Our Approach to Training
Our approach to training blends ancient Eastern wisdom with modern Western science. This blended approach synthesizes the principles of Taoist philosophy, Chinese energy flow therories and traditional Chinese medicine with the scientific principles of human physiology, body mechanics and physics.
Through years of studies, questioning, failing, personal research and a lot of hard work, we've found certain complementary principles paralleled in both the east and west. Within this universal, principle-centered approach, we rely upon the scientific training of sound body mechanics, timing and force. These scientific principles are unified with the Chinese Taoist concepts of balance, moderation, simplicity, connections within nature, and yielding in order to overcome overwhelming force.
Most methods of fighting rely on muscular strength, speed, flexibility and purely physical attributes. Instead, we focus on training universal principles of physics as applied to self-defense. Learning how to connect our body parts as one unit, we train our body to act as levers, pulleys and wedges. Our arms become sensitive to pressure placed upon them. Through this acquired awareness/sensitivity, we feel for openings in the opponents defense.
At the center of our strategy, is authentic application. You have to practice as closely to how you will need to respond when it matters. Therefore, there is no substitute for realistic sparring. As simple as it may sound, too many martial artists don't seem to put enough emphasis on "realistic" sparring. Whether its over-emphasis on forms, drills, belt testing or talk of theory, their integrity of training suffers and authentic application seems to take a back seat. If they do spar, they do it within a comfortable zone that has little to no bearing on realistic self-defense or they do it with a sporting mentality.
In the end, it's all about taking our training to the next level and being truthful to ourselves.
