Lesson: Wuxin and Intent

Wednesday’s adult Level 2 class has generated a lot of discussion about the lesson content. People’s reactions are covering the entire spectrum of emotions from excited inspiration all the way to confused frustration. I hope this article goes on to alleviate the frustration of those who are struggling with the concepts and provides a guided outlet for the enthusiasm of everyone else.

Wuxin translates as ‘no mind’. This concept is your black stripe portion of our curriculum and it refers to your ability to use the skills you have learned. There is a difference between knowledge and skill. Knowing something does not necessarily give you the ability to do something. If you have to think before you react, your knowledge is not applicable. We train so that our reactions are accurate, instinctive, and require no thought. Wuxin - no mind. 

The majority of the buzz about Wednesday’s lesson was about the concept of Wuxin. However, to be clear, the lesson’s focus was on visualization and intent. There is a definitive relationship between wuxin and intent because you cannot achieve wuxin without clarity of intent.

Understanding intent begins with an understanding of the six harmonies. The six harmonies compose the foundation upon which all your training resides. When we talk about black belt and curriculum we are talking about mastering the six harmonies.

The six harmonies has tangible external qualities and abstract internal qualities. Externally we strive to harmonize our hands with our feet, our elbows with our knees, and our hips with our shoulders. Internally we want to harmonize our spirit to our intent, our intent to our chi, and our chi to our strength. Slap dab in the middle of the internal harmonies is our intent - Wednesday’s lesson focus. 

Intent is what you are trying to accomplish. Wednesday’s class was about visualizing your opponent and applying a two plane blocking strategy that had one hand palm sweep along the sideways plane while the other hand executed a penetrating block on the forward plane. This eventually evolved into the penetrating block achieving the same result without needing the palm sweep of the other hand. 

Those of you who struggled with the penetrating block did so because you failed to hold your line on the attack. You stepped off the line to avoid the punch while you executed your palm sweep. You had the wrong intent driving your defense. Your intent was to avoid the punch, it was not behind executing a penetrating block. Your outcome supported your intent. Better yet, your intent drove your outcome.

Jeff Brinker