A warrior can develop the martial will power discussed in the previous post through a number of methods. Difficulty of motivation (exhibiting behavioral resistance to punishment) constitutes the only requirement necessary for a will power development exercise. Though most will power exercises use physical discomfort as a training technique for hard arts, other forms of mental discomfort can also serve to increase will power.
Hard Art Methods: Using physical discomfort to build will power requires training within certain parameters to ensure efficacy. The resistance used must be light enough to enable forced repetitions without injury yet heavy enough to build useful strength for combat. Movements must incorporate the whole body to prevent overuse injury of a specific bodily region. Finally, movements must develop useable qualities other than motivational strength and endurance.
Pad and Bag Work: Striking objects for training serves well to increase power while developing will power with movements very similar to actual combat. If a trainee can strike a bag or tougher surface as hard as possible for an extended period of time, they have trained the physical capacities necessary to succeed in battle. The only battle remaining is tactical and internal. Merely striking as hard as possible beyond the point of physical discomfort can build will power in the absence of softer visualization techniques. For soldiers, fighters, and other combat professionals, no softer will power training is necessary. However, a well rounded martial artist must not settle for purely physical will power development, as it will not improve their character outside battle.
Endurance Weight Lifting: Lifting a moderate weight (about 30% of one's bodyweight) for an extended length of time can build outstanding physical will power in addition to preventing future injuries during combat or heavy lifting. Kettlebell sport is the premier example of this kind of training. During a portion of this author's training, the dojo was used for soft training, weight lifting was used for physical will power development, and sparring was used for internal awareness and will power development. The reader should note that maximal weight lifting does not confer the same benefits and cannot be used as a replacement. Will power training should be prolonged with periods of both tension and relaxation as in a set of 50 clean and jerks, rather than simply brief and tense as in a single set of 5 deadlifts.
Running and Parkour: Running and parkour can confer many martial benefits ranging from will power development to escape training. A martial artist who cannot run and move effectively has limited their options in battle. Retreat should always remain an option when it serves the greater goal of choosing the manner of one's death. For maximal motivational training, running should be done for long time periods and distances or under a state of duress, such as a blizzard or time constraint. One favorite running drill of this author is running downhill for time (30 minutes, for example), then attempting to beat that time back uphill to the starting point. This method of training teaches relaxation during the downhill portion to save one's energy followed by a tremendous sustained exertion uphill without losing speed. Will power is the primary focus of such a drill, not running speed or endurance. Without pain, no benefits can be incurred through such a practice. Good applications of running and parkour for will power development are challenge races and obstacle courses which build motivational and physical durability that could apply directly to combat.
Soft Art Methods: Through visualization, motivation becomes malleable. A martial artist can conquer fear, laziness, and even anger and hatred through simple visualization and execution. This author once asked his sensei, "What should I do about my anger for my enemies?" His answer: "Do not let them anger you." By conceiving of one's enemies differently, one can choose whether to respond with hatred or peace to their aggressions. The initial battle is internal, not physical. Further, if one does choose violence as a method, they must visualize properly to conquer fear and hesitation before the battle ever begins. Below are some methods of soft will power development. All of them use deep breathing as a primary focus throughout. Above all else, one must breathe.
Meditating on Death: The samurai made a practice of meditating upon death to remove their fear of defeat. An honorable defeat should never evoke fear, but pride instead. Victory is not won by the uninjured, but by the honorable. As such, a warrior should visualize all the ways their opponents might harm them, then meditate on those thoughts until they feel calm acceptance in place of fear.
Meditating on Pain: When one is in pain, they should attempt to become one with it and treat it as a simple message of their body. Even emotional pain should be analyzed as a mere physical side effect. One should learn to resist flinching, crying out, or otherwise making one's pain visible to others. This discipline will carry over into battle with opponents, who will be encouraged by displays of pain yet discouraged by stoic peace. Learn to withhold your enemy's reward in battle. More than your death, your enemy wants your pain. A peaceful death does not gratify an evil opponent.
Undertaking Austerity: In one's day to day life, they should undertake tasks which bring them fear while breathing deeply and focusing intently. By removing one's fear during unpleasant tasks, pleasant tasks will become more enjoyable and conflict will not elicit dread.
The reader must note that deep breathing should remain the most important focus of these exercises. When an opponent has taken one's breath, defeat is already guaranteed.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Developing Will: The Dark Side of the Martial Arts
Among the 3 martial qualities, will to endure stands alongside awareness and skill as a crucial determinant of martial power. One can develop their awareness and skill to the point that they are sage-like in vision and remarkable in prowess, yet crumble under the pain of a single blow or be unable to persevere long enough to ensure victory. Therefore, only will power in conjunction with the other qualities facilitates full martial development.
Some martial philosophies go as far as enshrining will power as the single most important attribute to martial development. The argument proceeds as follows: With unstoppable will, a warrior will persevere unto death. However, this reductionism fails to acknowledge that only a warrior much harder to kill than their opponents can succeed through will alone, and only awareness and skill can increase their prowess in combat. Great will without awareness or skill becomes impotent rage in consequence. Nevertheless, some arts do place a great emphasis on force of will and have good reasons to do so.
