Month: July 2007

Push ups on a partner are a good way to learn positioning and relaxation along with body alignment as you move your arms from location to location and alignment in the wrist as you keep your form and on the way down and up. If you feel you cannot go all the way down, relax from the elbow and find a way or move. Don’t be in a place that is bad for you where you get a part of the hit inside you (the tension from not delivering the full hit)

Move to the sit up where your partner is on your chest and you use your breath to create a wave to start the motion. If the chest is loaded, start with the stomach, if the stomach is loaded start with the chest. Start the movement where it is free and go from there to the logical conclusion. (Start by rocking your partner on your chest by using just your breath)

Now to the leg raise overhead. Have your partner lay on your feet and roll him up your body and over your head (do no harm to yourself and don’t try to show off to yourself about your toughness) than raise your legs overhead and roll him back over your and repeat.

Stand on your partner’s body and relax your feet. Squat with your body aligned so you spend the least amount of power staying upright (hint be even to all directions) and go back up. Smiling and relaxing your face really helps to relax your body.

On a personal note I am going to the army for a short while and I will update the blog on my return. Be safe and thankful for what you have in your life and more will come to you. 

Start with holding your partners hand and start to move him around you and up and down as he follows without tension. After a while add your body and other limbs to this in order to bring him down to the ground by creating movement in different directions at the same time and having him feel the motion. Now add your partner resisting from time to time by tensing the body parts under the lever, by using power to move you or by creating a lever of his own. This will teach you both to remain relaxed as it is fitting the situation and to adjust to reality as it moves. If you are learning alone roll on the ground with parts tensed up and others relaxed (for example from standing up to down and up again with your left leg tensed) or lean on the wall and roll around standing up with one or more body parts tensed in a certain position (for example your hands held behind your back, left arm stretched to the side, legs entwined and so on) It is important to know when to use relaxation and when to create tension in your body to survive and do the work (In that order)

Start with a push up on the fists as you go down a little bit (a finger or so) and go straight back to the starting point, Drop down again and add anothe finger and return and continue till you reach the bottom and from there climb back with the same increments. This can be done later with the sit up, leg raise and squat from either position and with this you learn to create breath that fits the current purpose, to relax as you move in a way that helps you do the work instead of holding you back and more. There is always something to do. Just breathe and move.

Practicing prolonging the breath using the square breath or so and so Inhale Pause Exhale pause makes you healthy and strong and helps develop your time flow and relaxation under tension. From time to time change this into uneven parts and see how this can help develop your staying power. An example can be 4 steps for the inhale, 5 for the pause, 6 for the Exhale and again 5 for the Pause. Vary this as you feel fit and progress.

When there is little time for practice you can use your mind to find different ways to keep healthy. for example to keep the joints healthy you can lie on your back and move all of the limbs and neck and torso all at once and in different patterns and ways. Than you do the same on your stomach and this will improve your overall awareness and ability to be free. Another way to do this is to find simpler ways to learn your movement.

Walk up and down a wall or a partenr using your hands and later your fists as well and than do the same using your feet and legs. Walk in a squat keeping the feet flat and the posture relaxed and upright to relax the entire body and build endurance and than have pushing games with partenrs to learn to blend with others motion and stay alive in a mass. Have a partenr hold your legs and walk using your hands and torso to navigate and than play with your partners in dropping them in the ground within this state to better use your arms and hands. Do the same as your partenr holds your arms behind you and you use your feet to drop your partner on his or her behind and remember your spirit and purpose will make the movement what it is. This is but a small glimps of what can be done. It is up to you to find yourself within the way.

