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Rob van Ham
Nijmegen, Holland
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Peter,
The directions you gave at the last Holland Camp on "letting go and relaxing the whole body using only the feeling-impulse for movement" are very helpful and helps me improve my moving,
relaxation, balance and whole body feeling. But I am not getting what you mean with "falling into the hands and falling into the feet at the same time." When falling into my feet during a push I try not to move into my hands with a horizontal impulse. While falling into my feet and shifting I try to keep a relaxedalignment from hands to feet. It even feels as if my whole body is falling away (down) from the hands but at the same time keeping a feeling connection and alignment between hands and feet. How does this relate to what you mean with "falling into the hands"?
Rob
Rob,
Sounds like you are doing fine. What you described above seems consistent with the work we did on
"hand up you down" and draining from hands to feet as you do the push. For now, don't try to do "falling into hands" at the same time you work on "falling into feet." These are good practices that teach you something about relaxing and alignment. So if you do them independently, you should learn from each. Then use this information, or the feeling-sense you develop from each, combined and connected in your techniques, and see what happens. I'm sure I can make this even more clear to you at the next Holland Camp.
Peter
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Stefan von Leesen,
Hamburg, Germany
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Hello Peter!
Another few question are arising out of some training sessions:
1. If we are in a fighting context we seem to be always too late when we only deal with the
movement of our partner, ergo we have to deal with something else. Obviously there are a lot of things happening inside of our partner before he moves -- things like having the intention to move, changes of energy, etc. but the problem seems how to be in contact with these things. Is it a good start to first get more and more in contact with what happens when I move (energy changes, intention, etc.) and after this gets clearer to me, go over trying to detect such things in a partner? Are there more exercises that might help me to get more in contact with these things? Am I overlooking something obvious?
2. In your workshops we spent a lot of time concentrating on yielding practices. Games like
mosquito yielding, pressure-no pressure, etc.. What comes out of this -- seems to be obvious -- we might get better in yielding. If I am in a fighting context one point seems to be able to yield to the pressure of a force. The other possibility is that I bring the pressure directly into my foot and from there compress. Do you think that this happens automatically when I'm yielding? I was wondering because my impression is that these are two different matters. If this is true, why do I have to spent so much time with the yielding games - still not being able to bring the pressure into my foot and compress?
I hope that my English is good enough to explain what I mean. Looking forward to your answer.
Thanks in advance
Stefan von Leesen
Stefan,
About your first question: there are different ways to approach it. Sensing what the other is going to do could start with noticing what subtle adjustments have to happen in his body before his gross movement can occur. As you suggested, become very sensitive to what happens for you before you can do something. Try not moving anything at all, be very still, and then try to do a punch or whatever. Just at the moment when you have to do anything -- shift your weight slightly, have a feeling of intent, tense a muscle, take a step, move your eyes -- STOP. This should begin to show that you always do something subtle before you do something gross. In order not to "telegraph" so much yourself, try reducing those processes (relaxing helps, as does a clear and calm mind, so does shifting your thinking from trying to be "fast" to simply being "immediate"). This should also help you become sensitive to what processes others are going through before they can do their gross movements.
There are other considerations such as potential, intent and whatnot, but I think you have enough to work with already. One more thing, though. You will need to pick up changes of intent throughout the motion, not just before. An example of such sensitivity can be seen in the video when I pull the chair from under Epi as he sits.
The motion to move down is not the intention to sit down. Even though he is looking between his legs and expecting the chair to go, when his brain makes that shift to sit, he will fall if no chair is there. How do we pick up such a subtle shift and in such a small fraction of second? I dont really know, just do (for me it comes as a very subtle feeling of a change in the other person's body-mind).
About your second question: No, yielding and compression aren't the same thing. Yielding is found
inherent in many things, like following, leading, compression, absorbing, joining, sticking, and more. But being compressed by a force into your feet requires a certain alignment so that that happens. Yielding requires no such alignment, just getting out the way. If you are receiving a force, and use intrinsic strength to neutralize the force by having it compress you into your feet, this is called absorption. But I recommendlots more yielding work before worrying about this. Otherwise, you are likely to just tense up.
Good luck,
Peter
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Pieter Vaartjes
Groningen, Holland
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Respected Peter Ralston,
By coincidence I have visited some years ago one of your boxing intensives in the Netherlands. I was amazed and impressed by your performance. I have a ju jitsu background and I have always known that if there is a secret in the (eastern) martial arts it is to be found in relaxation. So for about four years Itry to visit one of your workshops in the Netherlands each year. From the start of this year 2002 I practice every day your push with what you told and what you have written about in your books. And sometimes I get the feeling that I start to learn it a little. Often I hardly feel what I do or it feels awkward and strange. But comparing with my jujitsu history I see that as a sign that I am actually beginning to learn the push (a little). What I really would like to know is how you deliver your punch(es)? How do they work physically? And what kind of exercises do you recommend to me?
Pieter Vaartjes
Pieter,
Simply: stay relaxed, use your whole body and use your whole arm back into the shoulder and chest and spine. Train to move your arms with your hips, don't use the arm muscles themselves. Press down on one foot, usually the front foot, to get your grounding to move your center and hips. Allow the back heel to come off the ground and rotate with the punch, at the very end of the punch let the back foot slide forward a bit.
Mostly, stay relaxed. When you finish training your punching, you should be more relaxed than when you started. And train to use your whole body as one unit. This should give you something to work on.
See you in Holland next year.
Peter Ralston
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Stefan von Leesen
Hamburg, Germany
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Peter,
In the Retreat when we were doing the work on Principles of Effective Interaction there was one
section where we worked with changing the perspectives. Like in a fight looking from above, three-
dimensional, out of the eyes of another, from the ground etc.. Working in this specific domain, is it just to become better in changing perspectives? Shall it bring us into a state where we always know which perspective is appropriate in a specific circumstance? Shall it just show us that the perspective that we usually take for granted (ours) is only one part of the whole thing? Shall we come to a state where we able to be connected the whole time in a fighting context to all the perspectives that are possible at once?
Thanks in advance,
Stefan von Leesen
