Month: October 2006

A very simple exercise to learn balance and posture and awareness to giving support (are you exited yet ?) is to simply walk around a person as he is either walking or standing. As self pity sets in we tend to cut corners and sacrifice both posture and freedom of movement and tilt toward the center of the circle we are making. In this we both give our support to the keeping of someone else’s form and giving in to tension from withing to cut corners. Try it both forward and backwards and add to this take downs or hits or simple distractions like voice and jestures. The simple stuff we did as kids playing still works . You simply have to bring your game to the table each day. Enjoy yourself and allow yourself to grow and change. That is all. 

There are times when we experience emotions that have nothing to do with us. consider you are in a meeting and people are shouting and moving with threatening body language and you find yourself carried in this wave and becoming angry yourself even though you may have nothing to do with the meeting. Another path to receive such a gift is to become agitated or overseisitive after a long time with no sleep or spending a lot of time without food so the blood sugar goes down. The body wants to balance itself and reacts in such a way as to move the stress about either with anger or a compultion to eat or any other drive that is not truely ours. If you feel angry ask yourself why are you angry and what about. If you are hanging in the kitchen picking here and there ask yourself whether you are hungry or simply folowing a craving. The knowledge and understanding when this is the case will do a lot to relieve the stress and the road to balance is easier from there.

To keep the tendons and the joints in the legs healthy you need to ensure they both keep strong in all forms and smooth in all movements. lie on your back and let a friend move your legs around with you ressisting gently to the movement. This is not a race or a competition so work together so that your legs become strong in all directions. Roll to your stomack and repeat this drill and than do the safe for your mate. Make sure you are aware of your breath and alignement as you work so you too learn to better position yourself so you are stable and free to move as you wish without outside support. Anothe drill you can do but alone is to stand preferably bare foot on the ground and using the natural traction try to move the floor with your feet in oposite directions and than one leg as the other remains relaxed. This is a good drill to learn relaxation and to free your hips and legs.

Once you have found the fountain of youth you have to keep drinking to stay young. Vladimir wrote this and it is true in my opinion. You reach a level or become fit and you sit there and look at yourself in admiration. Keep drinking from the fountain and don’t be too proud of yourself or feel sorry for yourself. Do the work and be happy with it. That is all.

Pain and choices. Many times when we grapple or play fight the ego takes hold of you or you choose to stand your ground for no other reason than simply standing your ground. When someone tries to put you in a hold, a choke or any other form you don’t like we tend to resist and that sounds logical. A different choice to make would be to go or use if you like his movement and add to it your own intention. If for example someone is trying to rotate your arm so you become locked and fall and you resist than you are giving him (or her) support to his movement by tensing up and you will have a harder time letting go of your place and letting the body find a way out. The moment we resist or wait for some pain to register tull we move cause we are tough or realistic than we are helpers in our take down and will suffer for it unles we let go and chose to consider all movement as movement and not as a lock or something. With a partner hold hands in any configuration you want and as one resist the other manipulates the hand with his movement so as to take the resistace down. Try this a few times and seee how resisitance or waiting for the pain in the joint or nerve aids you. After that try to move with the direction you are given and using your position and posture choose the path that keeps you safe and free to move. I will post a vid on this soon. 

Squat next to your real knife and start to turn it over and roll it on the floor with one hand. See where the balance lies and which lines are good for ratation as others are good for turning. See how the knife balances after a quick spin and does it have different texture on the sides of  the handle so you know which side is which if you take it out without looking at it ? Now take of your shoes and still squating move it aroung with each foot. Take care not to spin or slide it into you and learn to balance it all together. If you like flash stand up after a while and learn to spin it onto the back of the foot so you can bring it up without touching. Or maybe using two feet. Remember the blade always. It is a servant like fear as long as it is in it’s right place.

