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Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force
A Video Review by Phil Elmore
Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force (IOUF) is arguably some of
Scott Sonnon’s best work.
By the end of the series, I suspect you will be as impressed as I was with
the valuable principles it contains. The subtitle on the cassette
boxes reads, “Never be thrown. Throw at will.” Those six words
comprise the essence of IOUF and are not mere hyperbole.
Production Notes
RMAX produced this tape in 2000, and
the difference in Scott’s appearance is somewhat startling. Dressed
in a camouflage gi and sporting a beard and ponytail, Scott looks like a
modern-day pirate. His earnest nature and vast knowledge shine
through regardless of wardrobe, but the gis worn by Scott and his training
partners Ben Brackbill and Scott Fabel are a point of contention with me.
All three of them are constantly straightening the gis after
demonstrations — a natural reflex, but one that tends to be distracting
on camera.
The lighting is good, and the tape was recorded in front of a gray
background and a contrasting carpet that are perfect for demonstrations of
this type. The ROSS banner is a bit distracting in its placement,
but its presence is understandable.
There is a persistent audio issue throughout IOUF that deserves
comment. Frequently, the remote microphone attached to Scott’s
clothing produces poor sound when he’s grappling with someone or when the
fabric of his uniform has bunched up over it. The recurring problem
is a minor irritant, not something that cripples the teaching — but it
does illustrate the need for a boom mike in situations like this.
One thing this tape series does contain that is not present on some
other RMAX productions is an explanation of ROSS. To quote the text
block,
ROSS is the training system of Russian Martial Art researched and
formulated by the RETAL (Russian Combat Skill, Consultant Scientific and
Practical Training) Center endorsed and approved by the International
and All Russian Federation of Russian Martial Art, which is sanctioned
and authorized by the National Olympic Committee of Russia as the sole
official representative of Russian Martial Art within Russia and
Worldwide.
Each tape contains footage of a demonstration of ROSS to Vladimir Putin
in 1994. Putin even offers a brief testimonial of his own to ROSS.
TAPE 2: QUANTUM GRIPPING
In Volume 2, Scott explains that the ability to grab everywhere
simultaneously is the fundamental concept behind the tape. He hopes
to teach you to manipulate the opponent’s body to throw at will. The
tape discusses three tactics: grip releases, grip counters, and grip
confirmations.
Describing the frame of the human body, Scott explains that your arms
can be in the upper, middle, or lower frame at any given time. That
is, they can be straight up, straight out, or straight down (or positioned
somewhere along those points). By screwing your arms, placing
them in and screwing them over, you can see the rotational value in
entering on your opponent. Screwing increases the tendon wrap and
facilitates the force vector when you grab.
Scott demonstrates this wrapping and screwing from one frame to the
next. “Look at the fulcrum of your bony levers,” he explains.
He describes how to capture (confirm) the opponent’s grasp, release that
grasp, or counter that grasp to create a grasp of your own.
Several specific grabbing scenarios follow. When your jacket is
grabbed, for example, you can move your elbow down and screw upwards to
the upper frame to take the opponent off you. Scott demonstrates
using all three options — confirming, releasing, and countering — from
low, middle, and upper frame. He also demonstrates how to take one
into the other, such as taking a release into a counter and asserting a
grasp of your own.
Immobilization (confirmation of a grasp) isn’t a submission hold, Scott
points out. It is taking the opponent’s joint to its furthest range
of motion to stop him. Scott then goes on to demonstrate variations
on counters to sleeve holds. Elements of
Leg Fencing are apparent here and remind the savvy viewer that all of
Scott’s tapes are interconnected and reinforce one another.
As more variations on this theme were presented, things started to make
sense to me. The whole body of concepts is really very simple.
Confirmations, releases, and counters to grasps, combined with the
essential “screwing motion” of the limbs and a recognition of where the
opponent’s triangle points are, take a lot more time to list and describe than to
recognize and apply.
Going into more detail on counters, Scott states flatly that “A great
throw is less. Less energy, less movement, less effort.” This
is one of those slogans I find myself repeating more and more.
Taking advantage of the way your opponent’s body works, refusing to muscle
through him or fight his natural reflexes, is the essence of performance
enhancement — because it removes obstacles. Refusing to fight force
on force is also an important principle in
Wing
Chun (and many other arts), so it is something to which most readers
can relate immediately.
In the next segment, Scott repeats his admonition against using joint
dysfunction maneuvers. Allow your opponent to move away from
pain to facilitate takedowns, he explains. When dealing with grabs
to the arm, he says, “Think of where the force vectors are to facilitate
your throws… How to control his joints in such a manner that the throw
is easy and you end up in a position of mechanical advantage.”
Going (back to) lapel grabs, Scott demonstrates rolling the shoulder
over to counter the grasp. We can hammer it off to release it, or we
can drive him forward to take him off. This segment introduces,
briefly, the concepts behind “jacket fencing” — keeping the
opponent’s grasp or
launching him if you so choose.
