‘Feet to Core to Four led by the Head travelling on the Breath.’ - Part 4

This week I’m going to talk a little more about the use of the core in Silat Fitrah.

Last time I explained that:

‘The core includes the lower back, glutes, hips, pelvis and stomach. It is the area where what we refer to as the lower triangle – from feet up to the lower stomach (or the lower back, if you’re considering it from the rear) – meets what we call the upper triangle – which is from that point up to the shoulders.’

I also said that teachers of the Art are more likely to emphasise how movements start from the back of the body – from the ankles and Achilles up through the calves, hamstrings, thigh biceps, base of the spine and into the lower back – rather than from the front.

The two main reasons for this are developments of the points I shared in my last post.

The reasons are:

1. On the physical level we need to start our action from the floor, engaging large muscle groups to move the body in the chosen direction and manner. Before we engage and utilise our core, we need to drive off the planet; that means as our feet press into the ground, our Achilles and calves need to activate before the power of our thighs, glutes, lower back and stomach muscles kick in. This can happen in a split-second if our practice has both developed our physical awareness and the ability to contract and expand at speed. (I’ll talk more about this in a future post.)

For now, though, let me say that in Silat Fitrah using the syllabus as a training aid to help us develop our physical awareness and the ability to move well precedes considering how the various movements might be applied combatively.

This is one of the reasons why we can train alone and make significant improvements.

Whilst we can use the Art to explore and learn how to better manage our psychological and emotional states – and I think it’s essential that we do – we are also physical beings; it follows, then, that we should train to become increasingly aware of our own body, how it operates, the messages it is sharing with us at any given time and how to use it in different ways. Importantly, this includes recognising when to rest as well as when to train.

By focussing on the back of our body we are also reminding ourselves that every so-called technique is actually a whole-body movement.

Whether we are performing a punch, or a hammer fist, a forearm strike or an elbow, a kick or a knee, a trip or a throw, we are using the interconnecting muscles, ligaments and tendons in the lower triangle to fire the movement.

The aim is to use our body, through the core, to drive the limbs out rather than pushing them out.

Next time I’ll share the second reason and offer some explanations for that.