{"id":2415,"date":"2021-07-01T14:33:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T18:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=2415"},"modified":"2021-07-01T14:33:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T18:33:22","slug":"the-principles-of-a-martial-system-warrior-flow-combatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2021\/07\/the-principles-of-a-martial-system-warrior-flow-combatives.html","title":{"rendered":"The Principles of a Martial System: WARRIOR FLOW COMBATIVES"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a previous essay, I delineated and explained some of the fundamental principles that constitute the training modality of Warrior Flow Combatives.\u00a0 Here, we will delve further into this most unique of combat systems.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with the identity of the human person as an indissoluble unity of body and mind, the combative principles of Warrior Flow\u2014<strong>Equilibrium-Control<\/strong>, <strong>Subtle Muscle-Control<\/strong>, <strong>Perceptual Awareness<\/strong>, <strong>Dynamic Coordination<\/strong>, and <strong>Creativity<\/strong>\u2014supplies to students both and at once the physical <em>and<\/em> mental conditioning in the absence of which martial development is impossible.<\/p>\n<p>Mastery of these five principles is tantamount to perfection of the three inseparable cardinal mental habits of <strong>Perfect Clarity<\/strong>, <strong>Moral Certainty<\/strong>, and <strong>Ruthless Intention<\/strong>.\u00a0 These traits, it\u2019s critical to note, are indeed <em>psychological<\/em> in nature.\u00a0 Yet they aren\u2019t <em>only <\/em>psychological.\u00a0 They are as well <em>intellectual.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The psyche consists of the totality of mental phenomena pleasant and unpleasant, good and bad, rational, irrational, and even neurotic.\u00a0 The psyche is what it is. \u00a0Its condition, in other words, is <em>descriptive<\/em>.\u00a0 The intellect, in contrast, is <em>normative<\/em>, for the coin in which it trades is <em>reason.\u00a0 <\/em>The intellect, that is, is supposed to be governed by <em>logical<\/em>, and not illogical, considerations.\u00a0 It always aspires to think at it <em>ought, <\/em>as it <em>should. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>In theory, the psychological and the intellectual are separate provinces of the mind.\u00a0 Indeed, in practice, for most people, the two remain distinct.\u00a0 Within Warrior Flow, however, the psychological and the intellectual fuse into one seamless mind.\u00a0 More accurately, they fuse into one seamless <em>will<\/em>, the Warrior\u2019s will.<\/p>\n<p>And the Warrior\u2019s will is nothing more or less than the considered determination to obliterate, at a microsecond\u2019s notice and without a scintilla of guilt or regret, anyone who preys upon innocents\u2014whether himself, his loved ones and neighbors, or others\u2014that are within the Warrior\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n<p>Notice, the Warrior\u2019s will is not the function of impulse, instinct, or raw passion (like fear or rage).\u00a0 It is a <em>considered<\/em> determination.\u00a0 The Warrior\u2019s will is the product of <em>education<\/em>, of training.\u00a0 Warrior Flow students are not only taught to always bear in mind that there are human beings in the world who are bigger, stronger, faster, more agile, more athletic, younger, and more dangerous than themselves. \u00a0Their training is <em>predicated upon the operational assumption that anyone and everyone against whom they may battle has every one of these physical advantages over them. <\/em>\u00a0The reason for this is simple:<\/p>\n<p>When it is assumed that any and all potential adversaries are superior in every conceivable respect to oneself, then one trains so as to <em>neutralize <\/em>these advantages before they can materialize.<\/p>\n<p>And Warrior Flow students train to neutralize the enemy <em>not<\/em> by focusing upon the mastery of any specific set of <em>techniques<\/em>, but by immersing themselves in the combative <em>principles<\/em> of the art.<\/p>\n<p>The distinction within the context of self-protection between \u201ctechniques\u201d and \u201cprinciples\u201d is essentially the same distinction between \u201c<em>plans<\/em>\u201d and \u201c<em>planning<\/em>\u201d that General Eisenhower once drew. \u00a0\u201cIn preparing for battle,\u201d Ike remarked, \u201cI have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The techniques of other species of combatives are plans.\u00a0 The principles of Warrior Flow constitute planning.<\/p>\n<p>(Now, and with all due respect to their practitioners, I do not mean to suggest that the techniques of these combatives programs are \u201cuseless,\u201d as Eisenhower described plans. But, ultimately, training in principles is superior, for principles, transcending as they do all techniques, enable students to avail themselves, at a moment\u2019s notice, of possibilities for action to which a person limited to the techniques in which he has been trained must remain oblivious.\u00a0 The person who trains in principles, though, is ceaselessly planning).<\/p>\n<p>In other words, in glaring contrast to other real-world combatives \u201csystems,\u201d Warrior Flow\u2019s is\u2014imagine that!\u2014a <em>system, <\/em>a <em>genuine<\/em> system. <em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is not a combination, a buffet of combative techniques (that are, by and large, common to all self-styled combative \u201csystems\u201d) <em>conjoined with<\/em> a method by which practitioners can condition their psyches for battle.\u00a0 There is nothing systematic about a salad\u2014even though, between its ingredients, there may be a \u201cfamily resemblance,\u201d to borrow the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein\u2019s term for things that, while similar, are not related by any common denominator.<\/p>\n<p>Warrior Flow is not a Many that remain a Many in reality, but is only made to <em>seem <\/em>like a One via clever labeling.<\/p>\n<p>Warrior Flow is a Many that is <em>really<\/em> One, a single, unified martial system.\u00a0 Its combative principles are conceptually or theoretically distinct but, in practice, essentially one and the same.\u00a0 Students don\u2019t\u2014and can\u2019t\u2014focus on anyone of the five combative principles while failing to master the other four, and since the movement that they are always seeking to refine through immersion in these principles is movement designed to decimate, with ruthless efficiency, those who would victimize innocents, it is equally impossible for them to engage in physical training without also developing the mental virtues of Perfect Clarity, Moral Certainty, and Ruthless Intention.<\/p>\n<p>Warrior Flow is like an organism, not a machine, a constitution, not a collection.\u00a0 Unlike many other styles, it recognizes that since the numerous members of one\u2019s body are continually operating in a virtually simultaneous fashion, so too do these members continue to operate the same when they are engaged for the purposes of battle.\u00a0 Thus, Warrior Flow\u2019s training modality, as by now should be clear, is purposed for the sake of training students how to crush the enemy within \u201c<strong>the <em>Quantum<\/em> Sphere<\/strong>,\u201d a spatial-temporal order comprised of <em>dimensions<\/em>\u2014not sequentially or chronologically-layered events or levels\u2014between which students are trained to \u201c<strong><em>tunnel<\/em><\/strong>\u201d or \u201c<strong><em>teleport<\/em><\/strong>\u201d and all with an eye toward destroying the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>These dimensions are the three that human beings occupy in space, those of <strong>Length<\/strong>, <strong>Width<\/strong>, and <strong>Height<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yet they also include <strong>Time<\/strong>, <strong>The<\/strong> <strong>Future<\/strong>, <strong>Anticipation<\/strong>, and <strong>Creativity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Time: <\/em>A physical confrontation between two or more people doesn\u2019t occur only within space. We must remember that it as well occurs over time.\u00a0 And since time is relative to the observer, this means that victory over the enemy demands, necessarily, that the victor manipulate, i.e. assume <em>control <\/em>of, the enemy\u2019s temporal orientation, his perception of time, no less than the enemy\u2019s space-in-time.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, Warrior Flow students learn, through mastery of the five combative principles, how to always move <em>deceptively.\u00a0 <\/em><strong>Deception<\/strong>, after all, is the basis of all warfare, as Sun Tzu declared. \u00a0In moving with maximal economy, Warrior Flow students conceal their intention(s) from the enemy and, in so doing, radically upset his timing.<\/p>\n<p>Through continual refinement of their subtle muscle-control and perceptual awareness, students learn not just how and when to <em>accelerate<\/em>, but, critically, how and when to <em>decelerate.\u00a0 <\/em>Via the development of the latter skill, Warrior Flow students become capable of both \u201c<strong><em>stopping time<\/em><\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong><em>slowing down time<\/em><\/strong>\u201d within microseconds\u2014just long enough to send the enemy off to his eternal deserts.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Future: <\/em>\u201cFighting in the Future,\u201d to be more exact.\u00a0 \u201cIn battle, if you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.\u201d\u00a0 So remarked the legendary and undefeated 17<sup>th<\/sup> century Samurai warrior, Miyamoto Musashi.\u00a0 Warrior Flow students capitalize on this pearl of wisdom by figuring out quickly that in putting the enemy on the defensive, they force a response from him.\u00a0 What this in turn means is that in going on the offensive, they will lead the enemy to that future location at which they are already waiting, that juncture in time at which the enemy hasn\u2019t yet arrived but to which he is inexorably moving and at which his fate will be sealed.