Scientific Martial Art?

[ddrive]

This is just an idea. I've studied JKD maybe not as long as some of the other members on the board, but I've done my fair. What if we were able to base a fighting method not on the various martial arts, but in the sciences? If someone was to truly understand and apply the principles of physics and physiology into his fighting method wouldn't that be the state that JKD would evolve to after so long?

Keep in mind, this was only a random thought.

[lssanjose]

I don't know who you train under. But from what I've been training these last three months, it's safe to say that I really see the science in JKD.

[lssanjose]

Mike, are you basically there isn't a scientific basis to JKD? Or are you laying out criteria for an art to be considered scientific? I just want to make sure who you were responding to. That's all.

[ddrive]

There is no science to any of it unless one:

Starts with an assumption or hypothesis, experiments with as many possible variables and conditions as are feasible, notes and expands upon the results of those experiments, and applies the conclusions to real-life.

If one is simply learning what the instructor learned, it's not science - no matter how the instructor got there.

If one learns a collection of techniques and/or ideas that supposedly came from a scientific process, but one doesn't explore and experiment with outside of the completely controlled environment of one's own training floor, it's not science.

"Scientific Approach" is, in my opinion, one of so many marketing ploys thrown around to differentiate what "we" do from what "they" do. We're better because we're more scientific, less traditional, more progressive, more contemporary, less mystical...blah, blah, blah.

JKD has evolved, for those who train it outside a JKD school. You have to venture out of your own arena to truly see what is and what isn't. No matter how "Alive" or "Fluid" or "Conceptual" or "Realistic" you make the training under your roof, you are still the one controlling the rules. Want to see how your training really stacks up?

Go out to someone else's school or gym, preferably one that teaches and entirely different art, and let them dictate the rules. If you find yourself getting frustrated because "that's not how we do it," then you're not being as honest or as realistic as you may have thought.

I agree with you completely, and the statement about physics was not to differentiate me from other artist. All I'm saying is that as the martial arts becomes more and more technical, should we stop venturing to different arts and start to focus more on the sciences?

[robertlee]

Yes and no is right. All things have a base of understanding. You have to seperate the different truths. That will be your truth. What you have absorbed and can do . In a uncontroled base . Where you have to apply what you can do. Without controled action. Then you have an understanding that will work. and yes testing aginst other arts or even other JKD branch training methods. Shows how you are asorbing. Any M/A Has to be looked at for just the one person. Each will find what they will. How you asorb to get where its working makes you better then the next. Or less better. look at a job. You go to school. or learn at the job. Then you have to at sometime be able to do without help. And then the more you do you become better. . So trying harder then the next person Will take you far. But the science is learning to just do and go from there. And understand motion as ease of movement. Not over powered or under . And read beyond one move. So you can see the next course of action. An open mind and set intent But yes just to walk has a science to it. But doing it. has no thought. Because you have gone beyond the steps of that. To just walking. M/A the same. go beyond To where its just something you do.

[robertlee]

Mike I can agree to what yoiu say. We both said near the same in thought. What a person Has to do is Find there truth. That means testing the water. With what they do. A person can have the bvest looking moves. Under controled training. But looks as we know. Give way when you step up To a resistive person. That fights back. And fights well. The streets well Not alot of trained moves there. BUT street fighters. Can come on fast. And get the job done. A person has to be able to say perform with what they do. To get the job done. That by itself. Is up to the person. They can be showqed they can train well. But they have have to test it with open training. No rehearsed moves. Then they find the little bit of this and that that they can get off. Best I had put to me. Was look at a fight as a game of chess. You out think and out do the other person. Stay ahead on the moves. And on Kata. A good kata person practices alot on Kata. A good fighter trains towards fighting. A good M/A trains to fight. And trains to be a better person as well. With the mix today that was not around years back. People can look at different ways to gain. But they will find a small mix And applied training will go further then a large mix. Because being good at a level. Just means youy can get off the tools you can use well. Some tools willl not work in most cases ANd are not needed as much. Basic skills that have been honed Are better then advanced skills that still need work. And you are very right. A good trainer. Instructor. Can take a person far. Then the person gets off to a good start. We have learned through the years. That no big secret lies in the M/A. No magic. just some people have gone that extra mile to get more out of what they were taught. And they have a better understanding Of how to use it then others. And We find a person that does not stop when it gets a little hard Can go on to achive a win in the ring or the streets. Because they developed a heat to go on. Some call it killer instinct. But its deturmineation And that alone Can make or break a fight.