On Expertise and Efficiency

Recently, because of my parallel study of Fiore and shinkage, I've been running into a problem with the "official" version of both, as demonstrated in lessons or manuscripts.  Both schools teach a philosophy of reacting to openings, rather than forcing an outcome, so I feel there's adequate basis for discussion.  The basic problem is this: There are a number of critical lessons that aren't taught, either directly or by implication.  They both do a good job of teaching, by implication, things like measure and timing, because you drill to find the exact moment and distance in which you can Do The Thing.  They also assume that there are fractional differences in skill or ability between two combatants, such that a truly "even" fight never occurs.  What they don't teach is what happens when a fight is too close to call.

This happens on a fairly regular basis in SCA heavy combat, where two combatants will exchange half a dozen blows each without any of them being telling, retreat, circle, and reevaluate.  The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that one or the other of them will simply run out of energy.  Neither Fiore nor Yagyû are super-clear on what happens then, but there are some clues as to how to approach it.  I will of course neglect the trivial solution of "don't get in a long fight, because no one wins a long fight;" this is about what happens if that undesirable event comes to pass.

One of the basic principles of training in all forms of combat sports is "start big, work smaller."  That is to say, to get the student in the correct learning frame, movements are initially gross and inefficient.  Sword cuts are large, sweeping movements with exaggerated hip rotation; knees bend very deeply; the readying movement of a cut is dramatic; steps are long and deep.  The same movements performed by a master are very small - the sword travels a very short arc with a fast but shallow hip rotation; the knees bend automatically and don't exaggerate through the move; the sword orientation is automatic; steps go where they need to be, not to a full extension.

Perhaps the easiest Fiore-based example to understand here is a mandritto fendente from posta longa.  The position holds the sword very extended in front of the fighter, and the cut goes from high-right to low-left.  The typical way this cut is taught involves starting in one of the high positions - falcone, donna, or fenestre - and swinging through a long, natural, looping cut that is easy to train but generally easy to see coming.  It is easy to teach, but it has the consequence that from posta longa, a new fighter will incorporate some of that initial backswing in the cut from posta longa, where the sword is already extended and bringing the sword back uses calories and time.  A master, meanwhile, will adjust the blade alignment and position the sword for the cut with a minor wrist, elbow, and shoulder adjustment.  To the new student, it looks like a magic trick; it's actually just practice until the inefficiencies are ironed out.  By simplifying the movements down to the most-efficient means of delivering the attack, the master uses less energy to achieve the same result.

This has two consequences in the fight.  First is that the movements, being shorter, more compact, and more efficient, appear faster; the student is capable of moving across that exact same range, and in fact does so, but with extra effort that gets pared down through experience.  Second is that the movement requires less energy; the time until oxygen debt and caloric deficit is therefore longer.  This, of course, does not change the fact that eventually that point arrives, but a third consequence of continuous practice is that the body is so used to making the movements that they become automatic and continuing after exhaustion is much easier, so the effects of exhaustion are lessened.

Thus, the solution to the problem of what happens when the combatants are too evenly matched to decide the fight quickly is "just keep fighting," but it is rarely trained or expressed as such.  Part of this is, of course, the projection of confidence - especially given that Fiore's manuscripts can be looked at as sales brochures, advertising a short fight, and ways of achieving that, is a better move than advertising that, with training, even dangerously long fights become manageable.  Same with the Yagyû approach; watching a couple of advanced students go at a form for an extended period shows that it is certainly viable for an extended fight, even if the emphasis is on not fighting to a draw.  The problem, then, is that this is not acknowledged or discussed, not that it isn't addressed.

How do you train for that?

Obviously, one practices, and irons out the kinks in each movement one practices; this is why foundational movements are so important in all forms of fighting.  The Bruce Lee quote about throwing a thousand punches, versus one punch a thousand times, applies here.  Second, you work to extend the interval before the gas light comes on, and you work to understand first when the gas light comes on, and second when the tank is really empty.  When the light comes on, you need to end the fight; when the tank is really empty, if you haven't ended it, it will get ended for you.  This means that training should vary in intensity - low-intensity to get the movements right, medium-intensity to show the movements under pressure and for an extended period, and high-intensity to expand the limits of the fight.  A training system that only focuses on high-intensity training, such as a sparring-only training regimen, fails to get the movements right; a training system that only focuses on low-intensity training becomes mannered and impractical for an actual fight, like tai chi.  Ideally, all three forms of training should occur in a single session, with a ramp-up from low to high, then low-intensity training as a cooldown and a way of capturing lessons learned from the high-intensity period.  In this way, the period between first picking up a combat form, and when the mind and body have both learned the shortest, most efficient way of executing a movement - in other words, technical mastery, after which a student is competent to teach technique as well as learn nuance - can be brought down from decades, to years.