Theme of the Week: The Game

So, you’ve learned a new technique?  Now what do you do with it?  Put it in mental storage?  Hopefully not – hopefully you test it against a resisting opponent, someone who is doing their best to stop you from accomplishing what you’re trying to accomplish – someone who is playing the same game as you.

What is that game?  Whatever is appropriate to the technique.  If you learned how to kick a field goal, then you should probably go play some football.  If, however, you learned a martial arts technique, you should probably be playing some martially themed game – sparring, grappling, randori, chi-sao – whatever the rules of the individual game, the hope is to provide the players (students) with an environment in which to experiment with new (and old) techniques, concepts and strategies.  If you can’t try a new technique out where you train – if you have to wait to apply it “in the street” – then you haven’t really trained that technique at all, have you?

What game did we play tonight?  We played the “let’s walk down the floor and wait till someone randomly attacks us game”.  The technique?  Drop your weight when you get attacked so you don’t get bounced around like an old pinball game.  Check out the student’s thoughts here.