Cause & Effect Theory & Practice in Martial Arts

[Alan Armstrong]

How useful if at all, do you find using the cause and effect theory in martial arts?

Do you use or practice cause and effect ideas in your training?

Chinese martial arts, utilizes cause and effect theories in their respective styles, which is a major difference than using the right tool for the job mind set.

A martial artist, that can make the best use of cause and effect, the more successful (It is considered) will be his/her Kung Fu.

[Alan Armstrong]

The butterfly effect.

When a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world it can cause a tornado on the other.

As Bruce Lee's father said to his son Bruce "Make alot of noise when you reach America, so I can hear you over hear in Hong Kong"

Bruce Lee was always searching for more efficient and effective ways of doing his martial arts.

However the cause and effect of mixing medications for Bruce Lee was death.

Electricians have another story.

The story of an electrician called out to a factory to fix their power problem.

He pressed a few buttons all fixed.

The factory owner asks the electrician "How much is this going to cost me?"

"$250.00" He replies!"

The factory owner asks "Why so much money to press just a few buttons?"

The electrician replies "Because I know which buttons to push"

How does all this relate to martial arts?

[bushido_man96]

Cause and effect is very important in training. I think in many forms applications, this can be seen. One technique leads to another based on how the body will react when struck by technique A, leading to technique B attacking such and such an area.

We can use this in sparring all the time. If I throw a lot of round kicks to the body, the opponent will tend to keep the guard lower to defend those kicks. When I finally go high, I might have a better chance of landing a successful hit, because I've caused the opponent to react in such a way.

When it comes down to why someone ended up having to actually defend oneself, it can probably be summed up in a cause-and-effect scenario. Where are you, and when are you there, and what led to the incident?

[Alan Armstrong]

Cause and effect is important to martial artists, as we learn to react accordingly, as a kick will need to be dodged, blocked or misdirected or it will cause pain and the effect could be life threatening.

Likewise, while an eye poke or groin kick can cause instant pain to an opponent very effectively.

The fly swatter is known as good Kung Fu, for its efficiency and trying to kill flies with chop sticks, although is not good kung fu, it is however the path of most resistance (difficulty) good for training purposes.

Cause and effect is at the heart of kung fu.

With an opponent if he can hit me I can hit him; how often has it happened when two boxers jab at the same time, and both jabs land simultaneously.

Then one boxer gets smarter and slips the opponent's jab and his lands perfectly on the other boxer's nose.

Learning and development many martial art cause and effects skills, till one day you are called a legend.

[Alan Armstrong]

The children's game "Rock Scissor Paper" is a cause and effect model, of how one can overcome or defeat the other.

As two boxers throwing a jab that lands on each other is similar to both being Rocks, when the one that learns to slip/Paper will beat the incoming Rock.

As this imaginary legendary boxer starts playing with his cause and effect to a higher level, by momentarily covering his opponents vision with one hand and hitting with the other hand that being a Rock Scissor or Paper; as at this point it doesn't matter.

As this Legend of a boxer started to get bored and no one wanted to play his game anymore, as he became lonely, he changed the game plan and decided to give everyone a fighting chance (not really) he started pretending to aim high but hit low, would hit lightly then unleash a killer blow, would draw the opponent in then lash out, this kept the legend amused for some time, until everyone caught on to his special effects.