When I was a boy I was drawn to martial arts mainly because of images in the media. I saw Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee beating up bad guys. I saw the Karate Kid win the tournament. This was inspiring, but even more spoke to my insecurities with a promise to become someone more powerful, more in control, safer.

Chuck Norris Image via Wikipedia

Having spoken with many martial artists – I think this is a common point of entry. Ask someone who has been training in martial arts for a long time why they started to train, and why they continued to train, and you are likely to get two different responses.

Evolution as a Martial Artist

As a young man, I found myself attracted to the commando tough-guy types. The guys who claimed to train the CIA and the Navy SEALS etc. I would seek out seminars and products from these guys.

Again, the underlying feeling was that I wanted to feel tougher, more powerful.

But there’s a problem with this approach. When you have deep seated insecurities, covering over them with bravado or tough act, you still have insecurities.

I eventually was drawn to teachers who were kind, fatherly, skilled yet friendly. Teachers who didn’t have giant photos of themselves wearing gold embroidered outfits at the front door of their dojo. These are the people I could really learn from.

Enter the Ego

Without getting overly philosophical, the main issue here is the ego. The ego in this sense is a survival mechanism. It is a psychological construct that makes you crave safety, control, and approval so that your identified self can survive.

The ego is a big bundle of insecurities that often masks itself by all kinds of crappy behavior – like acting tough, getting angry easy, putting down others, building up false images of yourself, lying, Internet flame wars. Some psychologists appropriately call these behaviors defense mechanisms.

Moving Beyond Ego Satisfaction

As I progressed in the martial arts, I found myself less attracted to physical strength, macho bravado stuff, and top secret commando killing techniques. I gravitated towards teachers who skilled yet extremely humble.

Write this down: humility is the opposite of low self esteem.

I really enjoy the recent Ip Man movies with Donnie Yen. To me, this representation of the master who taught Bruce Lee shows an ideal self mastery:

• Always humble
• Kind to students, and other masters
• Difficult to anger
• Even under difficult situations smiles easily
• When forced to fight tries not to harm others

Physical skill is admirable, but self control is is an even rarer trait.

Overcoming Ego through Martial Arts

It’s time to examine your role models and your training.

For me, the more I train and the better I get the less likely I am to ever need to fight. This is the paradox of martial arts training.

Predators, animal and human, are instinctively attracted to psychological weakness. Insecurity shows in your body language. In my experience, people who act like “tough guys” tend to get into a lot of confrontations unnecessarily.

An interesting study conducted by Model Mugging showed that women who took the course were less like to ever have a mugging attempted. Why is this? I could argue that an increase in awareness helped them avoid dangerous situations. I also think it’s true that their confidence shines through in their body language making them a less attractive target.

Growing in martial arts means becoming more aware, more self aware, less attracted to the superficial. Look for practices that help you become aware of and work with the ego, with insecurities.

Chi, also spelled qi (or ki in Japanese) is one of those things in the martial arts that generates a lot of controversy. For those who don’t know chi is the supposed mystic power, used in the martial arts to do seemingly miraculous feats. The word chi itself is almost synonymous with the phrase “breath power” and its the explanation of the health giving power of arts like tai chi and chi kung (qigong).

Chi is also a term used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is the explanation behind the workings of acupuncture and other forms of TCM.

The controversy stems from several different causes. First, there are so called skeptics who automatically disbelieve anything which seems paranormal, or is explained with paranormal terminology. Second, there are, in fact, charlatans who use trickery to “demonstrate” chi effects. Third, chi is a loose term and , as I shall explain, actually references a number of different phenomena. Lastly, I believe that, with chi, there are some phenomena which science cannot yet, but may someday, explain.

To me, skepticism should imply and open but inquisitive mind. In the U.S., for some reason, it has come to mean anyone who disbelieves anything which is outside the current canon of scientific knowledge. The funny thing about this form skepticism is that it demands scientific proof, but disallowing any explanation of an effect from the front flies in the face of scientific method itself. In an infinite and expanding universe anything is technically possible. It is also the folly of some “scientific” minds to ever believe that they know everything there is to know about the universe or even any single aspect of science. New discoveries happen daily in every field from mathematics, to optics, to biology, to physics.

So, the following is my understanding of “chi”. Understand that it is incomplete, as I believe no full explanation exists.

Chi is a combination of physical forces
Through proper body alignment, the conditioning of tendons, physical skill, and the ability of the mind to lead the body -  martial artists through the centuries have been able to perform miraculous physical “stunts” which are impossible to untrained people. Some of this involves breath control (such as that used by weightlifters) to support the internal structure of the body.

Most of what the martial artist is doing is at an unconscious level. Imagine a baseball pitcher trying to explain every muscle twitch involved in throwing a perfect fastball. In order to explain what is happening, we use the term chi, as a shortcut term for the collective of breath support, energy focus, muscle tension and relaxation, targeting, coordination, balance, etc.  I believe that a lot of martial arts demonstration feats (such as breaking) are the result of this type of “chi”.

In Chinese medicine, there are many different types of “chi”. In this case, think of “chi” as energy. In Western medical terms we might talk about cellular energy, muscular energy, the energy from the oxygen in the blood, the chemical / electrical energy carried by the nerves, etc. It’s a similar idea.

Chi is mental focus
If you want to hit someone really, really hard in the torso, you do not focus mentally on their torso. You focus on a space a few inches to a few feet behind them. When you focus on their body, unconsciously, the brain throws the brakes on when you reach the target and you hit less hard.

Why does it do that? Safety. Imagine that every time you take a step, you try to push your foot through the ground instead of stopping when your foot does. You would destroy your knees in no time. Do you need to think “stop pushing down” every time you take a step? Of course not, your unconscious mind tells your body to stop.

Chi is something which science can’t yet explain
So, is there a supernatural component side to chi? Well, I would argue that supernatural simply means that there is something that science can’t yet explain. I am aware of a number of relatively scientific tests of “chi” which defy what we know about cause and effect in the universe.

I recently saw a kung fu practitioner bend a spear with the point held against his throat. I’ve seen this stunt before and always chalked it up as an old time strong man stunt. However, this time a couple of scientists measured the force exerted on the spear and made sure the spear point is real. The force on the spear went above what the sensors could measure which was over 2900 pounds of pressure. This is many more times than enough to slice through any soft tissue. The area of the throat used cannot be developed muscularly to resist such force, and no skin callous was present. The scientists admitted that they had no explanation for their results.

In a study published in a  peer reviewed journal, a medical qigong practitioner was able to register significantly on scientific instruments meant to detect radiation. That same practitioner was able to change the molecular structure of water to statistically significant degree in a double blind study.

There have been a number of studies of the effects of qigong on various medical conditions. Most of these are understandably done in China. I was able to find one in an American Oncology journal that showed that qigong had a significant positive effect on many health factors of people undergoing chemotherapy, even when compared with other exercise or relaxation programs.

I personally do believe that something is going on, which is currently beyond the ability of science to fully explain.  Does this mean it’s BS? I don’t think so. After all science can’t yet fully explain why we yawn, the placebo effect, or gravity. Perhaps someday science will explain chi phenomena in scientifically acceptable terms, and perhaps someday will know why there’s gravity.

I will not go into the spiritual side of chi as that borders on religion and religious faith is its own thing.

Chi is fake
There have been people throughout history who demonstrate supernatural powers using trickery. India is ripe with “God men” who use magic tricks to fool villagers into giving them money.

I have seen video on Youtube of a pretty well known fake ninja using a very well known magician’s trick to demonstrate his supernatural power.

Martial arts is full of guys with fake credentials, fake belts, fake military experience etc. Some of them are extremely financially successful. It’s not my place on this site to call any of them out.

In the Western world, the practice of alchemy has a long history as predecessor to modern chemistry (it’s where we get the name), school shrouded in mystery, and practice persecuted as pseudoscience or blasphemy by the powers that be. Outwardly, alchemists main goal was to produce the philosopher’s stone, a substance rumored to be able to transmute lead to gold and to bestow eternal life. Inwardly, alchemy blended spirituality and science perfectly as alchemists sought knowledge of the workings of the material, mental, and spiritual worlds.

