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Rhythm-The good the bad and the ugly
Rhythm: “Movement or variation characterized by the regular recurrence or alteration of different quantities or conditions”.
Rhythm. So much has been made of the rhythmical nature of Piper and of other African martial arts.
Maybe I’m picking this as a topic of discussion because, when it comes to music and dancing, I seem to have so little of it. “Rhythym-envy”, as Freud might call it!
Be that as it may, I feel that is a topic that can do with some discussion.
There seem to be those, especially overseas, that believe that if you do not have the ability to move in a very rhythmical manner, your Piper will always be second rate and in some way unauthentic.
Rhythm, to me, may be seen as having the same purpose as the training wheels on a child’s bicycle. First you learn the basic movement pattern, then, by getting into a repetitive and rhythmical way of moving the body, you achieve a certain sense of flow. Such movement is very pleasing to the eye, as the repetitive pattern has the same “entraining” effect as a metronome, one gets into sync with it.
There are different views on the whole rhythm question. There are those people gifted with a sense of musical rhythm, to whom it is merely a matter of fitting their movement in with what they are hearing or with the pattern of the flow as it unfolds.
Those, who like me, are “rhythmically challenged” would be well served by using the teachings of my friend and coach Ludwig Strydom as a starting point. When it comes to being in the bottom position in grappling for example, Ludwig maintains that as long as you can breathe, you can escape. How this works is as follows : As long as you are breathing, you are able to move your spine, however minute this movement might be. As long as you can move your spine, you can initiate a rhythmical movement with your spine and your hips. As long as you can create this, you will eventually be able to scoot your way out.
Or to put it another way: You can see rhythm as something that comes from outside of yourself; from music for instance. The degree to which you have rhythm is then shown by how much you can physically get into perfect synchronization with the music you’re hearing.
Another way of seeing rhythm is as a pulse coming up from out of yourself, unique to your breathing pattern, postural aligment and movement paths. Finding this rhythm is possible for anyone, it is a matter of becoming aware of your inner self and experimenting with it. Although this may seem like a slow and tedious way of exploring rhythm and pulse, it is progressive and fairly failsafe, as anyone can do it.
It becomes clear that the word “rhythm” means different things to different people. What all the definitions of rhythm have in common though is a repetitive movement or pulse. The one thing which one would never want in combat, be it sport or street, is the setting up of a clear, repetitive and ultimately predictable movement pattern. “Predictable” is bad in Poker, deadly in combat.
Rhythm is thus subservient to awareness and intention. Your awareness gives you a clear three-dimensional feeling of the ebb and flow of your body and your intent takes this flow and changes the pattern in accordance with the demands of the situation and so as to make sure that your enemy cannot predict your flow, but that your flow is still strong and congruent within yourself.
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