Black list - one name

The team of Stark Adder and Ricky Vendetta has never been a league, merely a high power tool fueled by the co-operation of a teacher and a student. Vendetta has been working as the diamond head and I’ve been working as the machinery, he’s been the blade and I’ve been the hand wielding it. The Constrictors have certainly earned their status as a war party for all to heed, we’ve been moulded into a military unit with a chain of command – but still not a community of warriors with their common code of honour. We share the same interest, not the same goal.
 

Most people today are products of the civilized world, whereas I consider myself native. In order to be brought up to be a sentinel, anyone can become a trained animal the power of which is fearsome only when faced by those who are similar, yet weaker. The real question is this: why be tame when one has a chance to stand alone amidst the crowd, a beast of prey. Perfect unity with the wholeness requires perfect loneliness, that is being different from the superficial on a fundamental level.

I imagine myself in a pool of water completely calm, the surface of it at the height of my dan tian. The colour of the water is deep red, as is the power of aggression within. This doesn’t have anything to do with hate or anger; those are but emotions. Aggression is a form of energy, pure in its nature that’s most primal indeed, the very core. Above the pool there is a layer of mist, violet, hiding the top of my head from the third eye up. It is the light of perception I let myself dwell in, and it too stays as it is, static. "You see, strength without perception is spiritually useless, and therefore of no true value." These two forces in opposite ends, different as they may be, are united in the person that is I. If someone else entered the water it would create ripples; if somebody approached the site the movement of the air would likewise scatter the mist. While balanced mine is the lightning from the third eye, and so is the bedrock-like firmness of the dan tian foundation. Such harmony can only be found in solitude.

Never forget that it is night there. I am surrounded by blackness.

True art, be it poetry, painting, music or combat skills, can never be an instrument of achieving something of secondary value. Art does lie beyond value. Those who are not disciples, but in fact a part of the discipline itself, have come to understand that there is no reward in having what you’ve reached for, the treasure's in the reaching instead. Comprehend this, become the poorest of all living things, be torn apart from the world and – as Ikkyu said – shatter ten million mountains of iron with the tip of your staff.

The "no-art" in unarmed combat

Watching the numerous choices one keeps having in the wide range of self-defence today, it is an inevitable conclusion that much of it has to do with marketing different brands. By saying this I don’t mean it would be intentional from the part of the people behind the various styles, but a fact in the modern day world. In order to move from point A to point B one must have – or go for – the means necessary. Students will not come seeking you, as they used to do in ancient times in distant locations, if only they may have an easier way, such as your rival arriving before them to offer his share of knowledge.

Ridiculous as it may be, this contest between schools of fighting arts is becoming ever more useless, for almost every style with a realistic approach is getting hybrid. All want to unite what’s proven to be effective, while ridding the discipline from anything that should be weak due to lack of practicality. The wisdom of strategy is being spread all over, basically for everyone to use, yet it remains a question of honour for a percentage of practitioners to announce that the truth can be found from under one title.

There isn't anything wrong in the development which has led to combining the good parts; in veiling the workability - as a method of self-satisfaction - there is.

Fighting between men, in the beginning of it, did not emerge from the training in schools of martial arts. On the contrary, at some point it was regarded as needful to systematically practise physical strength and abilities, so as time went by, some styles focused on certain areas, some families had their own traditions, some people learned to utilize their individual qualities etc. In a way we are thus returning to the primary state of self-defence, the meaning of how or why something was named actually decreasing.

There is a zen-story about “having one’s cup empty”. That is to say we should always keep ourselves able to absorb more or new kind of information, challenging the mind in its readiness to learn, not fighting the battle of convincing others that we were right to begin with. There is no value in that. The treasure lies in the beauty of the process, the results are the blooming of the spiritual wealth. One shouldn’t train with the gi only because it is “supposed” to be done that way, but to become familiar with grabbing the opponent’s clothing. For the same reason it would be recommendable, to say the least, to also train without any traditional martial arts outfit; what is the probability of the person you must defend yourself against wearing one? Ignore no aspect, but be aware of all. 

