From: mikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Bruce Lee on Classical Karate
Date: 13 Apr 92 18:37:12 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA

In article <1992Apr11.163348.14635@colorado.edu> ejh@khonshu.colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett) writes:

[...on the merits of spontaneous invention versus
 preprogrammed one-step drills...]

>	When I do these one-step sparring things, I'm very often
>putting myuself through weird contortions to get all the techniques on
>target. Why would I want to lean down and do an uppercut to someone's
>ribs, when their face is right at my shoulder level? 
>	Another thing that really bothers me a lot about these
>one-step things is that you know the exact attack and the exact
>defense. That is so far from what would actually happen in a fight as
>to make me wonder what value these one-step things have, regardless of
>the other things I've already learned. 
[...]
>	I hope someone there can shed some light on this for me. I
>usually don't think of the MAs as drudge work, but learning 15 or 20
>one-step sparring deals just to be able to do them on request, like a
>trained monkey, is something that really depresses me.

Well, first of all, I don't think a system necessarily has to
choose one way over the other. Our Shao-Lin system teaches
students defenses in a spectrum from completely preprogrammed
and planned movements to completely spontaneous and unrehearsed.
In our system at least, the kinds of training have different
purposes.

The purpose of the spontaneous response training is much
as you say: to develop the ability to respond quickly
and appropriately to an unpredicted situation. 

The purpose of planned movements is different. In particular,
the purpose of our one-step drills is to teach students
proper combinations of angle, distance, and timing with
a variety of opponents. By keeping the body of practice
material small and predictable, and by reducing the
critical training to a single response at a time, we
establish some parameters as constant, making it easier
for students (especially beginners)to vary the
others constructively.

Our one-steps involve everything from simple counterpunches
and kicks to relatively sophisticated sweeps and throws.
When a student must execute such techniques against a
variety of opponents of different sizes, weights, and body
shapes, the things that remain constant and predicatble in 
the practice enable him or her to better understand the
things that vary. You cannot perform an assisted leg-sweep
the same way on a five-foot opponent weighing 100 lbs, 
a five-foot-ten opponent weighing 200 lbs, and a six-foot-five
opponent weighing 190 lbs. These same people will also require
different responses to a lung punch. 

If the one-step training is effective then the student will
gain an improved ability to gauge the opponent's reach,
the radius of his or her preferred pivot, the direction
the defender needs to step to go offline effectively in
response to a given attack, and so on.

Additionally, people learn most quickly by performing techniques
successfully. One-steps help provide a way to set students
up to succeed, particularly in the area of timing, which
can be very difficult to learn at first. Sparring between
two beginners often looks like brownian motion, with the
partners bumping into each other more or less randomly.
One-steps help them to begin to feel proper timing, and
therefore to use it.

Finally, once you have the general idea of one-step sparring,
you can take its principles and use it to practice more
advanced material, to make it work for you. For example, if
you practice an art that uses forms to teach techniques, you
can work with a partner to practice movements from the
forms in one-step style. This sort of practice can often
improve the rate at which you learn to apply movements
from a form.