VLOG: TDD #1 Push Test Examples

VLOG: TDD #1 Push Test Examples

Following a good suggestion, I am presenting some very basic push tests relating to TDD #1.  Here are some key points to keep in mind:

1. Present your “weak line.”  If you start with your “strong line” you will be emboldened to resist which is the very opposite of what is being trained.
2.  Don’t resist.   Don’t push back against the push.  Don’t resist the push.  Don’t brace to hold the push.  If you do things correctly, you won’t even feel the push other than the awareness that you are being touched.
3. Don’t “run away” from the push either.  Don’t “blend” with the push.  Don’t avoid the push.   All these are just as big of a mistake as resisting the push.
4. Be patient.  Start slow and light.  Try not to be discouraged by “failure.”  Think!  Think and try and (more than likely fail), and think and try again.
5. NOBODY has the magic words or model to make this work for you other than YOU!  Go ahead and study other’s words and models and train and train and train until you can do.  Then, when you can do, you can try to describe or model your experience in a way that works for you.  More than likely you will find yourself using similar words and models to what you heard, read, and didn’t understand.  That is part of the price of admission.
6. Keep it real.  What works in your laboratory (dojo, gym, etc.) should work, MUST work outside of your laboratory.  Don’t be in a big hurry to test outside, wait until you are reasonably certain that you will have some success.  “Some” is enough, and some failure is good too, if it informs your personal practice.
7. I cannot honestly recommend trying to integrate this into your practice immediately.  For the same reason that doing resistance training is counterproductive while working on this (It is nigh impossible to learn non-resistance while practicing resistance.), trying to integrate this into your preexisting training is usually counterproductive.  Why?  Because, for however long one has been training their preexistent training, they likely have been training using resistance.  Aikido and Daito Ryu practitioners often have the hardest time since most train avoidance and then resistance, rather than the non-resistance of true Aiki.
8. Be humble enough to face the real results of your training.  Be proud enough to never give up until you reach your goal.

I suggest doing large full movements at first.  Over time one discovers that the size of the movement isn’t required to achieve the same results.  However, starting with large movements makes success easier to attain at first and it also builds strength (in a desirable way) coupled with greater joint mobility.

Next up is TDD #4-6.  Or, push tests relating to TDD # 2 & 3.  Or, an answer to a recently posed question about Kokyu Ryoku.

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