Technical development: Teaching principles

On the previous articles I stated that the goals of the technical elements of a given activity are to allow the practitioners:

1. Effectiveness (achieving the result);
2. Efficiency (maximizing force application and body placement to develop force, in order to spend the least energy possible);
3. Have harmonious actions which don't go against the body's natural alignments, thus reducing the chances of overuse injuries.

Now, focusing on point one (effectiveness), I consider that one's actions are about applying force in order to promote motion of one's body, of another object, etc.

Therefore, one can have a task of applying force against an object that either doesn't change its settings or does so in a predictable way (such as the ground when running in a track, where there are no obstacles) or, on the other end of the spectrum, applying a force against an object that changes its settings, and sometimes, with a wide range of variability (intercepting the opponent's strike and striking a moving opponent).

This being said I consider that in JdP the attacking and defensive techniques involve both having a high inner control of one's movement in order to perform actions that maximize the force development, but also taking into account the development of external coordination of space (positioning) and timing management with the opponent.

Therefore, (for begginers) all practice should be specific, meaning that there shouldn't be attacks without targets, parries without attacks or stepping actions without offensive or defensive space (distance) management goals.

I have found that this type of training is more enjoyable, but also more effective in developing combat skill, and not only because of the reasons pointed above.

My philosophy (developed by practical experience but also by reading about the principles and studies from the area of ecological perspectives of human movement) is that we aren't robots, but people who, in certain contexts, go through emotions that establish goals (tasks / events - emotional actions and not merely bio-mechanical actions). This means that, instead of thinking of our body when performing our daily tasks, we simply think of the goals we wish to attain (catch the car keys that are thrown to us, ties our shoe laces, etc) and our body, by knowing itself and focusing on the object of our goal, simply acts.

Therefore, considering that there must be a connection (meaning / purpose) between our body's movement and the object that is to "receive" our action, I see no other way to develop this "software" than to incorporate this into the training exercises (as it is common practice in other activities, such as tennis and grappling students who don't learn to hit a ball or throw their opponent by imagining them, and much less forgetting about them and focusing on how to execute their movement in a non adjustable way).

For those who haven't been discouraged by these theoretical and philosophical first articles, my congratulations and thanks. Now let's start having fun with the practical stuff, let's start looking at the strikes.

LFP