on the line

[darren_stranger]

I had the morning to myself, so it was a good time to get in some more poomsae practice.

The front yard was too sunny by the time i got up, so i decided to head down by the train line to see what shade was there.  I found a really good spot in the shade of some pine trees - fairly flat ground, not too much debris, no ants nests to destroy, and opposite a yard with lots of nice lush trees (just had to ignore the 'graffers lick balls' grafitti on the fence).  With a bit of imagination, i could also pretend that the train line itself was a nice cool stream and that i was practising on the bank.  When a train is coming, i can just go and sit under the tree for a moment, doing a spot of meditation and enjoying the smell of the pine.  A pleasant cool breeze helped too.

I'd decided today i would focus on relaxation, in the 'moving meditation' type of mode, which i haven't done for a while.  Lately i've been concentrating on power, technique and timing, but have been very tense and ended up exhausted before long.  This time i concentrated first and foremost on relaxing, with precision in technique second and above all not Trying Too Hard.  That worked very well - not only was the technique and power sharper, but i was almost never out of breath for the next pattern (despite smoke in the air and a slight hangover) and it was over an hour and a half before i even started to feel tired.  What's more, i enjoyed it better as well.  It was relaxing and pleasant and felt like recreation instead of hard work, even with the sweat dripping off me.

The silly thing is, this isn't the first time i've realised all this.

I obviously just need to learn the same lesson over and over to understand it properly.