I could possibly shorten it but in some ways it also reflects what’s going on in our heads; looking at something very narrow, very isolated and without a context expecting it to magically make everything alright with a technique.

Trouble is it won’t, it will just give us something else to focus on.

While I‘ve been training for a few years it’s only just now coming clear the focus on too narrow errors doesn’t help. It sounds obvious when using building a house as an analogy, you can’t paint the house until the walls are up, and the frame needs to up before then, and the foundations before that. So too with a martial art. You need to get some foundations in before the frame.

It’s been described to me as a spiral, the large movements, foundation starting on the outside then gradual refinements slowly tightening everything up. Interestingly everything in our art Aiki Ten Shin Sho Kai is also a spiral, from body turns, to locks, to throws, to strikes.

I know this sounds obvious but when you’re on the mat it isn’t. I still get too focussed on getting the one thing, whatever I think that thing is at the time, right.

I’ll keep coming back to this. It’s something I’m still trying to work out in my head. I know the principle, just not the application. Which is sort of the same thing.

It’s all spirals!