Body Talk

Feeling, the Silent Communication

We must hear the unspoken and see the unseen"

The limitations of the visual sense make information received by the eyes concerning the intentions of an opponent difficult to understand and can be misleading. Studying most any fight in detail will reveal practitioners struggling to apply every skill they have at their disposal, but losing simply because they could not anticipate the enemy's intentions. But then, it is impossible to read an opponent's intentions ... or is it?

During any activity, reports from motor and nerve sensors in the skin, joints, and tendons provide information to the practitioner in the body's own language. This is a language the muscles respond to. These reports come from pressure and movements perceived by our motor and nerve sensors. This language or inner-body communication I call "Body Talk" is the key to finding the correct solution in any fighting situation. Body Talk, like any language, is developed through listening, interpreting, and responding, and is built on a foundation of sensitivity or feeling. Body Talk allows the practitioner to perceive his opponent's position as well as monitor the practitioner's own position. Unlike the visual sense, this process of receiving impressions is unfaltering and once learned, difficult to confound.

To master sensitivity the practitioner needs exercises designed specifically for this purpose. These exercises are known by many names, including Tai Chi Chuan's "push hands', FMA's "Hubud Lubud", Wing Chun's "chi sau" or "sticky hand" training. No matter what name is given to these exercises it must be remembered that without understanding Body Talk, sensitivity training is incomplete. The following three steps will enhance sensitivity and allow the practitioner to experience the Silent Communication of Body Talk.

1. Listening: When practiced correctly and frequently, the sensitivity exercise such as Don Chi Sau (single stick hand training) develops the practitioner's ability to hear information coming from the body's sensors. There are three types of sensors: muscle sensors, joint and skin sensors, and equilibrium sensors. Each of these sensor groups is capable of Body Talk. This silent communication allows the body to feel the messages of cold, hot, thick, thin, coarse, smooth, direction, weight, power, and all other messages that are not seen or heard. Even when blindfolded, the practitioner who has mastered step one will be able to tell the difference between these messages, because the body recognizes those differences. Since the physical pressures of fighting upon the sensors of a beginning student create a demand on the whole body's economy. Chi Sau leads to efficient expenditure of the body's resources. Because it monitors and refashions the practitioner's muscular tension levels from one moment to the next, Chi Sau training lessens the demand on any one part of the body making the body more efficient over all. It also tells the practitioner what he is doing and what is happening to him as a result of what he is doing; whether movements are going according to plan, or whether they are being obstructed.

This increase in the efficient use of energy is accomplished through correct and consistent practice with as many training partners as possible. Practice sessions create a variety of signals the body can hear. If listened-to this process will allow the practitioner to become highly proficient. The practitioner must develop the ability to listen to these signals. It is not enough to simply hear them.

There is a tremendous difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is simply recognizing the signals. Listening will allow the practitioner to understand the significance of every message created through the pressure and force of the opponent's movements. Listening allows the practitioner to interpret the opponent's intentions. Listening can only be accomplished if the practitioner learns to hear not only sounds, but also the Body Talk going on within himself.

2. Interpreting: After the practitioner can listen to the Body Talk, he must use the opportunity to interact with the energy applied by an opponent. This also is accomplished through the drills of Chi Sau. This exercise sharpens the state of nerve sensors in the skin; enhancing one's ability to sort useful information from non-useful any time contact is made with the opponent. As the name 'sticky hand" denotes, the practitioner's contact with an opponent creates a vital communication link, and like telephones connected with a wire, communication is lost once the contact is broken.

   This step is very important to the development of Chi Sau, simply because visual communication is too slow, and as many fighters find to their dismay, it is not always reliable. Anyone who has enjoyed a magician has witnessed how easily the visual sense can be deceived. Since the opponent's actions are essentially a foreign language, the practitioner must learn to interpret them before an effective response can be made.

3. Responding:The final exercises necessary in training Body Talk and can only be achieved after the first two steps are mastered. It allows the practitioner to respond, knowing exactly how to advance or dissipate and how to counter and attack or neutralize intelligently. Since pressure and power can only be felt not seen, the practitioner will know when an opponent moves--even slightly. This skill will allow the body's posture and technique to reposition itself in relation to an opponent during combat. Training in this fashion will make it possible to take information from the sensor nerves directly to the spine and back to the motor nerves, bypassing the conscious thought and the need to analyze the input to the sensors.

   The practitioner must not take this marvelous system for granted, but should actively contemplate through all three steps how the body continually communicates and changes with the sensory stimuli of fighting. This communication allows the invisible forces to be used to their best advantage. When a good foundation of listening and interpreting is laid, it will be easier to reach the advanced stage of responding. It is necessary to observe the principle of gradual progression do not try to hurry this process.

   From beginning to end Chi Sau should be practiced naturally and diligently, through the single and double exercises which include structuring of the techniques to learn: Timing, Rhythm, and Lines of attack. Practitioners learn how moves are put together, and after the first two steps have been mastered, they may then try to find the opponent's lines, balance, force and energy.

   Responding is the easiest step but it will not work if the first two steps are overlooked. Once the practitioner knows and understands the first two steps, the third step of response may then be developed more naturally. Different situations with different partners and frequent practice of varied positions and pressures upon the nerves of the arms and body during sensitivity exercises will produce a cumulative learning effect. The net result is the body talking to itself in its own language. The practitioner then becomes more fluent in the language of Body Talk, which is the fastest way to communicate the perfect position or angle for countering and attacking. Once the practitioner actually feels the body talking and understands what is being said, they can respond appropriately. This process is so fast, it will seem as though a supernatural ability has been developed.

Sensitivity practice develops the body's ability to use feeling as the most effective means of communication. This practice increases the sensitivity of the nerves in your arms. These skin sensors are not only very quick in sensing the movement of the opponent, but they are also very quick in directing the muscle motor nerves without analysis. With the slightest movement, the practitioner will be able to recognize and counter the attack. Enemy like a book is a concept that concurs with a famous Chinese general who said, "Knowing oneself and also one's opponent will make one a hundred times victorious in a hundred battles." The basis for knowing your enemy is the development of Body Talk through sensitivity exercises.

Once the communication link of feeling is developed, the practitioner can properly interpret the constant communication; the constant silent communication of Body Talk going on within. The first time you recognize this talk you will experience a feeling of surprise and astonishment. Is it possible to read an opponent's intentions after all? Yes, but only if you can place yourself beyond human prejudices. By transcending the limits of communication set for average fighters, anything is possible. You now have one of the keys of mastery. But, even when laid out in front of the multitude, very few will understand.