Three simple concepts
Published: Thu, 02/06/14
Close Quarter Combat class last night. I call it CQC rather than
'Self-Defence' because a lot of the training will go well
beyond anything you need for everyday self protection. Later, for
example we will be getting into dagger and sax training. Last
night we were looking at dealing with a basic grab around the neck
from the front. The kind of move someone might use if there were
going to pull you forward for a headbutt or to trap and then punch
you. The response is to bring your forearm over the attackers arms
and then start exploring how to break the attackers balance and
then apply one of the five principles. I use the term
'explore' rather than 'practice the technique'
because violent confrontations, like life itself, are chaotic,
unpredictable and bewildering. So a technique which applies y on
the assumption that an attacker will do x is likely to throw you
into confusion when the unexpected happens. So we use one simple
movement, bringing the forearm up in front of the face, effectively
using the Thor Stance, and then establish which principle to apply.
Do I just want to back out of this? Then we want the Trel
response and move back from the attacker having weakened the grip
enough to break away. Do I need to get this person out of my
space? In that case it is a Karl response and the same basic
movement sets me up to turn the attacker around and push them away.
Do I need to take control of the attacker? That is a Herse
response and this time I use the same basic movements to take
balance and lock the head. Underpinning all these responses is an
awareness of the web and by working with the lines it is relatively
easy to disrupt the balance and structure of the body.
Stav always comes back to the same three things, working with the
stances, the lines of the web and the five principles. Simple, but
very powerful as your knowledge of how to work with them develops.
Studying the web and developing an intuitive understanding of it is
essential in martial arts training. Yes, it will make your
self-defence more effective but that isn't the real reason to
develop an understanding of the web. Learning to understand the
web enables us to understand our lives better. The web of your
life is known as your Wyrd and it means something like destiny,
purpose or path in life.
The first lesson about Wyrd is that you are the very centre of your
web, you cannot be anywhere else by definition. This means that
wherever you are it is where you are meant to be at this moment in
time. When you realise and accept this fact you can start to see
where you have come from and the possibilities of action in living
out your Wyrd.
Reading about this stuff is fine but the point about Stav is that
it is a fully experiential training system. I am creating the Stav
Centre so that you can really see how this stuff works. Be there
on our first day course on the 15th of February, it will be
challenging, interesting and fun. I have updated the page relating
to the course at http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html
regards
Graham