Month: March 2010

Place your fist flat on your partner’s palm and move it from the elbow and than from the shoulder as your partner simply relaxes and lets his palm follow you around. Now reverse the drill and as he moves his palm you match his movement by choosing how to move so there is alignment in ther wrist and comfort in the body movement and in the breath and sight staying relaxed and free to move around. Apply no pressure with the fist touching the palm and allow your body to find different ways to match reality and align with it. After you do this drill while laying sitting squatting and standing add placing your fist on different parts of the body such as the chest, head and back and progress to moving without stop with your breath and not following it and now add spreading you awareness in the rest of your body, relax your eyes to see what is around you and under you, find what you can do with the rest of your limbs and make sure you are choosing your movemnt rather than following (Try working with the tip of the elbow in the palm next and see how this builds on your movement without adding any tension to your frame). Mastery is just a word. Awareness and calm are both the goal and the tool to get there and without humility to work on the basics of awareness there can be no true progress.

Take a knife and hold it on the flat of the blade and lean the tip of it on a wall or any hard object like a tree. Slowly increase how much you lean on the blade and when it makes sense release the tension and repeat in a different hold. Play with different holds and lean toward all directions as you place the tip and than the edge as well on the wall. Let your body relax and find how you can support the pressure without tensing up more than needed.
Now move to stab the resistance and as you feel the pressure change directions and glide on it to find how you can keep moving without trying to force reality into something else. This is not always the case in a knife conflict but it can serve you to remember you are moving yourself and not others and you are moving your hand rather than propelling the blade.
For example if you are stabbing from above and out of fright your partner is blocking with his forearm you can simple continue to move your elbow down and slash his forearm and than as your body moves forward his face and so on. Another example is when you slash from side to side and your partner is trying to deflect you downward or upwards. Simply relax your arm as your body moves and let your shoulder roll and than you will not enact the tension in your partner and simply move where you want to slash. Relax your eyes and face. Making a tough face does not help much in stopping of bleeding.