Float (Patreon)

• If you’re new to LMA, start with our table of contents

Swimming is a universal metaphor for movement. The challenge of learning to swim isn't about memorizing the mechanics of arm and leg movements; it's about the ability to relax enough to float. The difficulty lies not in isolated movements but in attuning yourself to the water—to the environment. It's about ease.

Imagine isolating and drilling the mechanics of swimming outside the pool. That's our current Western paradigm for teaching movement practices, sometimes even swimming. However, none of that transfers over to the pool. Whenever you enter a dynamic, fluid environment, isolated mechanics fall short. Liberation Martial Arts (LMA) rejects this colonial and mechanistic approach to learning. The essence of swimming is not the isolated mechanics but floating. Isolating means isolating the movement from the practice environment—swimming without water. It's not about drilling mechanics into your head outside of the pool but the number of hours your body spends immersed in the pool. Likewise, in LMA, the essence of movement is ease—relaxing into the conditions and environment where learning happens.

If you are not comfortable in the water, without a sense of ease, you cannot learn. If you are tense or startled, you cannot float—you cannot learn. You must first situate yourself in a context to learn where learning itself occurs in context.

You don't "teach" floating; you foster it. Likewise, real learning is fostered, not formally instructed. LMA doesn't rely on instructors but instead on training organizers who set the conditions for learning. Comfort comes from dwelling in your practice space, allowing yourself to be at ease. This principle of dwelling is central to LMA's pedagogy: your training space is not separate from you, but part of you. You do not merely occupy it—you co-create it with your body and actions​​.

Once you can relax, once you can float, the mechanics flow naturally. Everything starts and stops with ease. Learning movement is easy once you are at ease. This is why the Learning Lab can develop competent kickboxers in a matter of days. When you are at ease, you can dodge a punch without ever being taught how. An "untrained" person at ease is more likely to avoid a punch than a trained person who is startled. Developing ease is more essential than "training."

Teaching mechanics doesn't teach you to perceive the opportunities for those mechanics. In fact, "mechanics" reduces human learners to machines. Western pedagogy for movement is teacher-centered or mechanics-centered rather than human-centered and student-centered. Humans are not machines; we learn by perceiving and responding to our environment​​. When you are at ease, you can perceive opportunities for movement without formal instruction on specific mechanics. Tension and the startle response pull you out of the learning context and opportunity. Mechanical learning only increases that tension, disconnecting you from the present moment of opportunities and trapping you in the past where you rush to recall the "right" answer.

When you're at ease, you can float. When you float, you can find your Way within the environment. Just as swimming is ultimately about floating, LMA is ultimately about ease. The LMA approach can improve any movement practice because better movement comes from developing ease within the self and within the environment.

LMA also applies to the world because you cannot survive if you cannot float. You cannot fight if you cannot float. If you can float, you have the opportunity for more opportunities. If you are at ease, you can better see your opportunities.

People often jump to mechanics because they're rushing for solutions before fully perceiving the problem. They rush because they are tense and startled. Hypervigilance and "perfect" practice lead you to do the wrong thing perfectly. Ease allows you to perceive clearly. Once you can perceive, you can find solutions. Whether in your movement practice, your day-to-day life, or your political life, once you can apply LMA to one thing, you can apply it to all things.

Application to Curriculum

The Liberation Martial Arts (LMA) curriculum is currently divided into five main sections. I say "currently" because LMA's pedagogy is continuously emerging—nothing is set in stone and never will be. Flexibility is inherent in the LMA approach, just as it is in all natural processes of growth and learning. However, it's important to remember that the written word cannot fully capture this fluidity. These units are written in a specific time and context, and things change as we continue to grow and adapt.

The five main sections:

• 1. Seed (introduction)

• 2. Plant

• 3. Water

• 4. Nurture

• 5. Growth

While the curriculum can be followed as a linear progression, it doesn't have to be. LMA is built on interconnected principles, making the curriculum circular. Wherever you begin, it's all related and connected. You don't need to move in a straight line through these sections, and you don't need to read or do everything at once.

