What we did on Friday 7 September 2012
Wakai gumite
Review of Kata Channan
COMPROMISE FREESTYLE SPARRING
By my late friend Vivian Dhaliwal 2nd June
2000
The word compromise as defined
by Funk and Wagnalls' dictionary means.
"An adjustment or settlement by which each side makes concessions" or
"something lying between, or combining the qualities of two different
things".
Compromise
freestyle is about the creation of an environment in which two people can
experiment, learn and progress in every issue of their "freestyle";
their techniques, timing, distance and strategy. It has nothing to do with
speed or power it can be as fast or powerful as the two persons decide it to be
or as slow and passive as they like. The main criterion is the mind set of the
people involving themselves in this exercise.
How do I compromise freestyle with another
martial-arts person?
The first rule is
that in compromise you are both responding and providing stimulus to each
other. By this definition, how you provide that stimulus is important to the
receiver of that stimulus.
For example the
person receiving your stimulus whether it is
a "punch" or "kick" can and must respond to it accordingly.
Can they use a "technique" to effectively guard against your
"attack"?
Many other martial
arts utilize "drills" or
"patterns" with similar structures. However, Shinseido compromise
freestyle is the only concept that allows the continuation of flow in movement
to continue. The "patterns" are not ended after one or two responses, the stimulus is continuous and the response is
continuous.
Another main factor in this exercise is that neither partner shall be
the person providing the stimulus all the time neither should one person be
responding all the time.
The person
responding should not "over-respond" by blocking heavily down on a
passive kick, neither should he or she "under respond". The principle
to be attained here is that both people are creating a harmony, an environment
between them where a learning experience can
evolve to the mutual benefit of both parties.
To expand,
while practice should be carried out with
seriousness and sincerity, it should also be tempered to adjust to the level of
one’s partner. A new beginner may
practice using very low power in order to simply try to learn the movements of
a new technique. It wouldn't be
appropriate for a more experienced member to respond so effectively that the
beginner felt unable or afraid to execute the technique (at least not over and
over). Both partners should adjust their
attacks and defences to the point at which it is challenging for the partner at
whatever his or her level of skill is.
They should work to succeed but they must be allowed to succeed. The
only thing one learns from having one's technique stopped over and over is that
one's partner is more advanced than you are.
This will not make one's technique better. When one sees someone attacking a junior in
this manner it is not great power of technique one is witnessing, it is the power
of a great ego.
Since each partner will take turns as uke and tori,
it is important that this spiritual competition not be a matter of ego, one
person trying to prevail over the other. This is not a matter of winning and
losing; each person sincerely delivers his best attack with the intention that
it helps his partner to be better. He
hopes that when it is his turn to execute the technique that his partner will
return the favour by giving his best attack.
This all takes place with the recognition that since Shinseido is an art
in which much of the practice is done with a partner,
it is only through the growth of the partners that one's own growth can take place.
Show examples of "over-stimulus",
"over-response".
As you progress
through the learning stages of compromise freestyle you reach plateau's of
learning where the awkward movements become flowing and less "thought
about". However, this is the time where you must try to achieve a
"strategy" of your own stimulus to achieve a required response. A tactic whereby you have thought out like a
game of chess of movements that if you stimulate your partner in one way you
create an opening for you to achieve a result. This if looked at can be classed
as a compromise freestyle with a tendency for point scoring. The compromise is
less instinctive action and reaction but more planned and thought out. This
introduction of a higher level of compromise
freestyle does not loose out to the concept of competing with one another. The
minds that are creating the environment are
both learning from one another and have deep respect for each others bodies
that they are practicing upon. That is the crux of the matter. That they have
deep respect for that person's body. No ego or pride must be involved if a
point is scored or a defence is broken but merely that you have learnt a
lesson.
Through compromise freestyle then the more people you compromise with
the greater level of understanding you can achieve through their body language
and by that knowledge increase your level of understanding of your own body.
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