Take each finger and tense and relax it in turn using the breath to place density in it. Now roll twenty rolls with each roll tensing one finger either up or down and going through all the fingers. Now how your body moves naturally to ease the tension and how your alignment serves to balance you out. Now leave the extra tension behind and roll again.
Month: June 2009
A simple drill with many benefits.
Tense a part from a finger to a leg and roll with the tension lasting throughout the roll. Go over the body and continue to tensing and releasing once you touch the ground with anything other than your feet. Go over the body again and finish by tensing and relaxing on the inhale/exhale timing while you roll.
Work before and after and watch the awareness and natural movement arise from within.
There is a thing called mass and usually as a soldier you think you have a bit too much on you. It can range from a 20 litter load of water to a 120 kg of a leaking friend and more. It is important to note how different locations on your body changes the way you feel and move with it. Fore example if you are walking with boots in the mud you will fee a lot of tension in the hips pulling you out and moving all the extra mass on your boots and if you had the same mass on your back you would feel much lighter and able to move. Consider this idea and play with it in your work to make life less stressful and free. Consider also the workability of the situation. Sometimes we need the handgun on the hip rather than on the pack or chest.
Lie on the ground and breath without ceasing. Have a partner press on you with his foot one place at a time and you work to tense first where you feel the contact and at the next breath relax. Work to keep your breath undisturbed and become aware of the stoppage and change we experience in our breath as a reaction to contact.
Continue and now instead of rising the tension relax the parts which are close to the one in contact and let the body move without focusing on any part and allowing yourself to spread in the body. This way you allow the body to move instead of collapsing and you will note the difference between awareness and just relaxation.
This is a solo drill: Do a breath pyramid where you walk and increase the number of steady steps you take on the inhale and on the exhale and on the inside listen to your thoughts. Avoid judging or evaluating your thought and simply listen. Once this is done repeat this frame of mind during movement with a partner either talking or talking with your fists and release the need to succeed. Just breath and move and feel.
Place a stick over your spine and press it to it using both arms. Now start moving the stick using your spine and see in how many directions and ways you can do this. Note how this affects your limbs and head and work so your breath leads the movement.
To relax sit on your shins and place the stick on the back of the shins. Press it through the tension using your arms and breathe to let the tension clean out and move the pressure around so you make your legs more free rather than soft. Remember it is not relaxation but awareness and control of tension. No tension at all means death.
Note that your posture affects your mood and energy in the same way that your mood affects your posture. If the face is relaxed it is easier to relax within and if the spine is bent forward and the shoulders fall it is hard to see the heavens and see the birds overhead. Pay attention to other people as well as we mirror our surroundings and in many times become happy or sad just to be like the person close to us. Pay attention and it will set you free.
Take any movement from winding your wristwatch to rolling and do it on the inhale allowing the movement to be withing this phase completely from start to finish, Repeat for the exhale and the pause and remember to avoid rushing through the movement and allowing yourself to relax even if you panic a bit. Accept the fear and it will be just another tool for you.
Take a couple of partners and run this drill session:
First have both partners walk through you with a fist to the body and you simply move to avoid getting hit while focusing on keeping breathing.
Next place both hands at the back of the neck and repeat the drill with the focus of keeping your eyes relaxed and avoiding any contact so your body sense will extend further. Look forward and up.
Next place your fists on your hips and repeat the drill focusing on paying attention to your alignment. Note the difference in movement in your hips and shoulders and find your breathing and eyes to help you simply feel what is happening. Avoid trying to fix yourself, you are not broken just a bit dirty with tension and fear and once you notice them they vacate on their own accord.
Next Close one eye and than the other (not both) and work on how this affect the way you see and not see the world and what happens when you relax and move where you wish to be rather than relax. (communicate with your partners about the best speed for this drill and remember you are here to learn rather than push through pain)
Next extend on arm straight to one side and repeat the drill, This is a good drill to show how much we focus on attractions in front of us rather than stay inside and calm. When you feel relaxed enough move so your evasion is hitting your partners on their way without stopping them but adding to their movements. Remember to avoid getting stuck in response and choose where you want to be.
Start in the static push up and for a few breaths move your ankles so your entire body moves from the legs and you relax your fist so the fingers and palm feel the tension move through them and allow the arm to align as a total so you are always aligned and relaxed.
Have a partner lie down and place your fist on him or her. Relax your arm and fist so you rest your fist on your partner from the shoulder and match his breath so you breath as one. Allow the fist to change alignment from the shoulder and elbow with his breath and slowly sink as the movement permits without pressing. Feel where there is no density and avoid pushing and tensing yourself. You will need to find your patience for this drill. Later on use this in movement and in the work to allow the strike to come in rather than pressing.
Feel what you have at hand rather than try to mold without feeling.
Patience is a great quality in life when applied properly, as a teacher you must let the student create his own body of knowledge even if you think you see the way ahead of time and as a student you must avoid mimicking the teachers movement which seems more affective than your own movement. The patience to let the true natural movement come out and through awareness clean tension from ourselves will aid us when a hit comes our way when we will be humble enough to be afraid and patient to let it come and simply do our work rather than responding with a strike or block of our own. It is best to practice without fear in order to allow the body to recognize it’s own nature and from time to time work fast to feel the worth of breathing to let the tension come out of us and to avoid lowering our eyes and bending our spine out of reactive fear.
Stand tall but not fixed
look up and see all
Let every breath build you anew and smile with the gift of every moment.
The Martial Art of Walking 