Intro
MMA fighter and activist Alana McLaughlin visited the LMA (Liberation Martial Arts) Learning Lab for her first LMA session and was kind enough to let us document it. Everyone's first session is similar but also unique because LMA is an approach rather than a fixed style, so it adapts to the individual. LMA is highly structured, but the structure is not fixed beforehand—it's built together during the session.
We don't use instructors, coaches, or even facilitators. Instead, LMA uses training organizers (TO) who design and organize the sessions, often in real-time with the practitioners. The structure is co-created. This is different from skill sharing, where people take turns being the authority and expert.
Conversations and scaffolding activities allow us to set the direction, and then the practitioners and TOs navigate together. TOs are fluid; practitioners can step into that role, and TOs can step into the practice. There is no one fixed way to do it.
Navigation doesn't require speaking since navigation is done with the body, and information is relayed through the body. Whether practitioners say anything or not, they are still co-creating because their bodies are always speaking—often first and more accurately. Speaking itself doesn't mean co-creation either because, in commercial and normative settings, you speak to get permission or to ask questions from the authority. When you start with autonomy and consent, you don't need words to constantly ask for self-determination or verification.
Alana already has years of training, so some of our time was spent unlearning. Rather than leaving with a lot, I told her she would leave with less. At the time, she also had a Thai-boxing match scheduled, which contextualized our training.
As a TO, I attune to the LMA practitioner before me. We talked beforehand and during. Together, we became aware that past traumas were shaping her current movements. This informs our structure. Planning everything ahead of time removes the need to listen. Lots of radicals fail and replicate reactionary tendencies by removing autonomy and self-determination before the session even starts. "If and when I get students, I'm going to do this, this, and this." Making it all about me, me, me—the teacher—is the Western hegemonic student-teacher dynamic. The students don't get a say; they are dehumanized blank canvases, and the teacher is the painter. It's all about what the teacher wants to do, centering the teacher as the main protagonist, authority, and hero. You finally get to be in charge and have power. "It's my turn." But turn to what? Replicate the same model. This is coloniality disguising itself as a universal pedagogy and harm disguised as care. What does it matter if your gym is ACAB if you're using cop/military pedagogy?
