Budo is about moving a certain way.
Every school, style, tradition, and master has a way of
moving.
In our art of taijutsu
it is about moving with flow: nagare.
All of our kihon, waza, kata, and training drills point to
this movement of nagare, but there are other elements that help support this
flow, personal awareness being one of them.
Personal awareness begins with junan taiso- a set of exercises to both strengthen the body and
increase its capacity, but also to eliminate tension in the movements, a chance
to reset the body to a zero state and build taijutsu movement from there.
This personal discovery also extends to the movements while
training- in class and outside of class.
When working on a particular taijutsu movement it should be
done in a relaxed manner and without any tension or force in the body.
Here is one way in the dojo that we work on that:
While performing a particular movement, after doing it a few
times, pause for a moment and return to shizen no kamae. In that moment, only a
few seconds or so, do you feel any tension points or places in the body where
tension is being held?
Make a note of that and next time you run through the junan
taiso set spend some extra time on those tension points from training.
See you in the dojo.