Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

When doing the legs overhead movement, Notice how your shoulders are in relation on the floor. My experience showed that if I rotate the shoulders so the inside of the elbow leans a bit to the side and resting on the floor it is easier to go over the hurdle as you reach a spot where you think you can no longer move. This is very different as you do it on hard surfaces or a mat becasue a mat gives a bit at your lower back and it is a slope the body uses instead of alighning the body to remove the block (Also your spine rests on the padding and you do not experience the rule of SOFT ON HARD AND HARD ON SOFT). The basic principle can be used anywhere. You hit the spot where you are held with another limb (hand leg torso…), push pull the weak spot in yourself or opponent to free yourself (if you are in a head lock, raise one hand and use the arm around you to move your attacker to a point where grabing you is uncomfortale or use the leverage for your self, position both of you to block another attacker, your hand is close to his knee so you can unbalance him and finish with a hit to the neck so he doesn’t call for help and so on)

As one thing starts, it changes and we get stuck in the picture we just saw and miss out on opportunities. Consider someone coming to strike your face with a fist. you can hit his coming arm, shout “Behind you”, move sideways at the last second and continue his momentoum, step forward and disturb his rythem and so on. Most of the time we see a fist and respond in the same manner. Be free and strike the side of his knee with the flat of your foot. clap in front of his face and let the movement happen. If you try to control something outside of you than you are giving it power over you. just act.

On another note try doing a shoulder stand and bring your legs overhead. Now slowly bring them up as high as possible and  slowly bring them down. This is a nice balance drill for the torso.