I refer to the philosophy of our system as martial alchemy because outwardly, we seek to transform gross body movements into efficient martial gold. Inwardly, we use the physical practice of martial arts as a bridge to spiritual and mental perfection.

From time to time, people get hinky when we mention the word “spiritual” because they frequently equate spirituality with religion. that’s fine but, as a rule, we stay clear of religion – everyone is entitled to their own and we do not ever preach religion. We might borrow examples from religious doctrines as a teaching tool, but our students are expected to come to their own truths about these things.

Training the spirit in martial arts, to us, means becoming acquainted with and integrating the  invisible parts of ourselves while becoming intimately more aware of our place in the universe. Spirit training, to us, builds a form of mental and emotional resilience or toughness where we can roll with the punches the universe sends us and take greater control of our own destiny. It involves accepting and working with the hidden parts of ourselves (often called the shadow). Spirit training also involves training the will or “fighting spirit”

Our training is integrated, so that training the body trains the mind and the spirit. I am reminded of my early training, sometimes doing the same set of footwork for hours on end. This accomplished several things. First, it imprinted the symbols of the foot movements into my unconscious brain, they became a part of me as new, more efficient neural pathways were developed. Second it required me to work through the enemies of boredom and fatigue. Every time the mind said quit, I would smile and tell myself I was loving the work.

This type of training builds mental toughness, something which is perfectly handy for for a professional warrior or someone who sits in a cubicle all day. Done correctly, the training will also make you smarter by creating newer and stronger neural-connections in the brain.

The philosopher’s stone in martial alchemy is the training.

“Think Evil” is at the heart of the Security Mindset…
~Patrick Heim, CISO of Kaiser Permanente from the preface to Hacking Exposed 6: Network Security Secrets & Solutions

In my experience people are generally good. Most of us don’t want to believe we’re evil or that we do bad things. When we do “bad” things we find all kinds of rationalizations for them. Sometimes our “goodness”, which is really about self esteem and self image, hampers us.

In self defense classes where I am teaching people with zero training, many people have a visceral reaction when I describe things like how to shove a finger into an eyeball. I see them squirm and many vocalize, “yuck”. “This reaction is fine,” I’ll explain, “it tells me that you are a decent human being who is repulsed by doing something so violent.” I will then go on to explain that criminals who want to hurt them aren’t so nice or decent, and that sometimes causing bodily harm is really the only choice other than being killed or seriously injured themselves. Most people get it.

The quote that started this post comes from a book about computer network security – it’s for people learning to be penetration testers, otherwise known as “ethical hackers”. These are people who, with authorization, try to penetrate the security of computer networks in order to find the holes before the “bad” hackers get in and cause damage. If you’ve ever read about the military’s Red Teams or Red Cell – it’s the same idea – pretend to be a bad guy to test security.

So I offer the following mindset practices to you to learn how to shore up your defenses:

• When you’re in public look around as if you were a mugger trying to choose a target. Who would you choose and why? Make a note of the criteria you would use to pick a target – and learn to make yourself less of a target.
• From time to time when you are sitting or standing near to someone imagine they were going to suddenly physically assault you. Based on both body positions, what are some of the likely ways for this to happen. If the person had a weapon hidden, where might it be, and how would they access it?
• Look at your home and ask yourself how you would break in if you wanted to rob the place.

I’m sure you can come up with a few more mental drills such as these. The key is not to become paranoid or obsessed with what can go wrong, but play with the mindset and learn to become safer.

It’s been said that the hardest part of martial arts training is getting into the car. I have seen this first hand when 11 people tell me they are coming to train and 2 show up. I don’t take it personally when people tell me they were “busy” or there was “traffic” or whatever. I know it really isn’t about all that – it’s difficult to drag your butt to training sometimes, particularly when you haven’t developed the mental toughness to push past a hard day at work and train anyway.

To get good at martial arts you also need to train solo. There is something about working on the mental and physical aspects of martial arts alone which pushes things around in your brain and makes them stick. You do not get good in class, class is the catalyst that starts the reaction – you get good in solo practice and reflection.

I want to offer up my couch potato plan for getting good at your martial art – even if you think you don’t have time.

