In both my capoeira and my shotokan class we are trying to relax more. push from the core, use the gravity to pull us into our low stances. the flexibility is of supreme importance.
if i use too many muscles, it is bad because i am training the body incorrectly, this is not the kind of muscle development that capoeira or karate requires
what do yall think.
is this mumbo jumbo?
what does it mean?
how is it developing the msucles and joints?
capoeira is not a joke
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Bill Glasheen
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- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
He means not too much tension.
move with the whole body, or move with the core, this is more interesting to me than isolation, does isolationn have a point in training? IS anything ever isolated?
the whole body is what you have in addition to the ground or chair, human, bull, lady (:D ), or punching bag it is interacting with
But there is a tensity required in some places.
and in uechi, tension is trained in sanchin?
how variable are the muscles of the body?
can they be trained to do ANYTHING? or are certain training methods clearly best suited for being a holistic fit athlete who is not over stressing the joints or bones and will be able to do aerial back flips, full splits and leaping tiger claws well into the early 90s?
move with the whole body, or move with the core, this is more interesting to me than isolation, does isolationn have a point in training? IS anything ever isolated?
the whole body is what you have in addition to the ground or chair, human, bull, lady (:D ), or punching bag it is interacting with
But there is a tensity required in some places.
and in uechi, tension is trained in sanchin?
how variable are the muscles of the body?
can they be trained to do ANYTHING? or are certain training methods clearly best suited for being a holistic fit athlete who is not over stressing the joints or bones and will be able to do aerial back flips, full splits and leaping tiger claws well into the early 90s?
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Dana Sheets
- Posts: 2715
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:01 am
I think of it like steering a car. If you've got a car with loose steering there is a lag (a.k.a play) between when you turn the steering wheel and when the wheels turn and then when the car actually turns. In a Formula 1 car, the instant the steering wheel turns so too do the wheels and the car.
So "tight" steering in a car is similar to "relaxed" and "whole body" movement in the body.
If the body is tight then you might be initiating movements with your core but the power never makes it to your hands or legs because it is stopped by small, tightened muscles around the joints.
So "tight" steering in a car is similar to "relaxed" and "whole body" movement in the body.
If the body is tight then you might be initiating movements with your core but the power never makes it to your hands or legs because it is stopped by small, tightened muscles around the joints.
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
This and the car analogy are getting at the point.Dana Sheets wrote:
If the body is tight then you might be initiating movements with your core but the power never makes it to your hands or legs because it is stopped by small, tightened muscles around the joints.
I very much like to use the yin/yang concept to explain what we're trying to accomplish with stances and posture. Like the car body, we want to have a firm structure that doesn't flex when trying to get the power of the piston movement to the turning of the wheels that drive us. This means that structure must be firm. But as with the car, other parts need to move as freely as possible. We want the engine mounted firmly to a tight frame, but we want no resistance to movement from the camshaft to the transmission to the drive shaft to the universal joint to the wheel turn. In the human, this means for instance that we want to hold the acromioclavicular joint down as firmly as possible. (The AC joint is where the collar bone meets the tip of the clavicle.) But the arm must move freely within that firm joint structure.
With stances, you ideally want good posture so that it takes as little energy as possible to hold you in position. If you have a pelvic tilt in a horse stance and put your knees just so, the limits of your flexibility will hold you in that stance with very little energy. If you let the booty sway out, well then you need to contract your thighs and/or your butt muscles to hold you in the stance, which ultimately takes too much effort to hold for long.
Another good example is catching a kick. If you hold your arm at the right angle, your skeleton will hold the kick up like a coat hook holds a coat up. But if the posture and alignment aren't correct, then you have to work the biceps unnecessarily. I first discovered this when doing Dan Kumite with a very athletic student who weighed over 325 pounds. Holding that hamhock of a leg up was easy if posture was correct. The weight of the leg just drove me into the floor, making my stance more firm. If I got the alignment wrong, then it took way too much effort.
It's part firmness (yang) and part relaxation (yin) that creates the ideal posture at any one instance in time. And what is yin may be yang a second later, and vice versa. Getting the two cross-talking will ruin your efficiency. This concept is shown in the yin/yang symbol where yin flows into yang and vice versa. But while there is white and there is black, there are no gray regions. Mastering this selectivity and specificity of contraction and relaxation is something we work on forever.
- Bill
