Start walking and have a partner walk behind you or behind you and a bit to the side as long as you do not have him or her in your field of sight. Show your partner how to use the widening part of the wrist as a crook or hook and have him use it on your neck or wherever fits as you walk with him behind you. He works independently to collapse your form from the hook contact and you work with your breath to clean out any building tension and keep breathing so when the contact is introduced you do not freeze. If you have the freedom to do so take a stick and have your partner stab your body with it when you do freeze so the idea of choosing to move is illustrated against the idea of staying in place after an outside contact.
Add voice (yelling, commands, derogatory language according to the crowd) and again let the breath lead the movement and add here paying attention to the walking movement so you can use whatever contact you create (limbs, body, head) to collapse the structure with less work to get the job done.
Add reversing the work so you turn to him to bring him to the ground or work without sight according to sound and other senses to do the same work without turning to the partner who is walking behind you. Again place a nice short stick in your partners hands so he will happily encourage you to avoid working with TOO much tension and avoid working against someone’s strength.
Remember we are all just people. Treat each other with honesty and respect and we will all grow.
Month: October 2011
Can you touch it.
A very simple two people drill. One person stands and can only move his arms straight from the shoulder at a slow pace. Person number two needs to touch his body to the standing person body while avoiding getting touched by the moving straight arms. Consider each arm to be a knife and remember one touch means a cut or a stab. Work this drill slowly as you relax your eyes to see both the person and all the nice empty space around him or her. Learn how your body can get the job done or not and learn to avoid running ahead into the knife thinking you can wing it along the way.
Avoid pushing or pulling on the arms at all and every touch is considered an injury during the drill. Learn to be patient in your movement and keep the main goal of survival and living well in mind instead of having a short term goal of winning a game.
Keep your face relaxed and your eyes from falling into following the movement. Keep breathing and moving and learn to avoid bending in place to avoid a hand coming your way when the other arm is doing the same.
Simple is good never easy.
The Martial Art of Walking 