So what's going on inside your head?

[dmsdc]

You're doing kata, are you:

visualizing an evil opponent and tearing them to shreds?

keeping your mind still like a lake? (though I've never seen a perfectly still lake.)

beating yourself up for not doing each thing perfectly?

beating yourself up because that's the evil person attacking you?

wondering how the guy/gal next to you can really smell that ripe?

you don't have to think, you've fused your body, mind, and spirit in the the perfect picture of moving elightenment?

:-)
Dana

[This message has been edited by dmsdc (edited January 09, 2002).]

[Ted Dinwiddie]

All of the above, depending on the occasion. But, the primary thing for me these days is coordinating breath and movement to find the "power curve" of each piece.

------------------
ted

"I learn by going where I have to go." - Theodore Roethke

[Stryke]

These days i just try to do what im feeling , If im feeling destructive ill fire with everything , if im calm ill just try and flow and let the body do what its done thousands of times before ,maybe if im doing it for practice ill work on one or two things , usually more body feel than technical correction (hence probably why im no technician ) , but most of all i try not to think too much , I have hard enough time listening to my body without my mind getting in the way .

This is just what im doing at the moment im sure itll change like everything else

[Bill Glasheen]

Dana

Obviously this is very individual and personal.

I have to include many things you have above. I also have to add a few.

I probably do many more kata as instructor in front of a class than I do by myself. As instructor, I am often:

* counting in a language not my own,

* doing,

* sensing who is following my pace,

* looking in the mirror at Fred who still isn't finishing his wauke,

* yes, sensing the odor of Joe's unwashed gi,

* anticipating walking into the mirror two steps down the kata because the room is crowded, and

* sensing that two guys are looking through the glass doors of the room (the weight room is adjacent) and commenting on what we are doing.

Various experts out there may argue with me on this (that's what experts are supposed to do... ), but I contend that this is just as valid a way of preparing for "when the dung hits the fan" as any straightforward scenario training complete with induced terror. I contend that if you can do a great kata while also doing 4 or 5 other tasks (multitasking, parallel processing, whatever you want to call it...), then you're better off than the person who gets messed up if someone "ruins their concentration." It's the typical educational device of over-preparation to help one perform well under stress. And actually my personal experience (note...my experiences may not generalize) is that I am often juggling a half dozen different thoughts and doing what I need to do when faced with my mortality. I actually love the tachypsychia experience; I wish I could package it in a pill and take it for entertainment. Hey, man, this is some really good s***!! Maybe I'm just one of those adrenaline junkies .

I do have my personal workouts though, and I have more than a few approaches. Sometimes I do kata "on the fly" with street clothes on - just because the moment takes me away. Sometimes I'm preparing for a weight workout and I'm doing it half speed to warm up and get my mind in the right place (weight training is a means to an end for me). Sometimes I turn the lights off and flow as smoothly as possible - just for the feel. When I was a younger lad, I would...well...be a naughty young lad and then go outside at midnight and do kata barefoot in the grass in a different state of mind with the June fireflies surrounding me. Or maybe I would do the same in the sand at Virginia Beach when it was too dark for anyone to see me. Or maybe I would see what it feels like to do a form in a pool with the water level just above my shoulders.

The point is...I rarely find myself doing my forms in a "common" way any more. I figure I've earned the luxury of having fun and seeing where next I can go with something quite familiar.

- Bill

[2Green]

...yes, but have you ever stood in Sanchin and pretended you were about to catch a very large football?

[Shadowhands]

When I am experiencing Kata, I express however I am feeling at the time. Living each moment without attachment to before, or after.

However, this isn't something that should be tried for. Just let it happen.

Shadowhands

[crazycat]

All of the above but I also use kata to clear my mind and become focused.

I hate to start a kata and finish with nothing in between.