Liberate Yourself

 

Life is a constant movement, rhythmic as well as random; life is a constant change and not stagnation. Instead of choicelessly flowing with this process of change, many of these "masters", past and present, have built an illusion of fixed forms, rigidly subscribing to traditional concepts and techniques of the art, solidifying the ever-flowing, dissecting the totality.

TKDTutor: If a fight is constantly changing and is random, then no one may learn to deal with every possibility. One learns to deal with the probable and the most common, and then does the best one can when something out of the ordinary occurs.

The most pitiful sight is to see sincere students earnestly repeating those imitative drills, listening to their own screams and spiritual yells. In most cases, the means these "sensei" offer their students are so elaborate that the student must give tremendous attention to them, until gradually he loses sight of the end. The students end up performing their methodical routines as a mere conditioned response, rather than 'responding to' "what is." They no longer "listen" to circumstances; they "recite" their circumstances. These poor souls have unwittingly become trapped in the miasma of classical martial arts training.

TKDTutor Comments: While this is true of all beginning martial art students, as well as beginners at anything, as they gain more experience, they learn to go with the flow of a fight. When beginners fight, they are constantly picking specific techniques to use. Experienced fighters automatically chose the technique that bests suits the situation at that moment.

Students first learn to perfect the movements required to defend or attack. Over time, they learn to apply the techniques as required in specific situations. When a sudden attack occurs, if you have too many choices of techniques to choose from, the time wasted in choosing one will mean whichever one you choose will come too late to stop the attack. If is better to have one highly trained response that may be adapted to a particular situation as required.