Martial arts such as Krav Maga, Karate, Kenpo, and other arts emphasizing the warrior spirit place a great premium on will power and physical strength. This emphasis applies especially to situations where trainees are openly expected to fight to the death as an occupational requirement. Military combat, law enforcement, criminal activity, and contract work all require strong force of will in order for one to prevail. In these situations, aggression dominates over all other qualities. One might be sloppy and stupid, yet possess enough physical strength and raw anger that they are able to overpower and kill opponents of superior awareness and skill. An example might be the barbarian northern warrior who brutally slaughters hundreds of well armed and trained Roman enemies despite a complete lack of refinement or foresight. As such, will power arts do not care much for philosophical, personal, or artistic development as worthwhile endeavors. They are more likely to develop practically useful skills for immediate victory in place of less applicable pursuits designed for holistic development. To a will based system, time is of the essence. A trainee cannot spend 10 years to become fully competent when they are going to war in a month. They must learn basic killing abilities quickly and competently. This emphasis may be dismissed as hasty and sloppy by traditional systems, yet will power training undeniably crafts soldiers of great capability in a short span of time, even if those same soldiers might remain impulsive, lazy, quarrelsome, sloppy, unrefined, and harmful outside their job. Will power arts develop good soldiers, not good people. Much like a good soldier, a practitioner of a will based art learns to accept their expendability while valuing aggression and physical strength above other 'softer' qualities.
This form of martial development could be conceptualized as dark in the sense that efficiently promoting death, rather than life, is the primary focus and natural outcome of will based arts. As such, scumbags are particularly advantaged in these arts and may become fanatics capable of great success in criminal enterprises. Those who can tolerate the destruction of others, such as sociopaths, can use a combination of anger and will power to accomplish most goals as long as they are able to evade capture and destruction at the hands of good people. Those good people who train in these arts do so under a certain duress, as their commitments to nonconfrontation, fairness, and discipline predispose them to labelling as pushovers, suckers, and softies. Those individuals prevail by holistically supplementing their awareness and skill outside the confines of the will power dojo through meditative and sporting activities designed to compensate for aggressive training which can only promise survival, even if such survival is nasty, brutish, and short as a result of the aggressive zero sum strategy taught therein.
The value of learning to use aggression to accomplish one's ends lies in a fuller understanding of why aggression should rarely be used. Civilization is a scheme for controlling aggression and sexuality to promote net growth for all citizens. Aggression is antithetical to this advancement and can only be opposed through the explicit valuation of peace. First, the martial artist must conquer aggression in themselves, then lead others by example. Dipping into the dark side of the martial arts can teach a warrior nuance in how they predict and control the actions of their enemies in addition to developing a truly fearsome physical and motivational presence.
Some martial philosophies go as far as enshrining will power as the single most important attribute to martial development. The argument proceeds as follows: With unstoppable will, a warrior will persevere unto death. However, this reductionism fails to acknowledge that only a warrior much harder to kill than their opponents can succeed through will alone, and only awareness and skill can increase their prowess in combat. Great will without awareness or skill becomes impotent rage in consequence. Nevertheless, some arts do place a great emphasis on force of will and have good reasons to do so.
Martial arts such as Krav Maga, Karate, Kenpo, and other arts emphasizing the warrior spirit place a great premium on will power and physical strength. This emphasis applies especially to situations where trainees are openly expected to fight to the death as an occupational requirement. Military combat, law enforcement, criminal activity, and contract work all require strong force of will in order for one to prevail. In these situations, aggression dominates over all other qualities. One might be sloppy and stupid, yet possess enough physical strength and raw anger that they are able to overpower and kill opponents of superior awareness and skill. An example might be the barbarian northern warrior who brutally slaughters hundreds of well armed and trained Roman enemies despite a complete lack of refinement or foresight. As such, will power arts do not care much for philosophical, personal, or artistic development as worthwhile endeavors. They are more likely to develop practically useful skills for immediate victory in place of less applicable pursuits designed for holistic development. To a will based system, time is of the essence. A trainee cannot spend 10 years to become fully competent when they are going to war in a month. They must learn basic killing abilities quickly and competently. This emphasis may be dismissed as hasty and sloppy by traditional systems, yet will power training undeniably crafts soldiers of great capability in a short span of time, even if those same soldiers might remain impulsive, lazy, quarrelsome, sloppy, unrefined, and harmful outside their job. Will power arts develop good soldiers, not good people. Much like a good soldier, a practitioner of a will based art learns to accept their expendability while valuing aggression and physical strength above other 'softer' qualities.
This form of martial development could be conceptualized as dark in the sense that efficiently promoting death, rather than life, is the primary focus and natural outcome of will based arts. As such, scumbags are particularly advantaged in these arts and may become fanatics capable of great success in criminal enterprises. Those who can tolerate the destruction of others, such as sociopaths, can use a combination of anger and will power to accomplish most goals as long as they are able to evade capture and destruction at the hands of good people. Those good people who train in these arts do so under a certain duress, as their commitments to nonconfrontation, fairness, and discipline predispose them to labelling as pushovers, suckers, and softies. Those individuals prevail by holistically supplementing their awareness and skill outside the confines of the will power dojo through meditative and sporting activities designed to compensate for aggressive training which can only promise survival, even if such survival is nasty, brutish, and short as a result of the aggressive zero sum strategy taught therein.
The value of learning to use aggression to accomplish one's ends lies in a fuller understanding of why aggression should rarely be used. Civilization is a scheme for controlling aggression and sexuality to promote net growth for all citizens. Aggression is antithetical to this advancement and can only be opposed through the explicit valuation of peace. First, the martial artist must conquer aggression in themselves, then lead others by example. Dipping into the dark side of the martial arts can teach a warrior nuance in how they predict and control the actions of their enemies in addition to developing a truly fearsome physical and motivational presence.
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