Communication as a Force
Holistic engagement of force is not just kinetic, it includes communication
Words are indeed a kinetic force. Take a moment and think about the expression of words. Our voice box, a muscle, is exerted, thus creating tiny vibrations in the air. These vibrations physically strike our ears, affecting our perceptions and acting as bullets of the mind.
This phenomenon is no different than exerting a punch. The punch is initiated, the fist accelerates through the air, makes contact with an opponent, and hits the ribs. In the example of both the punch and the word, there is a tool and a target. In the case of the punch, the tool is the fist, and the target is the rib. In the case of linguistics, the word is the tool, and the target is the brain.
Often, when I talk about martial arts with people from ordinary walks of life, I try to express that there is more to combat than just kicking, punching, grappling, and the physical nature of things. The martial arts are as mental, emotional, and moral as kinetic. Yes, there is an element of physicality, in some cases, extreme, but this is not the core of the fighting arts, and mind and body are connected. The element of trading blows is only one piece of the whole, and it’s the beyond-the-physicality portion that keeps people hooked for a lifetime.
Holistic force in the martial arts is made up of three parts, expressed by the following formula:
Movement and firepower are the physical nature of combat (for more on the physical features of this formula, see YouTube here). The physical nature is the domain most people associate martial arts with, kicking, punching, triangle choking, locking, etc. The third component, communication, is the mental, emotional, and perceptual domain. Communication is the syringe that injects emotional-mental force.
Keep in mind that communication in itself is not mental or emotional. It is simply the vehicle that transports the mental-emotional content. The implications that manifest themselves from this paradigm are interesting. One comes to realize that communication is a method of force implementation, no different than a physical punch or a kick.
Communication is not limited to just words. The communication portion of martial arts can be expanded into two elements: verbal communication and non-verbal. Verbal communication is anything that involves words, such as language. Non-verbal could be in the form of body language.
This formula can be expressed as such:
(To see the firepower part of the formula broken out, see YouTube here)
The book Strategic Engagement of Force delves into the nuances of the communication-as-a-force frame of thought. I will go into it briefly here, using a verbal expression of force as an example.
FBI hostage negotiation legend Chris Voss, in his book, Never Split the Difference, outlines a framework for verbal Judo. His verbal Judo framework uses communication as a force to help free hostages from bad guys. Historically, the classic philosophy of negotiation has been to compromise — to split the difference. However, in a hostage situation, you can’t split the difference, as this means half a hostage. Not good. Chris Voss’s revolutionary approach flips this classic negotiation paradigm on its head. His negotiation techniques leverage tactical empathy to elude compromise, thereby circumventing hostage death. These same skills can be employed in martial arts to offset and prevent physical violence or, at the very least, seek to minimize it.
Take, for instance, one of Mr. Voss’s essential tools, the Mirror. What is the Mirror? The Mirror is a linguistic tool that repeats the last word of what someone says and phrases it as a question. For example, supposing John was unhappy with something I did and insulted me.
“ Scott, you are such a jerk,” says John.
The use of a Mirror would be for me to return John’s statements with the last word phrased as a question:
“Jerk?” I would say.
The use of this technique does at least three things for me. In the first place, it buys me time. Secondly, it gives me more information about why he thinks I am a jerk. Thirdly, by reflecting John’s own words back onto him, it helps him feel heard, invites further discourse, and works to deescalate an otherwise emotionally charged situation — one that could lead me to be punched in the mouth.
The Mirror is a tactical use of force on the brain. A mental jab. As you will recall, force connects a tool to a target at its basic level. Our tool, in this case, is the Mirror. The target is my opponent’s emotional brain.
As the Mirror relates to strategic engagement of force, there are three setups to consider — we can repel, absorb, or redirect. The Mirror is a redirection setup. We redirect the opponent’s own words back onto them.
When force is exerted between two individuals, be it physical or mental, it is a reciprocal relationship. On one side of the relationship, there is someone who initiates the action. The initiator is considered the leadoff actor. On the other side, there is a recipient of the initiator’s action. The recipient is the counter actor. Each person, the leadoff actor, and the counter actor have tools at their disposal they can deploy to absorb, redirect, or repel force.
The Mirror sits in the counter fighter repertoire of tools. The reason the Mirror is considered a counter and not a leadoff tool is it requires something to spawn from. In our preceding example, for me to reflect the word “jerk,” he has to call me a jerk in the first place. He needed to give me words to counter. I could not mirror something he did not say. Thus, The Mirror is a linguistic counter-fighting tool.
As you will recall, tools hit targets. In three-dimensional space, verbal force’s anatomical target is the mind’s emotional and mental center — the brain. However, there is another element that constitutes targeting. Time. The “when.” When do we hit the target?
We can lay targeting across time into three zones, before, during, or after. These are called “Time Zones” (for more on Time Zones, see YouTube here). Before, during, or after what? In the case of a verbal counter, it would be before, during, or after the leadoff actor’s action. Concerning the Mirror, this is an “after” counter, as we need to wait to hear what the person says, to redirect and reflect their words back on them. To use a fencing term, this is a riposte-style counter-attack. It would be no different than if someone took a swing at you. You can redirect the swing and follow up with a counter swing. The swing is firepower; the Mirror is communication. Regardless, they still adhere to the same strategic principles of holistic force.
The Mirror is not the only verbal style exertion of force. There is a myriad of others. Bruce Lee thought the highest order of combat was to intercept an attack before it could materialize. Thus he named his Martial Art Jeet Kune Do, which means “Way of interception.” While the Mirror is an effective means of tactical empathy and strategic engagement of linguistic force, it is only the beginning. You will recall the Mirror is an after-style counter. Some tools can hit the emotional-mental part of the brain during the attack, or better yet, before the attack — to neutralize it before it ever occurs — to stop someone dead in their tracks — to gobsmack — to intercept. The book Strategic Engagement of Force probes into these topics in more detail.
The martial arts are a method of fulfillment. The more you give, the more you get. By focusing on the verbal and non-verbal aspects of force, rather than just the physical constituents, one can start to develop verbal Jujitsu — a verbal Jujitsu that can help you in business, school, relationships, and life.
