I used to describe the way I learned Uechi-Ryu as ‘Tai Chi with rolling and sparring’ or rather ‘internal martial arts with aliveness’ or other such desccriptions.
But I’ve come to realize using ‘internal martial arts with resistence’ is a pretty bad description. Not because it’s entirely inaccurate, as Tai Chi is hugely influential in how Rick taught me karate, and Uechi-Ryu itself is called a ‘half-hard/half-soft’ style.
The problem is, internal martial arts is only accurate to describe having a bacckground in something like Aikido, Tai Chi, Pa Kua and Hsing i, but it does not actually describe what about these arts sets it apart from every other style on earth.
When you ask people who do internal martial arts what makes them different from say…Okinawan karate or Hung Gar, boxing or some such styles, they will say they are loose and use their whole body for power while other styles are tight and use muscle. They will say they redirect or flow with force instead of meeting it half way. They will say their styles are circular while others are linear.
The problem is, all of the things that make internal arts unique are often found in so called external arts. Brazillian Jui jitsu is hardly ever called an internal martial art, yet BJJ is so loose, so indirect in meeting force, so obsessed with never using strength that it has even been attacked by other grapplers for those traits, yet no one would call it an internal style.
Okinawan Karate, even a system like Goju-Ryu with dynamic tension, will often have the best guys in Okinawa using loose power punching, generating power from the ground, flanking and circular movement. Depending on the teacher, it isn’t even a black belt thing.
Many people have commented that Jack Dempsey’s book “Championship Boxing” reads like a Hsing I manuel. Are we now going to call boxing an internal martial art?
I think you all see what my point is. However…there is something about the way people do ‘internal’ arts and other arts done in the same manner. Something different from what is typically seen in low level martial artists or the common gym or school.
This is where I think Rickson Gracie has properly coined what arts like Tai Chi do that other arts don’t. It’s not that Tai chi or Pa Kua are circular, relaxed and generate power from the ground uniquely. It’s rather how subtle it all is. How high level Muay Thai or karate looks the same as an athletic or talented guy doing it for only a year. Yet somehow the ‘masters’ or veteran coaches of the styles can do it all better or with less effort than the inexperienced athletic types.
Rickson Gracie has something he calls ‘invisible jui jitsu’
An example of this would be bridge and roll in Jui jitsu. It’s the first and easiest escape to learn when someone has you in a mounted position. And becacuse it so easy, it’s also something people quickly learn how to shut down when they are on top of you. If anything, ‘elbow knee’ or ‘hip escapes’ are much more reliable. Bridging becomes more of a setup fo the other escapes.
And yet Rickson will have videos where he will literally tell guys mounting him, “I am goign to do Upa/Bridge and roll. Try and stop me” and then he will bridge, with little setup, and reverse position. You will see him do this again and again to people.
Rickson’s instructionals don’t teach new techniques or big athletic movements. He will describe changing how one moves, so subtle that you can’t even see some of it. It’s something to be felt, hence the term invisible Jui Jitsu.
And different ways to move, without learning new technique that is difficult to see with the eye is NOT unique to Jui jitsu. It’s seen across martial arts. Jui jitsu is the only one that actually named it.
Taira Musaji is probably my favriote karate guy I never met. He first came to my attention when my Sensei Rick showed me a video of him with some other martial artists hitting a palm tree. One of them was a big strapping man, using big blows to shake the tree. But Taira would hit it from small distances and shake the whole thing.
There are videos of him throwing punches. Others cannot land them. But he will. Why?
The answer is subtle things he is doing.
Now in Chinese martial arts they seem to see subtle as you barely move to win. There is some truth to this, as movement must become effecient. But in a real fight, you probably have to throw someone on the floor or punch them in the head, and it’s going to be very diret and obvious.
But….what is making that punch or throw work is not as direct as the result.
High level Muay Thai and boxing is full of this.
Lerdzilla or Mohammad Ali have very direct tactices, which is literally just moving out of the way of a strike. But what people fail to realize is that what they are doing isn’t just good reflexes, for Lerdzilla in particular isn’t a young man anymore, and while he does not have a perfect record, it’s incredible for him to basically look like Neo from the matrix as people throw punches and kicks. Remember, as people age, reflexes and ‘speed’ are the first things to go.
But Lerdzilla keeps looking like he’s a hero from the Matrix when he fights. Maybe not as much as when he was younger, but still damn impressive. And that largely is because he’s not relying purely on good reflexes for his evasion, he’s gotten so good at reading and flowing with his body that he’s essentially reading ahead of time. I was taught in the IUPA drills very similar on how to read, Anderson Silva talks about doing the same, he would have people throw punches slowly at him at first so he could read them. Then slowly upping the speed and adding counters.
Let’s look at Mike Tyson once again for the hundredth time since the blog started. As an old man he looks smoother, more explosive and powerful than many younger professional boxers, even guys that once beat him like Holifield, who seems to be a shadow of himself.
It’s not just Peek-A-Boo style, I’ve seen other people imitate Tyson and what he does. What they do is they do the footwork, they move their head side to side…yet so few explode like he did, like he still can do in his fifties.
And frankly, it comes back to ‘invisible’ things he is doing.
I remember an audio clip of Mike Tyson talking about how Cus D Amato studied Karate movement to help teach Mike how to explode better. Obviously Tyson is naturally athletic and explosive, a freak of nature. But Tyson himself says that much of it was things Cus picked up that he had Tyson drill again and again, especailly how to spring and explode off the feet.
Now I lost this audio clip, but you don’t have to take my word for it, for even if I am wrong, the mechanics Tyson is using are the same.
The human body can only move in certain ways, there are only so many unique methods to do the same things. At some point people will discover the same methods for movement.
Either way, whether Karate influenced or not, Tyson is doing something subtle to be able to explode as he does even at such a ripe age, to do something others could not.
EDIT: Never mind I found the sound clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPGJQ_YCnc
And then there is Judo. And I don’t think there is anyone else more worthy to embody invisible Judo than Mifune.
There are clips of him just tossing men twice his size. Many people think the men are fully resisteing, other people don’t think the men were resisting much at all.
Eitherway, when Mifune was young, he would clear out entire bar rooms throwing people around. He was often sent out to fight bigger opponents to demonstrate judo, and he would embarass them.
Now some of the ways he does this very obvious, lots of sacrifice throws. When the bigger men try to swing him around, he would jump and float, often right into another sacrifice throw, using the principle of Empty-Space Rick Wilson wrote in his book.
Thing is, Mifune has lots of imitators, yet none of them could do what he could. It wasn’t just his timing, but very much his mastery of the mechanics and base of judo. Posture, alignment, movement and sensitivity.
Yet would you ever hear a Pa Kua guy call judo an internal style?
Who cares. I would rather say what Mifune did was a lot of subtle stuff. Especially if you take into account the way he snuck in hooks and attachments, often from awkward angles to pull off throws and sweeps.
Anyway I don’t like to use the terms external or internal martial arts. I like the terms ‘visible’ mechanics and invisible mechanics. Visible techniques and invisible techniques.
What's the deal with Adeel? 