Thursday, May 18, 2006

Visualizing, in your sleep even

Not long ago, following his rib injury, [Mat] was talking about using visualisation to train. I was reminded of his post yesterday when, as I was standing by the side of the mat right before my class, our instructor was talking to the three students in his semi-private class. He talked to them about visualizing yourself in situation of self-defense, how sometimes people will freeze when attacked in real life situation and how he would often create scenarios in his head. Like while driving, as he sees the car behind coming a bit close, what if he rear ends me and the driver comes out in a rage? What would I do? How would I defend myself if he strikes me or attempts to strike me? If you don't think about these things, even if only every once in a while, when the time will come (if it comes) to use your self-defense knowledge, you could very well freeze and not be able to use the stuff you know, that you probably know very well too. I found that discussion very interesting. Proof that you can learn even from simply listening from a distance. :)

We then went to a great class of mostly freestyle self-defense, after working minimally on a couple katas. Paired up two by two, we would attack each other without giving out the attack beforehand. Straight punch, hook punch, lapel grab to start with, followed with combination attacks ( i.e. left jab followed by right hook punch). At first, the defender was simply to block and strike back. We were then instructed to keep on the block/strike combination but also finish it with a wrist lock. First a shionage lock on a few attacks, then some ending with a sankyo lock, then some with a nikkyo to finally end with some kotegaeshi locks. These attacks followed by us trying to work in the locks were great. Not saying I was great at it, far from it, but it was great to see how it was possible to work the locks in and try to find ways to position myself to be able to do the locks more easily.

We then moved on to something we've hardly worked on so far: throws. A simple, very basic, over the hip throw. Started with the same kind of attacks, block/strike but now followed with us trying to gain position to make the throw. We didn't do the throw at first. All we were doing was simply lift our attack so his feet would merely leave the ground. The guy I was first paired with worked well with me. He's set to test for his black belt at the beginning of June and as thus, is much more advanced than I, but I felt some hesitations from him on some moves. Me, I had lots of hesitations ;) We were then instructed to switch up partners and I was teamed with another fellow student who will also be testing for his black belt in June. This guy has done a couple other styles before coming to our school, including some judo and it showed. He asked me if it was all right that he did the throws completely and I said it was okay. I mean, I've learned how to fall and when you know where you're going to land, you don't hurt yourself. He's also a very good "faller" if I can say that, in the sense that he rolls well with punches/locks/throws so I got to try the complete throw a couple of times. Didn't go too badly I would say :) Lotsa work to do, but still felt very good to be able to do it.

All that class of self-defense, alway thinking not to myself be hit by the first strike, then work something out to get the locks done, and finally the throws done, well it made my mind work overtime. Couple that with the start of a cold and my sinuses being blocked that forced me to take some Sudafed (tm) before going to bed. That stuff is non-drowsy and works like charm for me during the day but tends to give me a bit more agitated night of sleep. Not impossible to sleep, but I move a bit more in my sleep. My mind was still working overtime on moving in the dojo though and a few times in the night, I changed position in the bed and I swear I thought I was still avoiding a strike, or finding a way to work one of these locks in. My wife didn't complain that I turned one of her wrists in an awkward position while sleeping, so I have to believe I only did it on my side of the bed... ;)

FM
PS: I'll get back maybe tomorrow with some links to videos of the locks we worked on. Interestingly enough, I'm finding plenty of aikido links with the locks mentionned in this post. Professor Cerio really took stuff from all over the place to create his style. Writing about it is forcing me to learn the origin, something I'd not done in the first three years of my practice of it. Thanks for reading me... :)

7 comments:

Dr. Augustus Dayafter said...

As always, I love reading your posts. Learning from each other is, after all, what martial arts is all about. As far as the training scenarios, I love them. We drilled scenarios like crazy when I was in the police academy and during basic combat training in the Army. I started using visualizations when I broke my foot in the army, and it was great. I came back from recovery and still felt just as fresh as before. Mainly because in my mind I never stopped training. During kata training, I keep my eyes closed and visualize myself doing the moves as I am doing them physically, this is seemingly working like a charm. Not that I have mastered any of the kata, but I feel so much more confident about them.

Mir said...

I agree. One can learn so much through listening, and paying attention to the words, applying them to oneself, and asking inner questions (like you did) How often I have seen the dull-eyed "Get this talking over with, I wanna spar!" look come over the eyes of the youth in a dojo in the past. Ha ha ha.. They didn't realize just how important the information being shared with tham could be to their abilities. Goodness.. just the fact that they needed to control the flitting of their brain, and concentrate would have been a bonus.

Mathieu said...

"shionage lock on a few attacks, then some ending with a sankyo lock"

I'm complety jealous. I had to take aikibudo classes to practice those. As for judo, I can't wait to be in shape enough to learn a bit. Although it probably won't be until next september... Damn ribs.

In those visualizations, A kata will take me more time to analyse. Taking time to picture the "perfect" technique. Say a Gedan Barai, imagine the preparation, the leg movements, the point when your back muscles are streched and the actual block.

There's always a lot to work on. And I'm reading some interesting stuff these days. Can't wait to train again.

Mathieu said...

Oh, and get well.

John Vesia said...

Throws, takedowns, and joint-locks tend to be overlooked in some quasi-karate schools. Ed Parker (as you may already know) had a black belt in judo before he started his kenpo training with the Chow brothers, so you can see why the emphasis for these techniques come into play with your style.

Blackbeltmama said...

That is so true about visualizing! I think you may have read about my "action plans" in the past. Apparently I'm not that crazy after all; I'm just being prepared. Great post. I love working on self-defense and am hoping to do more of that soon.

BlackBeltMama

Mathieu said...
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