Much of my martial arts practice these days is unlearning old habits. Releasing old tensions. I picked up some unhealthy movement patterns over my years training in hard-style martial arts, and I ground these movement patterns into my body over many years often at high impact. Martial artists, over time, can have shoulder problems, hip problems, cognition problems from continued impact. I don’t want to have these problems, but I can feel places in my body, my shoulders and feet especially, where my training taught me to hold and move my body in ways that now cause pain.
Also, my brain, the way I think is kind of messed up, or “different” from my years of martial arts training. I learned to desensitize myself from being hit and hurt. Hit in the stomach, hit in the face. Having my eyes poked and hair pulled. These are supposed to be scary things, and they are, but I also kind of like them. For many years, getting hit meant I was having fun playing with my martial arts friends. So, while I want to be move without pain, there is also part of me that seeks it.
The martial art styles I practice now, Shanti System, which is based on Chen-style tai chi, and White Crane Silat both offer me new, healthy patterns of movement and are not pain-seeking styles in any way. I practice these slowly to activate new muscle-brain-body pathways, then faster. The old patterns, though, being old patterns, creep in, so I go slower again. Then 1% faster again, then I get the new pattern for a while. The progress feels good. Then I lose the feeling, so I go slower again. This I do on and on, over and over.
And that is the summary of my training over the last five years.
Last night was a beautiful if hot (100 degree) evening practicing at the park. My number one focus was being and staying hydrated, which I did well. Here’s what I practiced:
• bouncing/shaking
•stretching/stances
•marching/walking, keeping feet parallel, shanti system posture. Backwards, forwards, sideways, in circles. Mostly to music.
•silat side rolls: I videoed myself practicing these recently and I wasn’t guarding my groin very well. I’m practicing the leg change part of the side roll to keep my groin covered.
•shoulder rolls: I’m really confident with my back shoulder roll over my right side (my recovering-from-injury side) but the left one is freaking my out. I’m afraid I’m going to crank something in my neck so I’m scared to do it. I’m building up slowly to getting comfortable with this roll again, which means I’m mostly just lying on my back and practicing looking over my shoulders and slowly starting the move…doing just the beginning. I made progress feeling more comfortable thinking about the roll, and then I noticed how nice the hot, stony pavement felt on my back, so I…
•ground my shoulder into the ground. My shoulders and pretty much everything above my thoracic spine are really tight, so I’m always looking to dig in there and loosen them up. Last night I found that I could roll my shoulder out foam-roller style on the hot pavement, which was bumpy with stones, so I did that, and the heat sort of melted into my deltoid. A delt melt, if you will.
• listened to “Valerie” by The Zutons a few times. I’m singing backup on a Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse version with one of the bands I practice with, so I thought I’d go back to the original and give it a listen. It’s really good. The rock elements stand out after listening to the (excellent) jazzier Winehouse versions, and I really like the rock elements.
• found a new stick: to practice weapons forms and drum major stuff. I also figured out a way to arm bar myself with it and get a really good stretch
• practiced standing meditation
• organized the feather collection/shrine I’ve been making over the summer. I’ve collected feathers I’ve found in the park and placed them under the tree where I put my backpack while I practice. That’s the picture at this blog heading.
That’s what I practiced. I wrote this post so that I would acknowledge, remember, and record my practice. Otherwise when someone asks, “What are you practicing?” I just kind of go, “Duhhhh, I don’t know…”
Giving words to things and writing them down helps.
Michelle Folk Johnson 