by Chris McKinley on Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:04 am
Doc,
Good question. Intuitive processes are linked, at least partially, with processes that could be called subsconscious. However, and thankfully, the kind of intuitive movement patterns we're talking about here aren't exclusively generated there. While I believe that Shooter and I are probably talking about the same kind of thing, I'll speak only for myself just for the sake of conversational clarity. The kind of movement I'm talking about getting the person to generate is the kind that comes out most naturally in what could best be described as play. Watch a group of kids playing tag in a relatively confined area for a great example. Now, while real combat certainly isn't fun and games, the exploration of skills that can be used there can be, at least to an extent.
You're a long-time neijia guy, so I'm going to assume that you've probably played your fair share of rou shou from Bagua. Have you ever done it at 1/3 speed or slower with a partner who maintained honest movement and reactions? If so, you will have discovered that it is very easy to perceive the incoming threat from your partner's strike, intuitively recognize the type of movement pattern that is needed to avoid and counter it, and that you have plenty of time to generate such a tactic completely from scratch and on-the-fly, so to speak, without any prior choreography whatsoever. Even completely untrained people quickly get to this point once they stop worrying about what they look like to the folks training around them and just let go and get into the play of it.
This is but one fairly simple but fairly powerful example that I'm guessing you're already familiar with. There are other more tailored methods, but let's stick with this for now. Let's say in the course of playing this very slow rou shou session that as an instructor, you're watching the partners work for a while and you notice a particularly effective counter that a given student spontaneously and naturally generated against a fairly common realistic strike. You calmly ask the partners to pause for a moment, reference the strike and praise the student for his solution to it, then ask him how he did it as if you were asking him to teach you that "move".
Almost universally, the person's first reaction is something like, "I don't know, I just did it." You ignore this comment and ask him to show you, repeating your interest in the effectiveness of the movement. You step in and have the other partner repeat the same strike slowly at you, and ask the first partner to show you how he did it. He'll feel a bit nervous about teaching the teacher, but you want to get him to give you a simple explanation of what he did, preferably by having him do it again to show you. Once you can get that to happen, you praise all of the positive tactical elements of his choice of movement. You explain why that's such an effective response for that strike. Sometimes, just for the cheese factor, you can ask him, "Are you sure you haven't practiced that particular move before? Because you sure did it very effectively." He'll assure you again that he hasn't and that it just came up somehow.
At this point, you could ask him if he wouldn't mind if you borrowed him for a bit to explore that movement some more. Have him switch partners or work with him directly yourself and repeat the strike and counter. At this point, have him tweak the response to be even better by saying, "What would happen if you did it slightly more like this, or did this at the same time", etc. IOW, have him explore it with you, even if you already know where all this is leading. By becoming a co-partner in his development instead of you just doling out meager bits of skill to him like he was waiting on line for gubmint cheese, he begins to take ownership of what he discovers, and he develops a vested interest in his own improvement. He also begins to develop the ability to recognize what works, what doesn't, and why, from an experiential not academic perspective.....a skill he would not realistically expect to pick up in more common "traditional" training found in the typical IMA school.
During this exploration phase, you carefully point out for him all of the elements that make it so effective, and any additional elements that you have both discovered while tweaking it. List them out for him. Even on paper, if need be. After this exploration phase, have him partner up with someone and begin to practice the movement, with all tweaks and essential elements in place. Use full speed in this practice only for those elements absolutely dependent upon it; this will be rare. I cannot emphasize enough that it is the process of exploring, analyzing/evaluating, and performing the movement at this artificially slow pace that is the key to forming connections between the motor cortex (where the move initially originated) and the specific triggers and stimuli that represent the appropriate time to use it, as well as connections with the conscious mind and its ever-growing library of patterns, and the ability to recognize the elements that make the tactic work. It is the building of these connections that not only allows for the proper integration of this movement into unconscious competence in context, but also allows for that movement to be later evaluated unconsciously against already-recognized patterns, leading to even further unconsciously and spontaneously-generated responses in the future.
The stronger these connections are made, the more the student's ability to intuitively generate effective responses spontaneously will improve, and the more quickly it will improve. In fact, done correctly, the rate of improvement will begin to improve exponentially quickly....it does not follow a linear path the way it does with more typical training approaches.
But back to our story....after you've had him practice the tactic and had him pay special attention to the individual elements that make it work better, it's time to have him move into the early phase of contextualizing that new skill. Up till now, he's discovered a new toy, shined it up and polished it, but he hasn't yet had a chance to take it out and play with it. We begin by having him relax his focus on the individual elements and have him instead just let the movement come out naturally as one integrated whole. His partner is instructed to gradually build up speed and power in his strike, until eventually, he's attacking at full speed. If the tactic begins to show stress points or fails entirely, immediately slow it down and go back to the practice phase, identifying the weak element(s) for the student and having him shore those up for a while. Once he's got it down, you begin the gradual build up of speed and power again. Repeat as necessary until he's consistently and effectively responding to the strike at full speed and power. End on a high note ( a good performance) and go home.
At the next class, have the student begin back at the learning phase again, and have him identify and demonstrate all of the essential elements that go into a successful performance of the tactic. Keep the mood light and playful. It's easiest to do this at the beginning of the class when everybody's kind of laid-back and light-hearted naturally. After he's had a chance to go over in detail all of the essential component elements of the tactic, have him switch to practicing phase, where he will focus on them individually and "pretty up" the movement. Then, just as last time, have him switch to contextualizing, where his partner will once again begin that slow build up of both speed and power with his strike. As the instructor, watch closely again for stress points or failures in the tactic. When they occur, immediately have the student go back to practicing and focus on the offending element until it is as flawless as he can muster. Then start the contextualizing gradual build up of speed and power again. Repeat as necessary.
What I've just described is an oversimplified example of the absolutely most bare-boned skeleton of the method I use. I call it the Sculptor method, mostly because I was tired of calling it Phil or Chuck, and I was feeling extra artsy fartsy one particular day. I don't use exactly the same approach with everyone, and that description is nothing close to a complete look at the method. But that's the very, very most basic version of it, and it's one that just about anybody can put to use immediately.