Thursday, September 3, 2015

The Unvarnished Truth



 


 Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast”.


It was John Kerker making a similar observation (not with those words) during his clinic on how to respond to attacks of different speeds, and then watching extra material on the movie ‘Shooter’ dvd, on sniper training.

 

They really tried to make the sniper work in the movie as accurate as possible according to USMC Sniper doctrine. In the extra material they explained why this is the USMC Sniper motto.  The movie is a gem and that extra material you owe it to yourself to see to fully understand the concept.

That explanation fits 100% into the points John Kerker was making too.

John was expaining on how Harrill Sensei made this work for his art. In essence they did not speed up the applications of kata, just performed them at the same speed of the kata each time.

 

I have long experienced how smoother technique developed over time, in part because of the years I have put into Yang Tai Chi. I am referring to the smoothness that develops over decades of training or so.

 

As one’s technique becomes more smooth the muscles and ligaments to not contend against each other promoting natural speed. And without the tension the center of gravity naturally lowers. And power also increases.

 

The natural progression of training. Work for smoothness.

 

Today as I age and continue to retrain it is ever more important.

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