Ian wrote:OH GOOD, PUSHING.
The guy says 'push' about ten times in the first three minutes.[/quote]
Interesting thought. I am not sure the video being framed as an instructional video where pushing is the objective. I think this because, Burnett states the objective in the opening of the video. And, he restates the objective in the description as well. See quote.
This is a video I made with a couple of my students, John Soares and Neil Buettner, in which I share my take on those videos you see where an old master is tossing people around while seemingly doing next to nothing. Comments usually fall into two categories: "That's fake, those students are cooperating", and "It's all Chi." My take is that it's both. The students are cooperating somewhat and there really is skill involved too. With correct timing and alignment, anyone can learn to interfere with your opponents intent and momentum and cause him to "magically" go flying, especially if the attacker signals his attack and then firms his structure so the interfering energy causes him fly backwards. It's physics not magic. It just takes practice. The basics of this skill are relatively easily learned. What's really hard is to be able to do this with less and less compliant attackers who don't signal their attacks and don't firm their structures as much.
-Gene Burnett
What I keyed into is his thoughts about methods and not magic. I caught his comments about interfering with opponent's intent and momentum, and telegraphing and firming body postural with muscular tension all related to a demonstration.
We all know the effects of a tension through out the body resulting in the body becoming stiff and ridged like a board. Contrast that with the relaxed/flexible/dead weighted body. It is much harder to control and move a flexible/ relaxed/dead weighted person. When your body is relaxed absent of unnecessary added tension, has many benefits to the body, i.e. better intake of oxygen etc. And it offers better performance, such as giving you more power, better balance, etc. An opponent with a relaxed flexible body as highlighted in the video isn't as favorable as one with a tense stiffen body. I find this true of course from practicing sports, JMA, and CMA.
Cooperation and compliance is a huge factor in successful demonstrations, as the OV points out. Granted, a demonstration isn't a fight. Therefore, there has to be some level of cooperation and compliance, if there wasn't the demonstrator would not get the desired audience reaction. The issue is how much cooperation and compliance is being applied and working in the demonstration. And what is the demonstrator's desired purpose and reaction for the demonstration. Why type and level of credibility is wanted from those watching, and to what extent is the demonstrator willing to go to get that credibility. Is the demonstrator misleading or misrepresenting themselves, or are they being honest with their demonstration. Just the nature of a demonstration has some level of cooperation and compliance, but is it being abuse by the demonstrator to present skills or level of skill they don't have.
Being able to recognize and understand what is going on in a demonstration is the point of the OV.