As what I do is really a combination of Japanese-style pro wrestling and Chinese Wudang-school fighting skill I would say the practicality in this case lies in the constant flow. The rules and mode in wrestling are meant for the match to go on even when the circumstances get aberrant, and the goal in arts such as Baguazhang is to let things happen simultaneously, or as close to that as possible – not move by move but the techniques taking place on top of and inside one another with a four-dimensional perception. It is the economy of motion: the less you move the faster you can go. Why choose to play tennis while there’s an opportunity to run directly to the finish?

Be it a situation that requires acts of self-defence of any other incident in your life, my three tips are the following: 1. never trust, 2. never plead, 3. never expect. Say, you’re walking down a dark alley, the weather’s cold and it’s rained, so it’s getting slippery for the moisture on the ground has already started freezing. It’s not a very good idea to keep striding with the attitude that you simply trust it’ll go as usual – that way you’re likely to slip and fall anyway. Should that happen, there is no use for pleading, like fate would then spare you from getting hurt; it is up to you to take care of it yourself. And even if you manage to protect your body the best you can, don’t expect that to be enough, instead of that prepare yourself for anything you may have missed in the dark: stuff lying on the street you might hit your head against, broken glass underneath you that can cause severe damage, a vehicle advancing with great speed and the driver having not seen you… Taking things for granted will not do you any good, much less so in combat.

A long time ago I said: “When the mind is the sword, the body becomes the no-sword of Demon Tesshu.” With the willingness to learn you will not be bound to any narrow point of view and see the upcoming fight as a single route, but a multitude of possibilities. Observe the photos from Porvoo Wrestling Show (taken by Mr Marko Simonen) and note that what might work perfectly in one moment in time can lead to a dead end in another. Then remember it – I will.

Tale from the darkside

The area of fighting arts that Gene LeBell calls ”the dark side of the Moon” is in fact not unknown by most practitioners nor rarely travelled. We’re simply talking about applications that would be regarded as “dirty” tricks in the world of sport for the reason that any competition needs to have a rulebook for it; then again once we start thinking of combat in general we come to understand that such methods are no less than essential. A real life situation is all too many times a question of the attacker's serious attempt to hurt you, which may have a lot to do with his preparations so to speak, like having armed himself, choosing a easy-appearing victim and so on. There is no “fair” to begin with; therefore we are to feel comfortable with the circumstances we might be forced under and must be ready to deal with the (non-existing) rules of the game.

I give you one example, a technique I showed Ricky Vendetta a while ago in order to deepen his perception of the true “Constrictor” style. It’s a way of moving into double wrist lock-takedown. First of all, people tend to grab the opponent by the forearm, right above the wrist that would be. This is because of the handle-like structure which makes the part feel suitable for a tight grip. The bad thing is that it’s strong for the opponent as well; he’ll have both the strength of his muscles and the leverage provided by the bones of his forearm to fight the hold with. So in catch-as-catch-can we prefer grabbing the hand or even the fingers (it’s done in many styles of ju-jitsu too). The small joints work as hinges that would consume some of the kinetic energy of any counter-move; they may also be dislocated if the opponent tries to pull away in a very aggressive manner.

The grip should, especially in this case, be also a twist. As you take a hold of the back of the opponent’s hand, try to reach over. It’s best if you can get the base of the thumb to use it as a sort of hilt. Having accomplished that you’ll be able to put on a powerful twist just as the very first phase of the technique. I guarantee it’ll be impossible for the opponent to fight it like he’d normally do. Second, we don’t really want to drag him in but deflect the horizontal line of his shoulders; twist, pull outwards (from his direction) and bring the weight down just a little bit – you’ll take him slightly off balance, which will be the time for the next move.

Pulling an object towards you is the same as pulling yourself towards the object, this is most elementary in science. So when the moment’s come use the force generated for letting yourself step in, or turn slightly sideways I should say. You have the rear leg anchored to the ground and control over the opponent with the hand/arm of that same side, with the same direction. Imbalanced the opponent is probably leaning forwards, not much but sufficiently. Now with the step, swing your free hand up, aiming at the opponent’s face. The movement comes very natural really for the body will try to keep it half-and-half anyway; a manifestation of yin/yang. I would use backhand, the fingers rather, and go for the eyeball: do not focus the energy to hit the surface but drive the whole load inside the socket. It’s not supposed to be a high energy strike of course, but I think of it as lashing someone with a twig instead of bludgeoning a person with a baseball bat – a quick, snappy move. The nose would also be a nice target as the blow comes diagonally from below, hitting the temple would not be bad either. With the eye it’s just that the opponent will instantly have his mind set on the possible damage done to his sight (the most important sense for human being), not any acts of war that might follow from the other person’s side.

