“Under everything is the land” may sound like the slogan of a professional real estate organization but it is also the truth of martial practice. Thousands 0f years ago it was pointed out by one of the first major military writers, Sun Zi: “The natural formation of the country is the soldier’s best ally…”Burmese Tiger style is an ancient form of fighting with a fierce and respected technique. It is also a style where two opponents might voluntarily drop to all fours (or in this case, all eights) before even the first strike or kick is thrown. The hilly country of Burma is a nation of randomly raining skies. There is little point in trying to carry a standing contest to a sloped, rainy and wet grassland. The tiger stylists know this and act accordingly.
A long time friend of mine is also a life long student of Judo. The same is true of his father who was also a carnie “hooker” or wrestler. Years ago, when the vogue was huge, he wanted to show his dad the Taekwondo of a local school. After seeing the display of kicks and spins he leaned over and said, “I’d like to see how he fought on a hill.”
Terrain means many things. It’s not just the fact of the underlying soil or pavement. It’s also the condition of the surfaces, the locations of the area, the openness or tightness, the associated weather, the height and the access.
It is good for your training to challenge your sense of terrain. If you always perform your set in a studio, go out in a nearby field and practice. It’s important in martial training to internalize directions, to be able to strike out on YOUR north, to the angles created by your own body’s specific moment and placement.
Traditional students practiced blindfolded, performed their exercises on sloping hills, balanced on poles, sparred while standing on rocks in a stream. Even little things make a difference. Sometimes I click off the studio lights mid-way through a formal sequence. The odd thing is that after about three minutes of low light the students prefer it to the flickering fluorescents.
Terrain is where nature intersects ambition. As the sages said, “Our heads are round because they belong to Heaven (yang.) Our feet are square because they belong to Earth (yin.)” Perhaps this is why, even when we know better, we still call it the “four corners” of the earth. Right on that cusp, between Heaven and Earth, is where humans must live. It can be brought to our advantage or disadvantage but it can never be ignored.
I’m reminded of an unfortunate incident from years ago. We had a local tournament at a place called the Coconut Grove, an old ballroom above the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The tournament was in the big room used for beauty contests and such. After the tournament, it was scheduled to serve a dinner so the buffet was being set up in a corner away from the fighting and forming schools. My top student at the time—one that went on to become a really fine fighter and Shaolin powerhouse—was entering his first tournament. I had encouraged him to give it a try. He was starting with a hand set then later to demonstrate the Shaolin saber. As they were just plotting the rings, a waiter with a huge serving tray walked through; after that everything was cordoned off. My student went up about fourth, after a number of definitely less refined performances. He began Shaolin #6 with a huge stomp then started the set in a flurry, a very short flurry because about three moves in he slipped on a piece of lettuce, almost microscopic, dropped by one of those tray-totting waiters. He took a tumble yet actually had the wherewithal to roll out of it. But his spirit was cracked and it even showed later when he performed the saber.
The Tao Te Ching says, “Nature is not kind.” The hard knocks of terrain can recall this to mind with painful clarity.
Terrain training can and should be brought into your area of practice. For instance, when was the last time your practiced Tai Chi on the beach, in the sand. Or practice your Shaolin or Bagua on an uneven surface. It gives another dimension to the form. The famous Mei Hua Plum Blossom poles are of course an advanced terrain practice that, unlike the olds days, does not require being performed six feet off the ground. Some bricks will do. And it’s not all just physical. When you have an opportunity to practice in nature, try changing your frame of reference. Don’t concentrate your intent as though you were in a studio; focus on that hill on the horizon and the crag in the opposite direction. Expand your focus. Once terrain becomes a living, changing character in your practice, the possibilities are endless.
All photos by Debbie Shayne.
This is wisdom. I’ve forgotten this epiphany over the years and all of what you wrote rings true. Terrain means so much in combat. All I can say is, this is a great piece of writing we should all
remember, because you never know the circumstances of a situation.
And Kudos to Debbie for the Beautiful pictures, you are truly a professional!
On occasional weekend-long surfing trips I’d never miss the opportunity to train at the beach for three reasons:
1. “One day trained is one day earned, one day missed is three days lost”. Skipping training feels… weird, like not bathing or brushing your teeth the whole day.
2. Clean air is very rare in the city (I live in Manila).
3. It’s not very often that I get to train on sand.
So I wake up early and head over to the beach, sometimes to the dry part where the sand is very soft, other times to the part near the water where the beach slopes down sharply on crumbly wet sand, and sometimes knee-deep in the ocean itself while being pushed by the waves…
…then I practice Baguazhang (Cheng style).
