Brain rigor mortis syndrome

[Bill Glasheen]

We are back to the plateau effect with individuals ,and sometimes there is little that can be done to bring someone [off] their individual plateau, in lots of cases .

Actually this is a well known phenomenon in resistance training. And the solution there is periodization. When weight training seriously, I always take a rest after 12 weeks and then completely re-do my routine. While you lose something during the rest, you're more likely to reconsider ways of doing things when you start back again.

I found that when I taught at a University and I had semester-long teaching cycles, a semester-long progression of material that started afresh next semester would help people shake the mental cobwebs.

One of the problems I suffer from in a suburban dojo is getting folks to come regularly enough that they can experience this kind of cycling of material. But it's a thought. And certainly a regular cycle of testing helps.

- Bill

[chef]

[CornMaiden]

Let me clarify that remark, Mr. Glasheen, should it be misconstrued.

Bill said:

There is one problem though that is about to drive me to drinking.

Cornmaiden said:

I can offer you a corkscrew, Mr. Glasheen.

...no tongue in cheek intended.
Cornmaiden

[Bill Glasheen]

...no tongue in cheek intended.

You're no fun...

- Bill

[NEB]

I recently had the "opportunity" to be video recorded doing some kata. I saw a couple mistakes that I was for the most part unaware of. Yes, I had been corrected for them before, but for whatever reason I had drifted a bit.

I don't make that mistake (or the other one) any more. (I found some real nifty NEW mistakes to make, of course.) But the experience of seeing myself on the tape really brought what I was doing into consciousness. It became REAL. Like what I see when I train beginners, and constantly have to slap a person's knuckles so that they straighten their wrist, for example. (Don't want them to sprain it on the heavy bag)

As practical tools go, a good camcorder might be of some help. Just ask your local golf pro.

nb

[Van Canna]

That was a fairly robust and in-depth translation, Van. Thanks.

Somehow I knew you were quietly lurking.

