Hi Dana, slightly different answer I guess... What I finally tumbled onto, and how I now explain it to beginners, is: The rear foot and the head turn as one, with a slight drop in stance. I tell students " just forget about the hands for now, stand in a right Sanchin. Now, pivot you rear foot u...

I broke this reaction by adopting the habit of always moving in toward the attacker.


~N~

I'm not a Uechi Dan, but I do understand that the healing arts were considered important to some martial artists of old. At the time, these remedies were like the pharmaceuticals we have now, and I'm sure that pain/injury was a common occurence in daily training, so alleviating pain and speeding hea...

Have you ever tried to explain or teach someone how to close a button on a shirt? Someone who has absolutely no clue how to do it, while you "just do it?" The thing is, you are performing unconscious micro-movements without your awareness, having built and developed them without analytical...

It seems that lately, I am finding that Martial Arts is some kind of parallel universe to mainstream thought. I'm reading a book call "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin, an autistic who earned a degree in Animal Science and became a consultant for many high-level meat-industry comp...

If Jessica Alba sat on a stool reading the phone book for two hours, recorded on hi-8 video, that would be fine with me, I'm thinking 100 million already. Add a bikini and some dialogue, and some cheap pryo? Instant 1.5 mil. You could hire a caster, and a script writer and MAYBE a director, but real...

Amen Dana, Amen Max.

I think I might print that off and stick it up on my door at work.

What a wonderful, profound piece of prose.

~N~

I always wondered why the rear elbow strike required the palm to be facing down. When no one could explain it to me I set out on an anatomical quest. Here is what I discovered: When your palm is face up, your bicep is engaged, and works against your tricep, which is driving your elbow back. You can ...

Dana: I don't know if the addition of protective gear leads to lack of control. That's a really good topic actually, because apparently in the big-money hockey and football worlds, this is a real issue. They propose that the "armoured-up" players feel invincible, and hand out a lot more ab...

The drills sound excellent. I'm unfamiliar with the equipment mentioned, so can't comment on that. I would be much more comfortable doing drills with a female partner wearing a breast protector. To me, a female's chest is more target-sensitive than a guy's, and I find I try to "aim for centre&q...

"Tipping Point" is the new buzzword de jour, being a popular current book title. Now, everything has to have a tipping point. And yes, it's true that not everyone believes that man-made emissions are raising CO2 or global temperature levels, although we are producing pollution. (CO2 is not...

Haven't done it with 2X4's, but poles, yes.

~N~

I agree with both posts up to a point. When there is actual clinical depression or post-partum going on, that's another situation, because the "rational mind" has been chemically disabled. I think Bill would agree that we're "a fine balance of chemicals" away from a very bad day....

Sorry to revive a defunct thread, but I had a thought on this. I was talking to a friend today about stress, and we observed that stress is often characterized as an "outside influence", or an external force acting upon an individual. In fact, stress is a SELF-GENERATED REACTION to circums...

onward, the transplanted thread! I like to do Sanchin stepping with a partner resisting me using a fist on my chest, abdomen, shoulders, sternum, and even forehead (that's a tough one!) It's difficult to keep the whole body focused and tucked and really be able to step through strongly. For me, it's...