MONDAY MINDSET: WHAT IS STYLE

03.11.24

STYLE.

Some people have it, some people don’t.. but everybody wants it.

It’s an elusive thing.  What, exactly, is style?

Well, style is always defined in relation to some sort of system or instutition–“he’s got great fashion style,” “she has an awesome fighting style,” “his musical style is wonderful.”

Style is essentially how we habitually move through, and operate within, a system.

In relation to fighting, our style is how we put all the elements of our fighting system together.  It’s an understanding of the fundamental concepts–and at a high level, a creative and effortless transition from one element to another, with successful results.

Style is unique to us.  How I, Jackson Galka, express myself through fighting will be different than how you express yourself–just like we may learn the same scales and chords on a guitar, but the music we write will be totally different.

High style is the ultimate pursuit–it’s not so much a development, but rather a refinement, of the process over time.  It’s the chiseling away of progressively smaller pieces of marble to reveal the sculpture within the stone, so to speak.

But first, we have to lay a solid foundation. 

There is no style if the system is undefined.  You have to practice the basics, learn the boundaries of the system, and then operate within that system in an efficient and graceful way.

In many ways, style isn’t something you really create–style is something you express, through an understanding of the foundational movements, rules, and boundaries.

That’s why we call it the “Martial Arts.”

It’s martial, because we deal with the science of fighting.

But it’s art, because it’s a medium through which we can express our unique style.If you ask anyone who’s really got good style, it’s never really been about the punching and kicking.  It’s about exposing what lies within.