We all love a good action movie, and something that has been imposed on us from watching movies is the “polaroid moment”.
Watching boys play, we see this all the time, where they will extend their fist, hold their body in some action position and then let out the war cry.
When we practice Siu Nim Tao, we find ourselves guilty of this all the time. Not quiet as melodramatic of course, but when we slow down our movements and observe the end points of the form, we find we are just as guilty of the “polaroid shot”.
The test of course is, the tuning point from going out to coming back. We observe if there was any change of the muscle groups? Did I feel some muscles let go and others engage?
There can be this little push right at the end of a movement. It is this push that tells us our mind has pre visualized a final destination of our movement, and thats a problem.
A real defense situation is fluid, there is no predicting what is going to happen. The second our fist moves towards a target, it will be influenced by so many different dynamic forces, that it is guaranteed not to end where one first thought it might end.
In any movement there is only presence, there is no predictive quality to what we want to achieve. Our only goal is to be present, to think of a straight line up the back and centre line ,to have all our thought focused on this and entertaining ourselves with observation. Not attaching to, or judging any of it.
For example with Pivoting. Instead of picturing where I’m going to finish the pivot, I think up the spine and triangulate to the centerline . This is my final destination, its just that I’m pivoting . At any point I can stop or be stopped and the Nimtao should still be on.
If one has the thought of up the spine, centre line and full body awareness, then with the idea of intent there is no picturing of shapes ending at a point. Its just the intent to shutdown the opponent. Everything will end on centerline, it dosent matter where on centerline and that is the “Final Destination”.
– Keven Tate, Senior Student at Mindful Wing Chun, Hong Kong