Should you choose to do it in a match one useful thing about it is that the referee might not even notice it happen, and if he does you can always say you were just going for the opponent's head. Where's the proof you were not?

From this set-up it is easy to drop your hand down, grapevine the opponent’s upper arm (make sure you wind it up tight; the smaller the angle of his elbow the more unnatural the position for him) and move on to the actual takedown. If you’re able to reach far enough during the procedure and grab your own wrist – the one holding that of the opponent – you can lock the forearm by putting pressure on the radius, already bent across the ulna bone next to it, with the double hold you have. It is possible to even snap it that way, which would create an interesting layout for the following situation of you having the upper hand on the mat from that point on.

The fact about the "dark" side of the Moon is that day and night follow one another on it, as they do down here on the planet. The sun does shine there too. What we can’t see only raises this illusion of darkness before our eyes. Let no such deceit blur your vision, never stray to allow it to weaken the power of your own perception.

From razor to guillotine

A remainder of something known as Occam's razor

In a clip filmed for FCF before the Continuation War wrestling show you can see parts of a training session at which I taught Mr Ricky Vendetta a few facts about grappling. It’s not just about what to do, but what to avoid as well. For instance, after I’ve taken Ricky down – notice the leverage; very catch-as-catch-can style, or martial arts if you will – I “lay back” instead of rushing into a cluster of potential techniques I would try to do. By relaxation and sensitivity I constantly stay alert, know what’s about to happen and turn Ricky’s efforts into traps that’ll work to my advantage. 
 

When Ricky tries to do the same to me – put me down and keep me there – he has problems with the bursts of brute force he uses: they’re not very effective for my defence is pyramid-like, and it's very difficult to flip an object like that to say the least. At one point I do choose to go down, but only to roll through and as he tries to gain control on the mat I’m able to get up, or bring us both up really, by leaning onto him. Using the Occam principle helps me save the fuel so I’ll have more of it left for whatever may come next; more than the opponent anyway.

If you watch(ed) our match against Jami Aalto and Joey Impact you could see that what I kept doing was this: I make my move, go for a pin, can’t get it yet but force the opponent to use a significant amount of his energy for the kickout, then I do the same all over again. This is exactly how a constrictor would work on his pray. (Ricky, the Doberman he is, wasted too much time barking=showing his attitude while he could have moved directly towards finishing either Aalto or Impact.) Why gamble when you can simply have the opponent’s liver on a stick?

It’s like I drive the enemy before me into a canyon that gets more and more narrow offering him less and less room for his actions. Finally there’s nothing but a dead end. Another example of efficient strategy was Jimmy Gavroche’s wrestling in his bout against Valentine at the show; it’s been some time since I saw anybody use headlock as a weapon not only for handling the situation but to make it count regarding the outcome of the whole match.

Even when wielding the razor one must never forget what Einstein had as his whetstone: simple is good only as long as you get the results. Not going all the way but preferring to take a shortcut actually cost Vendetta the victory at Continuation War. Always remember to crush the enemy, then make sure he won’t come back with a vengeance.

The Mightiest Adversary

There can be only One. We show the respect, may seem to own similar powers and, when it comes to it, even treat each other in a friendly manner. Nevertheless, there’s no way of being equal. As long as it’s a question of the master besting the apprentice there may be no peace, merely a truce. StarBuck and myself simultaneously walking the Earth is basically a state impossible, which will inevitably lead to an explosion – a calm between two storms. And there can be only One.

Many years ago, in the beginning of it all, he chose to become the father figure. I was pulled in, fate in one hand and destiny in the other. After a long process of upbringing – and I’m not just talking about the actual training that took place but a life of walking the path among others who made the decision - unto me came ultimately the duty of murdering that father; the very pattern that keeps the myth going. And it’s the world of myth we live in, not just the two of us but all those who chose and were chosen.

