Masters in Training
Basic Concepts: Finding grace through the very basics of all movement
Have you ever seen the bumper sticker "Too many books, too
little time?" Well that is how the true warrior athlete feels
about the countless different styles of creative physical movement.
When the thought of how many diverse styles of movement the human
body is capable of doing, the athlete may become overwhelmed with
which ones to choose. Because as much as we would like to say, the
sport or movement that we participate in unfortunately doesn't have
all aspect of fundamental movement covered. So then the true warrior
athlete quickly comes to the wall that there is simply not enough
time to master more than just a couple of these elaborate mastered
arts in a lifetime. Just as it seems that the light at the end of
the tunnel of movement has turned off, it is quickly regenerated
by Bruce Lee's concept of cross training. From what I understand
about Mr. Lee is when one decides to truly become their highest
idea of a Warrior Athlete, one dedicates himself to training and
mastering the mind, body and soul in every moment given to them
in this very short life. So whether it defining and mastering the
technique of washing the dishes to taking a shower, the true Athlete
will find the very basic of all movement to evolve to the highest
form, grace.
Though 16 years of redefining the definition of what is possible
in the sport of Gymnastics, the basics of all movement, I have
come to the conclusion that there is a basic underlying technique
that is true with all styles of movement. Now I must say these
three concepts will always be true, but for you to understand
what I'm talking about one should find their own basic technique
to all movement. But if you don't have 5-6 hours a day 7 days
a week and about sixteen years training with your particular style,
these three concepts should be sufficient in helping you on your
way to finding the interrelated basics of all movement.
Tight Body: This position entails molding to any body angle and
being able to hold against any type of resistance or integrated
technique being preformed. This form begins in the mind before
the movement. If one cannot stay in his thoughts without being
swayed by a small breath of distraction. Then it probable that
one will not be able to understand, advanced creative physical
movement of any type. Controlling the tightness of the body while
performing a movement through being aware of every aspect of the
body, mind and spirit is the first step to finding your basic
movement.
Core Body: This body is the easiest of the forms to understand,
but the hardest to actually complete. A good way to understand
core body is to think of what your physical self goes through
when you do a "Kia" in Martial Arts. The first response
that you notice is a tightening of all the muscles around you
spinal column. You create a sustaining core body by constricting
the amount of force that you have built up through taking a breath
and energy into your core, to letting the pressure alleviate with
your complete control, out. This is represented in nature by a
wave being created to its final destination, the break. Finding
your core body during movement will introduce you to the many
aspects of power.
Extended Body: When you stretch your arms up to the sky, your
body becomes tight as a result. Stretch creates tension. When
a gymnast goes for a double backflip, they do not jump off the
floor, instead they punch it. Your muscles are not fast enough
to execute a jump in a split second. Instead, you preempt the
ground by punching it with an extended body. This gives you the
maximum rebound, utilizing the force created by the previous elements
of your tumbling pass. Think about the difference between a long
shoot of bamboo or a wooden telephone pole. Then contemplate why
a class 4 hurricane would ripe a telephone pole right out of the
earth but would just smile at the long hollow bamboo. The answer
lies somewhere in this duality. The wood of the telephone is tightly
grown to leave hardly any space for movement. An example of this
would be a gymnast doing an iron-cross on rings. If a car is about
to hit you, you don't just wait to be hit you react like an echo
and move before it ever comes. In conclusion when an athlete is
trying to generate force that is outside of themselves, being
limber like a shoot of bamboo will generate most amount of basic
teqnique in the style being preformed, opening the door to becoming
ever graceful WARRIOR ATHLETE.
These forms are rarely seen alone in a technique. Most often,
you see two of them at a time. Take a look at the following videos
of me performing a full twisting Geigner off a park bench and
another full twisting flip off a tree. Also take a look at the
picture of the one-arm hand balancing. Which bodies are present
in each skill?
Video: Twisting Geigner
off bench
Video: Backflip off tree
Picture: Hand Balancing
Dillon Reeve is a gymnastics instructor based in Seattle,
WA. He has practiced gymnastics 6 hours a day, 6 days a week since
he was a child. He has competed at a national level and even invented
several E-level moves. As a coach, he has worked with beginning
gymnasts up to Olympians.
