I have been thinking a lot lately about how I can get my body relaxed when I begin training. I have constantly had an issue with my shoulders tightening up when I begin training. If I am told to relax or tell myself to relax, I consciously loosen up my shoulders and arms. This week I was reading about training and this passage really turned on a light bulb in my head.
"Overall tension and unnecessary muscular contractions act as brakes, reducing speed and dissipating energy"
I never though about it in those terms. The muscles get tight and restrict the speed at which the arm or leg can move. To me this is brilliant. I hope going forward that I keep this concept front and centre in my thought's. Nothing worse than having the brakes on when you want to move forward.
This is a concept that I usually try to get students to visualize by thinking of how Bruce Lee moves, he is loose throughout his entire body structure and then he moves to take off your head, wham...! His limb tightens up with a massive amount of energy and the snap is released along with a sound focus. And that is it! Chi is released and back to limp mode.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Sifu. I am a visual person and thinking of my muscles as restricting the power makes a lot of sense and now I understand why I am having trouble with most of my punches and blocks
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