Month: August 2009

In a pinch

It is hard to work on being stabbed which is a given but we can work on the feeling of it using a simple pinch. Start on the back of your partner and pinch a large piece of skin and flesh using the thumb and the side of the pointing finger. His job is to move and position his body while breathing to escape without harm from the pinch. Note that parts of you which may seem indirect to the work can help a lot with the tension and pressure map which affects you movement. If you are pinched in the center of the back and raise one shoulder as you move back the other you will find an opening already there willing to let you escape the pressure. Move slowly to a smaller and harder pinch using your nails and smaller parts of you partner and keep breathing. Move to the front of the center mass and repeat the drill and then work from the sides. Move to the legs and repeat the drill and note to work from different starting points such as a wide stance or with one leg in the air. Avoid referring to a natural stance. The only one is change.  Add work on the upper limbs and neck and the face using care not to take out something you don’t know how to put back in and add in this stage another  hold or attention point such as a hand over the face pushing or leaning one leg against their feet. Keep working and in this place add a dull knife and pinch using the thumb and the blade. Take care to keep breathing and slowly find a solution using all of your body. When you spread your attention in all your body a single point is less of a threat to your calm and you are able to move more freely doing more with less.

Move to stabbing and slashing using one point and then holding your partner and stabbing and slashing him from different points working from the ground up and remember.

Move from the breath starting with the body (be efficient and effective)

Relax your eyes and the body will relax as well (you can move in more than one direction at once)

Keep breathing (you can do the work no matter which stage of breathing you are in)

Smiling can hurt if you cheek is open. Take care to know the purpose of what you are doing.

We often strive to complete what we started whether it is working for us or we are working for it. For example if you are asked for advice you usually give more than what was intended and end up doing something not too benefiting for yourself. Take knife work for example. If you work to complete a deflection or a step rather than making the goal clear in your head you will end up moving in directions that can get you killed or worse getting a loved one killed. Work first in evading one attacker with a knife (you work with the person rather than against the knife) focus on moving just to get the job done and note if you move more than you have to. Add a second attacker and again this is great to feel where you move without care or complete what has no relevance. Add another one and remember to keep both eyes free and relaxed from focus and after a while a good clean sense of survival and letting go of the outcome will emerge. This way you will do just what is needed and no more. This way you may survive.

 

A technical note. when you raise your hand to deflect a knife you are giving it resistance which is a form of support.  Work slowly first to feel and move with the blade limb and blade without resistance and learn to ghost the attack with the touch of your limb or body and you body moving. For example if I am attacked from the front and I block the attack than the attacker can glide and slice over this resistance to get to me. If I make contact and move, I feel where I am more comfortable and move there and I can guide the attack where I want it and keep breathing.

Consider this: Every inhale has an exhale potential in it but not every exhale holds as inhale within it. The nature of tension is different for every movement and mirroring or balancing should take this into account.

More on this later on in the DVD.