Finding the Perfect Martial Art
From Al Case at Matrix Martial Arts…
Newsletter 859
Finding the Perfect Martial Art
May you have Perfect Art
in your Perfect Work Out!
Perfection.
Interesting concept.
After you read this newsletter
it will be easy to attain.
If you can count every blade of grass in the field.
Perfection means
free from flaw or defect.
Most people don’t even know what a flaw or defect is in the martial arts.
They hit and focus on how hard they hit.
Or they box and exult when they make a good punch.
These things are not even close.
When I was doing Aikido
way back when
the instructor said an interesting thing.
The perfect circle has no corners.
Hmmm.
The context he was talking about,
the technique we were involved in,
was a simple shoulder roll.
We would roll,
following instructions as best we could
and we would hit a hip,
or flop a foot at the end,
or find any of a thousand other ‘corners.’
So we worked and we worked until our rolls were silent.
A silent roll is a perfect roll.
Interesting concept.
But how do you apply that to the rest of the martial arts?
In aikido it is easy,
if you have impact with your partner
while doing a technique,
you knock him out of harmony,
you knock him out of the perfect arc of the technique,
instead of merging with his lunch,
you nudge it out of true
and the technique fails.
The technique has corners.
And,
you can apply the concept of silence to this,
a silent technique has no flesh slapping,
no bones knocking,
no collisions,
either with each other or the floor.
But that’s aikido.
How do you apply this technique to other arts?
You look for silence.
Don’t slap the feet on the floor.
Don’t ‘collide with an arm when blocking,
rather cut it effortlessly.
You are silent…he goes ow!
Now,
obviously,
there are times when you will make sound.
Say you hit the floor with your foot to supercharge a technique.
There is sound there.
But is the sound of the foot hitting the floor the only sound?
Is the sound of the kiai,
when you deliver a punch,
the only sound?
Does your fist hit and create sound?
But sound is excess energy
thrown out from a technique that isn’t truly pure.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
The interesting thing is trying to move with no sound.
I sometimes work out late at night,
everybody asleep,
and I try to work out with no sound
except those that are part of the technique.
When you can punch somebody with no sound
the impact is pure,
the transference of weight from one body to another
is pure.
So think about it.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it in class,
it’s one of those work on it…in silence.
By yourself,
exploring how little you can do
to do a lot.
Anyway,
probably the best art
for learning to create silence in your technique is Tai Chi Chuan.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/
Have a great work out!
Al
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/
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Source: https://alcase.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/finding-the-perfect-martial-art/
