Making your karate like a kid is something to pursue. Not every attributive of being a kid but a specific item.

While working with a student the other night the topic of rigidity raised its head once again. I inherited a brown belt from another school. She trains in the same style but a different expression, a different organization. We stopped in the middle of the flow drill and proclaimed, “I’m pretty stiff, ridged.” It wasn’t an observation of the moment but a declaration of herself who she is. I rejected that proclamation. Not in a harsh manner, but in an observational way. “No, you learned to be ridged, you weren’t born ridged.” Let’s try making your karate like a kid.

The drill is a flow drill. There are many versions of a flow drill, but the two categories are free to flow and prescribed flow. We were working a free flow. Free flow is extemporaneous and creative. The prescribed flow is a structured pattern of flow.

Flowing with smoothness has an advantage. Smooth and flow is a combination of these two items. This combination makes it harder for a person to see what you are doing it. Flow helps avoid giving your opponent data points. Think of it as looking at a graph in a presentation. We are always looking for the high, the low, the significant. The data point is usually the highest item on the graph or the lowest. Trends of course are observed. But trends are secondary we want to see the unusual, the peaks and valleys.

When doing this drill, and you know this, but let’s underscore it. Slow down, move smoothly, take your time. It’s practice.

There are a couple of tips, suggestions on how you might apply this idea. The goal is to be more productive in learning. You can find those tips in the podcast. Some of the ideas, again, you may already know. Then there are a couple of nuggets that once employed are going to speed up the learning.

Slow down, be smooth like a child at play, drop the adherence to rigidity. And as a disclaimer, this is not an all or nothing edict. It is a refocusing of attention to balance your training. To gain skill, and be well-rounded as you are on the path of karate and martial arts in general.

Here are a few podcast you will find interesting

• Karate Instruction an Exquisite
• Why Do Some People Move You?
• Little Value to a Black Belt

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KRIS WILDER

Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Eastern Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.

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