Month: September 2007

Start standing and roll a few times in different ways. Now close your eyes before you roll and attempt the same rolls noting how you carry yourself differently and how your awareness changes. For example do you now protect the head with your arms as you get up or down? Do you move slower? Do you keep your limbs closer to you? One of the things worth trying is to roll with closed eyes between two standing people or an open door if you are learning by yourself. This is a good way to gain awareness of your entire body and form while moving.

This is a good drill for law enforcement officers and also for regular people. As a soldier I can manhandle the people I need to restraint without much worry to their health (bruises or broken limbs) or how it looks like on camera. Take a plastic cable tie and close it just enough to form a loop and try to pass it over your partner hands or feet with him resisting. This is not so easy if you want to keep from creating pain or serious restraint on them. This also teaches how much space and possibility for movement exist for both sides and with a third on the side with a stick you will learn to pay attention to your environment as well. Next do the same drill using your belt, a shirt or anything else you can restrain with and see how the options change once you keep them open. Remember the purpose of the drill and maintain your inner calm by breathing and keeping your eyes relaxed.

Start with the static push up as you do usually and modify the angle by placing your feet on a chair or a partner and note how this is changing your experience.

Breathing can come from many directions. The stomach, the chest and the upper chest. To learn to use them with awareness place your hands on your stomach and breathe so you it remains calm. Do the same for the sides of the chest and the upper chest and move on to the next logical step. If you are alone you can use a heavy suitcase or simply take a broom, place the tip in the corner of the wall and lean your body using your chest or stomach on it to pressure this location. If you have a partner and you can ask a wife or friend to do this for you, have them stand on your stomach (do no harm) than place their knees on your chest or press the sides of the chest and than press on your upper chest and all this while you are to breathe through the openings or make one. You can do this statically at first and than move with freedom and press as you will. Enjoy your learning and smile. It relaxes the body. There is of course room to be angry at times as well. All emotions can serve you at one point or another.

To improve your awareness and freedom on different levels start to squat slowly and have a partner place his arm or leg somewhere on you and push lightly. It can be the top of the head going down or his leg on the inner side of the knee. Do this a few times with the intent of learning to act on the moment and move without pattern? After you do that start to walk and change your height slowly to a squat and back up again. Do this a few times alone and than with a partner applying pressure so you can relax with the awareness to more of you. Avoid getting outside of yourself and decide what you want to do at each minute according to what is there.

 

Start with a standing position as if you are guarding a passage and move without stepping to keep from getting harmed by the attacks of your partners. Do so for a few minutes and stop. Now consider doing the same drill but now with listening to your intuition and striking and moving (it is all the same) as you choose your motion out of your feeling and intuition (fear is a good servant for keeping away from harm but a terrible master) Note how your movement is different now and how less affected you are by the outside. This is one way to act instead of react and remember this also on the distance. You choose  the distance between you and others while walking down the street, keeping away from someone you feel uncomfortable with and in a fight when you step into the reach when you choose to do so or out but with awareness to this and acting not reacting.

Honest work will bring you honest results. 

The idea of knowing the distance is covered in the H2H dvd made by Vladimir Vasiliev and it is sometimes easy to let go of this thought as if we are too proud to admit someone’s company makes us uncomfortable or that we want to move away. It is important to listen to your fear of harm and pain and use it wisely to decide to move so you are comfortable. If a person comes at you with a knife in his or her hand and you just wait for it to come and deal with it you are being controlled. Choose when to come in and how. Do not deal with the world. Make it your own. Be honest and new doors of possibilities will open before your eyes.

Stay in the static push up half way down (90 degrees in the elbow joint) and breath the forming tension out of your upper body and find a position where it is easier to carry yourself using your structure rather than force. Avoid leaning on yourself and keep mobile. This is a good drill to teach yourself humility

This drill is for relaxation and awareness of the entire body and you can modify it to suit your needs. Start standing up with your arms in a fixed position (cupped over the top of your head for the neck, crossed over your chest for shoulders and chest and crossed across your back for the back and lower back awareness) now slide forward, sideways and back without lifting your feet off the ground and keep your breath relaxed and your posture so you are not tensing to keep a certain pose (change if you need to and keep movement as your key to stability). Once you do this a few times sit up and stand up without lifting your feet off the ground and see how your hips relax with awareness and how breath can help you do the work with less effort. If you have a partner have him push your legs or hit you with a staff (shovel works great for this) and you blend with the movement without lifting your feet off the ground again. Try to minimize your movement and avoid getting exited or focused on the hits coming at you. Try to relax your eyes and face and look above the head of your partner. This will release your vision and help you notice much more. Enjoy your work and learn from everything.

We often experience strikes while we are in a good posture and relaxed (in class). To learn to deliver better strikes and clean our attachment to strikes stand in a position you know is not good for you on purpose. For example change the angle of the hip or tense up the lower or upper body before you are hit on purpose and than handle the strike using your breath and letting the movement travel through you and out. Another example for this is to receive and deliver strikes standing on one leg or while a third partner is moving or chocking you. Do this to learn yourselves and to develop better awareness and motion and remember it is very easy to harm yourself and each other. Always see the human in the other and you will gain a lot of insight in this and keep your calm when it is needed.