Direction of Attacks (Praxis and Pedagogy) (Patreon)

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The front, side, and back kicks are all the same technique aimed at different directions. When your target is in front of you, it's the front kick (teep); when the target is to the side of you, it's the side kick; when the target is behind you, it's the back kick. The names tell you where to orient the technique, which determines the delivery. What's always more important than "how do I do a technique" is, "Where is my opponent, and where are they open?"

The target and conditions determine the method. Rather than centering your attention on yourself and your techniques, orient to your opponent and their openings and allow those conditions to determine your response. What's more important than what you can do is what your opponent will let you do. Ideally, a technique is a response to your opponent rather than your thoughts.

Centering yourself and your techniques assumes your opponent will not only let you do any technique but will actively throw themselves at your strikes. This has less sense of realism than pro wrestling.

To absorb these concepts and move to the next movement task requires radical open-mindedness and perspective. Rather than an internal focus of attention (which is the default under Western hegemony and colonialism), you need an external focus of attention. Rather than thinking of movements as a list of techniques to store and recall (Western colonial pedagogy), we are embodying and personalizing universal concepts (LMA pedagogy). Rather than dehumanized mechanics, we are seeking to be fully realized humans.

With all this in mind, the next movement game is about imagining an opponent circling you toward your back. Your front would be your front body, and your back would be your back body. This means if you are in L-stance, your opponent is circling to your left. If you are in J-stance, they are circling to your right.

When they are before you, front kick. As they move to the side of you, side kick. As they move behind you, back kick. After the back kick, face your opponent. You'll find yourself in a new stance. Now, your opponent is circling in the other direction. Front kick, side kick, back kick.

Watching your opponent comes first, then you move accordingly, then kick accordingly. Watch, move, watch, move. You're constantly watching, reorienting, then adapting.

In the video, follow my gaze. You can tell where I am looking by the direction of my hat and mask. I also make use of my peripheral vision and deduction. Part of perception is knowing where my opponent will be. After the side kick, when my opponent keeps moving in the same direction, I will lose sight of them. That means they are behind me. I look over my other shoulder to see my target as I deliver the back kick.

That's how people "walk onto" your strikes. You're delivering offense already knowing where they'll be as they move into position. You're not responding after they move but as they move.

Though you want your opponent in front of you, a good mover can get to the side of you or behind you. You don't need to reinvent the wheel; project your linear kick in the direction of your opponent. Rather than seeking a technique divorced from opportunity, see techniques as responses to opportunities. Strikes coming from your side and back are especially opportunistic. (Rather than turning to your side or back, deliver these techniques on those occasions when your opponent gets to your side or back.) If you seek to put yourself in a position to deliver a technique, you'll give yourself away. If you deliver the appropriate response based on your opponent's position, they won't see it coming. (Giving yourself away can make sense in the case of feints.)

To expand on this further, when you seek a technique, you're moving incongruently to your opponent, creating an incongruent shape, which is easy to see. A trained eye will detect that this does not fit. (Square peg in a round hole.) When you move according to your opponent's position, you're moving congruently, creating a congruent shape, which is hard to see. Even a trained eye will have difficulty detecting because this fits. (No alarm bells for a round peg in a round hole.)

This one movement game with the task of following your opponent and delivering attacks based on their location is critical for everything we do going forward because it requires so much from you. This elegant game will improve everything because it is both simple and incredibly complex. Easy to understand, easy to do, incredibly challenging. All games and adaptive movement skills should be elegant.

Importantly, if you have access to a partner, have them circle you, and you can kick in their direction without making contact or have them hold a pad.

– Sam