Month: November 2017

PLAY WAR

Three year old children don’t need to learn about war ? I disagree. Children who are in a world that is always new and challenging,  a world where they are usually weak and lack in body and mind toward the competition they need to study war.

They just need a better approach than adults to it.

War games are the best for children and society is trying to kill those because it does not fit the illusion of childhood and the illusion of society itself.

Games need to be competitive. Games need to have stakes. Otherwise you are teaching a neutered version of reality and harming children. You will also not have the true fun and growth reality brings.

Games need to be as free from adult meddling as possible. There are games with adults and some of those are great but I am aiming at an adult controlled environment which kills the game and makes them into some play. Toothless, pointless, harmful to all.

Now to the fun part:

  1. Hide and seek – Self-explanatory. (camouflage and proper cover and concealment)
  2. Collecting/building contests – who finds the first ten trucks during a ride on the bus. Which team can pitch the tent or pillow fort first. (build your future sniper)
  3. Sneaking – See who can sneak and spook better and have a good laugh (learn to move quietly)
  4. Fighting a giant – A group tries to topple or push a bigger kid or adult (team work and good fun body work)
  5. Flags – Each team tries to protect their own flag and take the other teams flag (maneuver warfare)
  6. Obstacle courses – You don’t need a real obstacle course, Just a working imagination. Go over and under cars (parked ones unless you have some Kryptonian genes), balance over poles and handrails. Make stuff up. Lots of adults get paid for it J
  7. Watch tower – One kid stands apart from the group and the others are in a line. He turns away and counts aloud to three and turns to them. As he turns, they must freeze and if he catches one moving, than they have to switch roles. If you can reach the counter without being spotted moving then you are good. (good movement and field of sight awareness)
  8. Snake – take a jump rope or stick and move it in circles around you as the others try to touch you without being touched by the stick. (Please note that these games have no bravado. You win by not losing )
  9. One legged push fight – Two or more stand on one foot and fold their arms on their chests. Now you jump and push with the body to make the other side fall or push them outside a decided line.
  10. Tug of war – self-explanatory two sides hold onto a rope and you win by pulling better, faster, in jerks. You do what you can to not go over that line and you get to repeat that so you can become better. (This teaches everyone that it is not just power and linier that wins the field)
  11. Mirror – Two or more sides to this prism. You mimic the movements of the chosen one TM and it is a game of creating expectations and repetition to lull and induct movement without actually doing it.

Let them argue and find a solution sometimes.

Let them say no and follow through.

Let them create themselves as adults, step by step.

Take games seriously. Give your kid a heads up on life.

Six ways to make ourselves better

The world gives you many things. It gives you better things on average if you apply yourself.

  1. WRITE – reading is great. Writing forces you to create. It forces you to think and to articulate in style. Write.
  2. LISTEN – Most people just wait for the other person to stop talking so they can speak. Listen (This does not mean you let people talk over you) to what people say and you will learn and others will find you more interesting and refreshing.
  3. STOP – Stop from time to time to adjust, to make choices, to avoid being swayed by shiny colors and charisma. Stop so you can return to yourself.
  4. MAKE – Art is easy and art is hard. Start by simple crafts from learning new ties so you can make a hammock or a climbing apparatus. Make something out of clay or even crayons (Marines) but create something from yourself instead of relying on others. Learn to draw and draw, Learn to fix things yourself. Learn to make fire with your piss in the tundra. Yes, it is possible.
  5. SPEAK – Go past just talking to friends reaping the same words and ideas. Talk to people you don’t know (not in the bathroom) and learn to be persuasive and affective. Talk in front of crowds and find your own voice.
  6. PLAN – Throw away the “Living la Vida loca” cassette (yes, I am old) and make plans. See them come into life by your daily towing the line until you bring down the mountain of uncertainty for your progeny. There is no harder matter than flesh with purpose.

Don’t wear a mask that allows you to forget you are alive.

Get STRONG at an angle

Watching strength is inspiring. After all, most of the time we have the same parts as the strong man or acrobat 🙂 Here is a simple method to become stronger in degrees. Something that requires almost no tools and can be used for many people in many conditions and levels of movement.

Let’s take the simple push up for example. Some people can do many and some can do only a few. With a simple switch of angle you can hone your movement awareness, joint health and power.

Stand a step away from the wall and place your hand or hands (hint, hint) on the wall. Relax your body but keep it straight and do push ups at this tiny angle and subsequently little pressure. To most this will be a warm up or a joint movement but to some this can be a stage to greater strength from wherever they are. Even a strong athlete can be weak as a baby after an injury or disease and having steps to climb, allows you to progress instead of finding yourself at a dead end.

Now you slowly increase the angle you do pushups or one handed pushups at and in time reach the ground where you perform the classic pushup.

Then you can move a step or angle further and start lifting your legs up on a stool and then the wall or chair at growing angles until you perform handstand push ups 🙂

Sometimes giving yourself small steps to climb instead of looking at a mountain from afar will allow you to progress instead of getting stuck. The same goes for being stuck in a hold by a stronger opponent or another problem in life. Playing with small moves will lead to less injury and more ability to develop the situation and above all: When you do something, you cannot be overwhelmed or crushed by it.

Be strong at an angle. Teach your children to take steps toward their freedom without letting fear command a jump and loss of control.

 

The eye of the storm – calm under pressure

Breathe and continue to breathe. That is harder than it seems. 🙂

Lets go through three experiences and work on our capacity to maintian calm under pressure and to choose how to use the energy that comes from this pressure.

  1. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Have one or more partners push you with the flat or end of a stick a hundred times with no stopping for composure or realignment. Work on different areas, speeds and depth. Work on becoming comfortable in in eye of the storm within. The way you process and ACT instead of react will be the large size of the outcome. Move and release tension to avoid contact become impact. Have fun with it.
  2. Breathe and start laying down and getting up without stoppage. Have one or more partners push you with the flat or end of a stick a hundred times with no stopping for composure or realignment. work on moving in the free space instead of letting the contact find you and allow two directions of movement in your body at the same time and letting your eyes see what is in front of them instead of following the contact.
  3. Breathe and start walking in a set route ( a circle or any other path you choose). Have one or more partners push you with the flat or end of a stick a hundred times with no stopping for composure or realignment. Work on relaxing your eyes to see where you are instead of where you want to be and choose where you want to move even under such constraints. Add placing your limbs and body on the partners working to move you without letting them affect you.

These three stages of:

  1. Permission to touch
  2. Avoiding touch
  3. Choosing a path

are integral in finding your own natural movement and it will allow you to progress deeper into your ability without gaps of distance, contact or angle.

A little challange 🙂

Repeat this process thirty times. Report to yourself and to me if you wish how it went. Together we learn more and deeper.

Instead of technique – become the air

In this video we follow a wider mindset. Instead of trying to control the situation, we work to be aware and thus control ourselves and further more. Instead of focusing on our motives and moves, we aim to see the reflection of the other within ourselves.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Mr Tsu 🙂