Respect the Distance

I've had the pleasure of being at Vladimir's school up in Toronto for the past few days. As always: there has been a flood of information to take in and plenty to think about with respect to future training.

One topic that I had the chance to talk with Vlad about was striking distance. I might have posted on this a little bit before--but working with Vladimir directly really drives the concept into it's full solidity. This distance is a "comfortable" distance for doing work, in this case striking. Vladimir said that people aren't typically used to this middle ground--they will either fight with at least some amount of fear or with a lot of aggression. Some will fight in sparring mode: staying a safe distance then moving in quickly for a kick or a jab. Others will fight aggressively, closing the distance, taking the fight to the ground, or overpowering the other person with strikes. In order to be effective with either of these two extremes and everything in between, the distance must be respected.

The specific drill we worked on today was a progression from some arm-only strikes. We ended with one person trying to grab and the other keeping the comfortable distance while doing a few quick and hopefully effective strikes. This distance is kept no matter whether the opponent is backing off or pursuing. In other words, keep this middle distance until the work is done. This distance is best seen by walking around your partner while they stand still and placing your fist on them. A good understanding of structural alignment and also of impact transferrance in strikes helps with this. By placing your fist on your partner with proper structure (straight spine, relaxed shoulders, not reaching for the strike, but not too close either), one can get a good idea of what will be an effective distance for striking. I know there are a lot of concepts involved in this concept of "middle distance", but the best way to describe it is just to find the most comfortable position.

Vladimir referred to this as "the warrior's distance". A warrior will fight at this distance because it allows the most freedom from too much fear or aggression. Two warriors, fighting against eachother, will still fight at this distance, and one will eventually prevail for whatever reason.