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In the Liberation Martial Arts approach, we don't have styles or techniques, just games (rulesets). What we mean by liberation is expansive, which means freedom from rigid pedagogy and even rigid concepts of movements (idealized techniques) or dividing movements by categories (formal styles). The goal isn't to make a fighter but an adaptable mover that can adapt to any movement condition. Adaptable movement is about how you dynamically engage with your world.
At our Learning Lab, which is just a small office gym we rent, practitioners come in around once a week—some even less. (Most of us are in our 30s and 40s.) During that brief period, they play various games, such as boxing, wrestling, submission grappling, Thai-boxing, taekwondo, karate, sanda, sumo, pro wrestling, improvisational dance, somatic movement therapy, etc. The list of ways practitioners apply our approach outside the Learning Lab is even more expansive. We can do a lot with a little because of our approach to learning and movement.
In a matter of months, our practitioners went from zero knowledge about any martial arts or sports movement to being adept at several because they just became adept movers. This includes me; I was mostly proficient at grappling (minus wrestling) before starting the LMA Learning Lab. Before that, I had trained in something around eight years ago. I was also struggling with debilitating chronic pain. The LMA approach is the only way I can train.
Furthermore, rather than harming me, training sessions are healing. I feel less pain and gain more mobility after each session. Much of this is based on our philosophy of breathing and releasing tension during movement. The more I move, the more I am at ease.
Our rapid progress per session starts with unlearning the colonial factory model of learning, where every domain is separated and alienated. This colonial model wants to limit you. If we see them all as movements, nothing is our first rodeo—none of it should be rocket science. Making it rocket science is just gatekeeping. Separating each movement practice puts up more gates.
As a training organizer, I am also not limited. I can work with people much better than me at any individual ruleset because I am not their master. I'm a training organizer and designer who can help anyone organize their training. I'm not teaching them their "art;" I am helping them unlearn while teaching them our approach. If I only get to see someone once a week, once a month, virtually, or once ever, then the only thing they can walk away with permanently is better ways to design and organize their training.
If you can only make minor improvements by coming in every day, and even then, it only works for a handful of people, and there's a high turnover rate, that's not a flex but an indictment. Having to give up every other part of your life to get good at something is not a flex; it's a criticism of the system. Insisting on sticking with a toxic, abusive, inefficient system that barely works for non-disabled young people is only a flex if you are indoctrinated by coloniality.
The video is a couple of months old, but in it, another practitioner and I are playing a modified Thai-boxing ruleset. (Rules: light to medium contact with only touches to the chin, no elbows, and forward off-balancing allowed.) Once a week, over several months, we grew together.
Mind you, not all of this limited time was spent under this ruleset; we split time among various games. Our approach is radically different, which also means radically more efficient, safer, and more effective. However, practitioners also don't compete with other's progress. It's the opposite; we are partner-focused rather than self-centered. We celebrate each other.
Some leftists and "radicals" have firmly bought into the idea that you can only improve if you train all the time. They believe that people will only work hard if forced, that peer pressure, comparisons, and shaming are justified, that brute force is the answer, and that intruding into other people's business without consent or making assumptions about someone's wants and goals without asking is warranted because we can't "cede hard work to the right" (as some so-called radicals have argued).
However, we are working proof that these beliefs are flawed, and that allowing individuals to dictate their own future is more effective. Furthermore, what makes you radically different from chuds if you hold the same beliefs they do? How are you a radical?
We don't have fun while working hard, we work hard because we are having fun. We work hard because we all like each other. Rest is radical, but so is fun and kinship.
To access the Liberation Martial Arts curriculum and contribute to the sustainability of this project as my family and I navigate some recent health and financial challenges, consider upgrading your membership. If you've been putting it off, now would be a great time to sign up. Find other ways to support us here. – Sam
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(I write daily about martial arts and other topics from a liberatory perspective. If you like my work, upgrade your subscription. You can also support me on Patreon or make a one-time donation on Ko-fi. Find Southpaw at its website. Get the swag on Spring. Also check out Liberation Martial Arts Online.)
LMA in Action