Maximizing Your Skills with Freestyle Practice
- Steve Ehrenreich
- Dec 11, 2024
- 12 min read
Freestyle practice was a new concept for me when I began training with Master Fung. Until then, my training had focused on fixed forms and exercises (kata) or choreographed self-defense techniques (waza). We would mix things up during sparring & grappling, but most of our focus was on performing form and technique 'the right way.'
The WAY of INTENT takes a different approach. As you will see, the bulk of our training is what I like to think of as 'pre-technique.' We focus on developing qualities that can potentially elevate all techniques.
For example, consider the Internal Orbit. One procedure we use to activate this feeling state is to align our frame with the flow of gravity, release excess and localized tension, and allow our autonomic balance system to kick in. When this happens, we can experience balance as constant change, with the frame dynamically correcting to center equilibrium. I refer to this feeling as the Internal Orbit because it feels like a ball bearing circling the inside perimeter of a spheroid, essentially orbiting the center.
We then use permutations and combinations of shape, stance, and step to experience the Internal Orbit in various positions, becoming more consciously aware of how the frame can move while maintaining balance. The result is an integrated structure that can move without breaking that integration. This awareness and conscious control of the Internal Orbit is not a technique, yet it can be applied to or expressed through almost any self-defense technique. Think of it as updating the firmware so the software runs better.
If you enjoy math, you can run some calculations. Add up the basic variations in the major categories of shape, stance, and step. How many permutations can be made from those variations? How many combinations? You will quickly find that the number grows rapidly, and as your practice expands and you become aware of even more variations, the number becomes astronomical.
Enter Freestyle Practice. Rather than enslave ourselves to the endless extrapolation of variations, we use those extrapolations to reach a point where we can maintain the Integrated State in any variation. For a while, we relax our calculus, forget the rules, and let go, allowing the feeling state to take over.
At first, this transition can be difficult because the rules and procedures were what induced the Integrated Feeling in the first place. They can be hard to let go of. In fact, those rules, shapes, and patterns can even be mistaken for the art itself.
You guessed it, it's time for a reframe.
Freedom Through Discipline
Until I began training under Master Fung, my skill was based on coordinated strength. A basic example is a karate-style punch. I learned to coordinate the punch from the upper body with the step in the lower body to achieve a magnified effect. This method works, and over time, the punch becomes more powerful and effective.
From the very first moment I observed Master Fung leading his class, I could tell he was doing something different. He moved like an amoeba, literally flowing through the space with strength shimmering just beneath the surface. Back and forth across the floor, he would repeat the same gesture over and over, yet each repetition seemed unique in a way I couldn't quite pinpoint.
Through his teachings, I came to understand the idea of achieving 'Freedom Through Discipline.' Learning the rules is the first step. If well-articulated, they will save you countless hours of work and steer you away from many red herrings. However, you must do the work to understand what they mean.
Next, you must be able to apply the rules. Initially, we use the simplest stances and most basic shapes to make it easier. Over time, however, we explore many variations to continually challenge our ability to apply Integrated Strength to different conditions.
The last step is the most difficult. It's about letting go of the rules and experiencing and experimenting with the Integrated State they helped you induce directly, without relying on the technique, trick, or hack that got you there. Paradoxically, the rules of Integrated Strength get broken, but the Integrated Strength itself does not.
Introducing Freestyle Training to Your Personal Practice
Your formal practice is the discipline that will unlock the ability to practice freely. The process works as follows:
Use Feelizations to induce and develop the Integrated State.
Memory Bank the feeling of the Integrated State and practice recalling it directly without the Feelization.
Challenge Yourself by staying in the Integrated State with increasingly complex permutations and combinations of fundamental variations.
Once you have mastered these steps, you are ready to begin experimenting with Freestyle Practice.
Make sure to invest properly in your formal practice before introducing freestyle into your routine. You need an integrated feeling state to externalize; randomly changing from shape to shape is not effective. Within each shape, you must recall the Integrated State, maintain it, amend it, and reconstitute it when it breaks.
KiSS: Keep it Simple, Stupid
"Keep it Simple, Stupid" is a good guideline for personal practice, especially when introducing Freestyle Practice. Choose a Route of Strength that you are confident with and induce or recall the Integrated State within it. Perform the exercise as you normally would, but keep your attention on that integrated feeling and seek to maintain it throughout the expression of the route. If you feel it slipping, amend it, recall it, or reinduce it as needed.
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