Taxi Driver: The Karate Stance Scene

I happened to watch the classic 1976 movie "Taxi Driver" again last night; I remember seeing the movie in the theater when it came out.
All star cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle and Jody Foster, masterfully directed by Martin Scorsese.

Among the dark themes was this one scene I had forgotten about; De Niro as Travis is stalking Cybill Shepherd into the political campaign headquarters she works at. As a co-worker attempts to kick De Niro out, he drops into a classic Shotokan-style Karate stance and freaks the co-worker out.

This reminded me of the influence that traditional martial arts had on cinema and the American psyche. Karate and Kung Fu were depicted as unstoppable in the era of the 1960's-70's. People realized that there was no fair fighting in those styles where you could loose an eye or suffer major breaks and dislocations. Not exactly your typical schoolyard fisticuffs.

In the summers during the '70's I was working cattle on ranches in Oregon. The older cowboys (some were pretty tough athletes) would talk about seeing fights in big urban cities. One was between a couple of hippies and a couple of Black Panthers. One of the Panthers popped a hippie's eye out with a hand strike. Another spear-hand strike went up the other guy's nostrils and split his nose in two.

Back then, you never really knew who was trained in these arts. They may have been crude but effective, and struck fear into the hearts of wanna-be tough guys.

Martial Metanoia

My old San Ti stance, pre-correction


Metanoia:

: a transformative change of heart; especially : a spiritual conversion.
Greek, from metanoiein to change one's mind, repent, from meta- + noein to think, from nous mind
First Known Use: 1577 (Merriam-Webster)

Every now-and-then we experience something in our training that shakes our core beliefs. This is a natural process, and we are smart to learn and grow from it.
Ever since I attended the Tim Cartmell seminar on MMA concepts adapted to street use, I've had to really re-think where my training is going and what I would like to change.
First of all, let me say that nothing in Tim's presentation was new to me. With the exception of Tim's subtle ways of using angles and leverage, I had seen most of the techniques in past programs. There was a lot that took me back to wrestling techniques, knee strikes, basic chokes and focus-pad boxing strikes. These were done with the open palm, which Tim recommends for any strike to the hard head surface of an opponent on the street.
All these things are techniques I have practiced, the technical rise - returning to your feet safely MMA-style was the only really new addition and I had practiced that with Jake Burroughs a couple of weeks before.
So why did this cause me so much consternation that I would seek reflection and change?

Let's use another couple of big words to answer that: Cognitive Dissonance

Definition of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
: psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously

Despite the fact that I've been in many, many real fights in the past - and know what that takes - I was falling into the traditional martial arts trap.
I was conflicted because I knew deep inside that half the stuff we teach in traditional martial arts will get the crap beat out of you on the street.
None-the-less, rosy-cheeked Tai Chi Chuan students begged to be taught two-person fighting sets, stuff that they thought would help them survive a home invasion or mugging at the ATM.
In teaching traditional arts, there is pattern, practice and method. Nearly all of us, especially if you have experienced multiple styles, see the building blocks that are supposed to stack together and eventually form an impenetrable castle.
So much of that is deeply flawed, yet we continue to teach it textbook fashion.
Tim's MMA for the street presentation was nothing new, but truthfully, a beginning student would get more out of that five hours than in five, maybe ten months of traditional training.

So here's my dilemma; traditional or practical?

I think I have a solution.
Our Monday-Wednesday club practice has always had sparring, self-defense and form work, all in a very non-structured way.
The grand experiment is with "The Barbarian Brothers". These guys are huge football player types that have an interest in MMA. They can easily pick my 200-pound ass up and toss me. But they know nothing about real technique. They come on Wednesdays from the mainland to practice with us and are very consistent. But when they first came, it was because another Tai Chi Chuan instructor brought them up to learn more advanced Tai Chi with us. We got stuck in the routine of introducing internal concepts to guys that have trouble with basic stances. Furthermore, they like to mix it up and follow MMA.
So we set another program for them. They come in and start with Tom, our boxing coach on basic western boxing drills. From there, Corey takes them for Small-Circle Jujitsu and related grappling and self-defense. But they still need the structure of form work so they can get familiar with their bodies, so I started them on the first of the short but effective Xingyi Five-Element Forms. They really need stance and root training.
This proved to be a well-rounded scenario, everybody participates and we get a great workout. I'm sure this program will grow and change with time and experience.

Now to the matter of My Thursday Tai Chi Chuan class.
This class is populated with a core group of people ten years older than me and the occasional young people. Seeking the balance is more difficult. Since these students all know the Yang Taiji form, I think I am going to dispense with it for a while. They need to work on basic defensive structure for when people push or grab them. They need to get out of the locked-in-your-stance immobile position and start doing some freestyle movement with a partner. Where is your defensive bubble? What angle do you choose? What gross motor skills are most effective in a simple confrontation?
Gone for now are the inner journey of internal adjustments. These oldsters will never really mix it up with anybody, they just need a little practical protection.

I'm sure other instructors have had to work through these issues, we'll see how it goes...

