Three Sciences by Simon Keegan

The following is another of Sensei Simon Keegan's articles, which I've enjoyed. I'd like to thank him for allowing me to share it with you.



Sensei Simon Keegan



If I had to sum up my teaching approach I'd say "three sciences". They are the science of violence, the science of technique and the science of learning.

This is the Bushinkai Method.

The Science of Violence means studying and practicing for the most likely self defence scenarios. It means dealing with real attacks in real time, not live action roll playing and jumping about pretending to be Ninjas.

The Science of Technique means understanding the underlying principles of each technique. I can't guarantee what situation you'll find yourself in, but I can guarantee your techniques will be more efficient if you relax and use the waist (for example).

The Science of Learning means drilling so that your techniques become instinctive. These include kata, push hands and renzoku drills. If I show you a technique and you practice it once you may "know" the technique on an intellectual level but you won't be able to instinctively perform it when the brown stuff hits the fan.

When adrenaline arrives and it's "fight or flight" you won't have time to decide between a jumping spinning back kick and a reverse crescent moon kick. You will react. And you will react according to what you have practiced. Make no mistake you will react. Make sure you react well.

Finally I would add another aspect of the training. Why do we warmup and stretch? Well apart from the obvious safety benefits of a warmup, honing cardio and developing core muscles is critical to your ability to fight.

You will note that many of our exercises, such as situps, crunches and even pressups exercise the stomach muscles.

When we practice our Kihon or Kata we don't just do so as a cardio exercise or for self discipline, we are also training the brain, training balance, muscle memory and the little part of the brain that can be trained to think rationally under pressure.

In training we should also push ourselves to go that little bit further. Think you can only do 10 pressups? Then do 15. Think you can only kick to knee height? Then kick to thigh height. Outside, keep your techniques targeted to key areas of the body, but in the Dojo be harsh on yourself.

As they say, one drop of sweat will save a litre of blood. Another version of that saying is "cry in the Dojo, laugh on the battlefield."