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The Alexander Technique and Martial Arts
Traditional Tai Chi is based on certain practical principles
about which there can be no disagreement. A person undertakes
an action or movement, without excessive tension, but
merely demonstrating (in Alexander Technique terms)
the intention or ‘direction’ of the action,
with no force or direct voluntary muscular contraction
involved.
The fundamental difference between the two techniques
lie in the fact that in the Alexander Technique it is
not movements or exercises as such that are the main
concern, but the neuromuscular patterns that underlie
all our movements and intentions. A typical session
of Alexander Technique reeducation will examine the
simple movements and actions performed daily in ordinary
situations; from them the teacher will move on to study
how the pupils performs more individual movements, such
as those of Tai Chi or other martial arts. As has been
said, it is not the movements in themselves with which
the Alexander Technique is primarily concerned but rather,
by examining those movements, to help the pupil to focus
attention on his habitual posture and manner of movement
and to discover the nature of any constraint on the
fluidity of his reactions and coordination.
This observation of self in the performance of an action
makes it possible to choose ways of moving that are
physiologically more correct, free from habitual interferences.
We thereby become able to incorporate a better body-mind
coordination, an improved “use of self”
in what we do and, by retaining this state of “self-consciousness”,
can broaden our field of awareness to enable us to be
both inward- and outward-looking while performing a
given movement.
The same is true in the martial arts where the movements
are directed towards a real adversary, such as karate,
even if the blows are not actually delivered and the
life of the fighter is not at risk. The improved “use
of self” by internal directions will make the
individual progressively more able to inhibit habitual
patterns of “misuse”, thereby avoiding identical
repetitions of unsatisfactory movements, by associating
the correct movement with a better overall relationship
between the various parts of the body. The key to this
interaction just described is maintaining an optimal
dynamic relationship between the neck and the head,
and with the back and the rest of the body, which will
serve as a “framework” for correct movement
by creating a functional expansion of the body.
The Alexander Technique is effective in ways other
than the obvious one of improving the quality of movement,
and it can bring about long-lasting, far-reaching and
subtle changes which will have repercussions on the
more general attitude of the pupil in relation to his
art and to life.
It is difficult without experience to imagine how changes
in one’s “manner of use” can have
a really positive impact on techniques as refined as
those of the martial arts. However, it should not be
surprising because the borderline between a strong and
stable physical, emotional and mental state and an inconstant
and weak state is very tenuous. So tenuous and subtle
that we do not even detect the difference of excessive
tension which forms in the neck and forces the head
down into the spine when we do something, even though
this tension may make us less precise, feel less comfortable
or even may cause us pain, leaving us, in other words,
less aware and more vulnerable.
And yet, awareness of this difference in tension is
all important for the control of a movement and the
way it is to be initiated. If the preparation is imperfect
or if at the key moment of action we merely reproduce
acquired habits, the rest or further part of the movement
has little chance of being executed to the best of our
potential and with maximum economy of energy. It is
from this first upward movement, when compression on
the spine is released, that the rest of the movement
and the correct involvement of the entire body is determined.
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