My first years in TSD were marked with frequent “Aha!” moments. Over time those became sporadic as the learning of new skills was overtaken by the refinement of those very same skills.
As of the last few years they have become far and few between. I was warned of this by Teacher and haven’t really thought about it much until something struggled to the surface about three weeks ago. Teacher is very clever and adaptable at times so a move he promotes may not exactly come from the Big Tang Soo Do book or his older practiced styles. However, he’ll do them if they work and have a minimum of cons.
So about three weeks ago we were working on entering our opponents space using the simple zenkutsu stance. At first I was uncomfortable with giving my back to the opponent, but with the proper loading and speed I believe it to be a great set up for a throw.
After a few weeks of testing this out it dawned upon me that I needed to try this out somewhat formally. Bob, at Striking Thoughts, acted as a Catalyst via some email discussions about being tall and trying to throw.
Here you can see a big dork talk about it:
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The second realization was that experience does have a place! One of the young guys in class, Ken, is incredibly gifted. I only have to show him a technique once and he does it perfectly. However when I tell him why we do it that way he gives the look that guys in the video have – blank, but humoring the happy lummox.
When Teacher and I were reviewing the evening he put it this way: “Anybody can shoot a gun. A person with innate talent can shoot well, but if you ask them to shoot in the rain, in the wind, while someone is shooting at them it’s a different story. That’s why Blackbelt mills can be construed as dangerous. The give the belt based on physical ability, but not necessarily the rationale behind what’s occurring or the wisdom to use any of the knowledge correctly.”
All in all – a wonderful night.
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