How to always have the possibility to prevail

The secret source: the use of unorthodox methods

“Who excels in the use of unorthodox methods is inexhaustible as Heaven and limitless as the Yangtze, the Yellow River” – Sun Tzu.

Let’s start with these crucial assumptions:

  1. It doesn’t matter how much we train and specialize in a given field (for combat, it could be striking, grappling, etc.), in that single specific area there will always be someone better than us out there
  2. No one has been, is or will ever be able to reach excellence in all the fields

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

There is only one way to have (at least) one possibility against every kind of opponent: to always have a skill that, even if not perfectioned at the highest level, is enough superior to the adversary’s one to allow us to prevail (read All the skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu).

This is true (despite if in different ways) everywhere: for self-defense, sports combat, in daily life (etc.).

How to have at least one chance to prevail

1. Let’s start by exemplifying the breadth of the meaning of “prevailing”

Self-defense

In self-defense, the word “prevail” does not automatically coincide with “submitting our opponents”:

  • In the real world (if we are not completely fools), we must accept that there are fights that cannot be solved with the hands and that there are others that could but should not (read Best martial arts for self-defense)
  • With “prevail”, we mean reaching our core objective (eg. survive, escape, preserve the life of someone, etc.), nothing more nothing less (read Personal defense: the S.A.F.E. method)

Combat sports

Even in combat sports to win does not always mean to knock out the opponent: it is certainly a viable option but not necessarily the only one, there may be:

  • Points to score
  • Positions to maintain
  • Times to endure

The point is that, in certain sectors, there are adversaries that are too strong for us and trying to address them exactly how they expect is just a concession that we give them. As Bruce Lee said, we must instead learn to be like the water. able to always try to find an alternative way to overcome the closed passages.

Daily life

In everyday life (if we talk about a civil and democratic context):

  • It is not always right to prevail
  • It is only the losers who are forced to stoop to using physical force to assert their right

But in cases where it makes sense to aim to prevail, even here it may not be about forcefully imposing the others to think like us but maybe just about achieving our real goal (e.g. being respected, reaching a fair agreement, etc.).

2. How to prevail: the theory of the wheel

Based on what we have said so far, it should now be clear to us that to prevail (before any other consideration), we need:

  1. Understanding exactly what we really (and rationally) want
  2. Understand which paths are closed to us

The third step is to orient ourselves toward other skills that can easily open the way to the solution and this is where the 6 Dragons Kung Fu wheel theory comes into play.

It’s not about anything complex but simply about always countering the action of our adversaries with the right ability: the one that is most lacking in them and the one that is most evolved in us.

Let’s make a few examples:

  • Our opponent is good at striking, let’s bring him / her to the ground
  • Is our interlocutor more informed than us on a topic? Let’s stick to the logical level without going into factual details
  • Is our attacker too strong to overcome in the fight? We use our negotiation skills to keep (for as long as we need) the confrontation on a verbal level

A note by Master Kongling – Naturally it must be specified that these are only examples, not solutions that work in every situation and more importantly, each of them assume that we master the contextual alternative skill to a level that is sufficient to achieve our goals (which automatically leads us to the continuation of the discussion).

How to always have the possibility to achieve an overwhelming advantage

The core idea

6 Dragons Kung Fu is born from the most practical part of martial arts but its system has been designed to overcome its limits to achieve a more complete preparation for our students (read 6 Dragons Kung Fu: what does it teach?).

This is precisely the reason why we often talk about our school’s teachings as a lifestyle, because we combine:

  • A practical and complete combat system
  • With an extensive mental preparation

The idea is to cover all those gaps that are normally overlooked but that in self-defense, in daily life as everywhere are absolutely crucial.

Our method

The criticism that is (reasonably) leveled at us is that we want to teach too many things, with the risk of not reaching a good level in any field. This is certainly a more than legitimate thought but this is where the method we have studied comes in.

These are our fundamental principles:

  • In terms of knowledge, we refuse the idea of watertight compartments (everything is connected, something in an advantageous way some other not)
  • We teach to see the connections between what is compatible and therefore to drastically reduce the learning curves
  • We teach to create a separation between is in contrast and to avoid therefore counterproductive overlapping
  • We teach right away to be a truly active part of the learning process and this effort, once the initial impact has been overcome, translates into faster, more complete and effective martial growth
  • We focus on principles / core mechanics of body and mind, using the specific applications just as examples and not as static tools; we do this because any technique can be neutralized but never principles behind them
  • The best tactic is the one that our opponents do not expect and when a practitioner profoundly masters the principles, has always occasion to create / adapt their concretization in unexpected / unorthodox ways

A note by Master Kongling – Does it work? The logic says yes, the time our school exists says yes but never trust words, do not trust us, read how to be sure on Is it legit?.

Final notes

A few conclusive thoughts:

  • In our view, the warrior who has the best chance to prevail is the one who develops, in addition to the basic ones, the right set of collateral, interconnected capabilities
  • The essence of the effectiveness of unorthodox methods lies in learning to find unusual connections, in transferring effective solutions from a certain field to another but to do this, we must learn to recognize the right relations to exalt and the wrong ones to deactivate
  • The human mind is an extraordinary tool; within each of us, there is the ability to overcome the limitations of the past and to leave the tracks of passive repetition (no matter if by choice or helped by errors, read Measure ourselves with errors); we firmly think that we should not become a book already written, a shadow, an echo, a piece of paper on which others write
  • We do not give easy fake solutions, this is our approach, this is what we teach; no one can guarantee anyone to always prevail, even using unorthodox methods, what we can guarantee is that we will have (again, at least) a possibility; if this appears too few for us, let’s reason on the fact that the alternative is the certainty of defeat (an incredibly different perspective)

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Reply in the comments and share your experience:

  • Have you ever faced an opponent against with anything was useless?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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