This week, besides being a holiday week, I have been fortunate to meet two AMAZING martial artists.
Ben, who is a 20 year old collegiate wrestler, is in the Top 3 grapplers as far as moving more naturally and athletically than most. Not only is he a great wrestler, he is also a great coach who INTUITIVELY moves and teaches in all 3 planes of motion.
The second is James, who is a Kung Fu artist/master. From what my client-patient tells me, he's been doing Kung Fu for close to 20 years. He just 'gets it' in terms of the way he moves and the way he instructs. When he was demonstrating as well as teaching, I could see he was FULLY ENGAGED in the movement. There was nothing in his body that was isolated. Kung Fu, by appearance, looks to be a lot of arm movements, blocks and kicks. However, being a biomechanist, I look at what is going on from the bottom of the foot to the top of head and everything in between as well as how internal and external forces are acting on the body.
Q: So why bring this up?
Funny that you should ask that! What I have observed is that when most people see my two friends in their respective activity, they are doing the big movements like the punches, kicks, trips etc without any authentic connection throughout their bodies. It's all arms or legs since that's what the most obvious motion is. I believe naturally gifted movers and athletes, have found ways to not only use their whole body for their activity, they also use their 5 senses in a coordinated fashion to deliver all pertinent information to the Command Center of the Body. When the brain is "fed" information, given no major neurological deficits, it can transform it into the proper movement with ease and a high level of sophistication.
When we see the big movements of the body, we usually miss the smaller and more important movements some of which are not subtle and then others that are unfortunately, not really able to be seen.
I included a picture of an iceberg above because that is what happens in movement. A lot of what we do is totally under the surface and cannot be seen and is generally enormous and complex. It's the finished product that is really at the tip of the iceberg.
Mind, Body and Spirit must be honored for us to reach potential.
Q: What does this have to do with MOVEMENT?
Well, the short answer is: EVERYTHING!!!
In the next few posts, I will expand on the "More than meets the eye" series. We will cover:
Center of Gravity: What it is and its applications in movement
Joint Motions and possibilities
The Rock & Roll of the Soft Tissues
FiOS of the Body: Brain-Nerve connections
I am very excited to get into this information as it can be so transformational. If you have any questions or requests for anything in particular, please email me at will@3doptimalperformance.com
Thanks!!!
Will
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