What, where, when, who, why and how

Some martial art classes that are taught like gymnastics where skills are standardized and the learning process is more on imitation and less on understanding. As an example, kung-fu forms (or routines) are meaningless without a context of what it is for and what you want to achieve out of its daily practices.

Skills do not stand on its own, they are intended to be answers to specific questions. If you do not know the question, than most likely you will be providing the wrong answer. Following are explanations on why the “Five W”s are so important:

• What– this goes back to the decision process before engagement. What are you trying to accomplish ultimately? Do you just want to take control or is it simply an expression of frustration? Is action/inaction worth the consequences?
• Where– Where you are (and who you are with) changes a lot of variables – space, mobility, early risk detection, accessibility of secondary threats / support. For example, elevator, stair cases, wet tiles in the bathroom, rocky / sandy beaches, crowded area, market, bar, supermarket, near your home, cinema, with girl friend or young children, etc.
• When– Flexibility (own body or external constraints like clothing), response time, achievable speed, available secondary resources change depending on time-of-day and what you have been doing prior. Examples, right after you wake up, if you over ate during dinner you may not be able to run, you may get tipsy after a glass too many, after an intensive workout you may be totally exhausted, etc.
• Who – who is the adversary makes a difference in choices available. The obvious are physical aspect like height, reach, speed, endurance and mental aspect like experience, commitment, secondary support in comparison to you. The less obvious is his/her relationship to you can change how you want to deal with the situation as well. Some examples are: dealing with your boss that had one drink too many, or your teenager son that has been acting up because of his hormone changes… the techniques and skills do not govern you and you should have an arsenal of different tools to deal with different situations as you please.
• Why – knowing why a certain technique work is important because it put parameters around its applicability. Knowing why something works means that you are not restricted to canned solutions and you can apply the same principles elsewhere. Having an inquisitive mindset makes training and learning fun.
• How– whenever we talk about “hows”, we are talking about options. When you evaluate options, it is driven by your personal priorities. Just like buying cars, there isn’t a universally-best car for everyone, the decision is based on resources and needs. Skill-driven self defense means that the tail is wagging the dog. Furthermore, obsession with how may mean that you are so committed to a specific answer that you don’t care what the question is.

Exercise

• Assess when you are most vulnerable and is there anything you can do about it?
• Are you prone to indecision? How can you improve on it?
• Why do you need “a single bullet”? Why do you need multiple engines? Think through some of the “why”s that we have gone through in class and extrapolate based on it
• What is internal versus external limitations? Are you aware of your own internal limits as well as external limits? Can you make plans to change them?
• Given the weekly articles, do you have specific action plans to change something so that it is worth your time (and my time)?

(click on picture to see the words. I do not own the copyright of this image.)