technique + more thoughts

if anyone wants to write, please feel free! =)
(Won’t be in Thursday due to work. Will be late to class this weekend.)
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sensei quote
Sensei c says I won’t have time to be tired if I come to dojo because I’ll get hit or something like that – and that I’ll stay awake. I like the idea....in theory, so far.
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New technique
forward punch to face
- Lead leg crosses behind following leg, while parry from inside, following leg (now in front of other) hops across ukes lead leg, blocks uke’s ankle as you twist hips down like you’re going to kneel and face point in direction uke is going to roll, but body is perpendicular, blocking leg is stretched out, knee low to ground, but not touching, and is perpendicular to uke. Breathe out and you bring arm straight down.
Stay low.

- Step in and parry with both hands (and following leg step behind and cross, and then twist hips going down to kneel, and leg blocks uke’s leg and they roll perpendicularly to the direction they initially came. I think I’m fuzzy on this one.

Round house

* close window - dixon showed that u need to be super early and twist the hips down and throw to corner.

* step in opposite of striking arm, breath out, parry with two hands, keep elbow down, keep off balance, lead leg catches ankle and pulls forward and falls on back

Or lead leg can sweep foot up, and you catch foot, tiger lock with hand over knee and the other wrapped under + holding other wrist, leg/toes on uke’s pressure point, straighten back to apply lock

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I had a whole new realization! Hooray! I figured that I learn better when I feel the uke more, not just a sequence of movements. I got this from Sensei Stephen and uking from zhenya.

For instance in back grab: drop weight down, catch hands to chest so uke can’t choke, pivot hips, hand strike groin – and get this - I saw sensei Stephen put hand on uke’s knee and then put his foot directly behind uke’s foot – before grabbing uke by knees and wiping uke over thigh (alternatively, you could just twist your torso and wipe off uke over your leg with arm). Back straight. The great thing is that I did the hand on knee to help my foot target and feel uke’s foot so that I mindfully put my foot there – right behind uke’s foot. And presto. The technique was so much easier.

Then I was uking for zhenya and I noticed her changing up technique depending on where I was off-balance. And it made me more aware of how “sensing and doing to uke” seems to be less work, less struggle.

the arts, buddhism and martial arts
My past thoughts in previous blog entry ring truer with a little reading about buddhism, art and the art of practice.

The most compelling quote I found was from www.artandbuddhism.org:
" The aspects of Buddhism that have entered the Western world most prominently are the several schools of meditation within the Buddhist tradition, all of which emphasize training the mind and cultivating clear, stable, active attention and the capacity to see things as they are. There is, in the Buddhist meditation tradition, a strong emphasis on "experience" rather than "thinking about."

Because so much human experience occurs when our minds are distracted or numbed, dazzled or overloaded by our individual conditioning and by immediate needs and desires, the refinement of the capacity for attention is often neglected or ignored altogether. Meditation can, thus, be viewed as a means for training the mind to be more and more attentive, and a heightened capacity for attention can be viewed as an antidote to confused perceptions and wasted energy.
"

This is close to what makes sense to me when working out in the dojo and learning jujitsu (well, among other things, too) – and how I’ve approached learning in the past. It feels more natural/interesting to devote mental energy to learning/practicing (aside from creativity/imagination/etc). But intellectualizing all this has been fun, too.

speaking of art, I have been curious about Sensei Stephen’s comments about artists + dancers being interested in martial arts and how they seem to learn well because they are more visual. I would say this makes sense. Artists work in the area of the human senses and the fine-tuned attention to the nuances of sensory stimuli.

And I thought more about this triangle – art, Buddhism, and learning (jujitsu)- and I start to perceive an overlap of qualities in all three. One overlap I perceive is “the cultivation of attention.” So, this prompted me to take another quote from the website:

“When attention is cultivated, people commonly report the experience of "seeing things in a new light" or "getting a new perspective on how the world looks."”

I infer that the website talks about the “cultivation of attention” to relate to the “experience” of appreciating/creating art and meditating.

But I also see the “cultivation of attention” as part of "learning.” When I learn or experience something new in the dojo – I definitely get a “new perspective” and “see things in a new light.” I don’t concretely remember everything, but the process of learning is very rewarding/satisfying experience.

All this discussion leaves me with a final note: practice. I don’t enough of it – if at all! This is not good. Damn the work life.
I’m going to experiment with memory flash cards and workouts to see if that helps me respond better to those rollout and defends... I will think of some creative ways to practice even just 10-20 minutes on off-days, away from dojo.