Monday, August 10, 2009

Tight is Right

I wanted to write a bit more as a follow up to the previous post on precision.
It should almost go without saying that being precise in Kali is about keeping tight.
Lately we have been working Ubud, a flowing drill done with hands and sticks.
It is a drill done to develop responsiveness and perpheral-vision response in very short distance (Corto). Sometimes I see students waving their arms like a windmill, or swinging their sticks like they were trying to help an aircraft land on deck. It goes without saying that this is not the desired result.

Not just in corto, but at all times, it is important to keep hands and sticks tight, rather than swing them all around in big, wide circles. Less is more. At any time, we need to be able to recover the center line, recover balance, and remain in contact with the opponent. This is not efficiently done if the arms swing wide.

Try not only to be precise but to keep the motions short and sharp, tight to the body.
This will help you look better and fight better.

Tight is Right.

No comments: