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Old 12-06-2010, 10:26 AM   #10
David Orange
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Re: jumankai: kata no chikara o nuide

Quote:
Robert John wrote: View Post
I've wrestled with the whole "not engaging the shoulders thing," and I've found that while relaxation is important, its more important to source the forces correctly, and get the mechanics down pat. By mechanics, I mean connection and conditioning.
Ah, yes. The old weak spots. Mechanics and conditioning. In fact, other than those things, I'm in pretty good shape.

The shoulder relaxing is going pretty well, though. I'm up to 178 times in about 1 week. And I do a lot of peripheral work even if I find my shoulders already relaxed (which I often do: there's nothing to relax). I still go into relaxing all the muscles on each side of the spine and neck, the ribs, etc.

It does feel like, having dropped the effort in the shoulders, that I'm working much more from the core if not from the hara. But I'm starting to feel some connection there, as well.

Quote:
Robert John wrote: View Post
The shoulders becoming relaxed are almost a byproduct of correct movement...in fact when I started doing the correct mechanic for not engaging the shoulders it felt almost alien, and I noticed the shoulder muscles themselves weren't worked as much during say suburi. Other areas would get conditioned, but not the shoulder, and as a result they'd become more relaxed.
I think it's more about sourching power, in my thinking. I realized that I was impeding myself with the extra tension in the shoulders. As I've let that go (a lot of it, anyway), I have been feeling the strength moving inward and down. I tried push-out the other day with a guy I've been doing it with for a long time now. He said it felt completely different. And it felt a lot easier for me because his force goes right down my spine instead of being held in the shoulders. I didn't get pushed back to my heels as much as I usually do and I was able to push back from the body much more easily.

Of course, I know that something that makes an action easier may not really be along the right path. Easier for now, but it could lead to a dead end when trying to access the real power.

I've been doing some xing yi, too, trying to drop the shoulder involvement there (basic five punches).

I do, of course, have IS development as a target, but I've been getting so many general good results from the shoulder thing that it's taken on a meaning of its own. It's having effects in social as well as private contexts and it's a good feeling mentally, as well.

But I do want to make progress in IS. So your comments are welcome.

Quote:
Robert John wrote: View Post
Anyways, I thought it worth mentioning since its a tangent that could potentially eat up a lot of hours better spent on training more basic components.
I could always spend my time better, but this shoulder relaxing thing is done in ordinary time--at my desk, typing, driving, watching TV--whatever I'm doing, I just remind myself to check for tension in the shoulders and drop it as much and as often as possible. And it's getting to be habitually absent now, so it's harder to catch my shoulders with tension in them. Now I need to do that with suburi.

Quote:
Robert John wrote: View Post
PS You might want to change the title of your thread to "Jumankai: Kata no chikara wo nuku"
The way you wrote it...well it makes it sound naughty
Figgers. But it seems like I always heard it said "Kata no chikara o nuide."

Of course, nuide can also mean "take off your clothes"...

And "nuidon" means....

Well, maybe that's half Japanese and half French....

Thanks.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

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