Game Speed
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A developing Liberation Martial Arts (LMA) practitioner with only ten rounds of gameplay and a practitioner with developed eyes with 100 rounds of gameplay might know the same moves, but how quickly they can deliver their actions is the difference.
Newer practitioners might assume the experienced practitioner thinks multiple moves ahead, but it's actually the opposite. The experienced practitioner only thinks one or perhaps two moves ahead. It's the newer practitioner who thinks about a lot of things, including thinking about how many moves ahead the experienced practitioner is thinking.
Not only is there a difference in mechanical speed, but the lack of hesitation makes the experienced practitioner seem fast, and overthinking makes the newer practitioner seem slow. The experienced practitioner can see the gears turning in the newer practitioner, whereas, to the new practitioner, the experienced practitioner flows like water without gaps or hesitation. No matter how slowly the experienced practitioner moves, every action surprises the newer practitioner. Even though the action is slowly happening in front of their nose, their eyes have turned inward on their own process.
There is no difference between perfectionism and procrastination; they're both slow. Newer practitioners start out as perfectionists because of the societal and educational conditioning they've been through.
Perfectionism takes long to execute. An experienced practitioner with developed eyes just goes and sees what happens. Their perception leads their actions. "I see, I go, I see, I go." Perfectionism doesn't see; it waits, it thinks, and then it may or may not go; all the while, the experienced practitioner sees all their hesitation and goes before them. Perception contextualizes your actions to your conditions. Perfection decontextualizes your actions from your conditions. Perfection exists in a vacuum, while perception is about existing in your environment.
Through play and exploration, we want new practitioners to see there is no right way to do something, only their own way based on the context. Speed doesn't come from being fast or even from being smooth. Speed comes from a lack of hesitation. It's not "see a target, think, then fire;" it's "see and fire." It's not seeing the shot coming, thinking about what to do, then dodging. It's seeing and dodging. What you're training isn't your thought process; what you're training is your eyes and perception. You're learning to see and react quicker. There should be minimal thought process, just flowing from perception to action, perception to action with no fat. This is the speed of the game; this is moving at game speed.
Sometimes, messiness and mistakes can arise from constant seeing and reacting, but it's still far less messiness and far fewer mistakes than when there's lots of thinking. In fact, the urgency of dynamic gameplay requires you to be present in your senses, not withdrawing into your thoughts. But if we allow room for safe exploration and awkwardness, there is less need to think and hesitate. Practitioners improve faster than they would under traditional training environments.
Follow-up Discussion
Here are some reader comments and my responses.
Senny writes:
The "thinking multiple moves ahead" is appropriate for chess and some other things that are less dynamic than martial arts. In dynamic games, you can't be angling ten moves ahead. The mistake many people make is thinking that a fight is like chess.
Exactly. Chess is turn-based, where you are given ample time to think. Sparring games or sparring in general is simultaneous. Since you don't have time to think, it's not about thinking faster but automaticity.
Senny continues:
Among the various causes of perfectionism (and other forms of hesitation) is the feeling of risk. People who feel they have a lot to lose reasonably act as perfectionists. If you throw a beginner (e.g., me) into a cage for full-contact MMA, the beginner is going to know that every move counts, causing a whole lot of thinking and hesitation. Similarly, gyms that focus on fear trigger that kind of reaction, even if the stakes aren't really that high. By contrast, your LMA approach begins with safety and playfulness, which allows people the freedom to grow into it. They don't have to fear that one misstep will leave them unconscious on the floor.
Bingo.
Pan Et Rosa writes:
How do you incorporate the need to step back and think? How do you ensure you're firing at the right targets and not making mistakes?
You don't ensure you're hitting the right targets. That's the fun part. "Making mistakes" is part of the learning process, and you're given the room to do that. This is how you learn, and there is no right way the learning process should look. Perfectionism comes from fear, and fear comes from stakes, but since we're playing in a safe environment, the stakes are low. Since this is Liberation Martial Arts, you're given grace. It's a paradigm shift in learning.
When you have two new practitioners, they'll constantly miss their targets because they're still learning to aim and see openings. When you have two developed practitioners, they'll constantly miss their targets because their defenses have gotten a lot better. You should never get used to constantly hitting your targets because that would mean your sparring partner has no personhood, no ability to improve, and no want to avoid getting hit. It's an internally focused view rather than partner-focused. Constantly hitting your targets also means the game is unevenly matched (experience disparity), where the experienced practitioner is not scaling to the newer practitioner.
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