BASIC PRINCIPLES

Introduction | Fundamentals of Body Position | The Stance | Practice Tips | Balance

Introduction

Trezza-Ryu is a departure from tradition, similar in some ways to Jeet Kune Do. Some of its basic principles are:

• “Voidness” is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive – having no opposite, there is nothing that it excludes or opposes. It is a living void. The essence of combat comes out of it. To embrace it is to be filled with life and power. Voidness cannot be defined – the softest thing cannot be snapped.

• Move without moving at all. Be like the moon beneath the waves ceaselessly rolling and flowing. It is not, “I am doing this,” but rather an inner realization that “this is happening through me,” or “it is doing this for me.”

• Consciousness of, or focus on one’s self, is the greatest hindrance to success in any physical confrontation. The consciousness of the self is the greatest roadblock to proper execution.

• There is no “fixed” teaching. The situation dictates the rule. I provide the appropriate medicine for a specific ailment, not a single cure-all elixir. Otherwise the student will develop a preference, or a “favorite” technique, and try to apply, or force that technique at inappropriate times (particularly under extreme stress). That is a deadly error. To “see” a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see its essence, its own pristine simplicity. The art is simply to simplify.

• If nothing in you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Inner calm gives you insight into the core-nature of the enemy’s attack. Understand the core of his attack, and the rest is just details. Victory is won.

Moving, be like water – Still, be like a mirror.

• The focus of your attack is at the axis of the wheel, do not allow your energy to be dispersed in scattered activites on the periphery. Do not become a “technique-chaser.”

• Particularly under the stress of danger, it is difficult to see the situation simply and clearly – our minds are very complex. It is easy to teach the fighting skills of the kick and the punch, it is difficult to teach one to open the inner eye.

• You must avoid the superficial; penetrate the complex by going to the heart of the problem, while pinpointing the key factors. Do not beat around the bush! Do not take winding detours. Follow a straight line to the objective. “Simplicity” is the shortest distance between two points.

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Fundamentals of Body Position

Fundamental positioning is the foundation. It allows proper footwork. Good footwork is the foundation for good technique. Never overextend. Tae Kwon Do and other arts utilize wide stances that create a feeling of strength. This is an illusion. Wide stances require a shift in weight before initiating an attack, or any other movement. This shift creates a DELAY. They must go to a neutral “set” position in order to launch a kick or strike. That position is the target of your attack. That delay point is a moving point-in-time. Your attack should arrive at that delay point at the same time your enemy does. This also applies to many of those absurd stiff-front-leg-weight-to-the-rear stances seen in many styles of Kung-Fu.

Feet should be shoulder-width apart. A stance should be as natural as walking. Indeed, when you walk, you should be in the foundation of your on-guard position. Your stance opens up upon your attack. To attack from an already open stance is like trying to use a spring that is all stretched out and uncoiled. Compactness is key. You must be like a coiled spring ready to strike with explosive movement.

When in doubt, steps should be smaller, almost every martial artist extends his steps too far. Small quick soft steps provide greater control and balance, even when bridging the gap between you and the enemy. Smaller steps are also more difficult for the enemy to time.

The lead foot should be hampered as little as possible. Too much weight makes it more vulnerable to a kick, and makes it necessary to add an unnecessary movement to your technique. This delay also serves to “telegraph” your technique, warning your enemy of your attack or intent.

Always advance-step when the enemy is within you’re circle. Your circle is the circumference around your center point out to the furthest distance you can kick with 1 step from where you are. If you want to make up more distance, you can cross-step with a snapping hip motion. The hands do not move except to cross with a cross-step. Your lead hand stays right where it is, and you bring your body to it, so it becomes your inside hand. Essentially, you are moving to your front hand. Your elbow bends, but your front hand never moves. NEVER drop your hands when you move. When in a stance, hands can move slightly within a position to benefit from inertia.

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The Stance

The stance is a semi-crouch position, with weight distributed equally on both feet in a comfortably balanced position from which you can attack, defend, or counter WITHOUT PRELIMINARY MOVEMENT. It is a modified “L” stance, with the rear foot on a 45 degree angle forward, and the front foot straight ahead, but angled slightly to the inside, pointed at your opponent. Very slight pressure is placed towards the outside (knife-edge) of both feet. This enhances “springiness” and keeps the knees from leaning inward (a position of weakness).

The hands are relaxed and open, fingers together, lead hand on the same side as the lead foot. The lead hand is approximately chin height, the inside hand is slightly lower, in front of the chest plate. The lead hand blocks the enemy’s view of your inside hand. Fingers are relaxed, and neither spread out, or touching each other. The heals of the hands are SLIGHTLY forward, with the bone at the base of the knife-edge of each hand facing the enemy. Elbows are down, but not touching your sides. The inside hand is approximately 2”-3” forward from your chest plate, and the forward hand is approximately 2”-3” forward of and above your inside hand.

