Month: September 2010

Being relaxed on your fists comes from being relaxed in your body and in your perception. You must learn to move with your breath and to use the least amount of tension to keep the fist closed and the wrist aligned and to remember to move with all your body and not have density just in the fist.
Start by tensing and relaxing on your fists in the static push up working to spread your awareness in all your body and to note where you tense up or are not aware of your alignment and are hurting your breathing. Repeat for the sides (one one fist and one leg, body straight and perpendicular to the ground) and than face up static push ups. Build to a 100 breaths in each gravity pool and remember it is just the start.
Now to the choppers: start with your fists on the ground and walk your legs with your body as straight as you can around lifting each arm from the body at a time only when you must. Remember you need to work to extend your comfort zone with awareness while avoiding pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Being outside it in combat is injury or death most of the time and the wife is against it.
Now have a good partner lie on the ground and you walk on his body both face up and face down working to keep the elbows alive and the shoulders moving from the body and not moving the body. Remember to walk with your legs and body and let the arms do the talking.
Now do the same drill only have your partner roll as you walk with him working on keeping your breath light and your eyes free from following your partner. Keep the fists on your partner and add an elbow and shoulder at will.
Now have two partners or more squat with you and have a free everyone walks through everyone with the arms acting as ghosts and just touching the partners and collapsing working on just feeling the movement and the breath. Do this until you start to dislike the person who wrote the drill…
Now half squat and have two people or more push you at the same time and you simply ghost your fists and arms on their moving arms and body. Again just feel the movement while you keep your breath vision and body free from outside control.
Now start to sit down and get up and have people come and walk through you and you move out of the way (rolling, walking, sliding and so on) as you let the movement sink and screw into them while you move freely still. Remember to keep your survival via awareness above overextending yourself and injuring yourself. a broken collar bone in the forest behind the lines is not the same as a sport injury in survival terms.
Now have people come to embrace you (walk or run at you and work their limbs around you to drop you so the others can play that English sport with your head) and you work your entire body including shoulders head limbs and behind to keep moving and letting the fists do the talking.

OR
Do a much better thing and attend a Vladimir and Mikhail seminar 🙂

Just one breath ot live

It is important to work on all facets of the person at the same time when you train so they will all be present in daily life and when the rockets start to fall. The best way to do this is to confine both ends of how we perceive ourselves to the same time.
Start by standing or laying prone on the ground and breathing smoothly. Exhale slowly and continuously until you have nothing left and then hold and tense and relax parts of you until your body starts to move out the accumulated tension on its own with shaking and more.
Repeat the drill with smoothly inhaling until you are full and then holding and tensing and relaxing for a while and note the differences in how your body works naturally to take out the tension on its own.
Now that you went to the two ends simply hold your breath when you are at a comfortable position and repeat the drill. Know that you are working well when you feel comfortable. If you are working under stress that is not intentional such as in the static push up you are not paying attention and if you are working with a partner and your movement feels uncomfortable or painful you are already injured if you are working at high speed.
Now bring your legs overhead and in this position repeat the three drills and then bridge up and again repeat the drills to learn how your body is working to end this inner conflict and stay healthy under tension. Once you do all this you can work with a partner to wrestle lightly and with your aim in this drill to stay within your comfort zone and to keep breathing smoothly. The aim of the drill is to help you clean out excess tension and unneeded movement in a way that promoted health and calm.
Once you have done these drills on your own and with a partner (remember to be free in your thought as well. It can be play wrestling with your child or a game of pass with a ball) continue to do the work using the inhale to end, exhale to end and pause on comfort to end with simple movement drills. Start with the four basics of pushups, sit ups, leg raises and squats that allow you to learn how to guide your breath in movement and then add simple movement such as sitting down and getting up, walking and so on.
It is very tempting to go straight to survival drills that depict simulations of violence but it is harmful to work this way all the time. When you come with all your stored tension and unaware movement to the drill you think you are doing well when in fact you are just pressing the tension further down your throat. When you focus on the goal in life rather than in on specific event you will gain much more in all cases.
Now take a stick with slightly pointy edges and as one works on the three breath cleaning drills you poke and push/pull them and they simply move to stay comfortable. Remember that acting out of fear is reacting and it is the act of allowing the outside to control you.
The stick person works on moving without relying too much on the stick and on paying attention to where the tension is in your partner so you can work better and help your partner clean his or her movement better.
Change roles and remind your partner to avoid giving control to others with his eyes by working from all heights and directions (legs from the back, throat from the side, between the legs and to the side at the same time and more) and remember most attacks do not come from the front and most attackers show their perceived weapon for intimidation before the actual hit and not just for their ego boasting.
Proceed to one partner walking to hug/hold his partner and the other working the stick (both ends and everything in between) to avoid the contact. Now you avoid the stick by walking and not letting it sink in or affect more than the contact point and you can learn a lot using this drill and even more when you employ the breathing cleaning drills.
Advance to more than one on one as things usually go in the animal kingdom and have this fun game to work through. One has to either avoid being pushed/dragged or carried to the trunk of the elephant or car (depending on your locale 🙂 ) or needs to go from A to B in an apartment with an owner who does not collect ancestral chinaware… (start from the beginning with the breath cleaning of inhale, exhale and hold so the need for clean effective and efficient movement is clear from the beginning and no unneeded posturing is brought it or ingrained)
Remember the goal of the drill is to clean you and make you more healthy and sound. If you race or try to win you have already lost. If you try to out dumb a silly curse or enraged person you are not within you comfort zone and have already lost.
Play for the big reward which is your life and service to others.

