Street Fighting "Flow" Theory Explained - Do You Know The Principles of Expedient Weapons?

Street Fighting “Flow”-Theory Explained – Do You Know The Principles of Expedient Weapons?

by admin on Jul.29, 2009, under Street Fighting Principles

Click on the audio clip below to hear a 2-minute explanation by David D’Antonio.

Every fight has its own identity, its own life cycle like any living, breathing entity.

One of the reasons why pre-choreographed moves and katas give one a false feeling of readiness is that no fight pattern is predictable. And no fight pattern could ever follow a system of steps such as those found in a form or a kata.

Even when you learn how to dance with steps: 1, 2, 3 and 1,2, 3, when it’s time to “get down”on the dance floor, something else must come into to play, something that cannot be “taught” in the traditional sense. We are talking now about being “in the zone” or a state know in psychological circles as “flow”.

Your fight training practice must be done in an environment of spontaneity, surprise, non-compliant partners and an ever-ready state to adjust to whatever is thrown at you. This encourages and enhances your ability to quickly and more easily get in touch with that ineffable state we call “flow”.

Charles Prosper (aka “The Street Fighting Sifu”)

What is your take on “fighting in the zone” or as we like to call it, “flow”. Leave me your comments below. Thanks.

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:David D'Antonio, first strikes, martial arts, self defense, self protection, street fighting

1 comment for this entry:

Nicholas K.
December 1st, 2009 on 7:12 pm
“One of the reasons why pre-choreographed moves and katas give one a false feeling of readiness is that no fight pattern is predictable. And no fight pattern could ever follow a system of steps such as those found in a form or a kata.”

First of all, I wish to dismiss a lot of common miss-conceptions about kata. Kata and fighting patterns are not meant to be used exactly as you practice. Kata is both a combat conditioning exercise and a CATALOGUE of techniques and body mechanics.

“Your fight training practice must be done in an environment of spontaneity, surprise, non-compliant partners and an ever-ready state to adjust to whatever is thrown at you. ”

Yes and No. I am sure you’ve seen or heard of someone who successfully defends him or herself with no prior training or fighting experience. This is because everyone has a natural instinct for survival and a primal instinct of aggression when needed. Meanwhile even in Reality-Based Self Defense there are compliant partners. Many schools practice throwing their techniques on a partner holding a kick shield or mitts when learning the techniques. Holding the bag in place as the other guy hits it is being compliant. It is the same way with TMA. When learning the techniques in order to properly learn how to use it you have to do on a compliant partner and once you’ve learned it and practiced it well enough you can move on to a partner who resists and even spontaneous sparring – which can get pretty unpredictable especially when sparring with White Belts.

Kata is also very effective in conditioning and can condition your body in a way that no other exercise (I can think of) is capable of. At first kata probably won’t do much for your physical abilities; this is because the more you practice kata the better you get at it and the more speed you can put behind it, and the more power you can exert, and the more you can link the mechanics of your entire body behind it, and most importantly the more concentration you’re able to utilize and exert into every technique. Many times a beginner who does a kata will say it isn’t much of a workout while a veteran who’s been doing the same kata for many years when done seriously will be completely out of breath by the end. This is because the better you get the stronger your techniques are the better workout you can achieve from kata. The most important parts of kata in conditioning is the way it links your entire body behind each and every strike and the mental exertion aspect that allows you to put in 150% effort.

In fact, there is a story someone I know tells often. When he was young and joined the marine corp at the age of twenty he could run a mile and a half in just over ten minutes. However, he had to leave due to reasons beyond his control. Twenty years later with no running in between and just his consistent karate training and kata practice he ran a mile and a half again and did it in nine minutes. Even after getting old and not running kata training got him into better shape.

Conditioning aside, from my experience the way many schools teach and practice kata it wouldn’t be very effective for learning how to fight. Many schools teach the kata and practice them but very few schools have consistent bunkai training. For those who do not know what bunkai is, it is the practical applications for every movement in the kata. Often times each movement within a kata can have a thousand different applications. There is no limitation on what a kata can fight against even as the times change and people attack in different ways. For instance even though double leg takedowns were not commonplace in old okinawa when karate was created, a specific technique within the Pinan kata is very effective for countering that same technique.

The same person I talked about above is also in law enforcement and has personally used the techniques from kata in real-life. He used the technique from pinan kata on two different suspects within a week and caught their heads within a knee and elbow. Also he has said that every technique within their hand-to-hand program taught to the law-enforcement personel is found in kata. All of the throws, joint-locks, strikes .etc minus the rolling over on the ground that comes from BJJ.

Kata was created as exercise but also as a catalogue of the style’s techniques and in many respects is like a text-book. A lot of schools nowadays focus on Sport’s Fighting even within TMA schools and fail to teach how to use kata for effective fighting. But like a text-book just having it is useless if you do not study it.