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I Talk With My Hands

February 26, 2010 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Martial Arts,Tips and Tricks,karate,self defense

Recently I whipped up a few videos for the website. In fact, my last post featured one of those videos, and luckily I had a weapon to handle the whole time. Something I noticed during my open hand videos is that I make a lot of hand gestures naturally throughout the course of my conversation.

I also noticed that my voice goes up into a high pitch sometimes, which is annoying. Sorry.

But anyway, I do a lot of gesticulation. Once I started thinking about it, I realized that this is no accident at all. Whenever I discuss self defense with students, I always talk about putting yourself at a safe distance and keeping something (i.e. your hands) in between you and your opponent. This will greatly increase your ability to quickly react and defend. One of the best ways to have your hands up naturally and without drawing attention to it is to have “talking hands” while you interact with people.

Not too long ago I was watching Goeff Thompson (proud owner of The Fence), and he made the very same point. In fact, he took it one step further and claimed that if you don’t train your fence to be natural and part of your communication process, it won’t serve as well as possible in times of stress. Good fence technique, he explains, can be a subtle controlling factor that causes your opponent to feel at a loss, and puts you in ideal body position to defend yourself.

Next week I’ll post a video that discusses bunkai, and you’ll be able to see my hand jiving in action.

Do you have a good natural fence that flows with your conversation?

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 and is filed under Martial Arts, Tips and Tricks, karate, self defense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • pjm
    I have always used my hands to talk and that I feel is a very good defensive position. By having my hands moving around at chest level I can block or strike quickly without much notice. It is much less threatening than holding your hands up in a boxing type punching position and threatening your opponent. You may even do a pre-emtive strike to smack them before it gets out of hand and get the heck out of there.
  • Hi Matt - I am also a big hand talker! Like you, I do this subconsciously - it's almost as if I have to demonstrate the thing I am talking about with an imaginary object. For example if I were giving you directions of how to get somewhere in the street, I would be tracing the route with my finger on an imaginary map. Wierd I know! This got me thinking though - is hand talking connected to learning style? I am a very strong visual learner followed by a fairly strong kinesthetic learner. I score zero for auditory learning. I wonder if all hand talkers are visual learners? Useful in a fight I suppose (natural fence and all that). Still, I suppose auditory learners might be better at talking a fight down! lol
  • That's a good question Sue (and I don't know! haha). Traditional school must have been a little tough on you since most of that is pure auditory learning. But I can see why you are thriving in a dojo environment.
  • Stan
    My pleasure, Matt. I enjoy focusing on positive solutions and outcomes!
  • Stan
    Being comfortable with using your hands (while speaking, in this case) takes practice, just like most of our skills.

    One thing I share during my conflict classes is that gesturing with "open hands" often conveys the non-verbal message that you are willing to work with people to find solutions. Conversely, demonstrating more closed hands (like pointing with one finger) indicates more of a "veiled threat" and having hands clenched into fists usually conveys a closed-minded state with few, or no peaceful solutions.

    When I need to change someone's focus, I have found it useful to have one hand "more open" than the other. During the conversation I can switch (similar to passing a weapon) between the two hands. The people become more aware of the message and when I choose to open both hands it's more clear and effective.

    Thanks, Matt! I am pleased to see that some folks are still looking for peaceful applications of our arts!
  • Those are some excellent tips Stan, thanks a lot for sharing that.
  • wimde
    Hey Matt,

    I agree with what you said but IMO with one caveat: in some (Western) cultures, gesticulating a lot with the hands is considered normal. In others, it is a sign of aggression or rudeness.
    Personally, whenever somebody gesticulates a lot, part of my brain starts screaming "Set up!" right away and makes the rest of the conversation just that tad more difficult.

    Just my 2 cents,

    Wim
  • Yea that's a very valid point Wim. I think that's one of the critical reasons that you have to make it a very natural process. Over gesticulation is distracting and even annoying.
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