What is intent?

[Ryan Pynenberg]

I am new to learning a fighting skill of any type. I am still trying to develop the burgeoning of a "martial spirit." A key factor in this has been the intensity of each training sesssion.
When learning a new technique or movement, I often start out very slow, and try to get my uncoordinated muscles to perform correctly. As I progress I increase in speed and power and have noticed that the more I increase the easier it is to perform. The "intent" of each practice is to perform the movements with as much speed and power as possible. However, there is a trap in this definition. You can go overboard and use so such speed and power that your movements are sloppy. Always strive for more speed and power, but make sure every movement is correct. Five minutes of good practice will be more beneficial that hours of sloppy practice. This may be common sense to those out there who have more experience than I, but it is the begining for me. This "intent" should be carried to every facet of training, including sparring. (Be sure you have adequate safety gear, and you may need to hold back on certain techniques.) As a newbie training with a much more experienced warrior, I have learned to take more than a few hits! But, I rely on my helmet (simple hockey helmet) and the padding on or weapons and I give my best effort every time. Belive me, I have gotten in several good shots of my own!

Respecting the tradgety of conflict in human history has also been mentioned in these pages. History has always been a passionate subject of mine. I see history as the study of human nature. By studing the cultures and traditions of the world, both martial and peaceful, we can understand the world around us today. We can understand the passions and motivations of all the peoples of the world. Patton said something to the effect of this: The study of history is the study of man. The weapons may change, but man changes not at all.

Anyway, thanks for listening, even if I have been very simplistic and naive.


Ryan Pynenberg
ARMA - Appleton

[JeffGentry]

Ryan
You make a good point about sometime's taking it a little slow i am quilty of the speed thing i am trying to slow down and learn the technique to the best of my ability.

I had a pistol instructor once in the Marine Corps this may sound cliche' , Part of the course of fire was a reload and the instructor alway's told us "Smooth is fast" and i think that applie's to many thing's if we intend to execute the technique's smoothly they will be fast and speed will lead to power.

This is from John C. Article "Fence with all your strength…”, Iwein (based on Chrétien DeTroyes’ 12th century, Yvain, Or the Knight with the Lion), we read of a knightly warrior’s martial craft where, “With practice the weak man can too learn to fight far better, otherwise the state of swordsmanship, as an art, may not have achieved this level of skill. Here was the union of skill and strength.”

so do we have another element of intent here, or is it something else?

[JeffGentry]

I tried to make the title of the article a link but it took me to a blank page i'll have to figure that out. lol <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Patrick Hardin]

To me, the mind of the warrior, and the sum of his martial intent, is simply this:

"If you dare to attack me, I'll kill you."

Think about that for a minute. Here is a man who has trained constantly from his youth, a man whose profession is war. War is what he does. It's all he does. He may philosophize about it a little, as a professional musician may philosophize about what makes a great piece of music, but when crunch time comes, he is focused. And he uses the skill and experience he has accumulated over the years to the best of his ability. To kill. That's the mind of the warrior. "If you dare to attack me, I'll kill you."

Now, that's hard for us to simulate today. The best that we can do taday, I believe, is, when we are sparring, do not stop until you know the fight is over. Be relentless. It's not lethal, and we're trying to simulate real combat. So try to think like it's real combat. When we are training, we also need to be relentless. Make every blow on your pell count. Every movement should be focused, controlled, deadly. Philosophize about whatever you want, but when crunch time comes, whether you are training or sparring, focus on killing, even though we really aren't killing. Say it in your mind: "If you dare to attack me, I'll kill you." That's martial intent, and it's a martial mindset.

Patrick Hardin

[James_Knowles]

"If you dare to attack me, I'll kill you."

<img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> Gee, take all the fun out of philosophising. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

Great summary IMHO.

Even beyond just the professional soldier, this is the core of the armed [handgun] self-defence classes I've taken. Avoid confrontation when at all possible, be cognizant of the law, but when crap hits the fan it's all about killing efficiently to bring the confrontation to an end quickly -- and surviving.

This basic animal-level topic (survival) may be necessary, but it's a horrible topic... which is why we have philosophy for an alternative. <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[color="#888888"]Boy, that's a post that can be twisted a hundred ways to say what I didn't. [/color]

[JeffGentry]

"I will have an unconguerable, aggressive spirit which will make me desire to destroy the enemy, or I will know how to fight, survive and win on any battlefield".

"If you dare to attack me, I'll kill you."

So have we come full circle in that our level of intent shoud be very aggressive and not so much of a go out and do the technique at the level we "think " is a good level type of training?

in Marine Corps boot camp when you train the intent is to turn you into an efficient killer that doesn't give up, because your tired or you got hurt all that is secondary to fighting a war. Whether it is right or wrong the U.S. Marine Corps is pretty muched feared around the world because of this level of intent in training most military force's don't want to fight the Marine's.

The mission of the Marine rifle squad is "To locate close with and destroy the enemy by fire and manuever or repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat" does that not say what the intent is in there training, there intent is to destroy the enemy not fight with him or try to destroy them, there intent is to destroy the enemy.

so as people training in the art of warrior's should are intent go to this level or can we attain the level of skill that was present in 13-16th century with out this level of intent?

