'No mind' through 'Sticky hands'

I was introduced to 'sticky hands' sparring last night. Fortunately we were able to swap between opponents to pick up on the difference in the feeling between each person. It was intense and just as mental as it was physical. You just put your body into a state of not trying to attack or defend, just being open to any movement that feels right and keeping as relaxed as possible so you can pick up on the opponents energy and intention. This was the sparring training I have been searching for, an opportunity to be in a state of 'no mind' while sparring and not worrying about taking a beating while I was experimenting with the approach.

Fighting with 'No mind' was an inspiring concept I picked up in Bruce Lee's 'The Tao of Gung Fu'. The mind gets in the way when fighting and if you have to take the time to think about your movements it slows them down. It is a mistake to be to cerebral about thinking 'now I will be offessive' and 'now I will be defensive'. You need to just relax your mind and put your trust into your own training which will respond when it needs to. It makes sense to me but is very challenging to do in practice, particularly if failure while getting used to the idea means taking a few knocks.

'Sticky hands' brought me much closer to the opponent, spatially and mentally. You get much more in tune with the opponent and it gets you thinking as much about what your opponent will do as well as your own actions. Focussing on your own performance is only being aware of half of the battle, learning how your opponent moves is the next step up and gives you the edge.

When practicing with a more experienced student I really felt that I got it last night. We tried again after the class and we were both very relaxed. I picked up on a subtlety which was not apparent before -- there is a place of most resistance coming from both hands at consistently changing directions. In the relaxed state it became clear that there was no point expending energy to be opposing this resistance and so you moved your body and intention to a path of least resistance around the main direction of force. This is a subtle concept to pick up on and something I have understood to be important when fighting - this seems to be the basis of softer styles of martial arts such as Tai Chi. It was not until last night that I actually experienced what it felt like.

Nick
White sash