‘Feet to Core to Four led by the Head travelling on the Breath.’ - Part 5

I ended my previous blog with the line:

‘The aim is to use our body, through the core, to drive the limbs out rather than pushing them out.’

And with a promise to identify and explain the second reason why we emphasise using the back, along with our footwork, to drive movement.

Before I get on to the second reason, I just want to say that, ultimately, awareness of the back of our body needs to extend from our heels to our brain stem and above. Initially, though, we begin with feet to core.

Now, here’s the second reason:

2. On the psychological level, focussing our awareness on the back of our body reinforces the power of the pattern interrupt that I mentioned last time. Shifting our attention and sense of self away from our conscious mind and into our core can create a positive release from our usual internal chatter; shifting it into the back of the lower triangle magnifies that.

Too many of us, too often, go through our daily lives living in the front, starting with our face and chest.

We are more aware of our hands than our feet, of our eyes than our ears, of our stomach than our spine; we let the conscious mind convince us that it holds all the power, when in fact it’s the silent subconscious that runs most of the show most the time. We say that one of the reasons we train is to increase our sensitivity and awareness, and yet we ignore some parts of our own body – unless they send very obvious signals – and over-emphasise others.

Deliberately shifting our awareness into the back of our bodies is one significant way we can begin to redress this imbalance.

It also makes sense when engaging in combative practice to feel that we are living in the back, rather than in the front. It can help us be in the thick of the action whilst feeling distanced at the same time. Done well, this increases our commitment, awareness and reaction time and makes us less likely to notice the odd knock until the activity has finished.

Next time I’ll introduce the four and explain how and why they come next.