Thomas Osborn
09-03-2010, 10:50 AM
9/3/10 w&f [0s, 5v] B Don’t seem to have any staff currently interested. I did have a vet with a bad back, and one who needed a cane to walk and had an arm in a sling. This made me really concentrate on how various techniques worked, and how to simplify them so the walking wounded could still use them effectively.
The vet with the bad back said that when he used the relaxing and centering principles throughout the day, it eased a lot of the pain in his back. He was working on moving smoothly and with “more aikido kind of posture” and this also helped.
Working together with the vet with the cane and sling, we were able to see how maintaining even the slightest contact and pressure on nage in the direction their momentum/energy/center was moving enabled excellent control, even when doing technique one handed, and with somewhat awkward foot movement. He was even able to do a very smooth ikyo [#1] with out grasping til the very end. This guy could be great when he gets both arms working.
Once again, I seem to be learning more from these guys than I am teaching. Sometimes it is easy to forget the power of "beginners mind".
(Original blog post may be found here (http://ptsd-veterans.blogspot.com/2010/09/learning-from-walking-wounded.html).)