The other night I was doing some solo practice with the beginning movement of Seipai Kata (loosely - based more around the concept rather than the stylized movement); what I was doing was practicing different variations of what Wilder and Kane call 'Crossing the T to Escape' which is based around the naval strategic concept of broadsiding.
I have found time and again that all escapes, whether standing or on the ground, can be broken down to those principle - where you either cross your shoulder to the opposite of their body or, when on the ground, form a letter 'T' with your hips as the base.
Not only does this way of looking at this concept help to make things simple and avoid the whole complex mess of trying to learn thousands of different escapes, but it works, and there is really nothing more to it - if you have an extra-large guy really cranking on the hold, you facilitate the movement with a little added strike to some vital areas, like the side of the thigh, the groin, or rake up on the face, whatever, doesn't really matter, the job gets done either way.
Breaking things down, taking segments of Kata that you may know and not really worrying about 'correctness' or 'crispness,' just looking at the principles behind the movements and getting out of the mindset of 'this technique' or 'that technique' will yield some interesting insights and add that much more depth to your training.
In a very profound way, when we let go of the things we are lead to believe are important we find out just how much of a hindrance they have been to actually understanding what it is we are doing.
It is like the notion of how the lower/lizard brain thinks in pictures rather than words, and interestingly enough, it is the lizard brain upon which we are dependent when it comes to self defense, so the higher order of thinking needs to take a back seat in training and things need to be approached in a more holistic way.
Funny thing, when I was practicing the Seipai Principles my buddy thought I was practicing Bagua.
You find interesting little things like that as well, leading you down some interesting places, especially when everything is in place and you understand what it is you are looking at according to the principles, not the movement or individual movements.
2 comments:
Great to have you writing again...good post. It is great your seipai looks like bagua...emptiness is form, form is emptiness.
Haha! I wasn't even thinking about it at the time, was practicing the Crossing the T and keeping my center to the center of the movement.
Was interesting how it all worked out.
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