Float
Swimming is a universal metaphor for movement
Swimming is a universal metaphor for movement. The challenge of learning to swim isn't about memorizing the mechanics of arm and leg movements; it's about the ability to relax enough to float. The difficulty lies not in isolated movements but in attuning yourself to the water—to the environment. It's about ease.
Imagine isolating and drilling the mechanics of swimming outside the pool. That's our current Western paradigm for teaching movement practices, sometimes even swimming. However, none of that transfers over to the pool. Whenever you enter a dynamic, fluid environment, isolated mechanics fall short. Liberation Martial Arts (LMA) rejects this colonial and mechanistic approach to learning. The essence of swimming is not the isolated mechanics but floating. Isolating means isolating the movement from the practice environment—swimming without water. It's not about drilling mechanics into your head outside of the pool but the number of hours your body spends immersed in the pool. Likewise, in LMA, the essence of movement is ease—relaxing into the conditions and environment where learning happens.
If you are not comfortable in the water, without a sense of ease, you cannot learn. If you are tense or startled, you cannot float—you cannot learn. You must first situate yourself in a context to learn where learning itself occurs in context.
You don't "teach" floating; you foster it. Likewise, real learning is fostered, not formally instructed. LMA doesn't rely on instructors but instead on training organizers who set the conditions for learning. Comfort comes from dwelling in your practice space, allowing yourself to be at ease. This principle of dwelling is central to LMA's pedagogy: your training space is not separate from you, but part of you. You do not merely occupy it—you co-create it with your body and actions​​.