- Bill

You bring something Italian...out in conversation...my interest perks up

Just for fun...here is a list[long] of Italian sayings...they cocoon a lifetime

A nemico che fugge ponti d'oro
A buon intenditor poche parole

A chi dai il dito si prende anche il braccio

A confessore, medico e avvocato non tener il ver celato

Acqua passata non macina più

Al contadino non far sapere quanto è buono il formaggio con le pere

Acqua cheta rompe i ponti

Ambasciator non porta pena

A rubar poco si va in galera a rubar tanto si fa cariera

Bacco, Tabacco e Venere riducono l'uomo in cenere

Buon sangue non mente

Campa cavallo che l'erba cresce

Can che abbaia non morde

Cane non mangia cane

Chi dorme non piglia pesci

Chi la dura la vince

Chi non risica non rosica

Chi semina vento raccoglie tempesta

Chi tardi arriva male alloggia

Dagli amici mi guardi Iddio che dai nemici mi guardo io


Donne e buoi dei paesi tuoi

Dio vede e provvede

Dio li fa e poi li accoppia

Tanto va la gatta al lardo che ci lascia lo zampino

Pancia piena non crede al digiuno

Pancia piena non crede a pancia vuota

Sbagliando s'impara

Chi ben comincia è già a metà dell'opera

Si dice il peccato ma non il peccatore

La gatta frettolosa fece i gattini ciechi

Le teste di legno fan sempre rumore


Paese che vai usanza che trovi

Una mano lava l'altra e tutte e due lavano il viso

L'erba del vicino è sempre più verde

Il lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio

Uomo avvisato mezzo salvato

Donne e motori gioie e dolori

Chi dice donna dice danno

Le donne ne sanno una più del diavolo

Donna al volante pericolo costante

Chi non ha testa abbia gambe


Prendere la palla al balzo

Non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca

Ognuno per se e Dio per tutti

Rosso di sera bel tempo si spera

Rosso di mattina, brutto tempo si avvicina

Scherza coi fanti e lascia stare i Santi

Nella valle dei cechi ogni orbo è un re

L'appetito vien mangiando

Morto un papa se ne fa un'altro

Tutte le strade portano a Roma

Altri tempi, altri costumi

Una rondine non fa primavera

Tutti i fiumi vanno al mare

Tutti i nodi vengono al pettine

Una mano lava l'altra e tutt' e due lavano il viso

Una ciliegia tira l'altra

Se Maometto non va alla montagna, la montagna va da Maometto

Chi va con lo zoppo impara a zoppicare

Chi è svelto a mangiare è svelto a lavorare

Fà quello che il prete dice, non quello che il prete fà


Asino di natura chi non sa leggere la sua scrittura

Chi disprezza compra

Chi lascia la via vecchia per la nuova sa quel che lascia non sa quel che trova

Innanzi alla virtù Dio ha messo il dolore

Fare e disfare è tutto un lavorare

Al primo colpo non cade la quercia

Chi la fa l'aspetti

Chi rompe paga e i cocci sono suoi

Fidarsi è bene, non fidarsi è meglio

L'appetito vien mangiando

Tentar non nuoce

Ogni medaglia ha il suo rovescio

Nessuna nuova, buona nuova

Mal comune mezzo gaudio

Uomo morto non fa più guerra

Ai macelli van più bovi che vitelli

A San Benedetto la rondine sotto il tetto

La notte porta consiglio

La veste copre gran difetti

La superbia mostra l'ignoranza

Mal comune mezzo gaudio

Non svegliare il can che dorme

Tutti i mestieri danno il pane

Chi si loda s'imbroda

Impara l'arte e mettila da parte

In chiesa coi santi e in taverna con i ghiottoni

La vita è breve e l'arte è lunga

La saetta gira gira torna addosso a chi la tira

Enjoy

[Bill Glasheen]

There's a small restaurant I go to (Italian) for take-out where the owners are Sicilian. Particularly with the women, you can tell. Such wonderful noses, and such beautiful faces. They could be on Mars, and I could tell that they were Sicilian. I think of you when I go there.

One of the owner's wives tries to teach me an Italian phrase each time I go there. Good stuff.

I'm always amazed you speak English without an accent. You must have come over here early.

- Bill

[Van Canna]

Thanks Bill, ask the Sicilian women to show you their ‘soccer legs’…just kidding…don’t do that…LOL…

But Sicilian women are hot and erupt like Mt Etna….



They can be very dark and mysterious and always standing by their men...no matter what...



And exiciting like this old flame....

Well…I did not come too early…but I had good English professors in school…who also told me that since my Italian was excellent…and I was pretty good in Latin…I would learn English…especially how to spell…very quickly …and able to put sentences together easily.

But there is an accent there…you just have to listen for it.

[Bill Glasheen]

there is an accent there…you just have to listen for it.

Everyone has an accent - except for me.

Yes, Van, these women are dark with chiseled faces and noses to die for. If you like that sort of thing. But of course you know that 50 percent of the beauty comes from the personality within.

- Bill

[Van Canna]

But of course you know that 50 percent of the beauty comes from the personality within.

Amen...but...a certain beauty and wholesomeness...has a way to get under your skin...if you know what I mean

Together...an unbeatable combo.

[Dana Sheets]

How much time do you spend training the thing you want to correct?

When we started changing our body mechanics we did nothing but standing in one place, exaggerated body motion punching drills for six weeks.

I've found that you can't offer a correction in correction and then tell a person to do an entire kata. If you want them to work on the correction then the "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) model applies.

Drop everything else and train only the correction for a period of weeks and not minutes. Otherwise the body will simply view the change as a passing fancy.

[Bill Glasheen]

How much time do you spend training the thing you want to correct?

That depends upon what you're talking about.

When we started changing our body mechanics we did nothing but standing in one place, exaggerated body motion punching drills for six weeks.

I agree with this.

I've actually made exaggerated body motion training a regular part of our class. We have exaggerated Sanchin mechanics drills that I do both for the thrust and for the waukes. I also have a series of similar drills I do for kicking. Not a lot of talk; lots of do.

I've found that you can't offer a correction in correction and then tell a person to do an entire kata. If you want them to work on the correction then the "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) model applies.

Drop everything else and train only the correction for a period of weeks and not minutes. Otherwise the body will simply view the change as a passing fancy.

I think this can apply when there is a cluster of people in the class doing the same thing.

What isn't so easy to handle though is the random stupid things that pop up here and there in class, where you feel like you're playing whack-a-mole with students.

I know I've had my issues. But I went for most of my Uechi career with little one-on-one instruction. It was mostly road trip here and road trip there, and then teach for another six months. I'd take notes while engaged in intensive sessions, and then work for months on what I was shown.

So yes... for ME I took ownership of the issues.

For beginners - if you are lucky - you start them off right and then things progress. But if they have a bad habit that comes and goes for years...

But you make good points, Dana. It's why I often break techniques down and build them back up again in class - if for no other reason than for me to sharpen MY skills. You'd hope that people would get it. Sometimes they do...

Thanks for the comments.

- Bill

[MikeK]

I've actually made exaggerated body motion training a regular part of our class. We have exaggerated Sanchin mechanics drills that I do both for the thrust and for the waukes. I also have a series of similar drills I do for kicking. Not a lot of talk; lots of do.

