Misfits

‘No technique’ and ‘this is all based upon principles’ are two catch phrases in the martial arts that always make me laugh.  Even though they came at it from different angles, Bruce Lee and Alexei Kadochnikov’s concepts of using principles to address martial art, instead of rote technique are mind blowing.

Ground breaking.

And completely lost on pretty much everyone.  As usual people are teaching JKD and it’s simply every technique they can find, taught as techniques, using the Bruce Lee name as a means to leverage for cash.  And people are teaching Kadochnikov’s system as simply a lot of techniques with really confusing explanations, forgetting his theory that science is universal and, as I used to say in K-Sys, should be the thread that binds the sleeve to the shirt.  Two separate parts – but seamless in connection.

So, when I teach – I do my best to stay true to the ideals of two very great men.

Learning martial art is very similar to learning a new language.  The people who learned the quickest are those that are immersed into the language through physical location or training method.  The people who learn slower are those who are drawing associations between what their native language and the new language.  This is because they are in reality having to work their mind on overload, processing, instead of absorbing.

There is no chair – there is a piece of mass that performs a function, and some languages call it ____ and some languages call it _____.  The fast it is functional mass called ______, and not _____ in your language, the faster you will learn.

People say that you have to begin with techniques if you want to get at martial art – you learn a lot of techniques, and then you start flowing and they will magically reproduce themselves in combat.

That’s how martial art has been taught for millennia – but not Pramek.  The problem with this learning process is you draw associations, and you are on overload.  You have to process the incoming attack, and then decide which muscle memory technique to use. If you are lucky – you have studied an art where you have only one very effective defense that your muscle memory simply reproduces.  If you are not so lucky, someone has taught you 15 different ways to address the incoming attack and you have to decide between those before you ever move.

Example – a strike and the wedge.

The wedge works whether it’s a right jab or a left cross.  It works because it is a physics principle about cutting force.  You used it every day to hold a door open – to cut wood.  So, if you trust it to do these functions, you can trust it to cut the force of an incoming strike.  Not deflect it – cut it, open it, giving you space to close distance or get away.

But, look at how many people say ‘Oh, that looks like ____ from _____.’  And, ‘That’s _____ from ____ right?’  The problem is, if I throw a strike at them, they have to decide how to use _____ from ____ on a right hook or left cross, which arm, is he throwing at my left or right, what will he do?

I simply cut their force with the wedge.

There is no muscle memory confusion – I simply apply physics through my movement.

Theory + Movement = Application.

I teach without technique names.  I give the Theory, a Movement example, and then the student decides the application – how will they apply that physics.  It’s why others are teaching the 6 machines of mechanical efficiency as techniques and confusing the heck out of their students….and I have people who have been in the martial art world 30+ years saying I’m changing their work totally – because I’m not teaching them techniques, I’m giving them access to the physics principles they trust everyday, and simply asking them to use it within their martial art to make it better.

I think Bruce Lee would recognize what I’m doing – and I know Alexei does.

I hear people lately making back handed comments about me, about ‘be weary of new fighting systems‘ and be careful of ‘martial art revolutionaries‘. This makes me laugh when I look at the videos from 2008 and see I’m so different today – and they look the exact same and teach the exact same as they did in 2008. Is Pramek a new fighting system – I don’t know. Because people has been talking about having no techniques, but they sure do have a lot of them….if doing whatever you can to actually do what you say you are going to do without thought to bilking people for cash is radical and new, I’m guilty of being a misfit, maybe I am revolutionary? Who knows. Who cares.

And I’m ok with being a misfit – they are a great band and besides…the native Chinese couldn’t stand Bruce Lee and now thank God he lived because he changed lives, and most Russians thought Alexei was crazy until he changed the martial art world with a long enough lever.

I hope Pramek does a combination of the same…