Absorb What Is Useful (Push-Pull) (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum 

The quote, "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is essentially your own," which many claim birthed the idea of mixed martial arts, is not from Bruce Lee but Mao Zedong. (Lee was a notorious plagiarizer. But he did troll anticommunist racist chuds to unwittingly quote Mao.)

Mao surprisingly comes up often as recommended reading for martial arts, not just by self-identifying socialists but also by many Black and Brown martial arts elders.

Since Bruce Lee's primary thesis came from Mao, does that make Mao the real father of MMA? Hard to say, but he was definitely an unheralded contributor.

The premise of studying something old, keeping what is useful, discarding what is useless, and adding something new is an idea that's repeated throughout Mao's writings. Why? Dialectical materialism. Thesis + antithesis = synthesis. Mao applied dialectical materialism to learning, and Lee applied Mao's concept of learning to martial arts. Marx to Mao to Bruce Lee. (I should also add, Mao was a fan of Bruce Lee. Perhaps the feeling was mutual?)

For me, dialectical materialism is the most useful tool for martial arts analysis. Other political theories can be helpful in how to structure, unstructure, or orient your class. But in the actual study of martial arts theories and principles, there's no denying the value of dialectical materialism.

Why? Because ultimately, martial arts is pushing and pulling (yin-yang). That is its philosophical underpinning. Pushing, pulling, and the skill achieved through effort and practice (kung fu): thesis, anthesis, and synthesis.

Dialectical materialism analyzes the pushing and pulling of the universe. Its beauty is in how it can flow like water and be applied to everything. When applied to martial arts, it removes mystery and adds clarity.

As a martial artist, you're trying to gain mastery over opposing forces and make them your own. In their combination, you get something new. Yin (thesis) + yang (antithesis) = yin-yang (synthesis).

Regardless of your martial arts practice, what are you ultimately doing? You're creating space and taking up space. Push-pull.

You step into your opponent's space (push). You step back, and your opponent follows (pull). These principles are even clearer when you and your opponent try to off-balance each other.

"Ring psychology" is dialectical materialism applied to combat. It's what makes pro wrestling or a movie fight scene work. The performers are playing off of something we're already trained to expect from experience: actions cause reactions. If this, then that. If push, then pull. What makes a martial arts demonstration faker than pro wrestling? When you present a scenario where only one person is living, and everyone else is a zombie. That's just bad pro wrestling. Whether they like pro wrestling or not, a competent martial arts coach understands ring psychology, then plans accordingly.

What are you doing when training alone? When moving through your martial movements? Pushing, pulling, moving, retreating, existing, escaping. Whether alone or with a partner, you're taking up, giving up, existing in, and disappearing from space. How else can you hit your opponent with a shot they didn't see or get behind them for a choke? It's about occupying and disappearing from space. It's all push-pull and your synthesis between these truths.

Through a dialectical materialist approach, there is liberation in training because you can determine how you move, occupy, exist, and even withdraw from space. You are achieving martial arts.

Dialectical martial arts won't mean full autonomy within capitalist colonial patriarchal oppression, but it will give you knowledge and a finger of power. Fingers together make a powerful fist. A firm grip on knowledge makes a powerful punch.

Absorb what is useful: martial art is pushing and pulling. Discard what is useless: magical secrets hidden behind a mysterious gate. Add what is new: Liberation Martial Arts.

– Sam