The first part of the plan is to make an enjoyable game out of finding hidden time. One thing I suggest is to do some kind of training during TV commercials. If you watch 1 hour of network television a day (and most people watch more), you’ll have at least 20 minutes of training time. You could exercise during that time, practice a kata, throw some punches, whatever.

Like I said, make finding time an enjoyable game – even a couple of minutes here and there really add up.

Another TV related training method which helps reaction time is to do a technique (such as throwing a punch) while watching a show – as quickly as possible each time the scene or camera angle changes on the show. This is a good way to train the perception without a partner.

The next suggestion is to utilize waiting time, and I have two ways to do this. 1. Carry around a martial arts related book with you whenever you think you might have wait time and read. 2. Practice your techniques, or kata, or whatever in your mind without moving. Suggestion #2 will get you good incredibly fast.

When I lived in Boston I would frequently take the subway or a bus. While sitting there, I would  mentally go over foot movements, angles, drills, etc. It really helped me to improve. The mind has a hard time differentiating between vividly imagined practice and real practice. I probably got an extra 5 hours of practice a week in just doing this.

My next suggestion is to find sneaky ways to train. Make all of your movements martial movements without giving away what you are doing. For example, I use tai-sabaki (body shifting) movements to walk around obstacles. I am aware of how I open and close doors and do it in a way that could be translated into a strike or a throw. Doing this will help internalize your movements and burn them into muscle memory. Again – make a game out of it – be creative.

Next is walking around training. When walking around amongst other people mentally note their distance. Notice how you feel as they get closer or move farther away. What are they doing with their hands. If they are standing, do they have good balance or poor balance. Are there any bulges in their clothing that may be weapons. If they had bad intentions, how would they have to move to attack. Do this without staring at anybody. Train yourself to use peripheral vision and short non-threatening glances.

Finally is mental scenario training. Whenever you go anywhere – including changing rooms in your house, scan the room. Look for exits and notice if there are any obstacles there. What in the room could be used as cover or as an improvised weapon? What would you do if armed people came in intent on doing you harm. While you do this pay attention to your breathing and heart-rate. Keep your breathing slow and through the nose.

The important thing is to make these things as enjoyable as possible. If you do, it will be easier to continue doing them.

The purposefully provocative title of this post is meant to point out a “truth” about martial arts and self defense. In Ketsugo Jujutsu we say that the three possible ways to finish a defense are to kill, cripple, or control. We say that killing is for soldiers, crippling for bodyguards, and control is for the police. This is a mnemonic and, as such, is simplified.

The point I’d like to make is that untrained, unskilled people have been killing each other for as long as human beings have walked upright. In fact untrained animals do it all the time. Any person can pick up a rock and smash another with it.

Granted, in martial arts training, we can learn more elegant ways to take apart the human body, we can do it in a way that we are less likely to also be hurt, and we can do it with style. The most difficult thing to teach and learn is to control an opponent, particularly if that opponent is determined to hurt you.

When I was in college, I once observed the campus police try to evict a drunken gentleman from the steps of a building. First they tried to ask him to leave – he merely ignored them. Then they tried to grab his wrist and put him into some kind of come-along or cuff him (not sure which because it didn’t get that far) – her merely sat there and wriggled a little bit slipping their grasp. The guy was like an oiled-up jellyfish. Finally, two officers grabbed the guy under his shoulders and slammed him on his face on the pavement – giving him a bloody, perhaps broken, nose. At that, the man began to struggle while it took there of them to get handcuffs on him and get him into an ambulance  – to go get his face checked out.

Think about that, a barely resisting drunken gentleman eluded an attempt to control him by 3 able-bodied, well-trained, experienced police officers until the level of violence got ramped up.  Whether or not the level of force was justified is almost irrelevant here. These cops have a conflicting duty – to protect the campus from crime, and from liability. Control without injury is difficult against any kind of resistance.

