Relax, go with it
Published: Tue, 01/19/16
On Saturday I went to an Akijutsu Seminar in Plymouth. I saw it posted on a Facebook group I am on and thought it might be interesting. I try and do seminars with other teachers on a fairly regular basis. It keeps me on my toes to go into unfamiliar situations to train. Sometimes I learn something new. Sometimes I see a better way of doing something I already do. Sometimes I come away more sure that something I do and teach is the best way, for me and my Stav teaching anyway.
If I pick the right seminar with the right teacher then I will almost certainly come away with some of all three.
That was certainly the case on Saturday. John Piket, whose seminar it was, is very keen on traditional Japanese approach to training. Lots of etiquette, all the right Japanese names for techniques (although he is good at explaining what they mean) and regular bowing to the pictures of the founder of the system he follows.
All a bit quaint but the man can move and knows his stuff. There are some very powerful moves in this kind of traditional Jujutsu (apparently the root system of modern Aikido, Jujitsu systems (such as BJJ) and Judo). It certainly fitted with the kind of techniques for Aki-Jutsu which Ivar has showed me from what he learned in Japan.
So, how do you train at a seminar like that if you are not familiar with the actual system but still want to get as much out of it as possible?
The only way is to relax and go with it. Don’t try and prejudge every move and technique, just experience it and see what effect it has on a real and physical level. There is plenty of time for thinking about what you experienced later.
Martial arts only makes sense if you are in the moment with what is actually happening. This particularly applies to break-falls. I am a bit out of practice with full forward rolling falls. So it is back to Yoda’s advice. ‘Do or do not, there is no try.’ So I did, I wasn’t very elegant the first few times but I didn’t hurt myself and that is kind of the point of a break-fall.
So, a reminder of the key: Relax, go with it and see what you discover.
When people train with me that is all I expect them to do. Relax and enjoy the situation. Go with the moves and drills presented, don’t think about them too much. Then, later, have a think about what you learned and how to get more out of the experience next time.
I am saying martial arts but this advice applies to any experience you want to get the most out of, anything at all.
Course this Saturday in Crewkerne http://www.somersetstav.co.uk/sd.html Full list of events at http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html
regards
Graham