Just one breath

It is important to work on all facets of the person at the same time when you train so they will all be present in daily life and when the rockets start to fall. The best way to do this is to confine both ends of how we perceive ourselves to the same time.
Start by standing or laying prone on the ground and breathing smoothly. Exhale slowly and continuously until you have nothing left and then hold and tense and relax parts of you until your body starts to move out the accumulated tension on its own with shaking and more.
Repeat the drill with smoothly inhaling until you are full and then holding and tensing and relaxing for a while and note the differences in how your body works naturally to take out the tension on its own.
Now that you went to the two ends simply hold your breath when you are at a comfortable position and repeat the drill. Know that you are working well when you feel comfortable. If you are working under stress that is not intentional such as in the static push up you are not paying attention and if you are working with a partner and your movement feels uncomfortable or painful you are already injured if you are working at high speed.
Now bring your legs overhead and in this position repeat the three drills and then bridge up and again repeat the drills to learn how your body is working to end this inner conflict and stay healthy under tension. Once you do all this you can work with a partner to wrestle lightly and with your aim in this drill to stay within your comfort zone and to keep breathing smoothly. The aim of the drill is to help you clean out excess tension and unneeded movement in a way that promoted health and calm.
Once you have done these drills on your own and with a partner (remember to be free in your thought as well. It can be play wrestling with your child or a game of pass with a ball) continue to do the work using the inhale to end, exhale to end and pause on comfort to end with simple movement drills. Start with the four basics of pushups, sit ups, leg raises and squats that allow you to learn how to guide your breath in movement and then add simple movement such as sitting down and getting up, walking and so on.
It is very tempting to go straight to survival drills that depict simulations of violence but it is harmful to work this way all the time. When you come with all your stored tension and unaware movement to the drill you think you are doing well when in fact you are just pressing the tension further down your throat. When you focus on the goal in life rather than in on specific event you will gain much more in all cases.
Now take a stick with slightly pointy edges and as one works on the three breath cleaning drills you poke and push/pull them and they simply move to stay comfortable. Remember that acting out of fear is reacting and it is the act of allowing the outside to control you.
The stick person works on moving without relying too much on the stick and on paying attention to where the tension is in your partner so you can work better and help your partner clean his or her movement better.
Change roles and remind your partner to avoid giving control to others with his eyes by working from all heights and directions (legs from the back, throat from the side, between the legs and to the side at the same time and more) and remember most attacks do not come from the front and most attackers show their perceived weapon for intimidation before the actual hit and not just for their ego boasting.