NEVER use an extended, or elongated lead arm / hand. This is a dangerous weakness, and a joy to see in your opponent. It is weak in terms of both attack and defense, because:

In attack:

• It is necessary to withdraw the arm to get to chamber (rather than being positioned as a coiled spring) creating an unnecessary and dangerous movement.
• The withdrawal movement telegraphs your technique
• The withdrawal movement adds time to the technique, reducing punching contact speed.

In defense:

• It uncovers and exposes the ribs and lead side of the body.
• The arm is in a “fixed” position. The enemy knows where it is, and what it must do before it can be used, and he can therefore maneuver around or against it.
• The extended arm is more easily immobilized.

The trunk is very important. When you change the direction of your hands in a stance, you do so with your trunk, not your arms, swiveling like the turret of a tank, in sync with small, incremental turns with the feet. You must be flexible so that your trunk can change axis or azimuth as needed. Your trunk faces your enemy at a slight angle to the lead foot. While a traditional “L” stance offers less of a trunk target, it is too limiting offensively.

Slipping, or a parry-and-strike movement, are facilitated by a turn of the trunk which simultaneously takes you off the attack-line of your enemy, and torques and delivers your counterstrike. Rather than use a hand to block a front kick, it is preferable (though not always correct- nothing is always) to turn the hips to take you off the attack line as you simultaneously strike with a trunk-torqued delivery – offense and defense, in one harmonious movement.

The purpose of the stance is to give you the balance and position to strike with any weapon at will, while giving the enemy nothing. Outside the enemy’s circle (kill-zone) you may assume bizarre or misleading stances to confuse the enemy or intentionally send a misleading message. If you understand his style, you will know the most likely attack he will use against certain positions. Show him the position that will encourage the type of attack you want him to employ. Ambush tactics are art.

For example:

If I see a certain Tae Kwon Do stance, I know that showing a particular position is likely to draw a cross-stepping rear-hand straight punch from this opponent. Give him that picture. As he attacks, softly slip the punch (do not “hit” his arm or use a block) guiding his arm and his forward momentum past you, turning in tight to him as he goes by. At this point you have several options depending on your body positions and whether his original target was high (your head or throat) or low (your trunk). As you turn into him as you guide him by, strike low (under his punching arm into his ribs driving the ribs through the lung) or high (taking out his eyes or ripping out his throat). In essence, he will not know that his punch has not landed until the moment you have struck. To his programmed mind; one second you were a target right there in front of him, then without warning you were behind him, taking out his eyes.

Timing, footwork, and body control are all critical in the execution of this technique. Move too soon - and you expose your intent. Move too
late - and you must change your attack to a forward oblique. That should not be a fatal mistake. The key to combat is to be fluid so that you can adjust as you go. If you strike his arm rather than slip the punch, the sensation of hard contact will alert his nervous system of your action, giving a skilled man a warning to adjust his attack. Obviously, that is not what we want.

Remember that anyone can throw a kick or a punch. Getting it in without being hit is another matter. You must hide and disguise your techniques. If the enemy is looking in the wrong place so that he doesn’t see the punch or kick that strikes him, even if it moved at a turtle’s pace, it was “faster than the eye could see.” Like a magician to an audience, misdirection and misinformation lead the enemy to look in the wrong place, and make incorrect assumptions and assessments, allowing you to do with him whatever you will.

Your movements must be natural, easy and comfortable, conserving and harnessing energy. Footwork must be soft and springy, but not bouncy. You are never tense, always relaxed and flexible. “Naturalness” means that all muscles can act with the greatest speed and ease. Stand loosely and lightly, avoiding tension and muscular contraction. This will allow you to both guard and strike fluidly, with more speed, precision, and power. Your movements should be like the big cats (such as the panther) - on the periphery you stalk, in the kill zone, you spring with lethal focus and intent.

Like a cobra, you remain coiled in a loose, but compact position.
Your strikes should be felt before they are seen.

Relaxed focus on the enemy’s core enables you to stay with him as your kicks and strikes impact his body. Automatically using the most direct high- impact strikes, you drive his body up and down. You cannot practice this enough. It is critical that you understand the physics of impact on the human body. You must know how the body will react to each strike (factoring in force, impact, attack line, target, balance, and momentum). In this way, you instinctively know where and how the body will move as the result of each strike. Therefore your next strike is designed to be at the target point at the same time the enemy’s body arrives. A good billiards player plays “position pool.” That means they just don’t make a shot, they control the cue ball so that it sets them up for the next shot, even planning several shots in a row. Practicing impact result dynamics enables you to know how the body will react to a certain kick or strike under certain conditions. That means your follow-through simultaneously anticipates your next strike and your next target of opportunity. This of course is inherently flexible so that you can adjust as you go.

When executed properly, your kicks and strikes become head-on collisions with targets at the instant that the targets present themselves. Essentially, upon getting inside and initiating the first movement of your attack, your follow through never loses its momentum because you will execute a continuous series of pre-emptive strikes that are each launched just before the target appears, so the appearance of the target and the impact of the strike occur at the same time.

