Question posted by “Jose” on 04/01/05:

Hello, I am being introduced to JKD by Brent Lance, and I have noticed that JKD footwork is fast and agile, and that the person is in constant motion.  When moving around or executing a technique, I find myself tensing up- especially in the shoulder area.  Is there someway that I could get out of this habit?

I think it came from having trained in a traditional style, where sparring was not really emphasized.

I would really appreciate your help.

My response:

Though I’m not sure why, (evolutionarily speaking), tenseness is a natural biological reaction to an unfamiliar situation.  It’s totally mental, but nonetheless a factor that is difficult to control.

I wish there was a quick fix to get rid of it, but the only way to attain fluidity in a sparring/fighting situation, is to spar or fight.  Think about your first day at school.  For most of us, that was a very tense situation, and you probably found yourself stuttering when your new classmates asked even the simplest of questions.

“Hey!  What’s your name?”

* silence *

“I’m talking to you, whitey!  What’s your name?!?”

“Uh, um, Matt…  I mean MIKE!  Mike Burrito…  DESCADO!  Mike Descado!”

My high school experiences in Mississippi were probably not the norm, but the same rules apply.  The more you went to school, the more familiar it became, until you were totally comfortable when your mom dropped you off at 7 a.m. each morning.

The same is true in combat.

The fist time I grappled full speed against another person, I almost shit my pants.  I was all stiff and out of breath, and I kept freaking out every time the guy got a superior position.  By that time, (1998, if memory serves), I had a pretty impressive arsenal of ground fighting techniques- but that “knowledge” did me NO GOOD because I was too panicked to employ it. 

Ah, but the more I grappled, the more familiar it became, and soon my body was acting without conscious direction from my mind.  A feed was presented, and BAM!!! I acted on it.  Sure, I still get butterflies, (especially when I’m going up against someone I don’t know, or someone I DO know that’s better than me), but the “tenseness” is no longer present because my natural state of being, is relaxation. 

As I said before, there’s no quick fix here.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  Putting yourself in that “tense” situation over and over again will gradually extinguish the tenseness.  You may still be uneasy, but it won’t show in your actions because- biologically speaking- the right neural networks have been developed so that you do it correctly without thinking.

Since Brent quoted Peter Freer in a recent post, I’m gonna do the same: “A NFL running back barreling down the field with ball in hand doesn’t think about which foot is hitting the ground where- he just runs.  Why?  Because he’s been in that situation so many times, it’s his natural state of physical expression.”

I’m paraphrasing a bit, but I hope you get the idea.  If you’re tense in the shoulder region when you spar, Jose, KEEP SPARRING.  Once it becomes a familiar experience to you, the techniques you execute so flawlessly against a heavy bag, or a pair of focus mitts, will start to come out when you’re facing off against a living opponent.

Repetition, repetition, repetition…