Apart from the cosmic scale there is the personal level. If people were different styles of combat arts, StarBuck would most likely be heavyweight boxing whereas I’d be represented by something like Tai Chi Chuan. We are climbing the same mountain, on opposite sides of it though, yet there’s been no chance of avoiding the clashes we’ve come to as individuals.

I, as a practitioner of the principle of Tao, understand very well that there’s not much point in fighting only for the fight itself, trying to hammer a square piece through a round hole. There’s a reason for everything, and in most cases of disagreement it’s been that I do not want to let go of the way he brought me up, how I was shaped – although it might not always seem like the smartest thing to do. Determination and acting stubborn are two different things; it’s just that I know where I’m going. We both do.

Success in the eyes of others means nothing as it is my part to overcome StarBuck in areas most spectators are not even aware of: to be a superior athlete, a tougher man, a better human being. This has nothing to do with disrespect. Settling for anything less would be spitting right in his face – he set the standard, the rest is just a test of seeing whether I am worthy or not.

A hundred years from now it will all be over, there will be very little left of what’s been accomplished in Finnish pro wrestling in our time. So what value will any fame, any title, any victory or amount of admiration have then? My goal is simply to be remembered – by those who’ve been involved – as the one who would not kneel. One day I will die too. My life’s been looking up to StarBuck; that day I want to to be the day he finally looks up to me.

To strike at the serpent

Sunzi said: ”If you attack its head, its tail strikes; if you attack its tail, its head strikes; if you attack its middle, both its head and tail strike.”

One peculiar feature in catch-as-catch-can is that when observed in a superficial manner it appears as an art most “external” so to speak; a battle of superior power rather than a quest for sophisticated skill and sensitivity. On the other hand, once we begin to truly understand the techniques and the tactics we come to realize how “internal” it is indeed. We use the spiral movement as they do in Baquazhang, we use grabbing the opponent’s fingers for leverage as they do in Aikido, we use attacks on the nerve pressure points and so on. That combined with the strength and speed essential for athletic prowess makes catch-as-catch-can-wrestling a weapon of destruction whereas many a rival style can merely be regarded as another method with certain emphasis.

In catch-wrestling one must constantly think in terms of turning every part of the body into an instrument of making the opponent suffer: the sharp part of the radius driven across tissues, the shin that’ll work as a cutting tool, the tip of the chin for creating extreme pressure, the crest of the skull in one’s forehead, just to mention a few of the possibilities. On the ground of course such floating upon the target is relatively easy, for gravity will not be your enemy but an ally instead. After this has been learned, go seek applying the principle to striking, in other words fighting while standing in an upright position. Always remember as a student of martial arts that there is a reason for everything. Find the challenge, then become the shuai-ran snake of Mount Chang spoken of in The Art of War.

Watch the clip of Professor Huang Kang-Hui performing a series of Tai Chi moves. To many people it may at first seem like a pile of formal nonsense, but having trained with this man as my instructor I can guarantee he’d be able to crush human bones in an instant with what he does. More so, the flow taken to that extent the opponent will never know what comes next.

On the path of correction

In the previous text I suggested that vortexes may have come into being due to lack of space as the raw material of the universe, infinite that would be, kept bursting out from the explosion of the one point. I’ve since learnt that the diameter of the primordial cosmos mere ten minutes after the Big Bang was already several thousands of light years despite of the fact that nothing in reality is supposed to travel faster than the speed of light. Can it be then that this “vacuum” of existence caused the imbalance which lead to the uneven spread of energy and therefore to the birth of the universe as we know it?

In martial arts we use the spiral; that is to avoid relying on force and also to take away the opponent’s force by causing any direction he might rely on disappear so to speak. The spiral movement always stays one step ahead of the strength of the muscles trying to fight it. So as there is no struggle between two separate parties in contrast with each other but rather a drowning effect emerged from this abandoning, we could as well assume that it was a similar suction – the one described – that created the spiral in the first place: an anti-clash?

The wisdom to allow one to start learning is this: truth can never be altered. Once we let go of the list of demands handed to the universe in a manner most haughty, we’re enabled to step unto the path which inevitably takes us to the source of the primordial light, the universe being the very teacher instead. On the rays we may spread our wings and fly free, infinite.

Hawk King