The Importance of No Style
Please note that we are NOT the original writers of this blog post. All credit goes to the original writers. Find the original post as published at this link: http://www.functionalselfdefense.org/blog/the-importance-of-no-style/
What imaginary walls have you built on your own? This is worth seriously thinking about and applying to both your self defense practice and your life. It will make you a better and more satisfied person in every way.
Breaking down the walls will not just allow you to see beyond the limitations of various self defense and martial arts styles, but also to live your life as openly as possible in every moment.
If the style you practice only trains striking, then you won’t know what do to if somebody gets you into a clinch or on the floor. If the style you practice only trains grappling, then you won’t understand how to handle somebody who tries to strike you. If the style you train only involves techniques to certain areas of your body, then you’ll be ill prepared if your opponent attacks you in an area that is off limits in your style.
Are All Designs Bad?
This is far harder than it may seem, and very few people have the ability to come close to attaining it. In Zen, breaking down the walls is “enlightenment”…100% freedom of thought, not limited by anything aside from physics and biology. It means ruining your conception of self, that you feel you are, and therefore the way you think you need to act. It means severing all attachment to everything you have learned.
This does not necessarily mean you should or even can forget what you have learned and experienced. But if you wish to be able to see whatever truth exists beyond what you already think you know, if you want to see where you’re mistaken and what that you believe is wrong, then you must sever your attachments to any knowledge, group, or ideology. If you want to see as clearly as possible, your mind has to be free to do so. It has to be unattached to philosophy, ideology, and style. The truth is beyond them.
In order to train real “self-defense ”, no single style is enough. Additionally, being limited by any single style is detrimental both mentally and physically, restricting what you have the ability to see and what you think about what works and what doesn’t work. Whatever you train or think operates in two directions. Thinking and your training influences how you see the world.
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Some styles train stand up, and some just train ground. Some designs only train strikes, and a few just train locks. Some styles don’t train with weapons at all, and some just train with weapons.
This concept is also quite important beyond self defense and martial arts. Limiting yourself to particular methods of thinking or to particular ideas and ideologies blinds you to the fact outside of them. You literally become a prisoner of your own imaginary walls. Anything beyond your walls becomes bad, wrong, or must be ignored in order to maintain the validity of your walls. If you break down your walls, refusing to attach to any ideology or way of thinking, then you open your mind to the truth regardless of where it originates. Reality and the truth exist beyond any ideology or system of thought. The only way to see as clearly as possible is to break down your walls.
Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do concept, which can be philosophically rooted in Zen, was and still is outstanding. The central aspect of it is to have no personality, to avoid being limited by the confines of particular styles and to maintain a fully open mind concerning everything. It is only with an open or empty mind that you can see clearly, without being blocked by the bounds of particular ideas and ways.
It’s not that every style is all bad. There are great methods, training methods, and strategies in many styles. However, in order for a style for a specific style, it must be defined. It has to be limited to certain ways. And those constraints become your constraints .