The Unified Theory Framework

How The Unified theory started

Let me first start by saying what "The Unified Theory Framework" is not:

It is not a martial arts style or personal brand of my own version of Wing Chun.

What is it in one sentence:

It is a teaching and decision making framework, an alternative way to teach anything you want to teach or a way to speed up your decision making by creating cognitive frameworks.

The Following was written in 2001...

A few months ago I decided to put pen to paper, or as the case would be fingers to keyboard and write out the concept I have been teaching so far over the last 8 years, I refer to as “The Unified Theory Framework", it was a method and concept that spiralled way past my own expectation in size and application, as I started to go through years worth of notes on what I thought was an already a daunting task, I decided to do some research to find out if anyone else out there was on the same path as me, I found various references to a unified theory within martial arts, but out of all the articles, blog posts and forum post I noticed an outcome nearly every person that wrote about it came to, and that was “it is virtually impossible to document and complete a unified theory in a martial arts context”, and nearly all who use term “the unified theory” referred to it and used it in a way that limited it to a single area of combat and the Martial arts.

In my research one piece of text came to my attention more than the rest as it summed up what nearly all the others were saying in regards to a unified theory in the martial arts field, I was at last going to see that someone else shared my views or a totally different application on The unified theory and thoughts on martial arts and combative systems, I noticed they had referenced the unified field theory in the academic field of physics as I did 10 years ago by giving a brief summary of what it meant, they then started to touch on what it meant within the confines of martial arts and how it was relevant, but by the time I reached a third of the way through the article, I realised that there was no real understanding of the concept of a unified theory, their conclusions were like many of the other articles I had previously read, limited, limited in that it was virtually impossible to map, write or teach it as it was a concept and theory that was way too vast to even consider starting, so their solution was to apply the unified theory in one context, self defence, in a hand to hand framework only, and leave out the rest that did not fit their “unified theory” model.

Taking an unbiased view one could argue that the individuals that wrote these articles are expressing their own personal understanding of what the unified theory means to them, which is fine, but the problem starts when they purposefully leave out areas that do not fit in with their understanding or their model of The Unified theory, they give many various reasons why they have left out the numerous assorted aspects of combat in their unified theory but never realise that the reason these various aspects don’t fit is only because they stopped trying to find out how they could fit.

HOW MANY UNIFIED THEORIES ARE THERE?

There is only one Unified Theory, it is The Unified Theory that unifies all aspects of combat and conflict, seen and unseen, and expands with every new bit of knowledge the individual learns, nothing is left out, everything known is taken into account and then included, how it fits is down to the individual, but it must fit, even if you have to re-assess that which you thought had its place, but that’s not to say that I have all of the answers, or that I am doing it right and everyone else is doing it wrong, but what I do know is that if you are going to unify the art of combat, you must unify all of its many parts or at least all the parts you can see, and then be prepared to include the parts that become visible or clear to you over time.

The fact that The Unified Theory should include all aspects of combat leaving nothing out is the true point, it illustrates that everything is connected no matter how big or how small, self defence is only one aspect of Combat, the term self defence is nothing more than an expression of an individuals hope for the outcome of a situation, but one must also bear in mind having only self defence in mind may dictate how he perceives the situation and the options he takes, which in itself is confining, if you are going to learn how to defend against a knife effectively you must know how to use a knife effectively to then understand effective and ineffective defensive applications, there are many systems that teach knife disarms, but the problem starts when a system teaches applications to defend against a knife but the fighting system has no idea how to use a knife offensively in an efficient and effective way.

If you only train to fight and defend yourself against an unskilled knife wielding attacker your success will depend on their ignorance of their chosen weapon, not your knowledge and skill.

CAN THE UNIFIED THEORY EVER BE COMPLETE?

To have a complete Unified Theory is not an easy task and is probably an impossible task, but don't get me wrong, I’m not claiming that I have one, but what I do know is that if I am going to pursue the idea of The Unified Theory I must not leave any variable or aspect of combat and or martial arts out that I become aware of, as everything effects everything else to some point and to some degree.

Personally, I see the concept of The Unified Theory in martial arts as an ever expanding idea/concept/framework, is it possible to package it and reach a point where it is a finished product/conceptual framework? I personally don’t think so, I believe we can never fully wrap a gift that is forever changing its shape, size and density, what I can say in terms of what the Instructors writing stated is that “there is a finite variety of human expression, too numerous to count or list” What I don’t agree with is where they say “the reason the focus of a unified theory on martial arts is next to impossible to create is because of the variety of human expression”. The Unified theory is a vast expanse of variables, all capable of bumping into each other, affecting each other and creating new variables and or combinations of new variables, and for this reason it shows that the idea and size of “The Unified theory” is forever expanding and changing shape in a multitude of ways, therefore, pointless to start and try and make complete as it will never be complete.

I believe that it is the easiest thing in the world to find a start or discover the existence of “The Unified Theory”, but it will be almost impossible to finish the job and arrive at a conclusive end, if an individual sets out to discover and explorer the unified Theory there are several truths I believe they must accept:

• 1. It will be a task with no definable or foreseeable end.
• 2. Unknown variables will always appear out of what you perceive to be nowhere and mess up what you thought you knew.
• 3. The most you can ever hope for is to be able to observe The unified Theory unfold.
• 4. you must be accepting when something changes and it shakes the foundation of what you thought you knew, it just means you understand what you thought you knew much better than you did, even if it no longer works, or if it works better than before. The Mantra: I know more today than I did yesterday, but hopefully less than I will know tomorrow which may change the perception I had today”
• 5. The unified theory is only what it is at that moment until something changes or new knowledge becomes known.
• 6. The unified Theory in martial arts is nothing more than an illustration of cause and effect, it contains no answers on what you should or should not do, only a finite amount of possible outcomes, whatever the right or wrong action for you is, is dictated only by the outcome you want at that moment in time, how you choose to respond should be your true search, it is the search for The universal Theory.
• 7. You will never find your way to understanding the “The unified theory” concept if you fear change and do not apply honesty, people apply and express beliefs and rituals everyday and never question if the beliefs and rituals are valid or if they are still true, after all how will you know when you no longer need them or when they no longer apply?

AN EVER EXPANDING CONLUSION

In writing this I have come to one view, maybe everyone has their Unified theory model, some will think its complete based on them reaching the limit of their understanding and knowledge at that moment in time, others will stop when they think they have reached a definable conclusion and not want to add what they are not sure of to their unified theory model, the result is an assumption that what they don’t understand is not applicable and therefore has no relevance to their Unified model, a very few will understand that constantly trying to understand the wholeness gives a perspective over cause and effect that first starts with an honest change of mind set and an abandonment of assumption.

In the last 10 year I have found that the true beauty of the unified theory is that it applies to everything in life, the only thing that is different is the field you apply it to, be it work, combat, projects, music, social connections, love, self growth, arguments etc. Our goal should be to unify every aspect of each field in our life, always pushing ourselves to understand the fields better without making assumptions, be accepting of all variables in your model whether they seem to have a place in your model or not, question what you think you know because some things will always feel or seem different the second you explore or question it again.