, he can become a foreman himself.” ― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings

So, in this series you’re going to start off as you did in Part – II where you stand with one foot forward and one back, knees slightly bent, and about shoulder width apart.

Next you are going to bring your lead hand up so if left foot is forward you will use your left hand and the same if your right foot is in the lead where your right hand is forward.

Next just as in Part- II, as you shifted your body forward you want to do the same here only you want to move forward and extend your lead arm as if throwing a strike whether open with the palm, a chop, or fist makes no difference, the key is as you throw the strike you want to concentrate on having your body drive all of the motion and relax your arm as much as possible so that you actually feel the body push the arm out and when you shift your weight back to the original position feel the body pull the arm back so to speak as you retract the arm.

Practice this and this alone until it feels as if your arm is “floating” through the air.

Do not do anything else until you have achieved this feeling in your body and whether that takes 15 minutes or 50 minutes do nothing else until you have achieved this.

I can tell you right now that more people screw themselves up in their martial development not because the skills are necessarily unattainable but because they never work at a thing long enough to develop even a basic level of proficiency.

Don’t do this to yourself!

Another key point do not extend your arm all of the way and do not allow your arm to become floppy. You want to use just enough muscular control in the arms to control your arm. Do not worry about speed and power at this point just focus on this feeling in your body of effortless motion.

Now that you have done this on one side do it to the other remember that your arms are equal in a fight and since you could be attacked from any angle there really is no such thing as a dominant side in a fight. The bottom line is you need to develop the ability to strike with power within the natural range of motion within your body regardless.

I’ve spoken on this before, but I’ll reiterate it here, so once again. Your limbs are equal in a fight so as long as you move within the natural range of motion and actually practice striking from every possible position when you train you can develop this ability. But… if you buy into the mumbo jumbo that’s out there about striking you will never get to where you could be because you’ve closed off your mind to what is the art of the possible.

This is something you need to consider when developing your touch and something you can practice in the fashion, I’ve laid out to develop this ability.

Now, if you have a heavy bag, striking bag, or partner with a shield. You want to do the same thing only this time you are going to make contact with the pad or bag. As you shift your body forward, extend your arm and just touch the bag or pad with your weapon. I’ll say that again “just touch” the pad or bag with your weapon.

As you do this focus on remaining relaxed and letting the body do most of the work just as before and “just feel” the weapon touch the pad.

Focus on feeling the alignment of the body behind the strike and ensure that your arm does not flop around. Feel the legs drive the body, the smoothness of the motion, the relaxation of the arm and the firmness of the weapon touching the bag. Literally focus on how this feels to your body, when doing this it should already at that point feel that if you applied force, you would have a great impact on the bag.

Also, right from the start, learn to control the overtravel in your body, so when your body stops moving your arm needs to stop moving. This will help teach you to not only, not move more than you need to, but to prevent you from developing the bad habit over moving for the sake of moving and over traveling in your movement, as well as develop your timing on your strikes.

The reason you want to practice this way is because in order to develop your touch when striking you need to have your body behind all that you do. Not in a mechanical fashion but in a natural fashion. This may at first "feel" mechanical but that is because it is new. It may, even if you already know how to punch feel awkward at first but it will quickly subside, but you have to “focus.”

Next, do the same thing only this time as you make contact with the bag or pad, you’re going to give it a slight push, not a big one but a slight push.

Do this until it feels effortless where it almost feels as if you are applying little to no force at all.

If using a heavy bag after a few pushes, you can even decelerate the bag after you have push it. If you do this try to maintain contact with the bag and be as silent as possible after the initial push. Just remember the further you push the bag the more power you have to add to decelerate the bag and the sooner you have to respond to it as it returns. This is a great exercise because it also develops your timing which is critical to developing your touch.

The reason for pushing at first is you also have to train the muscles that are doing the work and learn to gain control over them. Remember the muscles you use to do the push are the same ones you use to strike with force. So, what you are doing is developing your touch throughout your body right from the start.

Next, you want to begin adding power striking as well as possible in the same fashion adding speed and power as you go along. Ensure that you relax the arm as you shift forward and do not, do not, do not make the weapon until the last possible second.

This is to ensure you are not creating unnecessary tension in the arms and body before you make impact. As you increase speed and power this will become more apparent as to why you do this because you will actually feel the body unnecessarily tense up at times. If this happens, just recognize it, and go back to what you were doing focusing on the feel of the strike throughout your body.

As you strike the pad or bag focus on penetrating only a few inches as you strike as opposed to pushing the bag. Remember that the pushing aspect was only designed to train your muscles leading up to this.

Eventually you will want to practice launching from the rear leg (push step) almost like a boxer throwing a jab or a fencer striking with the lead hand. Remember though do not hop in the air. This should be a smooth lateral push with your feet low to the ground.

Then you will want to practice in the same way stepping offline striking alternative your feet back and forth, side-to-side or whatever focused on striking for effect penetrating the bag or pad.

You can eventually add “drop striking” to the equation and striking with all sorts of strikes from every angle imaginable, use your imagination and just have fun with it.

Lastly, once you feel confident in your ability to control your body and strike with focused effortless power. You want to “push yourself outside your comfort zone” with your speed. This will develop how to control yourself even if you make mistakes, etc. It will also teach you to anticipate where you need to be in the future and learn how to move in a way where you position your body in the right place at the right time. Easier said than done, but I have found it is an essential aspect of this training if for nothing else than to also train people how to control their body and not freak out when their movement becomes frenetic and uncomfortable.