To learn to work with a knife well you need to be unseen. A lazy pro will not show you the knife before he gets his job done so here goes. Stand in front of each other and look straight forward without breaking your natural standing posture. Stand so close as to be able to hit the body without being seen by the person in front of you. Take turns hitting without giving the hit away by moving the shoulders or wincing and so on. Now add to that trying to deflect the hit and later on body movement by turning and sliding to avoid the hit. Once you did this with fists go for the knife and practice some more. Don’t be fooled by the speed. Move naturally and let the fear and the joy of the game serve you instead of you serving them. After this stationary drill move to walking. One walks toward the other and goes to work in order to kill the other and does NOT stop until either the other is down or he is down. you have to play till the end. Be carefull to stab and slash inside the other so he learn to move well and not just dance on the tip of the knife. Consider you are cutting bread for a sandwich. Are you stroking the bread crust or cutting in. Do the actual work.  to finish this and attain a more realistic sense of reality try defending your life against a person with two knives. don’t count the number of surface cuts but count the number of ending strokes and mind your fingers and forearm tendons…

And have a good weekend

I write a lot about tension here and this one is particular for women in the family way. 10 simple drills which are easy and almost no knowledge is needed to perform them safely for all concerned. First and most important COTINUE to breath no matter what is happening. Don’t listen breathless to pain or any other stimulent. Breath !

1 sit on a chair with both feet flat on the ground and place your closed fist on the sides of the spine on your lower back. Inhale and press them in enough to straighten the spine and relax as you exhale. Repeat this 5-6 times.

2 Place your hands on the insides of the knees as you are still sitting in the same position. Inhale and try to seperate the knees with the hands as the legs resist. You don’t move in this drill, just push one part against another and the result is relaxation in the middle. Repeat once or twice. 

3 Place your forearm horizontally to the ground on your back and start to rotate your shoulder in big circles coordinated with your breath. 10 to each direction with each hand will relax the shoulder girdle a lot.

4 place your palms on the back of your head and bring the neck forward as the head and neck relaxes. follow this by bringing the chin in as you maintain the position of the head 2-3 times. Do not tense the muscles just use them to move.

At Home:

 5 Sit on your shins and place your hands on a near wall with an upright back. have a friend put his weight on your calf muscles gently a few times till you feel some pressure. Do this up to 2 minutes and don’t be afraid to put some mass on the muscles. It will release a lot of tension and you may even sweat. 

6 Sit on a chair and have your friend place his hands on your shoulders. Now arch your back forward and backwards as you breath and your friend will press down your shoulders so they remain in the same hight. It is exellent for people who carry a lot of mass around all day like soldiers and women in the family way.

7 lie on your back and have your partner take one leg or hand and slowly take it toward the body until you slowly roll over to the stomach. Your job here is to relax and let the body slowly unfold WITH the help of the hand or leg being the pivot point.

8 Do the same from back position

9 Lie on your back (on your bed if possible or a soft carpet) and have your partner lift your legs and  pull them away so your back flattens on the ground and than your body moves a little too. Do it once and slowly.

10 Lie on your stomach and have you partner lift both your legs till the upper back arches. slowly and gently and remember to breath at all times.

Good luck. 

To learn to hit as you move you have to do it. Start by coming toward a standing person with your fist up and touching him without pushing as you continue to move. Do this several times till you can lightly touch without changing your pace. Now walk toward the person with your hands in natural positions (relaxed) and place your hand AS you walk. Advance to pushing and than to hitting. After you can deliver one hit without changing your pace or changing your form (leaning or rotating your torso and legs) try for two hits and see how your body solves this. Once you can do tow advance to doing these drill as the other person walks as well as he wishes and grow from there. Avoid putting too much importance on actually hitting. It will tense you up and you will forget your own safety and what creates it (the four principles) Another way to develop hitting while moving is to have two people exchange hits as they walk together or run together. It is also rather amusing to watch. After a few of these drill try a more open enviroment by having a mass fight. Everyone hitting and pushing and levering each other as they move and position themselves the best they can in the crowd. have fun. 

Working with permission and letting yourself be moved is not easy. We tend to tense up when we are pushed or hit to keep our place or where we think we should be in our mind. Try this: It is easy to move with a push in the side of the chest since we see the side hit and naturally rotate with it to avoid injury (espacially if we are training with a knife or any sharp thing) work with a friend and push each other using fists. Start from the side pushes and advance to the middle of the body so the whole revolving door idea of moving to avoid injury is not so clear anymore. Now sense in your body which side of the fist is pushing either first or stronger and give from that side. It involves relaxing your hips and legs mostly so you can turn inside the axis but don’t neglect the upper body and keep your form. Do it slowly to learn the difference between the sides of the fist in hitting and learn to place your fist so there is less movement on your friends side when you do hit. Another way to illustrate this would be to work with your back to the wall (no leaning) If you are pushed in the center of the body and have to give, than give where the push is stronger (sensitivity) and turn on your axis since there is back to turn to. Have the fist travel without changing at all if you can so it reaches the wall where you were and not to the side.