The next grading is coming up, which means it’s a good time to focus on improving the basic and most fundamental skills of our system. To many people see gradings as a checklist procedure where they demonstrate their knowledge of the various techniques they’ve learnt – and if they perform them adequately they pass. In the UK educational system, simple memorization is graded as an “E”; it’s still a pass but at the same time it’s a pass that’s a long way from an “A”. In a grading you can pass with an “E” or an “A” but there is a difference. In our system, what identifies or makes the “A” grade student stand out is their performance and improvement in the area of the fundamental skills, the most important one being movement.

I can tell a “good” martial artist the moment they step out on to the mats: their movement is assured, and they know why they are moving. This is what separates them from the beginner, who is just learning the correct way/the technique(s) to move. Whether consciously or subconsciously the good martial artist know the reasons why they move: 1. To create opportunity, 2. To move away from an attack and 3. To make their own attack(s). These are the three reasons to move. If number one is performed successfully, point number two never needs to be performed.

Movement is everything: if you cannot create opportunity then the other person will dictate to you the terms of the conflict; you create opportunity by moving. If you can’t make a successful body defense in response to an attack, you will find yourself hassled and harassed to deal with the following attacks, and never be in a position to make an assault/attack of your own.

In any confrontation I’ve had to deal with, whether against single or multiple assailants, I have always set things up with movement (especially true when dealing with multiple attackers). This may have been in the pre-conflict phase during the interview/dialogue stage of the conflict or during the actual fight itself. This is why it is important to stay calm and assess the environment from the first instance it becomes obvious that a situation may contain harmful intent towards you. It is key to understand the use of objects in the landscape such as cars, walls etc that can be used to your advantage or hinder you in your movements. The dojo/studio floor offers an uncluttered and “sterile” training environment however this isn’t where you will be attacked and understanding how to move in real-life terrain(s) is a key survival skill – this is why we are looking to create a reality training area in the studio.

One of the reasons we have been doing so much multiple assailant/attacker training this month is to try and “force” movement. It is so easy to become complacent in movement when it is just one person against one e.g. both parties can “choose” not to move (this often happens because people naturally copy each other’s movements). In multiple attacker training this is not the case, as the movement advantage clearly goes to the attackers and so the target is forced to think and work harder with their own movement piece.

If there is one thing I can advise everyone on it is to start moving: in order to create opportunity for yourself and deny opportunity to your attacker(s).