The tape again started to come together for me as Scott explained the
“unstoppable force” part of the series title. Combine an
understanding of force vectors with one of hyperfunction and your opponent
is already thrown, Scott explains. When he has a hold on you, look
at the force vector of his grasp and push along it to take him to his
triangle point. It’s that simple.
The following segment on “renovation” really goes to the heart of why
I like Scott’s material so much. Much of Coach Sonnon’s training
curriculum involves taking existing techniques and “renovating” them to
make them more efficient. This enhances the performance of any
martial art, be it Judo, Ju Jitsu, Sambo, or my own
Wing Chun and
Shanliang Li training.
The next portion of the tape deals with front belt grabs, which are attempts
to control the lunar plexus. Scott demonstrates how to confirm,
release, or counter such maneuvers. There are numerous options
available to you. Using a confirmation, for example, you can throw
your opponent or walk him around the room.
There is a section involving manipulating the material of your jacket
to confirm the opponent’s grasp. This entails actually using the
fabric of your gi to facilitate the capturing of the enemy’s grip (by
rolling over it). While manipulations of this type are probably not
applicable to most street defenses (rarely do most people’s clothes have
that amount of slack) this is still interesting knowledge to possess.
Certainly this will be of interest to sports-oriented martial artists.
To facilitate lifting, Scott explains how to use the structure
of your body. The spine moves through a wave motion;
articulate your spine and use your structure to roll your opponent and
take him down. (Wave motion is also only one function of your spine.
Another is shock absorption. This immediately reminded me of
the material in Leg Fencing in which Scott
explains how to absorb and mitigate the shock of the opponent’s blows.)
One of the reasons lifting with one’s structure is so important is that
trying to use muscle dooms you to the limitations of your strength.
Your muscle may fade, but your structure will not — so use it to throw.
Don’t try to bull through your opponent or pick him up with brute effort.
During the next sequence Scott discusses range. “Range is not a
tactical option,” he states. “It’s a biomotor relationship.” You do
not control range so much as you must deal with it (through “range
compression”) to use your weapons at the appropriate “depths.” Scott
demonstrates moving from far range to the treacherous “middle ground” to
the engagement of shoulders and hips, finally reaching the “intimate”
range of spine to spine. Different tactical operations become
relevant at the different ranges, but not because we mentally divide our
ranges and techniques. It’s a joint relationship, to Scott’s
thinking. Your distance to the opponent makes some strategies and tools
more relevant than others.
In looking through my notes, I noticed that I chose to make a notation
at this point. It’s true that Scott speaks a very specific language,
driven by his profession as an athletic coach and by his scientific
approach to the mechanics of the martial arts. If you have trouble
understanding what he’s saying, however, ignore him. That’s right;
I said to ignore him. If you follow along and do what he does
as he demonstrates it, without necessarily worrying about the verbiage he
uses, you will catch on — because while the concepts he describes sound
complex, they are actually very simple when applied. Eventually you
will pick up what he’s trying to say, comparing it to the physical
expressions you’ve already grasped, and the two will make sense together.
Scott pauses to explain what he describes as IOUF’s most “startling”
concept so far: Training “secrets” are concealed by our myopia only.
They aren’t mystical, magical truths revealed to worthy seekers. The
things we miss are missed simply because we do not look at the larger
picture, instead fixating on portions of it to the exclusion of the truth.
Scott then explains that you must bring together spinal loading (the
“wave” motion) with the use of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists as
previously described. You become an “unstoppable force” — an
athlete capable of throwing your opponents at will, regardless of from
where you grasp them.
Scott goes on to explain the difference between a parallel force
system and a concurrent force system. Rather than moving
some portion of your opponent one way while another part of him moves in
reaction (parallel), exert concurrent force by both pulling and pushing to
move your opponent in a third direction (the triangle point — get
it?).
IOUF, therefore, is simple physics in action.
The remainder of the tape consists of many different examples of IOUF’s
principles in action. This is a long tape — 97 minutes long,
according to the label. Scott definitely does not skimp for the sake
of dragging out the series and selling more volumes. He urges the
viewer to pay attention to how footwork changes force vectors with
relationship to the locking arm and the power transfer (clinch concepts
covered, for example, in Leg Fencing).
The “renovation” concept is also reinforced as Scott explains it here.
He is seeking to find more efficient ways to do what is traditionally
taught in arts such as Sambo, Judo, and Ju Jitsu. (That efficiency
is accomplished through recognition of force vectors.) This is
perhaps what is best about Scott’s material. It is, at the
very least, what I get out of it personally. It improves what I do
and augments the arts I study. I believe martial artists of
practically any style will find that Scott’s teaching does the same for them.
After touching briefly on how hyperfunction and quantum gripping relate
to the joint mass center (hinting at the content of Volume 3, which
includes the fundamentals of
Leg Fencing), Scott pauses to recommend the
Russian Sambo Encyclopedia. Additional training footage follows. I have to admit that I enjoy the training footage most of
all, as it illustrates the principles previously discussed without
distracting commentary.
IOUF concludes with
Volume 3, Joint Mass
Center.