Solo Training and Sparring with an Imaginary Partner
Sifu Mark Appleford has many years of experience in many martial arts. He is a talanted practitioner of the martial arts, but he is more than that. He is studying Chinese Medicine, Tui Na and practises Qigong healing under the supervision of Grandmaster Wong.
This is his first article for the public, the first of many I hope. In this article Sifu Mark Appleford will explain how to get the very best from your solo training and sparring with an imaginary partner. Success in these areas will improve your sparring abilities significantly.
A Kung Fu brother gave me one of the best pieces of advice when it comes to solo training or sparring with your imaginary partner. He told me: "this partner is going to be your hardest opponent to spar with as they know all your weaknesses."
He actually said that about the ego, but it is something that can and does apply to anything that is an extension of the mind. And I think it is safe to say that your imaginary partner is an extension of the mind. If they aren't, then you have one really good imagination!
When you actually start to train with you imaginary partner, there is something really important that you have to remember:
You partner is only bound by your imagination
By this I mean that you are the one who creates their skill level, height and body weight. You can make them so much better than you that they keep on beating you, so easy that you defeat them with one hand tied behind your back or preferably something in between.
So how do we do this? In my opinion and experience it comes down to a few key factors and most of them are related to Shen (mind). This is where we are so very lucky in our school, as we have been given great tools to interact with our mind and to focus it. One of those tools is Chi Kung.
The state of the mind is crucial to our imaginary partner or solo training. If you cannot have some insight or ability to direct the mind, then how are you going to be able to even "imagine" a partner?
I think we can all remember when we started our Chi Kung practice and how we all struggled with getting a calm, relaxed state of mind, a Chi Kung state of mind that would allow the chi to flow. As we all know or have had experience of, when we are in this state we can have great mental clarity and concentration. So if we can take this skill and use it in our development of an imaginary partner, it will be that much easier.
We use our awareness to actually engage with our partner, we start to see them in our mind's eye and how they move. We start to see the shoulder move as they go in to punch for example. We "feel" their body or limbs when we make contact with them, for example when we are blocking or punching our partner.
Now at this point you may be saying to yourself that your imagination is not that good. Ok, that is understandable, but you do not just have your imagination to depend on. You have a whole wealth of material to draw upon as well, and they are your memories of training. I don't just mean the times you remember training with people who you had a good session with. I mean the memories that are bone deep that are in your nervous system and the meridians.
In Chinese Medicine Shen (mind) is not just in your heart and brain. It is all through your body. It is the most refined of Jing, Chi and Shen and other substances.
You don't just remember mentally, you remember physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Take that concept to training, your body remembers all the different people and all their habits, and different distinctive styles. You also remember how you trained as well and the times when you were really good and the times that you have been bad. I remember my best time training was in Malaysia and sparring with one of my brothers. I felt my chi was really strong and my Shen had crystal clarity. Nothing could touch me, I flowed with my training partner and could see all their moves coming and I remember all my responses to his attacks. Now, my worst time is just as strong, it was on my first intensive Kung Fu course with Sifu. I literally lost the understanding of left and right and couldn't follow Sifu's instructions!
When you are training solo or with an imaginary partner, you can access these experiential information/memories to recreate scenarios that you may want to work on. Also you can use it to give your partner some depth and more tangibility. By this, I mean that if you remember how it felt in your body when you were practicing with real partners, and can tie this in to your solo training or using an imaginary partner, and recreate that "feeling," then you have a very powerful tool that is helping to train your body in good form along with the skills of timing and spacing.
Let's take an example. Supposing you wanted to work a simple technique such as Single Tiger Emerges from Cave. You could start out by visualizing the technique and see all the mechanics right when your partner attacked you with a Black Tiger. Another way is to train with a real partner and slowly practice the technique with them so you can "feel" the technique and "remember" it. Then you can apply this physical memory to your imaginary partner.
Now the important part is how do you access this information, and the type of experience? Obviously we want to access all the good stuff, such as when your Kung Fu was exceptional. So we try and keep everything positive, our emotional state, body and attitude, whilst being realistic.
If you train well then you become good. If you train marvelously then you become marvelous!
We can use the skill of Chi Kung State of Mind to help us relax physically, emotionally mentally and spiritually. This will greatly enhance our ability to be positive and access all the good memories of training.
So how do we apply these ideas and concepts? We just use our training methodology, so we make a plan with aims and objectives and then we just follow the steps we have planned. The only difference is that we use our imaginary partner instead of a real one.
But we need to start off very simple. For example, we begin by using combat sequence one or even one step sparring instead of just going straight for all sixteen combat sequences and free sparring. Having an imaginary training partner is just like any other skill, it takes time and effort to develop.
Let's outline some simple steps.
- 1.First we outline our training plan. We set our aims and objectives.
E.g. Combat sequence 1 - working on correct spacing and timing. - As with any of our practices we start out with a Chi Kung State of Mind i.e. relaxing physically, emotionally etc, smile from the heart and the rest of the steps we take when we start our practise. We prime ourselves to be positive and focused for our training
- We then continue by visualizing the sequence and our imaginary training partner going through the sequence. It is at this point that we start to mentally imagine all the steps in our training plan. For example, such as stepping back correctly into False Leg from Bow. We "set" the level of force and speed of our training partner, and his physical attributes such as height, weight etc.
- At this point you could access the memories of past positive training experiences. We remember the times when we practiced combat sequence 1 well. You see yourself with good form, force and flow. You feel that you have shifted your weight back correctly and have the correct energy in the Single Tiger. You recall the clarity of mind and so forth.
- Then we start training. We try and keep the above steps in mind and apply them in or training.
Now, how do we develop the skill of using an imaginary partner?
The answer is easy - practice, practice and more practice!
The depth and scope of solo training is only limited by you and your mind. As you develop in Kung Fu training and cultivate your mind, everything will gain more depth. It is a great journey to be on.
Good Training.
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