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t take any training for anyone to realize that by making any kind of movement toward another person, the person who initiates the movement makes the second move in turn.\u00a0 Effortlessly and without intention, we both provoke reactions from and react to the movements of strangers on a virtually daily basis (whenever and wherever we have to navigate space-time vis-\u00e0-vis other human beings).\u00a0 This being the case, through training Warrior Flow students learn how to provoke the kinds of reactions from the enemy that are designed to lead him to his own demise.<\/p>\n<p><em>Anticipation: \u00a0<\/em>This is anticipation of <em>possibilities and probabilities, <\/em>of potential futures, potential ways within which Warrior Flow practitioners defeat the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>In moving deceptively\u2014i.e. with maximal efficiency, meaning no more and no less than one needs to move\u2014Warrior Flow students upset the enemy\u2019s timing.\u00a0 What this means is that with each passing microsecond students dramatically <em>narrow<\/em> the enemy\u2019s range of possible courses of action while dramatically <em>expanding <\/em>the range of possibilities for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>And this, of course, is all due to the fact that Warrior Flow students train to \u201cfight in the future,\u201d that place along the space-time continuum where all of the possibilities of which they can avail themselves already exist and whose actualization they can bring about at a millisecond\u2019s notice if only they choose to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, because they are in the future awaiting the arrival of the enemy with all of the patience\u2014and eagerness\u2014with which a batter awaits the arrival of the ball that he plans upon smashing, <em>whichever<\/em> possible future Warrior Flow students decide to realize is <em>correct<\/em>: Critical injury, maiming, and killing\u2014whichever fate Warrior Flow students choose to allot to the enemy are in the cards for him, for the enemy is too far behind in time to do anything to thwart his own demise.<\/p>\n<p><em>Creativity: <\/em>It was mentioned above that Warrior Flow training simultaneously develops both body and mind (for the two are one), and that the mental aspect is psychological, yes, but as well intellectual.\u00a0 Here we should note that the intellect always involves <em>imagination.\u00a0 <\/em>Indeed, the imagination is integral to the intellect (even though the contemporary fetishizing of \u201cScience\u201d and the poverty of imagination of those who do the fetishizing have led many astray into thinking otherwise).<\/p>\n<p>Warrior Flow training expands its students\u2019 imaginative capacities.\u00a0 It expands their conceptual horizons, revealing a virtual cosmos of possibilities and probabilities from which to choose in visiting destruction upon the enemy.\u00a0 By now it should be clear that Warrior Flow training equips students with this insight by enabling them to time their movement so as to teleport to the future\u2014<em>their<\/em> future(s), the future(s) of their choosing\u2014ahead of the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>These are the seven dimensions of combat.\u00a0 \u00a0Warrior Flow students train to battle in the Quantum Sphere.\u00a0 In so doing, they are always making themselves both <strong><em>unavailable <\/em><\/strong>and <strong><em>unavoidable <\/em><\/strong>with respect to the enemy.\u00a0 Moving, as they do, ahead of the enemy\u2019s movement, they are unavailable.\u00a0 However, they are also now unavoidable to him, for, being in the future, there is virtually nothing that he can do to escape the brutality to which he will be subjected. \u00a0<em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>More coming on this unique art.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a previous essay, I delineated and explained some of the fundamental principles that constitute the training modality of Warrior Flow Combatives.\u00a0 Here, we will delve further into this most unique of combat systems. In keeping with the identity of the human person as an indissoluble unity of body and mind, the combative principles of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Principles of a Martial System: WARRIOR FLOW COMBATIVES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2021\/07\/the-principles-of-a-martial-system-warrior-flow-combatives.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Principles of a Martial System: WARRIOR FLOW COMBATIVES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a previous essay, I delineated and explained some of the fundamental principles that constitute the training modality of Warrior Flow Combatives.\u00a0 Here, we will delve further into this most unique of combat systems. 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