Alternating Teep Shadowplay (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Shadowplay is a solo learning game to work on footwork, distance, perception, imagination, and technique. This particular game is about alternating rear teeps into stance switches. We're also varying up targets from low to high—aiming for the knee, thigh, hip, lower abs, stomach, and solar plexus.

Notice my gaze. Unlike how you've been taught shadowboxing or solo drills, rather than internally focusing on my movements, all my attention is on my imaginary target. Even to an observer, it is apparent to see where my target is and how it is moving.

Typical shadowboxing is about your own movement, and that's what you notice when you watch. Here, the emphasis is on the target, and that's what you'll notice. The target's movement is logical and consistent.

For this game, I picture a giant floating ball. I find this to be easiest as you develop your shadowplay imagination. Always maintain social distance (which is the ideal range for combat). Follow the ball around. As it moves back, take up space. As it comes to you, move away from it. The teep either pushes the ball back or stops its motion. You can use it to stop its chase or to give chase. You can also move to draw the ball in or move to make the ball retreat. You react to the ball, and the ball reacts to you. Combat is bidirectional.

Maintain position zero. Your lead hands can swing, and your rear hands will switch, but make sure you always have a hand in front of your chin. Stay in stance, and don't cross your legs.

Be aware of your surroundings so you don't run into anything, nor allow the ball to pin you against a wall or an object. You can play this game in open space, but it works even better indoors because a confined space best simulates a combative space.

Fundamental motor skills developed fundamental movement skills, and now fundamental movement skills have to become adaptive movement skills. These are all skills, but you cannot be skilled unless you can adapt skills to your conditions. Skills exist in a vacuum. Being skilled gives skills life.

Shadowplay and other learning games turn your movement skills into adaptive skills. It takes someone who knows skills and makes them skilled.

For LMA participants, this may seem logical and sequential, but this really is a paradigm shift in training and learning pedagogy.

This is not about gamifying to make top-down instruction more interesting. Instead, this is about how we learn, autonomy, embodiment, empowerment, radical politics, self-knowledge, perception, imagination, joy, organizing martial arts for yourself, and liberatory training.

Different training methods can look similar, but coming from different frameworks and philosophies not only creates different outcomes but also different environments, priorities, intentions, beliefs, power dynamics, and structures. Looking similar does not mean being liberatory. Incidental vs. intentional.

For example, All Lives Matter can look similar to Black Lives Matter in that Black lives are a part of all lives, but the outcomes are very different because all lives are not as vulnerable as Black lives. You can play learning games but not make it the crux of your pedagogy (or not even have a pedagogy), not have it systematized, or not see it as being any more valuable than anything else, or not recognizing play as the primary way we learn but just something fun. Fun is how we've evolved to reward learning.

There is a lot to discover. So play.

– Sam