Essay

[HAEDONG]

1. How can we practice to achieve both better training and a better life through martial arts?

The way we practice martial arts to achieve both better training and a better life is to
follow Bruce Lee's thought of “take what works and disregard the rest”…mostly.
If we train to improve skills and health, then we will develop physically. If we train to understand techniques and skills, then we will develop application knowledge. When we train to develop and understand all these principles and concepts, we understand the system. The system is the point.
The system provides insights into life. This includes how situations occur and how they are responded to. The application of martial arts principles and concepts affect how individuals respond to life.
The system consists of techniques and skills. These are the building blocks, just as an alphabet is, to how things happen. These building blocks are what allows the students to begin their story telling. The depth of knowledge regarding the system makes a great difference in what response is shown. This equates to having developed a strong vocabulary. There is a correct response to physical actions. Just as words have purpose and intent, so do techniques. Too often today, the wrong word, technique, is used to convey the proper intention of the response.
The longer a student trains, the greater their knowledge of application becomes. I often tell my students that there are three levels of performing a kumbup/hyung. Level one shows that they know the techniques within the form. Level two has them seeing the bad guys within the form. Level three allows others to see the bad guys that they are fighting. With that said, this is still only the beginning. The longer that the student trains, the more their level two develops. Level two evolving to deeper understanding affects what is seen in level three.
All of this work affects daily life as part of everything we do. One of the largest portions of martial arts training is problem solving. From my Taekwondo training, sparring is all problem solving. Each time a fighter moves, the problem changes. The one to solve the problem first gets hit less!
This affects everything in life. How many problems do you have to solve daily? Look at all the things in your daily life that happen each day and see how many are problems. Now when you apply the system knowledge from your martial arts, you see how many problems are solved or avoided because you understand the system that creates them. You apply principles and concepts to avoid the conflict and create successful outcomes. This can easily be illustrated through highway driving. You see a car on the entry ramp. You recognize the speed they are traveling. Since they haven't looked to see what traffic is there, they didn't see any problems. You can see the problem and several solutions already. You choose to act before any actual problem occurs. They merge with traffic smoothly as you have prepared a space for them without them even understanding that it happened.

15. What do you think about natural movement, and how can understanding its principles benefit us?

Natural movement is an awesome principle! It gives a label or term to things that I've
done through my Aikido training that didn't have words to describe it. So much learning comes from developing technique and skills, then understanding the principles and concepts, to get to the whole idea of natural movement.
Natural movement here are the things that you don't have to consciously think about to make them happen. Things like raising your hand to the doorknob to open the door or reaching

to flip a light switch. A natural movement that I've noticed as I do a lot of driving is that I can adjust to the current speed limit without looking at the speedometer.
Now, natural movement helps us greatly as we understand the system further. Yes, it starts with physical actions but that's not the limit. As mentioned prior, words are important. That becomes the secret of natural movement. It is ALL learned and practiced movement! The more correct term for this is proprioception. Often referred to incorrectly as muscle memory, it is the knowledge and actions that have ingrained themselves into the brain from repetitive use. It is the reason so many actions and responses seem to just happen. You will see these responses in athletic events and wonder how the player did it. You will also see the responses in connection to daily actions. The person who flinches when a dog barks may have as a child been bitten by a dog.
The best way to benefit us is to recognize how and when these natural movements happen. They are trained responses, so they can be developed. Once we recognize the responses are “built in", we can then work to adjust them. Moving more specifically. Doing more intentionally. Speaking more definitively. These are ways that natural movement will improve the way that we live and interact with others.

3. What is the essence of healing others through martial arts training?

The essence of healing through the martial arts is from the knowledge gained about how
conflict happens and how it is responded to. The understanding of the system involved provides the opportunities to respond more appropriately.
I learned the concept of “the sword that takes life, the sword that gives life” from aikido. Back then, 35 years ago, I took this literally. In conflict, l choose to let you live or not. This has developed further since training in a sword art.
Applying this concept helps healing for both the student and anyone coming in contact with the student. You can hear echoes of the concept in parents when they comment “you need to pick your battles". Choosing to “let live" provides the chance to learn and grow from the experience. The better use of language then creates better descriptions and explanations for what has happened. This appears as healing by creating less stress and preventing trauma.
Aikido is called the art of peace. That didn't make sense when I first started training. The only thing I could see was that it attempted to not destroy but rather resolve problems. When you take the principles into consideration above the physical techniques, all soft martial arts are arts of peace. Soft arts use energy to handle situations.
Energy is absorbed or returned. Healing is based upon which of these concepts is applied. A person can absorb energy from someone hurting and release without letting that energy affect them. You can see this when dealing with an angry or frustrated person. All of the energy directed at you can be absorbed without disturbing you. This requires that you have control of your emotions to allow the acceptance of the yelling and venting. A person can return energy when they come into contact with someone who is physically injured or emotionally unbalanced. The use of Ki through physical contact to redirect energy into or away from an injury can help relieve pain. Similarly, those who are emotionally off can be settled with physical contact like hugs or with calm empathetic conversation. Healing is done through releasing negative energy and developing positive energy.