It’s always an interesting experience.
HI TED & DEBBIE, I HAVE PRACTICED OUTSIDE FOR MOST OF MY TRAINING LIFE IN MOST TYPES OF WEATHER OTHER THAN MONSOON AND HURRICANE. MY GROUP ALSO TRAINS IN STREET CLOTHES. ONE WINTER MY TEACHER WAS VISITING FROM CHINA AND THERE WAS TWO FEET OF SNOW ON THE GROUND.OUR WARMUP WAS CLEARING AN AREA LARGE ENOUGH FOR OUR GROUP OF TEN TO PRACTICE.THE GROUND WAS UNEVEN WITH LUMPS OF ICE AND MUDDY AREAS. MOST OF THE CLASS WAS DEDICATED TO BEING ABLE TO NAVIGATE SUCH TERRAIN AND MAINTAIN STABILITY AND MOBILITY. MY TEACHER ALSO SHOWED US HOW TO USE USE SUCH SITUATIONS TO OUR ADVANTAGE DURING ASSAULT. VALUABLE TRAINING FOR REAL LIFE SITUATIONS.
REGARDS, PETER.
This is why when people criticize another style as “having no proper stances” or they did a certain stance wrong, they don’t reflect on the statement they made. For example, many will judge a riding horse stance when in fact, the stance is an “Ape” stance which is different.
My Northern Style teacher once told me, his stance had the knees inwards cause when you ride a horse fast, your knees go inwards to grip the torso of the horse and you lean a bit forward whereas in the Southern styles, the rider is not riding the horse fast, so you sit up straight and your knees do not pinch inwards. Yes, situations and environment need to be thought about. And when you get into some other systems like Hakka styles or Indonesian Harimau…whew!
Great Article!
I don’t know why Taekwondo gets such a hard time. Maybe because it’s so young, or maybe because it emphasizes kicking techniques, including jump and spin (and jump spin) kicks, it can be seen as flashy and of little substance. Having studied it for over three years now (which hasn’t been easy considering my age), I can tell you how I would do on a hillside – I’d try to occupy the high ground, adapt to my surroundings, and use those techniques that can work in that situation. Last year I went to a tournament where the floor was as slippery as ice. It was difficult to complete a form on that floor without falling, and sparring was a nightmare, yet only one person out of hundreds actually fell and hurt himself.
Taekwondo is a martial art, and it teaches flexibility of mind as well as body. Another thing my instructor teaches is respect and appreciation for all martial arts and martial artists. We’re all on the same journey, just different paths.
Jeff, Nice post. My friends in the Korean Arts tell me, originally, those kicks were used to knock riders off their horses(horses were smaller and lower to ground maybe)and that the Chinese in the North actually got the high kicks from Korean sources(how true, don’t know).
Forgot to mention, that there is a Chinese style, again, in the north, that looks like a person skating and I don’t know what it looks like cause I have never seen it, but I would assume, it was made for ice like surfaces where you may slip and fall.
Additionally, my Korean sources tell me that in the old Korean style, infants are carried in the front with legs wrapped around torso of parent which may have naturally been a way to train legs should the person grow up to do kicking styles, which makes it harder for people starting off later in life(other systems like this too where culture affects the art physically).
Youtube will have sources where people now record unusual styles and I’m amazed at times on systems I never heard of including unusual routines. Good luck on the journey. =)
Patrick, I know my legs were never made for those kicks:) I started off very late in life – 42 years old. Luckily, the forms I’ve learned so far don’t require outrageous kicks. The most advanced first degree form has a jump sidekick – that’s about as fancy as it gets until second degree. The 540 jump spins are mostly for demonstration, and for weeding out unworthy souls like myself.
Training in all sorts of strange terrain is quite interesting. Aside from doing Baguazhang while being buffeted by ocean waves, practicing Xingyichuan and Baguazhang on a mountaintop (Mt. Gulugud-Baboy, 525 MASL)during a storm is quite fun. You’ll find ways to adapt to the circumstances, and although you cannot use the techniques as they originally are, you will find ways to improvise while still retaining some of the principles.
For a combat perspective, better just kick/push/throw/send an attacker off the mountainside instead of trying to execute a perfect Beng Chuan on a slope.
Oh, and by the way, martial arts training helps in mountaineering. Balance, footwork, and proper weight shifting will let you make use of a lot of footholds, no matter how small or slippery. Buddhist breathing will keep your stamina up a lot longer. Finally, when your tent is being buffeted by a signal #2 storm and you can’t sleep because the inside is flooded, sitting meditation (makeshift Qigong) will let you rest enough as a substitute for sleeping.