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Intent is multivalent
Intent is conscious design or will
Intent shapes action and energy and art
Intent may be aggressive or non aggressive
Intent can be a necessity
Intent can be an excessive distraction
Intent drives training and training drives action that becomes empty of “intent”
Nick Lowry
The word “intent” is one that we hear spoken a lot in the martial arts. I myself am always telling my students to execute their techniques with intent, to “put plenty of intent behind your techniques”.
I have my own idea of what intent is and should be in reference to the martial arts, but there also exists quite a number of other interpretations that people often cite as being “the real meaning”.
What Is Intent?
Screenwriters know about intent. Before they even begin to write a script they have to know why they are writing it, what their intentions are and what they want people to feel after they have read it. In the same mode, I want you to feel a certain way after you have finished reading this article. I want you know what intent is and how it relates to the martial arts. That’s my intent here, to deepen your understanding.
So in martial arts training, we treat intent in much same way. We have to know, before we do a technique, what we want to communicate to our opponent. This can be simple, or it can be complex, depending on what we want to put across.
If I throw a punch at someone in training for example, my intent would be that I want that person to know that I’m trying to hit them. This is were a lot of beginners fail in this respect. Often times it just seems like they are swinging their arm in the general direction of their opponent. Their attack lacks focus because there is no intent behind it. The same attacks become a lot better however, when the student thinks about what they are doing more, about why they are attacking in that why, about where they want that attack to land and with how much force. These are all things that practiced martial artists do without thinking about but which someone just starting out has to be conscious of first of all in order to bring proper focus to their attacks.
We can also add other layers to our intentions by bringing in emotions. For instance my intentions when sparring a beginner in the martial arts would be just to go lightly on them; my attacks would have little intent behind them and all I would be trying to communicate with them would be that they will get hit if they don’t cover up properly or that they are leaving themselves open to attack every time they kick or whatever. My level of intention would be quite low in this situation.
Now lets go to another extreme here. Lets imagine I was attacking someone who had just did harm to my family in some way. How different would my intentions be in this situation? Very different, because with every attack I would want that person to feel my wrath, I’d want to make sure they knew how angry I was by hitting as hard as I could and fuelling my actions with the intense emotions I was feeling. In the end, that person would know exactly how I was feeling and why I was being so aggressive.
Intention is therefore what we communicate to our opponent. When my opponent reacts to my punch in training he knows I am trying to hit him. My intentions are clear cut and obvious by the level of force and aggression I’m putting into that punch.
Intent and Aggression
To my mind, intent is very closely linked to aggression. I believe that a certain amount of controlled aggression is necessary in order to really show our intentions. In fact you can measure the intensity of someone’s intention by first measuring the intensity of their aggression. If someone is trying very hard to hit you and is being very aggressive along with it you can be sure that their actions are being fuelled by a lot of intention. Maybe that person has a grudge against
In a street situation, levels of intent and aggression will also vary. Sometimes you will just want to control an opponent and you will want them to know that they are under your control by simply incapacitating them with an arm lock or a pin to the floor. This is telling your opponent that you have them beaten and not to try anything more or you will react more severely next time. On the other hand, if someone attacks you with a knife and tries to kill you then you will do that person all sorts of damage, in effect punishing them for trying to kill you. You will leave that person severely injured and well aware of your original intentions because they will be written in blood all over their face.
So I see aggression -controlled aggression- as being the energy that carries your intentions and communicates them to an opponent. You obviously can’t verbally communicate your intentions every time you do a technique or attack so aggression is used to communicate your intentions instead, but in a non-verbal manner.
Beyond Intent
To go beyond intent, to perform actions that are empty of intent, requires a very Zen like state that very few people, never mind martial artists, are able to attain. Simply reacting to another persons actions, or indeed the actions of the universe itself, requires one to simply go with the flow, to blend with the opposing movements. In martial arts terms, this means never attacking, only defending and reacting to what is.
Morihei Ueshiba, the famous Aikido master, expounded this form of non-intent and going with the flow of the universe when he devised the philosophy that underpins the art of Aikido. In his own words, because he is one with the universe, “he will never be beaten”. Strong words indeed, and by all accounts they were certainly true, but true only for him. I’ve never heard the same words said about anyone else.
The fact remains though that we can’t all be like O’Sensei. We can certainly aspire to go with the flow and become one with the universe but for most of us the reality of training dictates that we continue to use intention to fuel and make effective our technique. For this reason, I am advocating that you communicate your intentions by means of controlled aggression.
It is all well and good saying that intent is this and intent is that, but none of those interpretations are very helpful when we actually come to train or defend ourselves. From a purely practical point of view, aggression is the only means we have to put across our intent to an opponent.
The martial arts are fighting systems that teach people how to inflict damage on another person and to my mind you can’t do this effectively without aggression.
Master controlling your aggression and you will become better at showing your intent.
All else is just idle speculation with no real practical application.
What Do You Think?
The subject of intent is a tricky subject and this is just my view on it. I find it helpful, you may not. If you think you can define intent a bit better then by all means do so in the comments box below. I’d be interested in hearing your views on it.
Recommended Resources
The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman
Bushido: The Way of the Samurai (Square One Classics)
The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee
