In continuing my readings on new martial endeavors, I come across this statement from DaeHanL:

I think the mentality of having to use technique “A” when Attack “A” is used, and not understanding the endless uses for the concept, is very common for a simple reason. Much like how many artists can draw very well as long as they are looking at something, but have a difficult time drawing from memory or just by using their creativity. We must understand the composition so well, and have the skill necessary to create, before we can ever break away from painting still life.

It says a couple things to me.

First, having a foundation in “classical mess” has utility. It gives you a solid foundation upon which to build (which can include discarding). I’ve found that people that tend to do best in “free form” tended to have some sort of solid background. For instance, maybe they’re great at jazz improv, but they first had formal schooling in music theory, composition, history, performance. We must remember that knowledge is what others have learned and are willing to pass on. We can discover all of these things ourselves… eventually. How efficient is that? There are some that have no formal schooling and talk about how they discovered or invented blah blah, only to share this with a knowledgeable someone and then discover that blah blah is already known, has been for years, and sometimes you find out that blah blah has been discredited or discarded on the whole because it has problems. If we built upon the knowledge of those before us, how much more efficient, productive, and successful could we have been in our own search for Truth? This is the point of “formal education” thus, spending time to learn a formal system is not a bad thing as it gives you someones’ notion of knowledge and Truth. It allows you a foundation to build upon, and hopefully helps you to get to The Truth a bit faster since you won’t need to repeat the effort, mistakes, and failings that have already been made.

Second, to move beyond “classical mess” you need a way to be creative. If all an artist did when they painted was to paint still life, they could never move beyond it. Thus from time to time the artist will need to change their venue and paint from memory or paint in a creative free-form. Certainly at first their efforts will be below their normal still-life output quality, but with repeated work, the hope and intent is they will exceed that still-life quality; in fact, they will find themselves and their style of drawing instead of the style of their teacher. In martial arts, you can remain within the framework of a “classical mess” but if there’s never an outlet to freely apply that mess, to move beyond it, then you’re relegated to still-life… never aliveness. This was my problem with my Kuk Sool study. It’s “classical mess” and good for what that is, but it was always “still-life”. Even if we did spar, the sparring was simple striking-only tournament-rules light/no-contact point sparring. There was no venue for application of techniques: no sweeping, no throwing, no “fighting tactics” (e.g. in point sparring you never want to get hit else you have a point scored against you; in a real fight, you may be willing to eat a punch if it allows you an avenue towards decisive victory). However, point sparring is a fair way to start. It’s a way to look at fighting from a still-life perspective: it lets you look at the composition, obtain basic skills. The question becomes if you’re willing to move beyond it, or if you’re fine painting still-lifes.