Autumn is traveling fast through Pennsylvania this year.
It's already mid-October which means in a few weeks I'll be losing my after work park time as we switch back to standard time. For the remainder of my Lower Perkiomen Valley Park training I've decided to continue through Heian 1:5 both sides once after a ten minute dynamic warm-up, then focus on each advanced kata five times each side (one per day). Focus will be on breathing into each technique with increasing tension, so kata will be performed at fifty percent speed for the remainder of the month. As I've been doing I'll finish with five to ten full intent repetitions of Nijushiho as well.
With this in mind, the reverse of my last post becomes important. Losing your glasses with slow, focused, forceful techniques means you're going too hard. When performing kata as a mental exercise the head must be still, the eyes intently focused on your adversary before you. Turns of the head are crisp, deliberate and with intent: in other words they are steady and controlled. You are flowing into each technique, not acting as water crashing over boulders through the rapids.
Understanding the meaning of the technique as you move into it allows you to better perform it in a thoughtful and realistic manner. Repetition of an understood sequence helps make it real for you: you can see where it has real world applications. As in any subject, understanding leads to long term learning; learning which eventually becomes second nature, and with more time and thoughtful repetition the kata becomes part of you. As a martial artist isn't that what we strive for anyway?
Well that's all for now.
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