Listen to Your Body When It Speaks

Techniques must be done with appropriate attention to body alignments of the skeletal system with support from muscles, tendons, cartilage, etc.  If I were also to say that we must "listen" to our bodies what would you say?

Part of our awareness is internalized, i.e. we should develop a sense of what goes on in our bodies. The body is the first line of defense against the things that can cause the body to sicken or be injured, etc. Listening to what is going on especially when performing karate techniques can assist us in performing and applying them.

We should sense and feel what our bodies are doing, where they are moving and the postures we assume when practicing and training so that our bodies will do what they are supposed to do in a fight with maximum efficiency or at least as maximum and as efficient as humanly possible in a fight.

At a seminar it was witnessed that the person conducting the session was "icing" his elbow after each group session. It spurred that person who was observing/attending to watch that limb closely during the session. It was discovered that the straight punch being performed was allowing the elbow to canter outward slightly as the  strike moved toward the target. The demonstrator was not over extending the limb but due to the slight canter of the application the elbow was injuring or injured.

If I were to feel that kind of discomfort in any limb performing, practicing or training I would immediately take notice as this is the body setting off an alarm informing me that my arm is doing something a bit out of kilter. The alignment of the elbow as it shoots out toward the target, the straight punch in this instance, was not following body alignment, etc.

Hm, not the best example yet I hope you get the drift, listen to what your body has to say to you. Be aware of every single thing is does with emphasis on discomfort. Not the kind you get from exertion but the kind that causes pain or the start of pain. Discomfort is something we deal with getting out of bed and living life, it happens. It should be a temporary thing this discomfort but pain, that is the bodies warning system.

Listen, both for health and well being, fitness, etc. but also as your teacher for your body will let you know when your doing something wrong.