Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Facing the Wall

In karate class today, we worked on a whole bunch of different stuff. Quick memorization of moves and patterns, agility ladder drills, kicking and punching the wall (accuracy!), perfecting kata, and more. After every completed exercise, we each had to return to the same spot and stare at the wall until everyone was done.

What's harder, performing the drills, or standing absolutely still and facing the wall?

How many times in a long race do we figuratively have a wall to face? How many times is it just us and the contents of our mind, trying to still the chatter and perform our best? How deep can you go when you need to?

There were times today when I had to snap myself back to attention when the sensei gave us our next drill. You can get pretty deep in concentration when there's just you and a wall. Try it sometime!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

that sounds like a pretty soild focusing technique..wow

Miles of the Journey said...

How deep can you go when you need to?

The ultimate question.

George Sheehan wrote about going through a series of physical ability tests with people who did other sports. He didn't do well at anything in comparison to the other folks until it came to the "hang" test. In essence, how long can you face down the pain and fatigue and just hang by your arms. This was the one skill at which he was clearly superior.

How deep can you go when you need to?

good post