Take a plastic cup and fill it to the top with water. Sit down and stand up while holding the cup close to the body a few times for each hand without spilling the water of course and than a few times with the cup away from the body. Change your grip of the cup as you move and see what works for you. Move the cup around your body as you go down and up and hold it so you cannot see the water (away from you to the side or above your head or below your line of sight) Now move away from the rug and roll while holding the cup a few times back and forth. Now drink the water

Solo work:

To master others you must first master yourself and doing so takes honest work. To clean yourself of exesive tension in the body and limbs stand in front of a wall or a thick pole and climb it with your feet hugging it or finding support with them. your hands on the ground are now under the body and must support it. From this position move right and left and up and down (or around the pole) using all your limbs together starting the motion from the body and with your breathing and make sure you do not rely too much on structure (locking joints or twisted connective tissue) and not too much on your muscles. Relax your neck and breath as if this is your natural form and you will find it easier to navigate so. From time to time, relax the body forward and roll. The naturall position of the hands are in front of you where you can see and guide them with your eyes. Work with your head toward the sky and your arms behind you with your feet on the wall or a pole and see how you can relax in this position and become aware of what you can do and feel without the comfort of seeing.

Group work:

Stand in front of your partner and climb him using your feet till you are in a handstand position. Relax forward and roll. Do this several times and teach yourself to find the tension and points where it works for you to move through with your legs. Next do the same drill with him moving a little. Perhaps a step to the right, a step to the front, and you have to adjust creating your alignment within any second anew.

next have your partner hold your legs with his hands and move you around with the intent of making you fall of your hands. your job is to keep relaxed and mobile sensing your partner with your body and his breath. To add to this drill have a third partner push your arms with his legs (be carefull as it is very easy to break them if you tense up) and again remember to keep safe and breath relax move.

Walk toward your partner and hit him once as you continue to move. Meet him again and hit him twice as you keep moving and continue till you reach five, ten or whatever number you are comfortable with and than climb down. As you strike use one of the breath phases and keep it throughout the exchange. For example if you strike five times you lengthen the inhale, exhale or one of the pauses for the duration of the striking and so on. This gives you better awareness to working through being hit and hitting withing theses phases and teaches not to be dependent on one of them for doing any work. Note if you strike better when you exhale on the first run of this drill and make sure you are aware of changes. If you have a partner who can watch and give comments it is great for him and yourself to better learn and read body language.

There are many occasions and occupations that require us to do things that can do us harm. Any person who wears a bulletressistant vest knows how it can stiffen you up and how army boots can take the freedom of movement out of your ankles. Recognizing this is half the work in healing and doing honest work to keep yourself whole and free is the other. for example many do not think of their individual toes as they wear shoes or other protective gear all the time. As you are on your guard post or walking or even before bed, move your toes individually and work to become more aware of this parts which holds your entire body up. Flex the foot itself and see how many ways of movement come out of it naturally. A nice way to do this is to place the big toe on the ground and move it back and forth using the muscle of the toe and than move in circles and move on to the next finger and so on. This is just an example of what you can do and it goes for the torso after a long day in a stiff suit or armor. It is your choice after all. Sometimes to a large extent and sometimes only a little but there is always a choice.

Holding your breath is an act of will and when you are tense or emotional an act against your common sense. To learn to relax and breath you need to practice both: For example work against a partner when he is tense and uses power on you and you have to evade and remain relaxed. You can work doing push ups through tensed arms or any other drill you do adding tension to it and becoming aware of it as you work and also use your breath in this. Start walking and count the steps and heart beats you can do until you reach the end of the comfort zone and go a little further. Do the same with push ups or any other drill and lenthen your work within all the phases of the breath and remember that the pause between the inhale and the exhale is not the same as the pause between the exhale and the inhale. Another drill to help you relax and control your own time flow and ability to work is to stand and relax as you hold your breath and go on till you feel a drop inside of the tension you are not aware off and this is a great help to learn to take strikes and keep moving. You can create your own drills from the material found in the book “With every breath” found in the main site and you can add this to your sparring as well. For example you hold your breath intentionaly when you are contacted and can only breath again once you are free. This is a way to feel the fear/tension and learn to use it to your benefit.