Most people consider that reflex training in martial arts deals with assigning the correct response to whichever attack may come your way. The skill is seen to be in choosing the right defence from the arsenal at one’s disposal. Speed comes from making the movement automatic through repetitive drilling of said technique and counter. A mistake may be caused by the automatic system accidentally selecting an inappropriate response. To most martial artists this statement is self-evident; that is why we learn and drill counters to attacks. This was my understanding until, one day many years ago, Chu Shong Tin made me realise that I had totally misunderstood the whole concept of attack and response.
To take an example of choosing the right counter, as opposed to the wrong one, we will use the very technique that Chu Shong Tin happened to be teaching on that day. We were practicing a Chi Sau trap, whereby the technique involved diverting an opponent’s attack from the outside gate to the inside by converting a punch to a Bong Sau thereby trapping the opponent’s arm against their chest with one’s elbow. It is not necessary to know the technique to understand this point. The premise is that if force is weighted towards the outside of our intercepting arm then one can allow it pass through on the outside as one slips his arm through to strike. If it is delivered to the centre crossing the centreline then one can allow his arm to fall into the Bong Sau position, deflecting the attackers arm to the other side of our body. The correct response would follow the path of least resistance. The incorrect one would meet force with force and therefore fail. Seems simple enough and I was absolutely sure that I understood the concept. In fact, I had no idea.
As we practiced I asked CST “Would it be helpful to have our partner direct the force across our centre thereby ensuring we were responding to the appropriate attack”? He emphatically answered no. When rolling we should always try to accept the force to the centre of our joints and ultimately to the centre of our centre of mass. This is where the skill lies and what we should always seek to do. I was nonplussed and confused, (so often the case at that time).
Another time during a Chi Sau session, one of the students was being trapped with exactly the same move. His opponent’s Bong Sau was pinning his arm to his chest with monotonous regularity. Once again, it is not necessary to understand this particular technique to appreciate the principle I am about to explain.
He asked CST, “What should I do when this happens”? Yes, I thought, what is the correct counter to that? CST’s answer changed everything. “It doesn’t matter what you do – if you have the skill everything works”.
How can this be? It comes back to what CST had already said. When rolling in Chi Sau one should always try to accept the force at the centre of the joint. That is a specific skill that we seek to develop.
Imagine you are holding a beach ball in front of you that can spin freely like a ball sitting in water. This can represent your shoulder joint, or for that matter any or all of your joints or centre of mass. If someone should stand in front of you and push on the ball with one finger, the result will depend where on the ball where they push. If they put their finger off centre to one side of the ball, the path of least resistance will allow the ball to spin towards that side. This applies to whichever side they push, left or right – up or down.
Previously I had thought that the skill was in feeling where the force was attacking and allowing the joint to spin in that direction. The problem with this is that it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to do under pressure with speed. We are also left with a situation where one’s attacker is constantly dictating the course of action.
Now imagine that your partner pushes directly on the very centre of the ball. Now there is no right or wrong direction to spin. Each path of rotation is as easy as any other. We can decide which direction to spin the ball, rather than being at mercy of whatever angle of attack is delivered. It makes no difference how we respond. If we have this skill everything works.
Along with this concept the other important lesson I learned was that most people possess a remarkable ability to completely misunderstand CST’s teaching, regardless of how clearly he presented an idea. Over the years I learned to question everything I thought I understood, particularly those things that seemed particularly self-evident.
~ Mark Spence