So since my elbow was out of commission yesterday, I decided to show up to class anyway and take notes. Well, normally I show up to class anyway, but usually I just tie down whatever is hurting and don't use it. But I wanted to be safe, since elbows are pretty important haha.
I learned a lot by sitting on the sidelines and watching. In fact, probably more than if I rolled with someone, even though I'm not getting the practice in that I need, but still. It was quite informative, particularly watching my instructor Alex. Alex was barely moving, it looked so easy for him, and he was light and gentle and smooth...but his opponents were usually thrashing around, doing all of their movements very violently and explosively, but they all just seemed to get shut down, or none of them worked. It was pretty remarkable watching that; it was just like the Kung Fu legends that I'd heard about my entire life, and reassuring to know that they were real. Imagine what I could be if I trained as hard and as long as Alex did.
Anyway, one thing I noticed about Alex was how he maneuvered his hips. Alex did say "every move starts and ends with the hips," But watching it in action was even more incredible. When he was passing, he attacked with this hips very much, using its weight to smash the defenses of the other person. When he was defending, he kept his opponent's hips as far away from his as he could. Until he decided to sweep. It was amazing to watch.
Also, Alex said something along the lines of Jiu-Jitsu being a contradiction. "If you want to be heavy, you must first learn how to be light. If you want to learn how to submit, you must first learn how to defend, escape, control, and stuff like that. It all contradicts. If you want to learn to be fast, you go slow. Find the strength in the weaknesses, and the weaknesses in the strengths." Very in alignment with Yin-Yang philosophy. Interesting, I'll have to think about that.
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