Finishing a Technique

    Back on Tuesday, during the black belt class, I had an interesting experience with the technique we were learning. To describe it simply, it was an ear clap intended to target the opponents eardrum. The thing I found interesting about the technique was the method of the application of force, having your hand rise near the ear and generating the force required with the rest of the body. We ended up testing the technique on each other's shoulders rather than ears so we could practice the application of force, and I was finding the application to be difficult. Most of the feedback that I got when trying to clarify what the specifics of the technique were could be boiled down to "Well, you know, it's kind of like a uh..." followed by a few thorough slaps to my upper arm that would serve as a demonstration. Don't get me wrong, the visual demonstrations were helping a bit, but I definitely still felt like I was missing something. It wasn't until Don, my partner at the time, told me that my strikes felt like I was pushing him rather than striking him. Hey Cortana we talked about it for a bit, trading blows here and there, and we arrived at the conclusion that I wasn't finishing my techniques properly.  Looking back at the application, the striking hand would launch itself towards its target and almost relaxed at the point of impact. Comparing this to my application at the time, almost before the point of impact my entire hand, arm, and body would become as stiff as a board, bracing for impact and flexing all the muscles possible for any ounce of strength (which, given the distance traveled in the scenario, is not a lot) and driving through my opponent. With this scenario in mind, instead of cupping my hand over the ear and attacking the eardrum as intended, my application would have resulted in being slower and probably would have ended up just shoving the guy in the side of the head. We finished the lesson before I could confidently implement this newfound knowledge, but I do think I have a better understanding of what " finishing a technique" is because of it and how I should be approaching my training in the future.


P.S. My file for my recorded numbers got corrupted when switching to a new computer recently, so I'm just going to type them out.

P.P.S. I suck at writing these down, and I frankly have no idea how many of these I've done since the last blog post (peak black belt behavior I know) so most of this is just what was on the last post plus whatever I can remember from the past day or so

P.P.P.S. I want to try and implement the feedback from the comments of my last blog, so I'm Going to try and augment one of my personal requirements. My goal is to now keep the amount of time spent for gaming (minutes) equal to my count of push-ups or sit-ups (whichever one is lower). I think a great way to dictate when I should stop playing is when my arms stop working.

Push-ups: 830
Sit-ups: 730
Fan Form: 3
DMS 1 & 2: 5
Kilometers: 904.56
Sparring: 0
Acts of Kindness: 126
Video Game to "ups" ratio: 5237-730
Roundhouse kicks right: 10
Roundhouse kicks left: 10
Front thrust kick right: 10
Front thrust kick left: 10
Side heel kick right: 16
Side heel kick left: 10
Spinning back kick right: 10
Spinning back kick left: 19
New Job: Not Yet

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