Grounding In Real Life
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Grounding and energy generation-the basis of so many combat and meditative arts in real life, and referred to directly or indirectly in a multitude of fictional magic and fighting systems. In the latter, it’s often described as rooting, or as drawing from the earth, or in other non- ( Read more... )
Grounding and energy generation-the basis of so many combat and meditative arts in real life, and referred to directly or indirectly in a multitude of fictional magic and fighting systems. In the latter, it’s often described as rooting, or as drawing from the earth, or in other non- ( Read more... )
And while feel works for people who have the right level of fitness and the right muscle development, it won't work for everybody. It used to be (and I've had my share of it) that the way to teach riders to sit the trot was to keep them trotting until they grasped the rhythm and sank into it.
This was instruction that worked perfectly well with young male army recruits, who were fit, relatively fearless, and in possession of both endurance and a high muscle tone.
For middle-aged women and couch potatoes of any age or sex - which most of us are - this is toxic. Your fit young man will relax the too-tense muscles and grow into the movement. Your woman with too low a muscle tone for the job will get tired and do worse, and often get fearful and/or overly tense in the process. Failure discourages them. (For army recruits, quitting was not an option. For people who give up their own time and money, stopping something thats not fun/dangerous/stressful is sensible.) They can learn the task just as well and usually in a similar timeframe - but they need to be picked up where they are and taught very differently.
So any time a well-toned male instructor tells me something that 'will work for everybody, if they only try hard enough' I become cynical.
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Yes, I can totally see what you're saying. The similarities are huge--not only in the learning process, but in the teaching as well.
It ties in a bit, too, to the notion that folks who are "naturals" at it--at just about any task, really--are not automatically the best teachers for a diverse student base.
Good teachers break things down in order to reach many students. Folks who had a tougher time learning had to do that break-down as part of their own learning process, so come out the other side with a cognitive understanding that can be passed along. Folks who are naturals can still, of course, be fabulous teachers, but often must first reverse engineer their own learning process.
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