An Author Archive
The word self-defense usually conjures images of how to deal with physical violence. I imagine a class where the martial arts instructor goes over attacks and attack scenarios along with techniques and/or drills to deal with them. As I learn methods to defend myself physically I also like to remind myself that violence never happens in a vacuum.
There are warning signs, choices to consider, escalations happening, body language to evaluate…etc. The actions I choose, based on my awareness of incoming sense data, can help keep me safe, though no action, or lack of action, can keep me safe from violence 100% of the time. Preemptive awareness provides the key to early intervention, providing more choices and additional time to choose a course of action. Try the following preemptive awareness techniques.
Read 5 Simple Ways to Avoid Violence »
Need balance? Need grounding? You got it! Or had it? Oh, it’s back again. I think of balance in terms of degrees as opposed to an absolute. Balance requires movement and adjustments. At first the movements and adjustments tend to be large, and, over time, they become smaller and smaller. The adjustments never cease. Balance gets better and your body develops efficiency at maintaining it. The same with grounding. They never quite seem effortless. They’re both dynamic. Sorry, I’m not talking metaphorically here.
The kicks in the Yang Chen Fu Form give my balance a run for its money. In the beginning, my balance was all over the place. I’d fall out of all of the kicks, or, at least, I would make big, awkward adjustments, fighting to not fall out. My balance issues exasperated the slower I did my form.
Minimizing the Arc of Movement With Qigong
“No pistol shooter, no matter how expert, can hold a pistol in firing positions without some motion. This is called the arc of movement. The very best that any shooter can do is to keep the arc of movement at a minimum—it cannot be eliminated.” The N.R.A.’s Basics of Pistol Shooting (57).
For humans, perfect stillness does not exist in the living. Our bodies constantly make adjustments, large and small, to maintain even simple postures. In marksmanship, constant adjustments add up to what is called the arc of movement. The arc of movement is the amount that the firearm moves as a result of a body’s natural inability to maintain perfect stillness. The greater the arc of movement, the more difficult it is to maintain proper site alignment which leads to inconsistent marksmanship.
At first we might think that to minimize the arc of movement we need to force our arm into stillness. This severe willing of stillness inevitably leads to muscles contracting, causing tension as well as motion. Anyone who has tried showing off their bicep could tell you that intense muscle contractions cause trembling in surrounding muscles. We can conclude that forcing our arms into stillness leads to a greater arc of movement, the exact opposite of what we want.
