The theme of my practice today became: Mistakes and
accidents are opportunities for learning. This is a well-known principle where
I come from. All someone has to say is, ‘Nitsi’pahtsa’pssi’ (I made a mistake),
and everyone assumes they will try to learn from it. Of course, when the
mistake involves posturing and movement of the body, you have to try to correct
it on the spot, if you’re aware of it, and then remember to do it right the next
time around. For some learning, you end up making the same mistake many times
before the correction sticks. Main thing is to keep that correction in mind, and
make the effort to do the movement over and over and over again, trying to
improve it each time. This is why it helps when others are able to witness and point
out your faults, even the ones you’re aware of… it’s not a thing to begrudge,
but another means of motivation
When I arrived at my training grounds this morning, I found
that one of the larger trees had lost a huge branch. You’ll see how I try to
take advantage of this situation to learn something that could even save my
life in the future, i.e. how to predict which tree branches may be in danger of
breaking. I then proceed into the cardio part of my workout, starting with some
bends-and-thrusts with push-ups, then sit-ups, then aikido-style tumbling. As usual, I have taped a bunch of stuff today,
a little bit of everything that I was playing with. I recognize that even these
abridged offerings are long videos, and people might not want to sit through
the entirety. That’s why I’m giving this description, so if there’s something
particular that interests you, the video can be forwarded to that point
Anyway, after the rolls, I got down to stance and kata
practice. I worked some more on the CLF start, but on review I’d say this is
not much better than the first time around, a couple days ago. I did integrate
a more dynamic cross punch with loose return hand into the horse stance with
the CLF. Between rounds of this leg-burner, I also practiced the seipai kata
from goju, which is another one I’m just learning. You will see that I attempt
to do the kata with an opposite start as well. Whenever I’m training a new kata
or form, once I’ve kind of got the basics of it, I make sure to practice it on
both sides. If it normally starts with a movement on the left, I will also
practice it with the start on the right, and so on through the whole thing. You’d
be surprised how hard it is for even very, very experienced people to perform
their katas starting in the opposite direction. Me… I see part of the martial
arts practice as a pursuit (never entirely achieved) to be able to move your
body, in a split second, exactly the way you want it to move. Attempting to
learn new kata is always a good reminder of where one stands currently in
relation to this pursuit. So… I fumble, and that’s okay. I’ve left in one good
stretch of video where you can see me botching it, fixing, repeating, etc. I
end this practice with another attempt at the CLF. Next time, I will try to
flow through at least two rounds of the stances without break. At the end of my
video, I’ve returned home, changed into shorts, and then taken up hitting my
backyard makiwara and doing a few exercises with a log (including holding it on
my outstretched forearms while in a horse stance, which was not really easy).
All good fun though :)
