Traditionally the martial arts are broken up into categories of technique. These can be large, encompassing categories such as hard styles and soft styles, or striking styles and grappling styles. Within styles themselves there are also categories of technique. When Jigoro Kano created Judo in the late nineteenth century he divided the throws of the various Jujitsu styles that he drew from into subsets, depending on characteristics of the throw. This way, the style is more approachable as it can be taken in smaller pieces, and things can be related to each other more easily by the student. For example, if a Judo student is having trouble with hane goshi, one of the more difficult hip throws, it helps to know that in principle the throw is the same as o goshi, a much more basic hip throw. This method of subdividing a style is a useful tool for teaching beginners, but ultimately it is necessary to go beyond the initial classification of techniques. To continue to use Judo as an example, while subdividing the throws into hip throws, arm throws, leg throws, etc.. may be useful at first, it eventually leads a more advanced student away from a very important fact about technique. There are elements that tie all techniques together, just as there are elements that separate them. If a person is going to understand the physical aspects of the martial arts completely, s\he is eventually going to have to get past the differences in technique, and examine the similarities.
The three elements that must be present in any good technique, be it hard or soft, striking or grappling, are: Centeredness; Balance; and Relaxation. Without these three elements no technique, be it a kick, throw, or joint lock, is going to be very effective. These elements are separately important, but also interdependent. The lack of one will greatly effect the presence of the other two. Nevertheless, to be successful, all three of these issues must be considered, and attended to, separately.
The concept of centering refers to the position of a technique in relationship to tori's body. Regardless of the specific nature of the technique (nage waza, atemi waza , kansetsu waza, etc.) it is critical that tori's body moves as a unit, with the focus of the technique as close to the center of that unit as possible. This manifests itself in nage waza primarily in the aspect of kuzushi. Without centering, adequate kuzushi is impossible. The throw might still be accomplished through brute strength, but that is not what we are practicing to do, and it is not safe to rely upon it. In proper kuzushi, tori moves uke by repositioning uke's center with his own. The direction of kuzushi varies from throw to throw. For instance, in osoto gari, uke's center is moved back until tori's center is ultimately behind it, along with uke's balance. In o goshi or tai otoshi tori moves uke's center around his. Either way, keeping the technique centered is what makes it work. In kansetsu waza the focus of the centering is not so much uke's center, as the specific part of the body that the technique is attacking. In order to use the technique to motivate movement in uke the technique must remain centered, thus the center must move. I have often described the process of unbalancing with kansetsu waza to students as using my center to take the compromised part of uke as far away from his center as possible. Uke will inevitably give up his balance to relieve the stress place on the compromised portion of his anatomy. In atemi centering works a bit differently, but is still critical. Rather than starting away from the center and moving into it, as with nage and kansetsu waza, atemi originates from the center and moves out from it. In striking styles we refer to this as "hip integration" because the center is generally incorporated into the technique via movement of the hips at the beginning of the technique. Regardless, without proper centering a striking technique, like a grappling technique, is reduced to gross muscle movement relying on brute strength for effectiveness.
The next aspect of technique that places them all into one category is balance. Balance is a broader issue than the simple act of remaining upright and moving without falling down. Balance in technique relies first upon centering. The further off center a technique gets, the less likely it is that tori will retain balance. In fact this is the chief way that tori quickly becomes uke. But centering of technique also relies equally upon balance. Without balance initially, centering is impossible. Retention of balance requires moving the body as a unit, with the center of the body firmly in place. Individual limbs moving out-of-synchrony cause a loss of centering and balance. With control of tori's own balance comes control of uke's balance. I have noticed that the success of any technique comes down to the control of uke's balance. With that the technique is successful, without that it is not.
The third unifying concept of technique is relaxation. This is at once the simplest and most difficult of things to grasp. As an instructor of martial arts I often catch myself telling students to "try really hard to relax". Physical relaxation is critical to balance and centering because in dynamic situations things are constantly shifting positions. Without relaxation a technique that was centered and thus on balance (or vise versa) will quickly come off center, and thus off balance. Like the previous two concepts though, this is an interdependent relationship. If a technique is off center, then tori must strain to retain it, thus making relaxation impossible. With relaxation tori's body is free to make adjustments in balance and centering without a great deal of conscious attention being paid to the process. Proper relaxation allows nage and kansetsu waza to move towards tori's center with minimal effort, and atemi to move away from the center with minimal effort. Tension on tori's part will interfere with either of these processes, making the technique either partially or completely ineffective.
I have seen in myself in increasing proportion over time that a deeper understanding of the three concepts I have described makes not only techniques that I know work much more effectively, but it also makes learning new techniques significantly easier. In fact I have recently been finding myself able to perform new technique effortlessly on the first try simply by applying the concepts of center, balance, and relaxation to the particular frame of the technique. This doesn't happen every time of course, but it happens with increasing regularity as I continue to train and further deepen my understanding of these concepts. Ultimately, I believe it is necessary to go beyond the traditional categories of techniques.
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