Two ears, one mouth

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. - Epictetus

This week at class, Jack was teaching us the importance of having a light feeling in the hands. The important thing was to use our hands to contain the opponent, rather than to try to force them into compliance and make a technique happen. In fact, when done correctly, the more the Uke struggled, the more the technique 'worked' and occurred naturally. But, in order for the Tori to feel the Uke and apply the technique correctly, there could not be too much tension in the hands.

After one of the more successful attempts, I mentioned how different the outcome was, and how different the technique felt during execution. Jack said, 'we have two ears and one mouth for a reason'. I nodded understanding the expression, at which point he simply said, 'This is the same thing'. In other words, we have to use our senses (afferent nerves) to understand what is happening, and this is more important than using our muscles (efferent nerves) to try and force a technique.

Muso Dori and the drain

Tonight at class we did 'close up attacks'. It was interesting to see how Muso Dori was different. Jack explained how we make the space smaller in the same way as water goes down the drain in a sink. It starts off moving in a large circle and three dimensionally moves around and down. The circle becomes narrower as this happens. The feet placement was important to ensure the Kyusho point of the Kukan was found. We also did Musha Dori, this was done using the natural elastic of the spine to create the right shape and then form kamae. The interesting part of this was how the Musha Dori was created purely by taijutsu and was only recognizable at the last second by which time it was impossible to escape. Jack pointed out that this is a very important concept of taijutsu.

10,000 hrs alone 2,000 hrs together and a few moments in action

Last Saturday I attended an incredibly insightful seminar with Jack Hoban Sensei. It was very interesting because Jack pointed out that although everyone can attend seminars and watch videos that only gives you the external view. However, you can't see what is really happening inside someone's body as they apply a technique, and that is a vital part of the result. In fact it was suggested that one reason many people might plateau is because working on the external alone can only take you so far.

During the seminar, basic movements were broken down and the anatomical movements of joints and isometric activity of muscles were explored using various simple looking but brain frying exercises. Progressively these concepts built upon each other to create very stable and recognizable basics. Jack kept repeating with a smile, 'Today we are doing 1983 style basics!' and as I thought about old seminars, videos and photos I could start to see the connection. More importantly I could start to 'feel' the basics. I may have moved like a robot at first, I may have broken a sweat doing a simple few repetitions of Ichimonji no Kata, but, I could begin to understand how with a bit of practice more efficient movement could be created in the long run. In fact as the seminar progressed it was apparent that in many cases that doing or not doing something internally could make or break the technique.

During one of our breaks Jack asked if there were any musicians in the room. As it turned out there was not that day. Jack is an accomplished musician and he talked about the pinnacle of his music career, which was playing with B. B. King twice. An incredible opportunity and a level of performance that many guitarists can only dream of. However, as Jack pointed out, in order to get to the point where he was even lucky enough to have that opportunity he had to play with his own band for 2,000 hours. 2,000 hours to obtain just two performances. He then pointed out that in order to play in his band he had to practice on his own for 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours on his own, 2,000 hours in a band in order to play twice with B.B. King.

The parallel was then put forward to us. In our lives, we may never get in conflict if we are lucky, but for most of us, even if we do, it will only be for a few moments. However in order to survive the few moments, we need those 2,000 hours training together as preparation. And in order to get the most out of those 2,000 hours training together, we need to spend 10,000 hours training alone.

I didn't even feel I needed to ask the question, "what kind of training should we do in those 10,000 hours?". It was pretty obvious from the seminar what I had to work on.

Kukan - 空間 - Empty space

Here are the characters Ku and Kan:
空 - the same 'Ku' from Sanshin no Kata. Void or empty are associated meanings
間 - meaning a space, not just a 3 dimensional space, but four to include time, hence it can also mean interval

Space can be full or empty. 間 on its own is pronounced 'Ma' and means space. Kukan and Ma act like Yin/Yang or In/Yo (陰/陽).

From a material perspective empty space often appears to have no value. Empty bank accounts, empty wardrobes, empty space where the nice new LCD TV screen could be. In this sense Kukan is undesirable and most would prefer their space to be full.

So what use is empty space? Take this simple blog entry, imagine if I used no spaces between paragraphs. And what if I didn't seperatethewords? Or if the letters themselves had no space? Could anyone read it? Alternatively imagine some music with no intervals between notes, not just close together but all on top of each other. It would be nothing but noise, indistinguishable from anything else.

Empty space is important, without it the universe would be one unfathomable entity of mass with no seperation. Empty space is in other words, vital to the existance of life.

And empty space is not always empty either. Regarding the spaces between paragraphs mentioned earlier, these spaces also tell the reader where I think the break should be. In other words they actually contain some derived information. So the space is not 'completely' empty after all (陰/陽)