Solid as a Rock

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

~Jesus (Matthew 7:24-27)

That passage is typically labeled "The Wise and Foolish Builders" in the Bible. I'm not going to go into the religious significance of Jesus' words here, but I do think the parable has other information that is relevant to what I'm about to say. If you're going to build something, it's got to be on a firm foundation, or else it will collapse in the chaos of a storm.

Everything requires you to have a functional understanding of some fundamental set of skills or ideas before you can advance. In math, we learn how to count, then how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. That's the foundation of mathematics. In photography, you start out with black and white film - not even worrying about colors yet - and learn how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed. You end up with a lot of mediocre pictures at first, but learn from them and figure out how to make your photos better.

Taijutsu is no different. There are fundamental movements that must be drilled over and over until they become instinctive, allowing you to focus on more difficult things like deceptive movement or using a weapon. If you want to build a sturdy house that can stand up to the storms, you have to build it on a rock.

What are the fundamentals? Ukemi, kamae, sanshin, and kihon happo to name a few. Without good ukemi, you'll hurt yourself more than necessary because you don't know how to receive the energy given to you, whether in the form of a throw, a lock, or a strike. Without proper kamae, your structure will be weak and you're more likely to become off-balanced. Sanshin helps teach you how your body moves, as well as strengthens your supports: your legs. Kihon happo contains more lessons than I can think of - and even more that I've yet to discover - but one of them is teaching you how to affect another person's structure while preserving your own.

It's easy to think to yourself after a couple years of practicing these fundamentals that you've got them down pretty well. Your rolls are relatively smooth, you know how to stand in kamae, you know what to do in sanshin, and kihon happo goes well without too many problems. If you're not careful, you will be tempted to accept that decent level of skill and not look for your weaknesses. And believe me, you have them. Even 15th dans have things they need to work on, old habits that need to be broken.

If the fundamentals have become relatively easy for you, try amping up the energy a little bit. You do alright with a partner who cooperates, now ask them to resist a little more (but no statues!!) and to put some aggressive intent into their attack. Move fluidly through the movements you've been practicing and see what stops working. Keep practicing at that level until it becomes easy, then move up again.

A few months ago, I was practicing koku with another student for my shodan test. I wouldn't say I was having an easy time of it, but it wasn't too difficult, either. It was acceptable, probably. Then my sensei came over and started working with me on the same technique, increasing the speed and intensity gradually. The technique started falling apart with just the first increase, and we stayed at that level until I pulled it together again. He increased it again, it started faltering again, and we stayed there until I pulled it together. The stress of having someone punch and kick like they were actually going to hit me forced me to use good timing, angles, and structure (fundamentals) just to keep myself safe.

Stress and chaos will overwhelm you if you do not have a firm foundation in the fundamentals. If you've done any randori before, you know this is true. Once you've got that foundation, though, you can start slowly building a house that won't be easily toppled. How solid is your foundation?