I Finally See

For quite some time, I have been repeatedly told to relax my shoulders when doing forms.  Although I don’t feel like I’m all tense or have my shoulders raised (nunchuks excluded), Wednesday I saw it for myself.   In Wednesday mornings class Sifu Specht videoed one of my forms and holy cow, my shoulders were up to my ears.  It was the first thing I noticed watching myself.  I can totally see now what others have seen for quite some time.   It’s funny how different a person can look compared to how they feel they look.  I’m pretty sure that when I am in our garage with only me, myself and I, my shoulders and the rest of me are more relaxed.  I know that the thought of someone watching or a camera, automatically makes me a little rigid (stage fright).  Need to work more on this.

The last little while, I have been trying to work on 18 temple motions, to sink into my stances and to time that with finishing my moves.  As I have been reminded lately, slower forms show errors easier.  The benefit to actually seeing myself on camera is incredible.  It’s been a while since I have videoed and viewed my forms.  I’m finding this even more helpful now in trying to work a little more on some details.  I can see what I am doing and what I’m not and should be.  I can even see possible reasons why some moves don’t feel comfortable or as natural as they should and find myself with some direction as to how to work on fixing it.

A couple of days ago I saw a poster that said “The race for quality has no finish line.” I think as a martial artist I can appreciate this comment because we are always looking to improve and to better ourselves as martial artists, as individuals and in turn the community and the world around us.  We aren’t looking toward a finish line, but rather continuing to learn along our journey.

My plan now, is to get our oldest son to video me doing all my forms.  I’d like to focus on one at a time and see what I can do to improve them.  Well, off to the garage to practice before my camera man is home from school!

 

Alana Regier

http://alanaregier.blogspot.ca