OUT-OF-WORK ACTION HERO

I got my hair cut this morning. It's one of my favourite activities. It's like all my stress is stored up in my hair. So when my hair's gone, I've got much less to worry about. Odd I know.

Anyway, I usually sit in the chair, tell the stylist what clipper lengths I want, and then close my eyes. Last time, the stylist told me I fell asleep. I really didn't. But I like the quiet of getting my hair cut.

It isn't really quiet though. Not at all. Sitting there with my eyes shut, I just listen. The conversation is constant. And, at least at my current Hair Cuttery, it's very multicultural. There are stylists there from all points of the globe. At a glance, there are Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, and Hispanic stylists there. And listening to them try to casually chat with one another (none of them having an iron grip on the one language they tentatively share), my first thought was "man, they must drive each other completely round the bend; none of them can really make out what the other is saying and they're constantly asking for clarification."

Then it occurred to me what a rare and, in some ways, amazing thing that is. Here's a room full of people who are incapable of assuming they know what the other is saying. Instead, they're forced to listen attentively, ask for clarification, and be fully, actively present in the conversation.

How frigging cool is that?! No reacting to what YOU THINK the other person means. No zoning out until it's your turn to talk again. No reading into and beyond what's actually stated. Just listening and responding. That, ladies and gents, is how I think conversations are supposed to work.

You non-martial arts enthusiasts have been warned. Dull post ahead.

I was at arnis practice this morning. And the teacher was late showing up. Some delay on the metro apparently. Anyway, rather than having the people who were there stand around twiddling thumbs, I showed them a couple of drills to practice. And so went much of the practice, even after the teacher showed up. He worked with the beginners and I led some of the more experienced people through some training ideas.

Here's the thing that struck me (so to speak). And I say this as no criticism to anyone involved (though I'm afraid it'll sound that way anyway). Based on my experiences teaching martial arts over the years, I've come to the slow conclusion that the vast majority of people who train have NO INTEREST in applying this stuff. I don't mean entering the ring and duking it out. And I certainly don't mean getting mugged or assaulted. I mean simply sparring or doing what we call freestyle.

There's a progression in martial arts training. To my mind, it works best when you go from most structured and delineated, progress through less structure and more freestyle, and end with a handful of rules to preserve everyone's safety, but a blank canvas in terms of how people move. It's then that people really get to explore their own particular "style", learn how to move with intent, and so on.

What I'm finding, though, is that in the populations I often teach, people would much rather concentrate on performing the drills than on working toward freestyle. I can completely understand that in a way. Drills have rules and roles. They have parameters. You have some basis for knowing whether you're doing it right or wrong that doesn't involve getting clobbered or clobbering someone. And they come to represent a body of knowledge. In other words, you can say (whether you would literally say this or not) "I know arnis, based on my ability to perform sumbrada drills, abecedario drills, sayaw..."

Without those things, the basis for saying you know arnis hinges on your standing opposite some guy with a common goal and actually going at it. Even with padded sticks and safety equipment, that's an intense, scary proposition.

This kind of adds to my appreciation of competitive martial arts (e.g., boxing, fencing, MMA, judo, etc.) Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a sportsman. Never have been. I'd much rather read a book than compete. But what I admire about competitive martial artists is that they're masters of performance-based training. It doesn't matter how well you perform this sequence of movements or how crisp you look doing that drill. What matters is whether you can take that experience and translate it into the ability to clobber someone (or choke them out, or toss them around, or whatever the modus operandi is for your chosen style).

It's not that I think there's anything reprehensible in not wanting to go that direction. I think, first and foremost, that martial arts are a hobby. In this day and age, I'm not likely to be fighting off bandits (or even muggers). I do this because I like it. And that rationale leaves a lot of room for saying "I just want to stick to these drills, thanks."

On the other hand, I feel like that's tantamount to taking dance classes in readiness for the big high school dance, and then standing on the sidelines the whole night casting sidelong glances at the girl you dig. Makes me want to scream "Get in there! That's where the fun is!"

Or as Kevin Bacon so succinctly put it in Footloose: "Let's DANCE!!"