Let discuss cooperative drills

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:47 pm

Van

Art and the fencing master both are telling me something I already know. Whatever tool you are using, it has limits.

If I want to put a nail in a board, I grab a hammer. If I want the board in two pieces, I won't use a hammer to do that; I will grab a saw.
If I want a board in two pieces, I will grab a saw. If I want to put a nail in that smaller board, I won't use a saw to do that; I will grab a hammer.

I get that. We all get that.

And I do know the difference between carpentry and a fight. However... some of the best fighters in the world were fisherman, farmers, carpenters, and bricklayers.

In Seven Samurai, Heihachi Hayashida is discovered chopping wood. When watching him perform his task, it didn't take long for Kambei Shimada to ask him to join their noble cause. No, wood doesn't cut back. But some skills do indeed transfer. Combine a good stroke with the mindset of a warrior, and you have yourself somebody you want to cover your back.

- Bill

Van Canna · Post by **Van Canna** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:51 pm

The general feeling is that if you can’t discuss what co-operative drills can and can’t achieve, then you’re not really discussing them at all.

Your censuring discussion is not discussion at all. An old story, don’t you think?

The drills are not being dissed, they are being explored.

We could do the same with kata bunkai…this is what discussion forums are all about.

What is to be feared from examining the drills, or any other aspect of our training?

What do the standard drills achieve that any other drill wouldn’t?

What is the reason why you or any other of us, for that matter, modifies the drills?

What were the ‘limitations’ of the standard drills as we learned them that catalyzed our many discussed variations?

Will you post clips of your variations?

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:54 pm

Let us continue the discussion here.

Some of your questions are answered in my introduction, Van. Nobody is censoring anything. However I am most interested in STEERING this discussion towards a positive (e.g. let's create something) direction.

- Bill