1. Seed (introduction)

This section introduces the LMA approach. The more you understand the "why" behind the approach, the more you'll be at ease with the approach. When you demystify the approach, you remove tension and resistance, allowing learners to settle into the learning process. If everything is unexpected and mysterious, it will trigger the startle response.

If you are applying the LMA approach, it is important to inform the practitioners and explain the concepts behind the games and activities. The goal is to center the learner and the LMA approach—not the instructor. Instead of asking for blind trust or positioning yourself as the authority, present LMA concepts clearly and allow practitioners to engage with them on their terms. An instructor instructs, whereas the LMA training organizer (or facilitator) presents the approach and tailors it to the learner, fostering a learning environment where participants feel in control of their progress.

In practice

Read as much as you need to build comfort with the LMA pedagogy. When you get uncomfortable or confused, read some more.

2. Plant

This is where you ground yourself through self-regulation practices, preparing for Growth. Before you can grow, you must be rooted—physically and mentally. Self-regulation builds the foundation for movement by cultivating ease and removing tension. Practitioners connect with themselves and their environment, ensuring they are balanced and ready.

In practice

Start each session with self-regulation. Allow individuals to determine the order and the practices to emphasize, fostering autonomy. This can be done individually or collectively.

3. Water

Watering your movements reinforces ease and promotes flow as action. This section emphasizes how to integrate movement into the body in a way that feels natural and harmonious. Just as water hydrates the roots of a plant and its environment, this stage hydrates your movement practice and your fluidity within the environment. You'll find that ease leads to greater efficiency and adaptability in your physical expressions.

In practice

Water your movements before spirited activities. This can be done independently or with partners. Movements can be based on individual needs or complement the Growth activities to come. This is also an introduction to no-touch play.

4. Nurture

In this stage, you nurture your movements and remove any obstacles to ease. Nurturing your movements involves releasing tension, breaking away from repetitive patterns, and diversifying your movement repertoire. This is a highly individualized process—what nurtures one person's movement may not be the same for another. Nurturing involves exploring possibilities and freeing yourself from the rigidity imposed by Western models of physical "education." It's not about diagnosing problems or perfecting movements; it's about playfully expanding your range of motion and breaking up movement monotony. The nurturing process allows healing to occur by inviting movement diversity into your practice.

In practice

The Nurture section is a library of diverse movements to heal practitioners from repetitive patterns. LMA training is somatic therapy, but especially nurture. Tailor nurturing movements to long-term or immediate class or individual needs, or to complement Growth.

Nurture can be skipped if movement obstacles aren't pressing, or be suggested to individuals as a daily practice. Learning Lab practitioners come early to their sessions to work on nurturing movements independently or perform them instead of other activities before participating in Growth. Practitioners self-determine what they need to promote ease. We shouldn't be rigid or prescriptive about the activities because the ultimate aim is ease, and rigid prescription promotes tension.

Nurture allows for the most self-direction and is meant to heal and diversify movement, not judge, diagnose, or drill idealized movements into practitioners. It is not physical literacy or physical education. We are not confining practitioners to new monotonous movements. Instead, it's about exploring new movement possibilities and broadening the landscape of how people move.

5. Growth

Through ease, executive control, and perception, we can flourish rapidly. Growth activities involve more dynamic movements and may include touch. These activities are games insofar as there are specific rules and conditions, but they are not about competition or winning. The primary goal is to foster ease and collaboration between participants. Growth games can be spirited, but practitioners must scale based on their partner's needs and abilities. Although Growth is the most enjoyable and familiar part of the curriculum, it is also the least essential. Our growth stems from ease. If ease is present, growth is easy, natural, and effortless.

In practice

These activities are collaborative and involve partners. Conditions can even be individualized. For example, one practitioner can play with different conditions than their partner.

Summary

LMA is an approach to human flourishing through ease, perception, and executive control. You don't have to read every unit, do every activity, or go in any order. You can explain these concepts in your own words, modify our activities, or create your own. By embracing self-direction, practitioners are encouraged to explore, self-regulate, and grow at their own pace. LMA is not about perfecting a system but discovering how to move through the world with ease, perception, and adaptability. When we strip away unnecessary tension and assumptions, we leave room for individualized flourishing and transformation.

– Sam