Not Be There

[ChangWuJi]

Here is another interesting article I found that I would like to share.

 

"My master once said, "Why you be there?" I had just taken a hit that should have missed. What he spoke was something that echoed all the other learning I had, over the years, accumulated.

 

 

 

Not be there. A founding precept, pivotal to success in avoiding conflict in the first place, and in fighting and winning when in the midst of battle. And so simple, yet so profound. Not be there.

 

But what does it mean?

 

It means, if possible, don’t go where you are sure to find enemies, conflict or trouble. When trouble finds you, don’t be where the strike is. Very simple. Very hard to do.

 

Not be there.

 

When first we begin to learn the ancient art of self-defense, we are taught to block. That is a "first learning." Once we begin to understand how to block, we learn to deflect, redirecting the incoming strike so to cause least harm to us while opening the way for our own strike or evasive technique. Once we can deflect, we learn to slip the strike just enough to penetrate while the strike is incoming to move in and deliver our own assault. When we get better, we slip the strike and, utilizing the movement and energy of the assailant, allow their energy to be used and turned against them as we penetrate with our own counter-assault. When we get really good, the assailant’s strike becomes a strike against themselves while we "do nothing" but "not be there."

 

Not be there. Simple, yet so profound a founding principle and a "gateway" learning to other principles, like "move to position of advantage while allowing opponent to enter position most disadvantagious to themselves."

 

This one is harder to learn, but it is again pivotal to any successful self-defense mastery.

 

Move to position of advantage while allowing opponent to enter position most disadvantagious to themselves.

 

How? Time and practice against others - many others. Mastering one’s own body and its movement while simultaneously mastering a meticulous understanding of the mechanics of the human body, both static and in motion, and how that body is most easily "broken down."

 

Hand in hand with that comes "taking opponent’s center." A beginner learns leverage techniques. A master can dismantle the body of an assailant and steal its center by simply moving his own body, never touching or being touched by the assailant, thereby allowing the "opponent to defeat themselves," yet another founding precept.

 

As you begin to see, one principle and its understanding and application becomes dependent upon the learning and mastering of all others, each one a foundation stone upon which one’s arsenal of ability is constructed, principles that when mastered make one almost invincible to assault. And these and other principles are the common water that runs beneath and inside all the martial arts. The better you learn them, the more invincible and successful in martial conflict you become until, one day, you simply find there is no conflict...because you have truly mastered "not be there."

 

 

[Joecooke007]

Then how do you spar?