Almost every time we hear about the use of lethal force in self defense the question comes up – either from the media, ignorant people, or from our legal system, “did you have to do that, couldn’t you have used less force?” It almost never fails when police officers are forced to shoot somebody that someone asks, “did they have to shoot to kill, couldn’t they have just shot him in the leg?” This line of questioning stems from an unrealistic viewpoint highly influenced by the media. We see gunslingers on TV shooting the guns out of people’s hands, this is TV magic not reality. In order not to miss their target (which they do 83% of the time under stress), the police and military are taught to shoot at center mass – the largest part of the body. Asking someone under extreme duress to shoot at a small, probably moving limb is asking them to miss nearly 100% of the time and put their lives in great jeopardy.

People who have martial arts training are also frequently held to a different standard to those who are not. We are sometimes expected to defend ourselves with less force than others who are not trained. A well rounded approach to martial arts training should contain tactics that kill, cripple, and control – but again, controlling someone who is intent on doing you harm is nearly impossible.

Realistic self defense training includes techniques which are very very likely to create an injury to facilitate an escape. Tactics which rely on simply causing an opponent pain are highly unreliable and less effective on opponents who are under the influence of chemical intoxicants, adrenaline, or have some kind of pathology making them pain resistant.

Aikido is arguably the most gentle martial art on the planet, one of it’s goals is self defense without injuring your opponent. Watch people doing Aikido and ask yourself what would happen to the uke (one receiving the technique) if he didn’t know how to breakfall, or if he landed on a curb or up against a steel signpost. Aikido is very high level martial art and, from observation, it takes a very long time to get good at it. Even then, there is no guarantee of injury-free self-defense.

Make contact, keep it. That’s a basic philosophy of our system or ketsugo jujutsu. When someone throws a punch or a kick, or moves in to grapple – they are giving us a gift by presenting us a set of targets for attack.

It’s a good idea not to box a boxer, or wrestle a wrestler, or out-kick a Muay Thai kickboxer. So, what should you do if faced with someone with greater skill, or speed?

One thing that neutralizes a great deal of speed and skill is proximity. Move in as close as you can. In our practice I tell students to try to wear your opponent like a suit. This takes a little bit of courage as beginners usually like to create greater distance. As a beginner distance is probably your friend, it does take some skill to move in on an attacking person.

The thing about boxers, kickers, even grapplers is that they are all most effective in the range their tools are designed for. We like to be even closer than grappling range.

What? Isn’t grappling range as close as possible? Not really. Yes grappling frequently involves body to body contact, but you can neutralize most takedowns and throws by eliminating space even farther and melding your bodyweight onto your opponents. I’ve done it with judo players, MMA guys, and wrestlers.

Once you’re inside this range, you should have an arsenal of very close combat tools – flesh tearing, joint locking,eye poking, etc. Knees and elbows become tools of choice.

I am a big fan of action movies, specifically martial arts action movies. I have been my whole life. Anyone who has some training in a Reality Based Martial Art (RBMA) knows that the movies and TV have little to do with real self defense. Unfortunately many people without training, including those who shape our laws do not get that.I encounter people all the time who get their complete thought process about self-defense and martial arts training from the media.

As I sit here writing this, I am watching the thrilling movie Ninja Assassin. It’s an exciting movie with highly stylized violence, and feats of supernatural martial arts. In one scene, the hero has to assassinate a very large gentleman. The hero uses a knife and stabs the man in the carotid artery, femoral artery, and through the brachial artery – the big guy keeps coming through spurting blood. At one point he even says, “it will take more than that to stop me.”

This leads me to a persistent myth I see which is common to a lot of media – the Juggernaut or unstoppable villain. As a plot device a Michael Meyers or Jason Vorhees who can get shot, stabbed, drowned, electrocuted and still keep on coming provides excitement. The reality is that Juggernaut just doesn’t exist.

In reality, if your carotid or femoral artery get’s severed – chances are you will lose consciousness in seconds and your life in a very few minutes. I don’t care how tough you are, how muscular, what drugs you’re on, or how psychotic you are – there are rules you’re body is going to follow. There are people, through muscular conditioning, training, and other factors for whom typical punches and kicks are going to be less effective. Boxers condition against knockout punches and body blows.

In our system of Jujutsu we learn common anatomical weaknesses so that we can attack them and it doesn’t matter who the attacker is. For example, you cannot condition your eyes to be impervious to attack in any way, nor can you condition your trachea. Joints can be attacked in certain ways – requiring very little pressure to cause breaking or dislocation.

