This isn’t an article about techniques, which are merely manifestations of concepts. It’s about concepts based in physical science. It’s about gravity.
Strong, balanced stances and carefully orchestrated self-defense exchanges—the familiar 1, 2 and 3-step drills—regularly performed in the training hall can lull the practitioner into an unrealistic expectation of anatomical stability within the context of a physical fight, especially an unexpected one. Starting in a perfectly balanced stance and knowing precisely what technique your training partner will throw makes maintaining your balance deceptively easy in those classical preformatted training drills. Be assured that it definitely won’t be that way out on the street—easy, that is.
Movement and balance get more difficult in free sparring when the interactions are totally unchoreographed. That said, because it’s training, both fighters would be aware ahead of time that there would be a fight sparring, where it would be, what time it would be, under what circumstances it would occur and who the opponent would be. Those are a few of the things known in practice that differentiate training from reality. The superior martial artist is not only acutely aware of those differences but reminds himself repeatedly so as not to fall into a comfortable routine of expected results.
The sudden onrush of an unexpected aggressor is different than the unanticipated ingress of a sparring partner. When you initiated the sparring match, you knew that, at some point, your opponent was going to attack and therefore, you were mentally and physically prepared. While your opponent may well catch you off guard during a sparring match, you’re mentally prepared for the eventuality of his or her offensive move. It isn’t the same as an unanticipated street assault.
Out in public, you likely won’t have solidly rooted, perfectly balanced footing when the unexpected occurs. It is safe to say you won’t be in a fighting stance. In most circumstances, you will likely be standing upright with your feet relatively close together in a casual posture like we often find ourselves in during the course of any given day out in society. We typically don’t stand around in martial arts stances. I don’t, and I’m pretty sure you don’t, either.
It is fairly easy to have our physical architecture—our bipedal structure—compromised by an unexpected application of physics when we aren’t postured to accept incoming force. And that’s precisely what it is—physics. This inherent vulnerability of our bipedal structure is something every martial artist should give serious consideration when contemplating and devising street strategies. It is so basic, but nevertheless often not in the forefront of our consciousness during our daily routine.
Those of us in legacy martial arts that emphasize standup striking are accustomed to assuming strong, stable stances in many of our training scenarios, which makes the damningly fleeting nature of balance something we routinely don’t dwell upon. We should.
Those who train grappling arts and joint manipulations are, of course, acutely aware of the issue of balance, as it is at the core of just about every technique and concept housed within their disciplines. In order to make their disciplines viable, they have to steal the other guy’s balance while keeping their own.
We all have a center of balance that affords us a comfortable “centralized” alignment of our physical architecture. Sudden changes to that structural integrity quickly “decentralizes” that biomechanical equilibrium. Grapplers and particularly those in the Aikido and Chin Na worlds are intimately aware of this—they live it every time they train.
Our anthropomorphic form affords us only two points of contact with the earth. Therefore, it is no easy feat to maneuver and maintain balance when engaged in a confrontation, especially an unforeseen one. Shuai Jiao, Sambo and Judo practitioners fling each other around as a matter of routine during training and, because of that, they develop a keen sense of balance and high-level skill at balance recovery. During randori (free sparring), these folks know where they are in space in relation to their opponent and what that means regarding gravity and leverage.
Those of us who focus on standup striking may not be quite as acclimated to forced balance disruptions and, more importantly, recovery from them. It is painfully easy to disrupt balance. Just about any little thing can do it—a pebble on the pavement, a curb or a slippery puddle of spilled beer. A 220-pound opponent rushing forward and forcing you into a stumbling backwards retreat does a pretty good job of disrupting balance, too.
Practitioners of Shuai Jiao, Judo, Aikido, and Chin Na understand how relatively minute, forced alterations to our posture—a tug here, a push there—can totally undermine our foundation. Gravity and our paltry two points of contact with the ground make that so.
There are numerous disciplines within the Kung Fu galaxy that utilize subtle manipulations to “decentralize” an opponent. Those concepts can be found not only in Chin Na and Shuai Jiao, but also in Hsing I, Taijiquan and Baguazhang as well as Shaolin. Kung Fu systems of old tended to be all-inclusive when it came to combat, including throwing and joint manipulations, as they were designed for serious self-defense and military engagements. Balance was then and is now a precious commodity in the fight for your life.
A slight pull forward or a directed cant to the side and your balance can evaporate. Just a bit of rearward negative posture and you’re compromised. The slightest torque, tilt or forced motion that corrupts your bubble of equilibrium can spell doom in a close quarter altercation. A rapid, unexpected angular deviation from a stable vertical plane can change the whole game. If that canting is in conjunction with mechanical manipulation of a joint inconsistent with that joint’s natural range of motion, you get structural distress, damage or destruction not to mention pain. That’s how Chin Na and Shuai Jiao work. It is simple Newtonian physics.
We’ve been standing and walking since early childhood, so everyone inherently knows how balance and physical posture are linked and what it feels like. It is fundamental. Understanding the fundamentals of balance and human structure vis-à-vis hand-to-hand combat is key to martial success. The ability to manipulate structural stability opens up an entire sphere of martial competencies. Obviously, grappling-centric disciplines focus on the physics of “decentralizing” the human form. Striking arts also benefit from those very same skill sets. If you can combine disbalancing and structural compromise with your strikes, you elevate your game exponentially.
Modern-day martial arts, having gravitated towards sport competition with rules and safety considerations, have lost some of those competencies. Weaponry long ago supplanted empty hand in warfare, which subsequently led empty hand martial disciplines towards a focus on sporting, personal enrichment and cultural aspects. Effective empty-hand self-defense requires the old ways where survival was the only goal.
For the vast majority of joint manipulations to work against an uncooperative, actively resisting opponent, a distraction, such as a strike, or a compromising position such as a balance disruption or structural distortion is required. Proper set-ups are crucial to effecting joint manipulations in a full-on fight. And, of course, proper set-ups are hard to come by in the wits-depleting fog of a full-on fight. Just because something works against a cooperative training partner does not mean it will even partially work against someone trying to punch you in the face or plow you into the pavement.
Balance, undisputedly, is a key element. It is imperative that we know how to maintain it for ourselves and how to take it away from our opponent. Knowing how to set up sweeps, throws and structural distortions is absolutely as important as knowing how to punch and kick. Even a moderately impactful balance disruption or structural compromise can win you a moment in time that will prove crucial in defeating an aggressor.
If you haven’t developed a deep understanding of how human structure, gravity and physics relate to the application of martial concepts, you have a huge gap in your overall fighting configuration.
Expanding a bit on the concept, consider that many people, especially older folks, sustain fall-related injuries every year. Falls, especially those that involve hard surfaces like concrete, can be immediately disabling. Along those lines, many injuries incurred during street fights occur when one or the other of the participants collides with the ground. Bashing the back of the head on the pavement as a result of a fall has resulted in numerous serious injuries and deaths. Exploring the intricacies of fall mitigation, balance disruption and balance retention is a mandatory exercise for self-defense-oriented martial practitioners and a damn good life skill for anyone of mature age.
“Are you going to let the obstacles in your life be stumbling blocks or stepping stones? Choose the positive. You are the master of your attitude.” – Bruce Lee
