ye olden bait n' switch

Thinking I'd get to train with my old teacher, I actually went back for some traditional martial arts training. Instead, on account of an injured back, I got the older teacher who smells uncannily like a dentist.

Ugh, waste of a night. In one sense, bouncy mats are like a feather pillow compared to using concrete for systema, but in another sense, they almost encourage little injuries and carelessness. I find it odd that for as relatively violent and hardcore as systema seems, I felt way more sore/injured after one night on a squishy surface. Part of it is also partners caught up in doing moves that look cool, or who have this frantic need to "win," or who are just unrelentingly stiff. All stuff that is immediately quashed in systema as soon as it appears.

Also, to practice each movement one to two times, with absolutely no context and the other person just giving it to you....after a dynamic environment like systema or the self-led classes we had back on the east side, it's almost enough to make me scream. The best I got out of the class was to practice relaxing out of joint locks, I suppose. Need to get the teacher I actually went there for, oy.

::love:: that balance drill [systema post]

Balancing from a pushup position, specifically. Your partner tried to kick/sweep your limbs out from under you; at first you just feel them and let them push your relaxed limb out of the way, maintaining balance. Then, you anticipate their movement a little, while also moving to positions that make it harder for them to follow up (keeping your limbs kind of spread, though, if you get both arms swept = faceplant). You can also switch to crab position or roll, too. Finally, you try to straight up hinder them in your response movement. The new guy I was with tried really hard to keep his legs away from me for some reason, not realizing each time I kneed his head I was trying to tell him something, heh.

Interesting note: a reason almost all systema punches and kicks hit with at least a slightly bent limb is so the equal-and-opposite reactive energy from impact doesn't travel straight back into the body, as it does with say a karate or boxing straight-armed, straight-line strike. It's really starkly apparent when you have someone hold out a straight arm and just whack the end of it, their body vibrates in turn. Bend the limb a bit, though, and the energy dissipates out the elbow.

And responding to crowd situations (several people hitting at once) is not so random as I first thought; yes, you still absorb and anticipate many of the strikes, but you also set a kind of wave pattern with basically big hook punches, and if you can get your pattern going strong enough, it draws the whole group into it unconsciously. Pretty freaky to see one person hit nigh everyone in a group (sometimes two with one strike) and barely get hit in turn, when they're really good at it.

systema + teens

Well, systema conditioning drills, anyway. It's hard to read shy teenagers' reactions to things, but I'm pretty sure underneath their eye-covering bangs they were refreshed by the sheer unusualness of the drills. Well, the skinny kid seemed so, at least, the but the chubbier kid was having some issue dragging himself over the carpet, and getting stepped on. But he did have more energy for grappling, so it all balanced.

I did note in both doing the drills which involve pushing each other over from a systema squat (you want strong legs? do it.) and the grappling, fighting from the knees like we used to is both relatively incredibly hard on the knees, less mobile, and in reality useless for non-squishy surfaces. On the other hand, the squat, while more vulnerable to being knocked over, it supremely more mobile, I guess a perfect example of less stability equals more mobility - I'm going to say the squat wins out in the end, though, because of its more practical safety, it's expanded range of weapons (kicks and knees), and being able to stand up out of it faster. Now I'm just curious to see how it plays against people who really know how to grapple.

from systema to jujitsu - pre-thoughts

One thing I'll have to get used to again is that when someone tenses up or won't relax or is even just resisting, in systema it's not only okay but pretty much required that you slug them to break that pattern. It helps the recipient get over both ego-anger and that tensing-up, and the puncher to get over punching out of ego, too. But in a traditional school, you can't just go around (to most people, seemingly randomly) punching people.

Another angle: fighting in gi's after having fought in regular clothes for a while. I swear, the thought of it now is like some sort of pajama costume. Tangentially, fighting on springy mats after concrete - which, admittedly, you do need to really practice Japanese jujitsu with its concentration on throws, one thing you can't really do in systema-environments without nigh-killing someone....but at the same time, one realizes after practicing on concrete how incredibly, so-not-truly safe springy mats make one feel. It's seriously not a good illusion to hold.

hmm...

I should have a demonstration to do for teaching yoga, soon. I picked a classical sequence called Anga Laghavan, because it's pretty typical of the style of yoga I do; it's supposedly one of the best general sequences for being right in the middle of the road, both cooling and energizing. It builds up to a sun salutation in the middle, but after, it's got almost entirely cooling poses on the floor.

I suppose the women I'm going to do it for might want a more athletic style, but I do the style I enjoy/prefer; I could emphasize more warming if they want that, and will have to just read them as best I can and wing it, but we'll see. I'm feeling pretty confident about the whole idea, though; the idea of working within a true community-center is really energizing to me. And having a yoga-space with a fireplace would just be awesome.

borrowed poem, again

Time flies, knells call, life passes, so hear my prayer.
Birth is nothing but death begun, so hear my prayer.
Death is speechless, so hear my speech.
This is Jake, who served his ka and his tete. Say true.
May the forgiving glance of Lakshmi heal his heart. Say please.
May the arms of God raise him from the darkness of this earth. Say please.
Surround him, Shiva, with light.
Fill him, Kali, with strength.
If he is thirsty, give him water in the clearing.
If he is hungry, give him food in the clearing.
May his life on this earth and the pain of his passing become as a dream to his waking soul, and let his eyes fall upon every lovely sight; let him find the friends that were lost to him, and let everyone whose name he calls call his in return.
This is Jake, who lived well, loved his own, and died as he would have it.
Each dog owes a death. This is Jake. Give him peace.

Tao, yo.

An interesting contrast of yoga with Buddhism and Confucianism. But it's Taoism, you say? Well! From some schools of thought, Lao-tsu was purportedly a siddhe, who found that his teachings (as an Indian man) were not really accepted in China. So, being a well-developed soul who just had decided not to transcend into nirvana quite yet, he jumped ship into a dying Chinese man's body. Voila! Yoga and Taoism being very parallel, yet adjusted for Chinese culture.

"There is a famous old painting called "The Vinegar Tasters," a work of art whose origins are shrouded in some mystery. Three men are pictured standing around a vat of vinegar. Each has just dipped in his finger and taken a taste. One man has a somewhat sour look on his face. The next has a very bitter expression. The third is smiling. The vinegar represents the essence of life, and the tasting stands for the human experience of it. The three men represent the three major teachings to be found in China.

The sour expression is intended to capture the Confucian conviction that life can be a bit sour because it is out of step with the way it once was and ought to be. The bitter look is meant to be that of Buddha, who believed that life on earth is full of pointless craving and needless suffering. The smiling man is supposed to be Lao Tsu, who held that by properly attaining a harmony between your own path and the Way of objective reality, by properly plugging into the Tao, you can truly enjoy being a part of the action of this world, making your journey one of happiness and joy moment to moment. And this is not to be thought of as a payoff or reward for having done things right, but rather as the proper experience of doing things right, finding your own way forward in unity with the deepest reality there is. This, Lao Tsu believed, is true success."