I think exaggerated motion has it's limits and after a while you really need to start working on how they actually should move. Exaggerated motion is artificial and not the movement you're trying to instill. Just an uneducated opinion.

What isn't so easy to handle though is the random stupid things that pop up here and there in class, where you feel like you're playing whack-a-mole with students.

That sounds like a personal issue of how you view your students.

BTW,
I found the tone of your original post insulting as 1) a "spoiled" West End resident 2) a "karate dad" and 3) an "outsider" who has lived in the spoiled WE for 20 plus years. I also found the tone insulting to those decades long students who are "clopping" around like "Clydesdales", and it sure wouldn't make me want to have the burden of studying with them (if I didn't know some of them as other than your description of them).
C'mon Bill, think before you post, you're a better person than that.

[Dana Sheets]

"What isn't so easy to handle though is the random stupid things that pop up here and there in class, where you feel like you're playing whack-a-mole with students. "

I dunno. Those "random" outliers should be indicators of a fundamental that needs to be trained.

The point isn't to have a great kata, the point is to have great technique outside of the kata. So where's the worry in taking the individual skill that needs to be re-addressed and spending the 10,000 repetitions necessary to make the change? There's no hurry in my mind. We're lucky that way that we don't have to ship people off in 6 weeks to live or die by what we teach.

But if we don't require that our students stop and spend the necessary time in class to work the fundamentals, how can we expect that they'll be able to do it otherwise?

I don't know how many times I've "interrupted" the lesson to send everyone who needs to go to the mirrors. The lesson is meaningless if only the mind can grasp it.

As Bill said, "Not a lot of talk; lots of do. "

I'm going to start a new thread about exaggerated movement so that we don't side-track this one.

[Bill Glasheen]

You aren't the first person to have chastised me for this thread, Mike. Consider it in the context it was started. I am a nonprofit instructor (I get paid nothing) who wants to find ways to be a better instructor with difficult student issues. And I refuse to blame it on the student - no matter how intractable the problem appears to instructors who've been in this business for a lifetime. I want fresh ideas and am opening the floor for an exchange of contributions.

It's easy to beat up the messenger; I'm not that hard to find fault with. But that belongs in a different thread.

C'mon Bill, think before you post, you're a better person than that.

I am? Reeaalllyyy??? Cool! Tell that to my wife.

As Popeye would say, "I ams who I ams."

I found the tone of your original post insulting as 1) a "spoiled" West End resident

Come talk to my son, who feels he's entitled to a brand new car because he's now 17 and his Deep Run friend drives a brand new BMW M6. (In excess of $100K.) This conversation we had yesterday as I was driving him home and the M6 was speeding off from the Deep Run parking lot. It's one of many exotics being driven by 17-year-olds from that school. Think I'm joking?

As a physician here once told me before my oldest got to high school, "Sending my kids to Collegiate was the very best and the very worst thing I did for them."

I am a West Ender, Mike. I have a right to say that West Enders are spoiled. Many are. FWIW, it's a reason why folks in my neighborhood actually lobbied AGAINST our area being redistricted into the Deep Run high school sector. (We ended up with the new high school, which will be more socioeconomically diverse.)

But that's another story altogether.

2) a "karate dad"

Oh come on, Mike. Please tell me how that's a pejorative. Five years ago we were discussing the concept in a thread. (I think George actually came up with the label.) We dads wanted something equivalent to "soccer mom." We dads deserve our own labels which accurately reflect the labor of love we put in as willing parents. Fair is fair...

3) an "outsider" who has lived in the spoiled WE for 20 plus years.

This has been discussed in The Richmond Times Dispatch (about a decade ago). Songs have been written and played on the local radio (borrowing the tune from Green Acres) which contrast the south side with the west end. Stereotypes have a kernel of truth in them. If the truth hurts, it's not my problem.

I AM an outsider to the region, as are virtually 100 percent of my neighbors. A Hindu temple was built just around the corner from me, and is now being doubled in size. What part of Richmond started that??? Three new schools (grammar, middle, soon-to-be high school) were built since my home was built, and they are addressing inorganic population growth. It is what it is.

"clopping" around like "Clydesdales"

Come to my classes, Mike, where I implore my students to float like a butterfly and not clop like a Clydesdale. Hey, I grew up in a black neighborhood. I identify with Ali's language, and run with it. It makes people in class smile, and they "get it."

Toe, ball-of-the-foot, heel. Toe, ball-of-the-foot, heel. Toe, ball-of-the-foot, heel. Toe, ball-of-the-foot, heel.... Every once in a while, I like to play a different tune.

Lighten up, Mike, and come play with us. Even if you think I'm an A-hole, we have fun. And I let my students bark back - so long as safety and learning aren't compromised.

- Bill