[Jamie Fellrath]

To me, the entire point of training with intent is to do just what you said - to attempt to attain the level of the medieval/rennaissance warrior with our chosen weapons. Jake paraphrased John Clements at our recent NTP 1.0 seminar by saying "Always train as if you have to fight for your life in two months."

We cannot learn these techniques properly unless we train as hard as we can, because that's the way they trained "back in the day" when their lives were on the line. This means training with warrior-type aggression.

To me, such an ultimate goal-orientation can't help but improve us, not only as swordsmen, but in life in general. If one goes after something half-heartedly, it'll be finished half-heartedly. But if one goes after something with full intent, it will be completed to the best of that person's ability.

So yes, I believe that to attain the level of the 13th-16th century warrior we have to train with as aggressive a nature as we can. Sure, we may get a few bumps and bruises along the way, but we'll attain our goals. And that's training with intent.

[Aaron Pynenberg]

Good points Jamie and Jeff, In a world sometimes so complex it is quite a release for me to have something so simple. "Hit first, correctly, and with some force or you will be hit." naturally having said that we all know it's really not that simple, but my life has really been affected by this training, in a very positive way. I am much more focused on tasks that need to be done. I seem to have more concentration in stressful enviroments(specifically during swat training scenarios) , and my workouts really have stepped up a notch or two- I think training with intent carries over in to just about every facet of our lives- Aaron

[JeffGentry]

i know exactly where you are coming from Aaron, I am not the most educated person( at least not formaly), although i have been trying to omprove my writing skill so that i don't look like a complete moron when i post comment's, i used to never punctuate in my post ask Jake or Jaron, lol.

This is having an effect in my everyday life also, and in high stress situation's i think it will help to calm most people, Is that part of our intent also in training, to better ourselve's in general?

The word Intent i think has big carry over, in that sometime's when we train with intent good thing's we hadn't thought of will be add to our live's because we have learned thing's we had not " intended" to learn.

So this word Intent encompass's thing's we don't realy think it does or am i wrong in that statement, thinking that it carry's over into thing's we don't intend it to?

[Jeffrey Hull]

Will.

[Mike Cartier]

I would say to practice with Intent means to use your weapon as close as you can to the way you would truly use it in combat. To move as if you would truly be cut down if you fail and strike as if you truly wished to cut them down.

[Jason Donahue]

I have to agree, Mike.

Many moons ago, when I studied Aikido, my sensei always admonished students against being an "okay uke", ie. simply going along with the technique being performed, but as John said, to "train with intent" - if, while the Uke, you're supposed to throw a punch at the person's midsection, which they then have to deflect and redirect into a jointlock, then don't just execute a punch-like motion, but actually throw a punch! You do your fellow students, not to mention yourself, a disservice by not giving your all, and vice versa.

As for "martial spirit", well, that's something I've pondered from time to time, and I'm still not sure I have a real answer to that. I think Patrick has, perhaps, the basic essence of it, but, I think, perhaps, Jeff said it better when he said "train for war and pray for peace". I think that the threat of reciprocal violence, alone, does not a warrior make, but the idea that, should you attack me, I am prepared to deal with you in a violent fashion in return, may have some bearing.

There's one time I can remember where my "warrior spirit" probably saved my ass. A friend of mine and I were working as computer consultants, and had been flown up to San Francisco by a law firm that was opening a new branch office up there.

Normally, we each carried tactical folders clipped into our pants pockets - while more oriented towards defense, they're also very utilitarian knives, useful for cutting boxes, drywall, Cat 5e network cables, etc. Since this was 2 weeks after 9/11, we'd debated at length as to whether or not to bring them, and, deciding it was better to be safe than sorry, packed them into our check-in luggage, to be retrieved after we landed &amp; left the airport.

It turned out to be a very good thing we had them. The firm we consulted for (&amp; whom I now work for as a regular employee) had made a slight miscalculation when booking a hotel for us. Rather than placing us 5 blocks from the office we'd be setting up, we were 27 blocks away, and on a "parade" weekend, making the cabbies very busy, and cabs therefore impossible to get.

While walking from the hotel (the Radisson on Market St.) to grab dinner, four youths (figure late teens, early 20s or so) wearing baggy clothing often associated with gang members took to following the two of us. When they got to, oh, 15 feet away or so, they drew knives. At this point, we calmly did the same.

The simple act of removing our knives from our pocket, and placing them in our hands, while calmly glancing over our shoulders instantly defused the situation. It wasn't even necessary to "flip" them open yet (I can open my Benchmade 710 quicker than any switchblade I've seen, so I often practice doing so in the process of making my first strike) for the four of them to decide we simply weren't worth the risk to approach - they'd lost the edge of surprise, we were much bigger then they were, and we were prepared to fight, and kill, to defend ourselves. Our "martial spirit" - being prepared to fight and defend ourselves, was enough, in that case, to keep us safe.