Friday, December 16, 2011

Speed and Fluidity

Speed is generally a misunderstood aspect of proper execution. Too often beginners think of "being fast" as a highly important, or even the ultimate goal of karate training. Being fast has benefits, and being faster has benefits, but striking at the appropriate time and place is more important than getting there in a hurry. If you go fast and miss, or use improper structure, you fail or are injured and you open yourself to be countered. Your timing in combat is also heavily dependent on the timing of your opponent(s). You can only understand and appreciate this by interacting with a resisting opponent. It's not just about being able to move your limbs quickly. Your opponent will be moving around and in and out of range and acting and reacting and altering his speed all the time. And you have to make all the same adjustments and alterations simultaneously. Or faster. But that means more than just having "speed."

There are ways to change the amount of time it takes for your body to move through empty space, and there are ways to program your brain to act or react in association with certain stimuli faster than others, and with specific pre-programmed responses. But you must also learn when to move, which is far more important and more difficult to understand. Swinging your limbs through the air as fast as you can may make you faster, but it won't necessarily make you more effective. Instead, learn that there are times to go fast, and times to go slow, and times to move first, and times to move second.

Sometimes you hear people talk of "speed" and "fluidity" as though they were interchangeable concepts. These are really two different things, although they are linked. Speed is all the things that have been discussed. Moving fast. Thinking fast. Prediction. Proper form and accuracy. Timing. But fluidity is the result of relaxation, breathing, energy flow, creativity, muscle memory, strength, flexibility, and technique. Like everything else in karate, they are affected and influenced by one another. When you are fluid you are fast, when you understand timing you are fluid. When your mind is free there is a counter to every move but when you introduce intention you inhibit action. There is only so far you can move your arms and legs, and stretching and strength training can safely increase that range, but it will always be finite and while generally the same still specifically different to each of us. Moving limbs requires muscle activation. Some limbs have more mass than others. Some muscles are stronger than others. Developing range and strength can increase both speed and fluidity, but that doesn't make them the same thing.

Understand too that it is important to be able to correctly alter your speed in combat to interact effectively with your opponent. Sometimes you wanna get high, sometimes you gotta start low. Dramatically shifting your speed will make it more difficult for your opponent to predict your actions. There are ways to disguise your speed as well and appear slower or faster than you really are. Read your Sun Tzu. And move linearly in and out of range while maintaining a consistent relative height to the opponent. The human eye is designed to recognize movements and changes in light. Changing your profile dramatically in your opponent's field of vision, with large up and down motions or wide sweeping strikes, will make it easier for his brain to recognize and interpret your actions. Moving in straight, direct lines makes it more difficult for the opponent to accurately gauge and adjust to your speed. But moving along angles makes it more difficult for the opponent to accurately gauge your position. Learn how to marry the two, and make it more difficult for the opponent.

My advice would be not to worry about speed. Worry about form. Practice your techniques as correctly as you can as often as you can. With practice, proper form will begin to result in proper accuracy. You'll hit the targets you aim at more often, because you are trying to hit them correctly. Correct technique results in correct contact to correct targets. And with accuracy comes speed. The more often you are able to hit something correctly and accurately, the faster you will be able to do it. It will require less time mentally, and physically, and will continue to improve with every repetition. And the faster and more accurately you hit something correctly the harder you are able to hit it. Power is the natural outgrowth of the combination of Form, Accuracy, and Speed. But it all begins with doing it right and righter all the time. We all have a long long way to go. Focus on doing things right, you'll never regret it. Speed and power will come with time.

That's the best thing about karate.

It works.

Drills-
Beginner: Practice each technique, as slowly as you can do it correctly, ten times. Then practice each technique with steady, practiced timing, ten times. Then practice each technique as fast as you can do it correctly, ten times.

Intermediate: Practice dynamic stretching before your workout to increase blood flow and muscle pliability. Practice static stretching after your workout to increase overall flexibility. Practice strength training and calisthenics to increase athleticism, range, and power. Improve yourself through diligent effort and your karate will improve, but understand that there are natural limitations to the human body. Do not fight them. Instead learn how to be the most effective within them, and how to take advantage of the opponent when he goes outside them.

Advanced: Learn the counters to the counters. Practice each possible position change from each possible position. Understand which grapples can be defended with which strikes, and where the opponent can move to when pressure is applied from every angle. When you know how he can react, you know how he will react. Prepare for his reaction. Stay ahead of his O.O.D.A. loop and force him to try to catch up with you mentally and you have already defeated him physically.