Monday, January 21, 2008

Private Class 1


I heard a mountain climber describe a syndrome in which his leg would twitch in an uncontrollable fashion - it was called "sewing machine leg." After so much tension is placed upon the muscle in one position it begins to fail in a spectacular fashion.

I occasionally struggle with what Teacher presents to me to learn, so it was some trepidation that I went to our private session on Sunday. I was a bit concerned with his focus on my stance. Privately I was wishing for something a little more exotic and was thinking that stances were probably the last thing I needed to work on, but always the dutiful student I knuckled down and smiled through the work.

To my surprise he pointed out incredibly helpful stuff pulled from the first kata/hyung. The low stance he demonstrated and I tried to emulate was extremely difficult for me. Over the years I have, as he put so gently, adopted a bent kneed lean. So we did work in the mirrors that had me gritting my teeth, sweating profusely and getting a terrible case of sewing machine legs.

The biggest lesson was as I lower my stance my center of balance shifts. I'm now emulating a new student because, I guess in reality, I am one again.

3 comments:

Mathieu said...

Pushing the navel out helps.

I hate that stance.

Good luck with your stance work. I always to this one at the end if training at home. Else you start training with dead legs...

ugh

Potatoe Fist said...

I'm starting to do plyometrics whenever I work out in hopes that will assist this abit. I found out the navel trick by accident. I'm constantly adjusting to find a spot of comfort.

Mathieu said...

Me too!

It's a bit tricky!

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