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Old 10-07-2009, 01:02 PM   #9
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
United_States
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Re: My take on a Mike Sigman seminar...

Yeah, I think so to some extent. As an example I see how it can be very useful to communicate what's going on with some techniques that took a *long* time to get "good" at (my definition of good meaning I could relax and still have "power") like ushirotori where you basically "expand" what i'd now call the suit to gain a bit of space. I remember realizing I was able to do what I hadn't been able to do before a while back. And what I was told by my sensei over the years made sense then. But I ran into the same problem of transmission -- how to explain that feeling since it wasn't muscle and it wasn't *really* just relaxation either. There was something else going on and I could make it happen but I just couldn't explain it to students (nor to myself for that matter).

Honestly the hard-headed academic in me wonders if the "suit" thing is truly "fascia" or something else (or combination of other things). But that said there *is* no doubt something very real is going on with these guys. I've felt it before with a couple different martial artists I've had the pleasure of meeting and training with over the years. So having some sort of framework to finally hang my hat on and practice for a while has helped me further understand and improve my waza. So there is most certainly value here. I'm just still pondering and practicing. So I stay relatively quiet and keep training...

One comment is that some get so enthused by the one aspect that they start to lose the bigger picture of the entire art. And others get so enthused with the bigger picture that they lose critical details. Right now I'm just trying to find chudo...

FWIW I also had another seminar with Toby Threadgill a few weeks ago. Different explanations to some extent, but the same feelings and a *lot* of power.

Anyway, lots on my plate to still chew and digest. And with a knee supported by a very expensive brace due to a partial ACL tear I'm kinda going in slo-mo with a lot of this. So I keep watching, feeling, practicing and wondering... And wishing my knees and back were 20 years younger. Or at least that I'd treated them better for the last 20...

Last edited by Keith Larman : 10-07-2009 at 01:08 PM.

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