The body movements of taekwondo dwells with the laws of physics and human nature. The skills must be both stable and balanced. The mind shifts the body in space as well the energy within the body frame.
In time, strength is developed slowly but safely.
Taekwondo sparring has various structured drills that uses internal energy and can evolve into impulsive or ordinary boxing.
Players learn how to relax and lower their center of gravity. Slight shifts in balance and tension are felt from the constant contact. Players learn to absorb and counter force instead of resisting it. To meet hard (Yang) with soft (Yin).
The more receptive and relaxed you are, the harder it is for others to find your center. Push hands makes you more centered and relaxed, like the ideal person who stays calm and patient, even if stress is great.
Taekwondo moves develop sensitivity. The aptitude to listen to energy. Listening energy can receive force, which is the first step towards being able to counteract that force.
The player who is more relaxed and alert can receive force and use that force to load up the legs and waist to return it.
Practicing these moves over time will result in the ability to move incoming force and stay calm and balanced. The appearance of effortlessness comes from relaxing to support the flow of natural energy.
Sports have long been considered a wholesome outlet for competitive, warlike instincts. The playing field in team sports represents the battle for turf. But in taekwondo, the players move with rhythm. Every taekwondo move has its intention.
When another person is in your face or too close for comfort, tension rises. When you push hands, you must stay relaxed, but aware while in constant, close contact with another individual. With experience, you can feel their whole posture from a light touch.
Students can develop and compare roots, relaxation and understanding of form by pushing each other. When you are both equally relaxed and rooted, whoever can keep receiving force without tightening up will be the winner.
This is opposite of our previously held notions about winning in which the most forceful person will prevail.
Taekwondo moves work in life; also with people and events. Life is a steady flow of changes. Flowing with those changes, without resisting or trying to control, is a rare feat and a huge ability.
The most basic human instinct of self-preservation in the skilled practitioner has reformatted at a higher level. The realization that ones own survival is intricately connected with the preservation of all life is analogous to Buddha's compassion on a physical plane.
Like the inner dialogue of the martial artist, the interaction of the brain's hemispheres between technique and imagination, there integrates layers of information to develop a coherent whole.
This wholeness is developed by separating the mind from the body, so that they may reconvene on a higher level.
Encountering no resistance, it dissipates. It dissolves into the void, released from the chain of events by the superior individual. It exhausts itself with repeated attempts to find somewhere to bang against, dissolving in tears of frustration, or peals of laughter.
Appearances are deceptive. Some taekwondo moves may look funny, focusing on feelings over aesthetics, but do not laughing just yet. There is a beauty in their simplicity, sincerity and focus.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The Essence of Taekwondo Skills
