Universal Truths

HAVING been in the martial arts game now for more than 25 years I'm still struck by how much the different arts have in common.

We often get caught up in "our style" that we forget there is far less that separates us than we imagine.

Now seasoned martial arts instructors who have trained in various systems will already know this through experience.

But often beginners, or those with few years in the arts, imagine that the styles are very distinct from each other...and superficially they may appear that way...


After all, Taekwondo does not look much like Aikido, for instance. And Capoeira doesn't seem to share much in common with Kali.

But if you look more carefully there are more similarities than you may think.

For example, in the Filipino arts there is the escala - a grid if you like where you can practise the art of angling for defence and attack using sticks, weapons and empty-hand techniques.

And if you ever get a chance to look at Capoiera or Wing Chun you will see similar uses of the same angles, albeit done in a different way. Instead of a grid that shows the directions to strike...you can lie it on the floor and have grid for footwork...

This basic grid is also found in other systems - again done differently - but essentially it’s the same grid. It’s known in swords arts and I've seen it in Ju-jitsu syllabuses.

And the interesting thing about this grid is - if you change it from being a foot pattern and impose it on the person, it becomes the lines of attack which weapons flow through. So now there are multiple lines of attack and evasion in three dimensions.

Shift the X-angles inward so it forms a tight roman X and those are the basic sword cut angles you can strike with using a Katana (V).

Now as a foot grid it become the eight angles of evasion...the ways you can evade an in-coming attack, or the angles of attack which you can angle along to put yourself at the best position to strike.

Are those known to Karate? Yes - think of the katas and you will see them being employed there also. Take the beginning of the pinan katas (heian) and you see moves... to the left, then to the right, then a 90 degree turn to the rear followed by a 180 degree turn to the front.

And it’s known to just about every art - it might not be taught as such - but if you look closely you will see played over and over again regardless of the system.

In Aikido those are the points you will move to albeit using a circle to get there instead of directly going down or back on them (although Aikido DOES go down and along those lines on the floor usually by stepping out with a foot before it commences or as part of the circular motion, for example).

That is because those lines are a basic universal truth whether they are used on the floor as a foot pattern grid or as angles for weapons or empty-hand strikes. A roundhouse kick to the head...simply shift the centre point of the escala to the head and a roundhouse kick then follows either an X-angle or a Cross-angle, depending on the way the roundhouse kick is done...

In Filippino arts they use basic foot patterns, some which are described as asterisked A's.
V shaped and then inverted the other way so the ^ now stands on two legs (there are many of these foot patterns and I'm using the most basic here). Put those together so they join where the lines point and you've got the X-angle again...

But it’s not just something as basic as those eight angles that are universal truths.

A friend of mine Master Robert Brooks is an expert in western swords. He kindly showed me some very old texts which western sword arts were explained. In the texts were many sword disarms.

They resemble many of the techniques you can see in Ju-jutsu, Aikido and Ninjutsu, Chin Na Karate, Kung Fu and on and on.

In Aikido there is a technique known as Kotei gaeshi. But it’s not peculiar to that system and is found just about every other system in one form or another. In Ninjutsu its gyakudori ura, in Karate (beginning of Passai) its known as kotei and in Ju-jutsu as kotei ura and so on and so on (it often has different names from style to style even in a particular system such as Karate).

It is also seen in old western sword schools...why? Because it’s a universal truth - if I bend your wrist and twist you will - because of body mechanics - be either thrown to the floor or, at the very least, be severely unbalanced.

Is it known to kicking arts such as Taekwondo? Well, yes...it’s in the books written by General Choi...but whether it’s in sport Taekwondo is a different matter as the focus for those schools is sport not the original self-defence methods first envisaged by the style's founder.

I've used those examples as just that examples...there are many other universal truths between the different arts.

What makes the systems different is merely the emphasis. In Karate its punching and kicking, in Taekwondo its kicking and punching, in Ju-jutsu its throwing and locking...

But the universal truths are there if you look for them...the similarities that thread through all the combat arts and link them altogether.

You merely have to open your eyes, your heart and more importantly your mind to truly see them.

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk