Be Flexible, My Friend...

When it comes to martial arts, there is an enormous emphasis on stretching. My karate days and shaolin kung fu days packed in at least 30-40 minutes devoted to stretching and warm ups, in particular stretching of the legs, hips and waist. Very little attention was paid to the upper extremeties....

Until I started Wing Tsun. Stretching is incredibly important, and more important is stretching of the limbs used for hitting - the arms (wrists, elbows, shoulders, spine). Funnily enough, not as much emphasis is given on the lower body. But this is not the point I want to focus on today.

There is so much attention (at least in our class) to stretch those tendons, ligaments and muscles with the idea of being able to create a "flexible force" and to loosen up those joints so that you can "freely' throw out your punches in much like a ball and chain propelling at its target.

But there's a different type of flexibility that I'd like to bring attention to. Flexibility of the mind - the idea that the mind restricts us from letting us punch the way we know we should punch. Over the years of training, you end up "knowing what you need to do" but your body just doesn't let you. Really, it's your mind that's hindering you - whatever subconcious forces are in play are holding you back. Punching a target and knowing that you have to punch a target automatically enact different feelings of inhibition doesn't it? Your mind knows the target exists and that, in itself, hinders your body's freedom to hit...because, before you even launch your attack, you may feel that your body's freedom is restricted by the target itself.

The idea now is to exercise flexibility of the mind - to slowly and gradually remove those mental restrictions and to let yourself utilize your physical flexibility. Definitely an exercise in itself.

Until then.