Aliveness
As far as I know, aliveness is a term first used by Bruce Lee and later greatly expanded upon and promoted by Matt Thornton back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Thornton defines aliveness as training with resistance using energy, timing and motion.1
"Movement means real footwork, not contrived, not in a pattern... on the ground it means exactly that also... movement... if the person is just laying there, not moving as you apply your lock or move....that is not Alive. In the clinch its the same... pushing, pulling, moving.
Timing is of course just that... if its in a predictable rhythm, a pattern, a repeatable series of sets, then you are not acquiring or developing timing, just motion speed.
And of course energy... swing the stick like someone would really swing it... don't stop at centerline. Punch with the energy of someone who wants to hit you. Not locking your arm out so your partner can look good doing the destruction, or trap, or silat sweep, etc."2
Aliveness is essentially the training principle which focuses on including the non-compliance/resistance element of real fighting while still trying to preserve an acceptable level of safety.
Why Aliveness is Important
Feedback
There are a number of reasons aliveness is important. First, this type of training provides a method of testing the efficacy of your techniques by providing feedback. Someone who only practices their techniques in the air or by hitting a bag will not know if what they are doing will truly work because they have nothing to judge its effectiveness against. The same holds true when training with a partner that only reacts in a cooperative manner. Resisting opponents provide us with opportunities to run little experiments. If our technique works, then we give it more credence. If it doesn't, then we analyse it to figure out what went wrong or decide whether it should be discarded. The point here is that without these little experiments we are only left with our imagination and beliefs to judge our abilities.
Additionally, many of the aspects of what truly makes our individual techniques work can only be learned through resistance training. For instance, to really get a feel of what the correct distance should be between you and your opponent (referred to as the fighting measure in Jeet Kune Do) requires lots of sparring with lots of different body types. When students are first introduced to sparring they typically stand too close to their opponent (often because they are only used to hitting focus mitts or a heavy bag) or too far away (because they don't want to get hit). Because of the feedback received through training which is alive (stand too close means getting hit, too far away means you can't hit your opponent), the student is able to make adjustments which eventually lead to better fighting performance.
Toughness
Another reason aliveness is important is that it trains us to become more comfortable with roughness, aggression and chaos. Many students, when they first start sparring, experience a degree of panic and disorientation because up to that point they've had little exposure to being physically struck or manhandled. In addition, most people who have lived a life largely free from violence may themselves have an aversion to striking someone else. Over time, as the trainee puts in the hours sparring, they better learn to cope with being hit and physically roughed up and become less squeamish about striking their opponent.
Progressive Resistance & The Three Stages of Learning
Does this mean we should only spar and give up all other training methods? Of course not. In actuality, there needs to be a learning process which begins with no resistance. Resistance is then incrementally increased as development progresses. This process fits nicely with Fitts and Posner's Three Stages of Learning model which I'll use to help explain the value of progressive resistance.
When first learning a technique, students need to be able to work through the mechanics of the move unencumbered. This phase of the learning process is referred to as the Cognitive stage due to the great amount of cognitive activity required to discover and develop the component parts of the technique. The student will typically make many gross errors and perform techniques in an inconsistent manner as they try to learn the fundamental movement patterns. Resistance at this point will only slow development and frustrate the trainee.
Once a basic level of proficiency is achieved, the student moves into the Associative stage and resistance is added. The student displays fewer errors and has to devote less attention in the performance of techniques. While the cognitive stage is fairly short, the associative stage can be quite long and some students may never move beyond it. They are now focused on refining techniques and possess the ability to detect some of their own errors when analyzing the feedback provided from training which incorporates resistance. Adding resistance to training can be done through drills and sparring which are designed to isolate the technique or techniques being developed. Resistance should be kept to a minimum at first, then added as the student becomes more proficient. Martial arts instructor Burton Richardson uses a weightlifting analogy to explain the principle.
Imagine that you decide to sign up at a gym. (Martial arts sounded too dangerous!) You have a personal trainer to teach you how to lift correctly and get you going in the right direction. You tell the trainer that you want to work on your leg strength. She says okay, and teaches you how to do a squat. She puts a broomstick across your shoulders, feet shoulder width apart, has you keep your back straight while bending at the knees. She points out that you should sit back, almost like sitting in a chair, to avoid having your knees move out in front of your toes. Better for your knees and better for balance. After a few minutes you can duplicate the squat correctly. Now what did you actually just learn? You learned a technique. That would be like going to our JKD Unlimited/MMA for the street class and learning how to throw a solid punch. It has taken you about three minutes to learn the proper form for the technique called the squat. Now what happens? Do you just practice that technique with the broomstick for the next three years? No. Your trainer takes you to the squat rack. Why? Because you have to add resistance if you want to get stronger. Doing the technique with resistance is going to trigger the Adaptive Response. If you don’t add resistance you are not going to get stronger. If you don’t add resistance in your fight training you won’t develop fighting skill. Let’s now say that your wonderful trainer takes you to the squat rack and proceeds to load the bar with 300 pounds! What is going to happen if you try to squat that much your first day? You are going to break something. Why? TOO MUCH RESISTANCE! You have to start with just enough resistance to make the effort slightly difficult. This causes your body to adapt. You go in the following week and you can add a little more resistance. Over time, depending on your goals, you may be able to squat with 300 pounds. The exact same theory of Progressive Resistance holds true for our fight training. Too much resistance is counterproductive. You will actually be worse off by adding too much resistance than not training at all. Instead, the trick is to add enough resistance so that it is slightly difficult to apply your technique. As you improve, you add more resistance. The amount you end up training with depends upon your goals.4
After a great deal of practice and experience, the trainee moves into the final stage of learning referred to as the Autonomous Stage. At this point, the trainee can perform most of their techniques without thinking about them consistently and with very few errors. Resistance remains an important component of training as it provides the feedback necessary for the trainee to fine tune movements and work on higher level tactics and strategies. At this level it is important to have a wide variety of skilled training partners.
1. Black Belt, Dec 2001
2. SBGi: Aliveness 101
3. Motor Learning and Development
4. Burton Richardson: Progressive resistance and Variable Intensity