For example:

If a front thrust kick to the lower abdominal area doubles the enemy over, that means that his hips will move back, and his head will come forward and down from his original vertical axis. If a series of punches to the head, neck, and spine are to follow, you must shift your hips with your strike, torqueing your torso in and down, so that the direction of your first strike is to where his head will be. This must begin BEFORE his head arrives there, so that your punch and his head arrive at the same point-in-time simultaneously.

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Practice Tips:

1) Use tools that will deviate least from the on-guard position (your basic stance).

2) Practice instantaneous explosion from neutrality, maintaining that neutrality in commitment, through one continuous unbroken flow of kicks and strikes in fluid planes.

3) Practice developing and maintaining balance in all situations. Balance is the most important consideration in combat. Maintain yours as you attack his.

4) Practice constantly to apply all tools from the on-guard position, and bringing yourself back to that position as your techniques unfold, smoothly and rapidly. In essence, you are that position, regardless of how you find yourself in the heat of battle. Practice shortening the gap time between position and execution over and over and over. Ease, speed, transition.

5) Above all, lay down no hard and fast rules. Rules are made to be broken. They fix you, and will break you. A skilled fighter will turn them against you.

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Balance:

Balance is all-important in a fighter’s attitude, movement, and stance. You cannot be effective if you do not maintain balance throughout. Correct body alignment is critical for continuous balance. Feet, legs, hips, and head are all critical factors. Where your head goes – you go - in every respect. Too wide a stance gives a false feeling of power and solidity, sacrificing speed and efficient movement. Too short a stance, while creating a feeling of increased speed, creates a fulcrum, sacrificing balance and a usable platform from which to work.

The secret of proper balance is to keep the feet under the shoulders, which means a medium distance apart. The knees are bent. Most martial artists stand too tall. If you are going to make a mistake, make it by being too low. The stance is a relaxed, coiled, semi-crouched position with weight equally distributed on both feet. If you have to use a movement (however slight) to get set (into chamber) in order to move or to kick, your stance is wrong. You must be able to step or kick with either leg in one movement, not two. You are on the balls of your feet, with slight weight on the heels. When you move, you may step forward into a more classic looking striking position (if you are actually striking), or back into a cat stance or forward or back into your ready position, depending on the circumstance. But ALWAYS balanced in control with power harnessed, ready to explode.

Always leave the space of a natural step between your feet. When walking, simply dropping your center of gravity slightly as you bring up your hands places you into your stance. Never let your feet get “in line” facing your opponent. Always maintain them shoulder width apart. Many martial artists tend to bring the back foot behind the front foot in a direct line when they step forward. This is a deadly mistake.

Flexible posture combines with readiness in motion. Balance is the control of one’s center of gravity whether at rest or in motion. Control and utilization of body angles and unstable equilibrium facilitates effective movement in combat. As Bruce Lee said, “Balance might mean being able to throw one’s center of gravity beyond the base of support, chase it, and never let it get away.”

The short step and glide, rather than hop or cross-step, helps to maintain the center of gravity. Rapid movement should not cost your balance. Never cross-step when in-fighting. Understand that hopping techniques commit your body to a fixed point of landing that cannot be changed, and has therefore an inherent vulnerability. This is not to say that a hopping technique may not be the perfect technique in a given situation. But because of its predictable inertia, there is inherently a much higher margin of vulnerability.

Balance means nothing if it is not maintained in movement, facilitating unbroken, fluid, powerful, efficient, unlimited strikes and kicks. Not every kick or strike will land, or impact in the way you expect. That is why you must expect nothing. Missing a punch or intended kick means a momentary shift or loss of balance. This is one of the advantages of being a counter-fighter. As the attacker, small steps, bent knees, and a low center of gravity, combined with techniques that are both offensive and defensive at the same time reduces both the danger and the margin for error.

Your center of gravity changes constantly, varying with your own actions, as well as those of the enemy. Do not over-commit.

DO NOT OVERCOMMIT!!!

• When attacking, your center of gravity should imperceptibly be shifted slightly forward so that the back leg and foot have the freedom for the shortest, fastest, and most explosive lunge-coordinated strike.

• For a parry, the center of gravity should be shifted slightly to the rear, so that the distance is increased drawing the enemy’s balance forward, and more time is allowed for your parry and counterattack.

  1) Lower your center of gravity

  2) Keep a base with evenly distributed lateral width

  3) Keep 85% of your weight on the balls of your feet

  4) Never straighten or “lock-out” your elbows or knees

  5) Maintain a low center of gravity under motion. Any activity that requires frequent unexpected changes in direction requires maintaining a low center of gravity to maintain balance, speed, and power.

  6) Practice countering at the exact moment your opponent loses his balance, especially if he has a higher center of gravity than you do.

  7) Practice movement in slow motion, not high speed. If it is correct slow, it will be correct fast. Practicing techniques at high speed is for fools who are more interested in flash than substance, and more interested in shallow self-gratification than survival.
  
  8) “Feel” yourself in balance while moving: attacking in combination, retreating, and countering. Place yourself in different unbalanced positions, then recover coordinating strikes and kicks with speed + power.

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