Floor work
Hardness and softness are
divided,
there is action and understanding.
Thunder and lightning combine into a pattern.
(I Ching)
Use your skills
Beginners floor work addresses the underlying skills.
You learn how to use body weight, rootedness and composure to your advantage.
Being aggressive and using tension simply wears you out, whereas letting-go
gives you strength.
The intermediate floor work skills are about introducing other jing into the
exercise, and doing even less.
Sticky
Your body weight and sinking have more effect if you can maximise the physical
area of contact.
Use your entire frame to adhere to the attacker. Smother them.
This is called 'controlling' jing.
The assailant struggles and forces, but you just remain sticky. As with a boa
constrictor, you gently tighten the noose.
Neutralise
Use body weight and monkey paws to smother movement.
Encourage the attacker to waste energy struggling to force your inert body into
action.
Be the anvil that they hammer against. Let them tire themselves.
Slippery
Cease struggling and slide out.
This is remarkably easy and effective.
Once you see a gap, and become boneless and loose, you can just withdraw your
limb with ease.
Yield
Yield when they exert, then use weight to collapse back.
This is clever because it provides the illusion of victory, and then reinforces
the loss when you drop your weight.
Everyone weakens.
Let your partner burn themselves out and then sink once again.
Stop controlling
Allow your partner their movement, without interference.
Just monitor and avoid compromise.
This is harder than it sounds because there is an innate need to control.
Don't.
Let your partner do all the work, and simply sink and be rooted. Give up your
need to win and let your partner do all the work.
Legs
People ignore their legs.
Women in particular need to be conscious of their legs: men are strong in
their upper bodies, women in the lower body.
Legs have very powerful muscles, and feet are very tactile.
Use legs for increased leverage, especially around the neck.
You can also be sticky with your legs.
Kick defence
It is important that you can get up off the floor when someone is kicking you.
There may even be a number of people seeking to kick you.
Most martial arts schools ignore this scenario. We do not.
Women & men
Men and women approach the experience of combat differently.
For men, it is considered manly and strong to defeat someone else in combat.
Women, however, are culturally conditioned to feel uncomfortable with being
assertive.
(i) Men
On the floor, men need to use floppiness and looseness to access root.
They must improve their passive/yin soft skills.
The only active skill that is necessary is 'stickiness'.
Men need to rely upon the weight of the upper torso.
(ii) Women
Women must overcome their culturally-learned fear of being dominant.
The fear is unhealthy.
It can lead to low self-esteem and even shame.
Women
Floor work is all about avoiding your partner's strengths and exploiting their
weaknesses.
To accomplish this, women need to be really good at rooting.
Women must use their lower body when on the floor. Think: sitting, kneeling,
feet. And sticky legs, too.
(i) Sitting
Women need to rely upon the weight of the pelvis, legs and buttocks.
This means sitting on the attacker at your first opportunity.
The key thing for a woman to consider is that they must become very comfortable
with being on top.
This may be unfamiliar, but in self defence you never want to be underneath your
assailant.
(ii) Kneeling
Kneeling on someone is an effective strategy. It is painful, demoralising and
powerful.
Bending the knee makes the leg muscles stretch and become tight.
The main places to kneel are:
Face
Throat
Back of neck
Upper arm
Back
Groin
(iii) Feet
Feet are tactile, and can be used to great advantage on the floor.
When the focus in our culture is so often on the hands, the use of the feet is
unexpected.
Slide your partner's leg away. Put your foot on their throat. Step on their
hands.
Placing you foot under your attacker's chin and pushing their head away is
unsettling for the assailant. It also offers tremendous leverage.
In a real life attack, there would be no rules. You would target the groin, the
face - anywhere that upsets your assailant's equilibrium and confidence.
(iv) Footwear
It is easy to bear down through your feet, especially if wearing shoes or boots.
The heels on women's shoes focus the body weight into a very small area,
amplifying the pressure considerably.
Use that to your advantage.
Standing on your attacker's hands - particularly the palm - is rude and socially
taboo.
Find every opportunity to exploit this.
Emotional, psychological, physical
When you play the attacker or the defender, it is essential that you explore how
you feel emotionally, psychologically and physically.
This experience can be very insightful.
Your emotional awareness enables you to use your skills more effectively against
the opponent.
Ideally, you want to 'break their spirit'.
When the attacker loses their will to fight, they feel weak, helpless and
vulnerable.
They are at your mercy. You can do with them as you like.
Reversal
Much of what Sifu Waller teaches revolves around the notion of reversing the situation.
Instead of being the victim, you change everything and suddenly the attacker
feels that they are now the victim.
The skill lies in doing this sneakily.
You must accomplish the goal without the assailant realising what has happened.
Suddenly, they are the one of the floor, fearful and confused.
Mind & habit
Pulling off the skills initially depends upon concentration and 'being in the
moment'.
In time, the abilities become trained and familiar.
A habit.
You no longer need to think at all; you just do.
Standing-up
Floor work is very important because the proximity to the ground teaches you how
to improve your root and rely upon sinking to a greater extent.
Your aim eventually is to take these skills into normal combat.
The skills are particularly pertinent to finishing someone off effectively after
they have attacked you and been neutralised.
If you are good on the floor, your floor work (control) skills will be
effective.
Page created 5 August 1999