Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

Imagine you have the perfect partner. Your hight and weight. He moves well and he even showers once in a while. Will you learn much from that one repeating moment in time ? Even in this blog I sometimes give half answers and it is good both for me and for the people who read it. Go and check and read and draw a line in the sandbox to understand and be able to implement vectors and crossing lines. Stand still for 10 minutes and feel how little balance we all have. Move badly and have the marks to show it and learn from it.

We tend to want a lot from this art. It will deliver as much as you put into it the same as many other things in life. When you do the work, do it with a smile because you are alive but do not mistake this to just what you see. Consider a brawl where the bouncer throws three junkies out or a bar only to discover a needle in his calf a few minuted later when the adrenaline drops (and it drops hard ) Has he won or even acted wisely here ? Maybe giving up one thing to have another is a tradeoff you cannot afford. When you do the work and you see an opening for a flashy move or a nice hit but you have to loose your form or turn your back to the other guy to do it ? When we are calm and smart, the answer seems simple and it is. Keep your calm and your posibilities will not narrow in those seconds. Lie on the ground and have one person stand on you and your job is to take him off without hurting either of you while a third is hitting you all around. Let the unorganised work against one another and see how keeping your form on the ground can help you move better. Considet this. Lie on you back and slide one leg under the other outside of the line of your body. Now using the foot of that leg on the ground as a pivot slide the rest of the bodyto align with it and see how you can use this method both up and down to move. As you stand up, take a step toward where you want to be WITH THE LEG THAT IS CLOSER to that place. Do this and change your body position, squat, turn, raise a hand and see how this can be used to the same work.

Not every move has to be complete. Allow yourself to half hit, take tiny steps and more. It’s the wider frame that matters and not every breath is full nor should it be. Think about it.