Take a real blade and hold it in front of you in a comfortable position. Keep the hand as it is and start to move by walking and moving your body to defend yourself. Switch hands and positions and than do this drill with a practice knife with a friend or more who attack. This is a good way to learn better awareness to your body as you hold a knife. the knife is just a tool. It can cut potatoes and people in the same way. On the other hand even sitting on a sharp branch can be very unpleasent so don’t forget some fear can be good for you.
Month: May 2007
Start by tensing the body as you walk, go through the body and note where one tension creates another. For example for me if I tense up the lower belly my ankles also tighten. Than form fists in different positions (arm forward, to the side, toward up down and so on) and close your eyes. Walk toward a partner or a wall and keep your tension as you touch changing the direction as you merge or align with what you touched. Do this in turns and see what you learn from this about your movement.
Not all practice is done by sweating. for example walk with a friend outside and begin by walking behind him at a comfortable distance and pay attention to anything that happens around him. From time to time circle around him and return to the rear as you maintain your distance and making sure you do not look like you are watching him. Progress to walking on one of his sides and remaining on that side. Again circle him from time to time or on a cue from him you have to grasp. Decide on hand or facial jestures that are natural like running your hand in your hair as signs for walk around me or close to me and so on. Now walk a little to the side and in front of him. This is where you have to extend your senses and help yourself by noticing how others walk and react and sometimes by seeing reflections and other signs of the street or echos from it. Again have signs that are either visual or audio for circle, close to me and go behind and have fun with this. Change rolls for each stage and spend at least an hour doing this. Using the breath scale as you learn will extend your senses and relaxation especially if you focus on the pause between inhale and exhale.
Here are a few drills to help create a healthier whole body:
Solo:
Walk in a normal pace and slowly lower yourself with the torso upright and than back up again during the walk several times.
Roll from one side of the room to the other and back with just the hips touching the floor
Hold your ankles and roll from one side of the room to the other and back
shoulder walk (balance with your shoulders and neck and use your shoulders as legs) back and forth
Walk up and down a wall with your fists
Lean your body with your head as the touching point on the wall and roll around and tilt up and down in all directions
place your hands on your hips and sit down, lie down sit and up again several times
roll and get up with only one leg touching the ground
With a partner:
One person plays a wodden doll and the other moves him around by placeing his fist and moving him about. Tilting, rotating and so on with the fist relaxed as possible
One person lies on the ground and the other rolls him forward and backwards and than switch
One person lies on the ground and wants to get up and the other keeps him down without hits or locks or grabbing
One person lies on the ground and wants to stay there and the other tries to get him up as the ground simply goes with the motion and escapes
One person holds to the others ankles as he walks and the other has to walk forward and than backwards.
Walk up and down a person using your fists as he balances.
Do jumping push ups off a person on the ground.
Do squats as you balance of a person who moves to throw you off him.
Try to get under your partner on the ground and keep moving all the time as he goes for the same goal. When you get there you have to keep moving.
have you partner stand naturally and move him around you using your hands and than using just your legs without hitting.
All the limits are only yours.
This is a good drill to unwind the body after a long time with armour or heavy gear on or just a lot of standing. Lie on your back and bring the knees to the stomach. bring the feet toward the head and grasp the bottom of the toes with your hands. Now breath in and let the belly push the knees away and rotate the heels around as the body moves from the breath about 20-50 times and than the same for the other direction. This connects the body with the breath and lets the held tension move and the awareness to the breath return.
Walk with your eyes closed and arms overhead. Have partenrs stnad in your way in various ways and hights and have them place things in your way like boxes bags and the like and note how you react and how you change your reaction as time passes. Later start on one side of the location and try to navigate according to light and feel, sound and smell to the other side as your partners work to guide you elsewhere. This is a fun drill that can be a game for children as many other drill can be with slight modifications.
Have a partenr hold your foot or place it in a loop hung on a post or wall and find out how you can do full circles both ways. Try with and without sitting down to turn the rest of the way and find your own way to get from A to B.
Squat with your back upright and your heck relaxed and start to move on the ground. Have a friend push you with his feet and legs to help you free your hips and shoulders and continue till you feel the need to breath in a more relaxed way. Now add pushes with your fists to the head and continue to go with the motion only now add your own direction to get either behind the upright pusher or so your movement blends with his so there is no harm to you as you take him down. Sometimes you need patience to see the whole picture.
Looking at things from the other end. Consider wall walking. You walk with your fists up and down the wall and most of the time your head is in your fists. Do the drill with the focus on the placement of the feet and the support the body gives through its needed form along the way up and down. Do the drill so you start as high as you reach and go as low as possible getting to the ground itself. Never limit yourself.
In the army we were tested on going through the drills and shooting our rifles and other tools with a coin balanced on the end of the barrel and so on. You can do the same for yourself and balance a coin or anything else on the back of your hand as you walk and do something else with the other hand as rotating it or clicking the computer keys. You can balance small rocks on the tips of your shoes and slide the feet as you do any other drill that suits this and see where your relaxation and awareness reaches. you have a lot you can do with what you already have.
It is very easy to get cought in the beauty of the motion and to force smooth round movement even when there is no need or purpose for them. Try to swing something heavy and strange in shape. A garden chair (not near your mothers glass collection) will do as you first swing it around you and than add walking to it. Walk simply back and forward. Change directions and see how you can add the swinging of the chair (pendulum up and down at the side of the body, Around the body, overhead and so on) to this without creating a twisting power you have to brace against. This is easily done if you maintain your awareness in your body and let the breath lead each step and swing. Check how you can have the swing (use a staff for this) go through more than one plane by swinging and walking at the same time and keep it at that until it is not a problem at all. Than add people trying to come at you and run the staff through them or to them and than have them with staffs or any other thing they choose and enjoy the attention this requires of you. This is how it feels to be awake.
The Martial Art of Walking 