This is an "oldie" that recently worked very well in helping a student to move much better.
While doing contact flow, think about nothing except the feelings in the bottoms of your feet. Really concentrate on every detail you feel in the bottoms of your feet as you move. Feel exactly where your weight is. Feel how your feet deform, expand and contract as they bear more or less weight. Your whole conscious world becomes the bottoms of your feet. Don't try to plan or actively affect the feeling of your feet, just observe very precisely.
This helps on two levels:
On a minor level, it should remind you to move more from your feet pushing against the ground, rather than from anywhere else in your body (see previous blog posts and the second edition of the book "Attack Proof" for more on this). Because you're concentrating exclusively on feeling the bottoms of your feet, you quickly become aware of "lack of change" if you're not moving from your feet pressing against the ground. This awareness in itself is obviously a good thing.
The major benefit, however, is that by focusing the conscious mind on the bottoms of your feet, you free the rest of your body from conscious interference with your sensitivity and movement. This allows your subconscious sensitivity to guide your motion and realize more of its full ability, free from the "chattering monkey" and judgement of the conscious mind that often screws things up.
The biggest problem for many experienced students of Guided Chaos is the inability to silence the conscious mind and realize truly subconsciously driven, fully adaptive in-the-moment movement during training. Al frequently implores me to "trust my sensitivity" rather than allow conscious thoughts to interfere. Tim frequently pointed out when my maladaptive movement resulted from a "thought process" rather than arising spontaneously from the true situation. Over the years, John has tried many different strategies with many different students in an effort to silence, trick or distract the students' conscious minds in order to facilitate deeper learning and increased ability.
Now, obviously the "think of your feet" trick is merely a crutch to help you get closer to the goal of truly thought-free, spontaneously adaptive movement in training, similar to Upaya ("expedient means") in Mahayana Buddhism, if you're into that. You may concentrate so exclusively on your feet that at first you're virtually unaware of everything else that's going on during contact flow, and you may need your training partner's feedback after the session to understand your progress. Of course, the actual goal in this case is prolonged total conscious detachment from movement while remaining fully aware of and receptive to everything, facilitating maximum subconscious learning and expression.
Give it a try, it might help! And if it doesn't, then try something else. ;)
While doing contact flow, think about nothing except the feelings in the bottoms of your feet. Really concentrate on every detail you feel in the bottoms of your feet as you move. Feel exactly where your weight is. Feel how your feet deform, expand and contract as they bear more or less weight. Your whole conscious world becomes the bottoms of your feet. Don't try to plan or actively affect the feeling of your feet, just observe very precisely.
This helps on two levels:
On a minor level, it should remind you to move more from your feet pushing against the ground, rather than from anywhere else in your body (see previous blog posts and the second edition of the book "Attack Proof" for more on this). Because you're concentrating exclusively on feeling the bottoms of your feet, you quickly become aware of "lack of change" if you're not moving from your feet pressing against the ground. This awareness in itself is obviously a good thing.
The major benefit, however, is that by focusing the conscious mind on the bottoms of your feet, you free the rest of your body from conscious interference with your sensitivity and movement. This allows your subconscious sensitivity to guide your motion and realize more of its full ability, free from the "chattering monkey" and judgement of the conscious mind that often screws things up.
The biggest problem for many experienced students of Guided Chaos is the inability to silence the conscious mind and realize truly subconsciously driven, fully adaptive in-the-moment movement during training. Al frequently implores me to "trust my sensitivity" rather than allow conscious thoughts to interfere. Tim frequently pointed out when my maladaptive movement resulted from a "thought process" rather than arising spontaneously from the true situation. Over the years, John has tried many different strategies with many different students in an effort to silence, trick or distract the students' conscious minds in order to facilitate deeper learning and increased ability.
Now, obviously the "think of your feet" trick is merely a crutch to help you get closer to the goal of truly thought-free, spontaneously adaptive movement in training, similar to Upaya ("expedient means") in Mahayana Buddhism, if you're into that. You may concentrate so exclusively on your feet that at first you're virtually unaware of everything else that's going on during contact flow, and you may need your training partner's feedback after the session to understand your progress. Of course, the actual goal in this case is prolonged total conscious detachment from movement while remaining fully aware of and receptive to everything, facilitating maximum subconscious learning and expression.
Give it a try, it might help! And if it doesn't, then try something else. ;)
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