Context Specific Solutions

by Adam Steer

I recently read on the RMAX forums an explanation for the development of martial styles based on the specific cultural context in which they develop. This theme runs as a common thread through much of the discussion on the topic of TMA vs. MMA throughout RMAX materials. This made sense to me. I understood it. But I discovered that I didn't really "grok" it until later. As with most great realizations, my enlightenment came in a completely different venue than martial arts.

My family recently moved to a new home. We took possession a week before the move in order to have time to do some preparations in the house before moving. One of the big jobs was a top to bottom interior paint job. I am not a professional painter, although I did for a living when I was younger. My wife wanted to help during our daughter's nap times, but she hasn't done much painting. I got her all set up with the task of cutting in before rolling. She asked me if there was a technique that she should be using, and I answered that I could show her "my" technique. After showing her how I approached the task, she told me that it worked like a charm.

Later, upon reflection, I realized that in fact I had created my own technique based on the materials I had at hand (synthetic brushes, rollers and paints), the time I had to devote to the skill (periodic home improvement jobs) and the venue (nice straight sheet rock walls). I had developed "my style" of painting given my own "context." All of a sudden the whole concept of masters of old developing their own martial styles took on a much more realistic aspect. What had seemed very mystical up until then become much more utilitarian.

I left my musings at that and continued on with my work. As I went along with my task I noticed that certain conditions in this new house were somewhat different than in the other houses that I had painted. I also noticed that the paint we were using was a little bit different. I adjusted my technique accordingly to improve my performance. In the course of a day my “style" changed to meet the new context. Then it dawned on me that this was in essence what competition does for a martial art. The new context challenged me to evaluate my old technique and to update it, just as competition challenges one to face their present skills and to modify them to improve performance.

This led me to another musing about the "masters of old." We tend to think of them as grand visionaries who set out to create the "perfect style" that would transcend the ages. My day of painting caused me to suppose that they were more likely to have been men who had to face violence on a regular basis in the context of their lives and times and who were forced to find solutions that allowed them to overcome and to avoid such situations. They changed their "style" to meet the specific challenges presented by their cultural context, using the knowledge, skills and tools which they had at hand. This seemed not much different than what I had done with my painting technique, although on a much larger scale.

If such suppositions are true, then it would be only natural to "renovate" traditional martial arts as the context in which they are practiced changes. Knowledge of the body and of human performance deepens with every passing year. Weapons evolve. Attitudes change. Legal considerations accumulate. Cultural exchange becomes more widespread. If the masters of old pragmatically searched daily for better solutions, I hardly think that they would agree with their successors freezing of their "styles" for all eternity.

There is a story from Uechi Ryu, an Okinawan style with origins in China, which illustrates this point quite well. During the 1970's a group of Uechi Ryu leaders went on a pilgrimage to China to search for the roots of the system. While there, they gave a demonstration for an assembled group of Chinese masters. These masters reflected that the demonstration was like a time capsule of Southern Chinese martial arts from a hundred years past. In other words, the style was frozen in time, preserving what had been brought from China almost a century before. Even these masters of "traditional" martial arts had continued to evolve in the context in which they lived, while the exported art had been perfectly preserved as a testament to its founder.

All this brought me full circle to the idea that every person can come to their own mastery. I am beginning to understand this concept in light of contextually appropriate solutions. For example, I know that I will never be an International Sambo champion. I know that I will never be an MMA fighter. I have dabbled in traditional martial arts, but have not reached any level of significant accomplishment at the ripe old age of 35. I can't be Coach Sonnon. I can't be Coach Murdock. I can't be anyone else but myself. I don't live within the same context as those people. I have made different choices, followed a different path and have a different physical reality. But at the same time I have my own strengths and qualities. My job is to search those out and to discover my own personal context, looking for solutions that fit that reality.

Just as painting a house allowed me to develop my own technique and style of painting, I need to face challenges that can help me to develop solutions appropriate to myself as a martial artist. For that I need competition, meaning that I need to search with a partner to discover my own personal path to mastery. The masters of old likely had to face real violence. Thankfully, that is not my reality, so competition must be my yardstick. Without the resistance of actually painting a house I would not have been able to develop my own personal style. I could have read about the techniques of painting a house. I could even have attended a lecture or some classes given by a professional house painter and tried my hand at a few brushstrokes. But I would never have developed my own way without actually facing the challenge of painting an entire house from top to bottom on more than one occasion.

So, although instruction from the professional painter would certainly have been valuable, one needs to take that and put it to use in order to find their own strengths and to develop their own mastery. I believe this is one of the true gifts of RMAX. We are able to learn the lessons offered by true masters of our age through the RMAX materials, but at the same time we are given the encouragement and the tools to then search for our own mastery. The RMAX Training Group Manual is, I think, a great example of this emphasis on the process rather than the polished and static product. RMAX points the way to the most up-to-date principles of our time. It is then up to us to take those principles and search out the most appropriate path for our own personal context, just as I did with my house painting style.

In the end, the development of your own personal mastery is not nearly as mystical as it once seemed. Through a new lens it has become a very pragmatic process based on finding solutions to challenges as they arise. Now I just have to put in the hard work (and Softwork™) necessary to get there.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 5

Publisher: Scott Sonnon - Senior Editor: Ryan Murdock

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