Intro:
Hello Punch Up, and Coop Brum friends. Members of Punch up recently got access to the full Liberation Martial Arts (LMA) curriculum. It’s a thought provoking read so far, I wanted to share some thoughts + heed the call to embrace Forumism.
So far I’ve read first of the five modules, which is called “Seed”. The following titles refer to articles within that module, in case you want to check them out. There are loads of articles I won’t discuss here, and I’d encourage people to read them via the Punch Up account (DM me if you don’t have it.) You can also listen to them on Substack if that’s more your thing.
LMA Sam posts articles every day, which are great, but I’m referring to the LMA curriculum, which you can find here - https://open.substack.com/pub/liberationmartialarts/p/curriculum
Float
“Once you can relax, once you can float, the mechanics flow naturally. Everything starts and stops with ease. Learning movement is easy once you are at ease.”
This is a pretty key article for what LMA can bring to you as a martial arts practitioner. I think when I started Punch up I interpreted LMA as a practice that was for the benefit of other people. I sort of thought, on some level, that “this is a way of not hurting your partner, and making other people comfortable in the space.”
Obviously that’s true, and crucial. But I think for a while I missed that there’s another side to this – that if you are physically and emotionally at ease you will learn quickly, and try things you wouldn’t otherwise. Also being relaxed leads to being smooth, and smooth, flowing “kinetic” movement allows you be an effective martial artist who can adapt to different rulesets/situations.
Understanding and Healing Trauma Through Liberation Martial Arts
“Someone who has experienced trauma may unconsciously tighten certain muscles to protect vulnerable areas, leading to tension and pain that persists long after the traumatic event has passed. This tension disrupts kinetic linking—a fundamental concept in LMA where energy is transferred smoothly through the body during movement.”
One of the aims of LMA is that practitioner’s should move “kineticly” meaning through relaxation and smoothness – each movement leading seamlessly into the next. The aim of this (I would imagine) is that it keeps you and your partner safe, and is also a very effective way of practicing martial arts in a dynamic game/situation. How Punch up Brum tries to achieve this is through playfulness and consent + physical and emotional safety. Being smooth allows you to change direction at any time, and to save energy and make the most of your momentum.
As the article says, trauma can be a significant barrier to playfulness, relaxation and kinetic movement. I think we already do a fair bit to address this, but think we can go further.
The aim of LMA is relaxation, self regulation and reconnecting to our bodies. I’d love to hear peoples thoughts on achieving these goals.
My suggestions would be:
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At the start of the session, during Sapling Stance we could do a guided internal body scan – I know we have done this previously, but I think we could consider doing it every time. This would help from a reconnecting to our bodies point of view. I think the Sapling Stance is great, and already achieving a degree of calmness/body connection, but think we could be even more intentional about it.
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I think between every exercise that we do, regardless if it’s “dynamic” or not, we should do some kind of deep/box breathing, even if it’s just a few seconds. This might seem like overkill, but I think the further we code Punch Up as a calm (and calming) space the closer we will get to kinetic movement and we will be more accessible from a trauma perspective.
I want to be clear that I think Punch up and it’s members are doing great work on this already, I just think we’re on the precipice of moving in an even better direction.
Best Style, Self defence, Black and Indigenous Self Determination –
“Self-defense is an infinite matrix. It’s a promise no one can keep. Trying to prepare for each scenario one by one is futile. It’s like preemptively determining where to block, which just means training to do the wrong thing perfectly.”
This section criticises the idea that there’s a best “style” of martial arts for self defence. That what is most effective is to have many rounds of dynamic sparring (different rules, adapting constantly, trying new things) and that to achieve this you need an environment where sparring is safe and , crucially, fun (I think we do a good job of this, but would welcome any thoughts to the contrary).
What occurred to me when reading this is that we as a club seem to have a harder line on “this isn’t self defence” then the LMA curriculum does.
That’s not a criticism of either perspective, but interesting to note. The LMA perspective – from what I’ve read – is that the most useful way to train for self defence is to be adaptable, read the “rules” of a situation rather than being wedded to a “style”.
I don’t have any suggestions here, just intrigued and looking to start conversation.
This isn’t an article but it’s been on my mind -
We talk about “Soft Gaze” constantly at Punch Up. Some people would refer to it as “Lamplight not Torchlight. TLDR – relax your gaze, don’t look at specific things/threats. Just keep your gaze calm and soft, and trust your peripheries to see what they need too. I’ve been thinking about the “gaze” more generally and I think one of the things that Punch Up and LMA offers is a “Way of Seeing”. It’s easy not too see things and people and too try not to be seen. I think the articles “Understanding and Healing Trauma.” and “Unapologetic Bodies: How Shame Manifests in Movement.” speak well to this.
There’s something about playing games/sparring that I’ve found can teach you not to “unsee” or be “unseen.” You learn to look at people in a way that is attentive and curious, which I didn’t realise I wasn’t until I started doing it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/liberationmartialarts/p/understanding-and-healing-trauma
https://open.substack.com/pub/liberationmartialarts/p/unapologetic-bodies I actually found this quite moving, and am glad I read it, but just wanted to flag that it talks about body shame/image so maybe make sure you’re in a good place if that’s something that can be challenging for you.
Closing Thoughts
This ties in to wider thoughts about CB, which should be part of broad democratic discussions, but reading the curriculum makes me long for a Coop Brum building, which amongst other things could include a gym.
I would love for us to have access to a space where we could train often/spontaneously, where some of us could say “we’d like to do an all day/multi day training and discussion session, and really dig down into the philosophy and further put it into praxis.” Me and another member of punch up go to a commercial gym together, and will warm up on the bag before doing long, relaxed playful sparring, interspersed with conversation – this has led to some really interesting conversations about LMA. Punch up and Coop Brum generally. The lack of time constraints in this environment is a key factor in this I think, and it’s exciting to wonder what generative possibilities are there if we had a dedicated space for this.
I think Martial Arts/LMA has potential for relationship building/group + coalition strengthening outside of our immediate context, and if we had a dedicated space which we could access often, I think we could develop our practice in a way where we could have great ambassadors for it. I know councils sometimes make arrangements with regard to commercially undesirable buildings to rent them for a penny a year or whatever. If there was some kind of warehouse space available a Coop Brum building could be wonderful in many ways. I know we’re not there yet as an org, but would love to work towards it medium term if the wider network was on board.
Apologies for the essay format – I’m not beating the downwardly mobile graduate allegations.