Wood Strategy Techniques

[Alan Armstrong]

Wood strategy:

Wood doesn't automatically jump out as a strategy yet before castles, wooden fortresses was very much a part of self defense.

Meanwhile the woodsman having the experience of living and working among the trees, has developed a unique relationship with the way of the forest.

Martial artists can draw many ideas and concept from the understanding of the woodsman and trees.

The obvious similarities of people and trees are that they both have limbs, while another is how trees are rooted which equates to the impotance of stability.

There is a versatility aspect to wood being a useful material, an attribute value which we as martial artists can also find useful.

Wood martial art techniques are linear, such as straight punches and kicks, also using one's entire body as a battering ram.

From Karate chops to axe kicks the connections to wood are always present.

Wood martial art techniques also involve all trapping and holding applications.

Wood martial art techniques such as the classic clothes line (as when a horseman has been knocked off his hose) and tripping the opponent (as when roots from a tree are protruding from the ground) is also available in this strategy.

Wood changes its strategy depending on the season, knowing when to grow and expand and when to rest and stay calm.

The nature of trees is to reach upwards to reach downwards and to expand outwards, a tree doesn't seem to be very active, yet it is very busy within.

Trees have a great memory of the seasons, recording each year with its rings, this aspect corresponding to experience counts.

We are all connected to the trees, as it is the trees that produces oxygen, a few minutes without it and we are all dead; therefore wood is a very important element for survival, knowingly or not.

Is wood a part of your martial art style and or strategy or is it just used as a material for practicing on as a dojo floor?

[sensei8]

I do suppose that, as a MAist, the wood conceptual strategies that you're speaking about are being used by MAist's without deliberately drawing them towards those similarities because any disadvantages/advantages must be recognized for its values and merits.

Yes, we've the use of the wood floor in the dojo as well as the usages of many wooden Kobudo tools.

[Alan Armstrong]

I do suppose that, as a MAist, the wood conceptual strategies that you're speaking about are being used by MAist's without deliberately drawing them towards those similarities because any disadvantages/advantages must be recognized for its values and merits.

Yes, we've the use of the wood floor in the dojo as well as the usages of many wooden Kobudo tools.

Being more aware of the similarities of what we do as martial artists, with other elements such as wood, strengthens our understanding further above those that don't.

Martial artists have often turned to nature and in this case the forest, to train in, if not for anthing else but just for the purpose of getting an extra boost of oxygen.

Breaking boards or conditioning hands and feet, wood is one of the most preferred materials.

A piece of wood in the hands of an expert martial artists can become a very effective weapon, whereas to everyone else its just a piece of wood.