Part of our philosophy is that good self-defense doesn’t rely solely on causing pain in an opponent (as some are resistant to pain) and shouldn’t require a lot of strength, speed, or flexibility. These things are all advantages, but are fallible.

Kuzushi (崩し) is a Japanese word for unbalancing an opponent. It comes from the verb kuzusu, meaning to pull down or demolish. You’ll find it commonly used in jujutsu and derived arts such as judo and aikido. Normally it is the act of taking an opponent’s balance rendering them incapable of counterattack. In most schools kuzushi is a physical process.

In our school of Ketsugo Jujutsu, as taught be Peter Freedman, sensei – we recognize three levels of kuzushi – mental, physical, and spiritual.

Physical kuzushi is where the jujutsuka (practitioner of jujutsu) does something to take an opponent’s physical balance – which can often lead to a fall, takedown, or throw. Sometimes kuzushi means that an opponent must take a step or otherwise move to regain balance – which may create an openening for another attack. There are many ways of creating a  physical kuzushi – pushing, pulling, bumping, locking, striking, kicking, or merely moving out of the way at the last moment.

Mental kuzushi is the act of creating confusion in one’s opponent (mental unbalance) causing their mind to slow and thus their reactions. Mental kuzushi may be caused through trickery, words, confusing phsyical techniques, hidden strikes, etc.

When we talk about spirit, this is more akin to “fighting spirit” than the religious sense of the word. We are talking about emotion. Spiritual kuzushi causes emotional unbalance, frequently sapping the will to fight, or causing rash action. An example might be causing an opponent to bleed or pointing out that they are bleeding. In a multiple attacker scenario, sometimes taking out the “alpha” attacker takes the fighting spirit of the rest of the group. Extreme pain can also be a spiritual kuzushi.

A single defense against an attack may encompass all three types of kuzushi. When an opponent strikes, let’s say we shift out of the way at the last moment. Our movement may cause the opponent to off-balance himself physically. We may land a hidden strike which, combined with our last minute shift, may confuse him. And, he may grow angry, upset, or even frightened that his attack didn’t work and he’s now in unexpected pain – a spiritual kuzushi.

Let me start by saying that nothing here is meant to denigrate BJJ or MMA in any way. As a rule, I do not criticize other systems. The BJJ guys I know are amazing martial artists and great athletes. My issue with the name Brazilian Jiujitsu (or Jiu-Jitsu) is a personal hangup, but bear me out here.

As a practitioner of jujutsu (the way we happen to spell the same word), when people hear what I do, they frequently assume I do something else. “Oh, you do that rolling around on the ground stuff right?” I get that all the time. Recently a fellow student of my teacher who has just started teaching complained about the same thing.

With the popularity of the UFC, and the BJJ domination of that sport, it is easy to understand that most people’s exposure to jujutsu has been nearly 100%. Koryu and gendai styles (like Ketsugo Jujutsu) are not generally used for sport and you don’t see them on TV very much.

The basic historical background of BJJ si that it is derived from Kodokan Judo. However, at that time, Judo was sometimes still referred to as Kano Jiu-Jitsu after Jigoro Kano, the father of Judo. It was 1914 when Mitsuyo Maeda brought Judo to Brazil, and it wasn’t until 1925 when the Japanese government declared that the art be called Judo. The Gracie family studied under Maeda in Brazil, and continued to refine and spread their art up to today.

So, there is indeed a historic reason, not that they need one, to call their art Jiu-Jitsu.

For us, ground fighting is not something we choose to do. It usually means you are about to lose your life. So, to be confused with a system that has become synonymous with ground-fighting sometimes takes us back a bit. We practice ground-fighting, but not for sport, and we use tactics which would be illegal in any sport competition (unless you believe the movie Bloodsport was a true story).

So, my personal wish was that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was called Brazilian Judo, or something different. I’m lazy and I’d have less explaining to do. In the end, labels are just that. After all, the name “Ketsugo Jujutsu” (also spelled jujitsu) was created by an American in the 20th century, and it is an eclectic art.