The Controversy Continues: Chris Dow Weighs In

Today's guest rant is from fellow Dojo Rat and author of "The Wellspring; An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Chi", Christopher Dow:

I can’t help but believe that this issue, raised most often by MMA advocates, is really a nonissue. MMA is, indeed, a sport—a viewpoint that most of its advocates would not dispute. To quote Wikipedia: “Originally promoted as a competition with the intention of finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors were pitted against one another with minimal rules. Later promoters adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport.”
So, by definition, MMAs as they now are practiced are more limited than TMAs. While some MMA practitioners may be hell on wheels in the ring, where techniques are restricted, many could not stand up against a highly trained traditional martial artist on the street, where anything goes, including bone breaks, joint dislocation, tendon tearing, cavity strikes, and other debilitating and deadly techniques that take only an instant—and often no apparent effort—to accomplish. I think of someone like Yang Jwing-ming, whose expertise in chin na (not to mention several other TMAs) is so extensive, accurate, and fast that to present him with an antagonistic limb in any form or at any speed and power is to know instant pain and defeat—not to mention a probable hospital stay.
But let’s get to the reality of the situation. Mixed martial artists—and those who practice some of the more brutal combat arts such as Krav Maga—train strictly to fight a human opponent, and therein lies their failing no matter how effective they may be in combat. The truth is, the vast majority of us will never get into a fight, or if we do, it will be a rare occurrence generally against an opponent who is not well trained. Think drunk, basic belligerent jerk, or brawler. Against these opponents, the automatic trained responses of the average-to-good martial artist are probably effective enough to quickly end or divert a fight as most aggressors are interested in intimidation, not in getting hurt.
But all of us, whether we train in martial arts or not, do battle daily with some of our worst enemies: depletion of energy, ageing, illness, aches and pains, lack of direction, lack of concentration, stubbornness, laziness, and other ailments and negative proclivities of the human condition. Against these enemies, MMAs can’t hold a candle to TMAs—particularly the internal martial arts. Anyone who doesn’t believe this should watch the movies Requiem for a Heavyweight or The Wrestler. Both are realistic portrayals of the toll that ring combat sports take on the human body and spirit. Or, if you need real-life examples, think of Muhammad Ali, whose Parkinson’s Disease was probably caused by too many blows to the head or Mickey Rourke, star of The Wrestler, disfigured and also the recipient of too many head strikes, forcing him to retire from the ring and return to acting (thank goodness!). Then afterward, watch any YouTube video of traditional martial arts masters in their seventies and eighties who move as if they are decades younger than their calendar ages. To put it another way, the “broken-down pug” is a well-known stereotype for a reason, but how may of us have an image of the “broken-down karateka,” or, even more ludicrous, “the broken-down tai chi chuanist?”
If you’re going into the ring against an opponent, go ahead and practice MMA. Even Ali could barely stand up—literally—to mixed martial artist Antonio Inoke in 1976. The bout was called after fifteen rounds because Ali’s legs were bleeding from the kicks Inoke administered, and later, his legs became infected and developed blood clots. But if your principal enemy is the toll that life takes in many and various ways, TMAs are for you. The fact that they most definitely train you to defend yourself should the rare occasion arise is icing on the cake.

Traditional MA / Mixed MA, And The Three Dantiens

Yesterday in last post's comment section, reader Aric and I opened up the Traditional Martial Arts / Mixed Martial Arts can of worms again.
I am the first to say that practical sports like Western Boxing and Wrestling are perhaps the fastest path to fighting skills. But without the underpinning of philosophy and perhaps some form of meditative spirituality, Boxing, Wrestling and MMA are fight-sport, not Martial Arts. Just my opinion.

Where do the Dantien's fit in?

Let me see if this comparison works:
My Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman was explaining the Three Dantiens to us. In my own words, the lower Dantien is near our navel, where we were connected to our Mother by the umbilical cord. It is where our sexuality stirs, and it is our physical center. The lower Dantien provides a sense of self.

The middle Dantien is in the chest, near the heart.
It is where we find our sense of love and responsibility to community, and is a higher level when concentrating on meditation and contemplation.

The upper Dantien is the "Third Eye", above the eyes in the forehead. It is associated with the Pineal Gland and is the highest level Dantien to open and meditate through. It is associated with psychic energy, extreme spiritual experience and all that is metaphysical.
This is the Dantien that is also opened up with drugs such as LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Peyote, etc. The problem is, some people who experiment with psychedelic drugs have no grounding in their sense of self or sense of community, found in the lower Dantiens. They have taken a short-cut on the long journey, but their vehicle has hit a bad stretch of road and trouble occurs. They have a Bad Trip...
So for young people, especially those that have no sense of self or sense of community, MMA is a similar short-cut. They may be given dangerous fighting skills, but in the wrong hands this can be socially and legally risky. Traditionally, Martial Arts Masters withheld the most dangerous techniques for only advanced and trusted students. Of course, this was in the era of the firearm, where Martial Arts stopped being a profession and moved into society as cultural expression and personal self defense. It was also at that time when philosophy and spirituality (something the typical soldier didn't need) was meshed with the fighting skills.
It's OK to take things one-step-at-a-time. We don't have to take the short-cut and risk a bad trip.