Key Points:

• Focus on placing your body in the position you want to strike from first. This will ensure that you are moving your body into the proper position first and not just flailing with your arms.
• Avoid over travel and control your body throughout the motion.
• Learn to decelerate your motion at the right moment.
• Strike to penetrate and crush.

Making A Way

“Perception is a tool pointed on both ends.” ― Hannibal

So… in Part – I, I discussed how touch is neither this nor that. That touch has that unknowable quality that at times is really hard to define where you can only describe it in general terms. For it is more experiential than anything so you can only approximate it for people based on the fact that we are all human where we feel things based on how the human body functions pretty much the same way. I only add this part to provide food for thought as you train and may build on it at later time.

In any event, the operative word here is perception for it is our perception(s) of what we think something is that influences our actions. The point Hannibal was making is that how you view something influences your actions good, bad, or indifferent. This is why in Warrior Flow we are particular as to the words we use to define things for words have meaning and a power unto themselves. It is also the main reason why framing things in their proper context is crucial, wrong context, wrong framing―wrong framing, wrong information. Wrong information, wrong actions, and outcomes.

“I will either find a way or make one.” ― Hannibal

The quote above is the essence of creativity which I believe is a byproduct through touch. Touch is about making a way, connecting the dots as you go along.

But there’s something else…

Some Other Stuff

I’ve been asked numerous times about striking and how to strike with the right touch and I’ve given it some thought and what it is at least from my experience. Is that when you strike and in particular when you strike people there is a resonance if you will or percussion. For anyone who has ever struck someone with force or been struck with force you know what I’m talking about especially if you strike or are struck with intention. It is truly a different thing. I believe that is because we as humans have the ability to perceive and distinguish different levels of forces and penetration where various strikes are unique and have their own unique feel.

The technical term for our ability to feel this resonance or percussion is called Pallesthesia which gives us the ability to perceived vibration. However, I think it’s deeper than that because while we have the ability to feel vibration etc. I think what truly separates how we respond is based on touch is our perception of what something means based on our experiences and, what we understand. Like interoception this has an internal feel to it but also a perceptual almost external feel as well. As I recently explained in conversation with another instructor in order to harness touch one has to also think of it like this.

A Matter of Perception

There are things that are "the norm" and things that are “abnormal” or shall we say beyond the norm. Training is beyond the norm to some extent. Meaning there are things that for whatever reason 99.9% of the population will respond in a certain manner because that is how they have been conditioned to respond. Whether formally or informally they have been conditioned and trained to behave in a certain manner to certain stimuli. This is their mental model, their template of how the world is supposed to work for them and their touch is based on that. Meaning when you learn to appreciate this it changes the way in which you apply your skills because you learn to anticipate how people respond from a different perspective. 

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ―Leonardo da Vinci

A person who is correctly trained will not respond how the vast majority of people respond and will make different choices, and usually better choices with their body.

Now, in fairness, just as a broken clock is right twice a day even a person who is untrained can accidentally do the right things. Therefore, you must train yourself to anticipate this possibility for none of us have a monopoly on the truth. Thus, the importance of developing your touch, not just for striking but to be able to recognize things in real time for what they are before they become a problem.

Touch is predicated on a level of anticipation of knowing what something is or is supposed to be.

More Yin / Yang

"It's not what you appreciate; it's that you appreciate." ―Hannibal

Oh, and one more point because I think this is of crucial importance as you develop your touch and the kind of stuff, I talk about with instructors all of the time.

So, for example let's say you touch someone lightly on the arm with your fingertips, well generally speaking since you don't have enough strength to move their arm with your fingers if their arm moves with little effort from your touch. Since you don't have enough strength to move their arm in that fashion the only logical conclusion is they must be moving their arm.

Now, if the arm doesn't move, then on some level they are resisting you whether by willfully pushing back or for whatever reason just refusing to move their arm. Even if they are not aware they are doing this they are still on some level doing it one way or another. The same is true if you touch their body. If they adjust, it is because they perceive your touch if they don’t, they on some levels are resisting or deliberate moving in a way to neutralize your actions. The same holds true for a push, you get the idea.

Understand when you touch someone even when you strike them or they strike you, in that moment, in the twinkle of an eye so to speak, you both have the same information at the same time. It is this philosophical understanding that you must learn to appreciate because it is at the root of how all deception and creativity arise. This is the perception Hannibal spoke to when he discusses its importance. 

This by the way is another reason why I don't do a lot of scenario training. I'm not saying it’s bad per se. My issue is they generally are based on presuppositions of how the bad guy is going to act and or respond. For example, anyone who’s studied the martial arts for more than five minutes gets the familiar question, “What would do you do if someone grabs you?” 

First of all, how does that happen in the first place, not saying it can’t, but how in the cornbread hell does that happen if your awareness is up?

I mean unless it’s an ambush if you’re already in a position to put foot to ass, again why would you let it happen in the first place?

Just saying.

Anyway…

Well… who says I didn't let them do that?

Who’s to say maybe I didn't move in a way to allow them to grab me to set them up to be sent into the afterlife? (Also known as Kicking that Ass!).

Or as I like to say to people when they speed up and grab my arm, how do they know I'm not allowing them to be there? It never occurs to people they are being set up to get crushed. What? You don't think I don't know where your hands are? If I know where they are I also know where they are not. Checkmate!

I merely point these things out so that as you train to develop your touch for combat you are asking yourself the right questions in order to develop your body appropriately before you engage in battle, for the time for your body to figure out how to respond is before the fight. Understand, touch is discernment.

This difference you must learn to appreciate…

Well, I’m going to end this blog post here. Hopefully, you got something out of this series of posts, and I may add to it at a later on. Thanks.

LtCol Al Ridenhour, USMC (Ret) 

Creator, Warrior Flow