View Single Post
Old 03-13-2014, 09:43 AM   #9
Janet Rosen
 
Janet Rosen's Avatar
Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
Offline
Re: Do we train enough to understand our art's meaning and philosophy?

Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote: View Post
But can you "learn the steps of the kata" if you ignore maai, zanshin, all that good stuff?
Yes because "learning the steps" does not equal "perfecting the steps."
Some of us non-talented students have to parse out the gross movements of each individual hand-foot-body move step by step, even writing them out, and not learn more than three moves at a time because otherwise the next three will overwrite the first three. Separate exercises during the same class to develop principle-based skills are fine but just as in empty hand, gross movement first for actual patterns of movement; If I tried to *perfect* the first three moves in terms of maai etc I would never learn the gross movements of the rest of the kata.

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
  Reply With Quote