for warmup, i wrestled with a roku-dan teacher. despite not having sparred in a long time, my body woke up instantly.
as we tumbled and tangled on the mat, i kept thinking: "cute. this is not in the books." our bodies simply responded to each other. an advance followed by a counter. his arm came for my neck. i blocked and pinned his arm with my knee. he turned. i set a trap...
i remembered how much fun (in the midst of much pain) i used to have, before i spent most of my time teaching.
--
one day, maybe my tango will be as effortless and whimsical.
3 comments:
I think tango and judo have some things in common, but I can't quite figure it out." Our bodies responded to each other". I mean, in tango you strive for communion, what about judo ?
i have been thinking about these two disciplines in my life, and depending on my mood, i have a different understanding.
this is what i think, at 1:24pm.
in judo, my every nerve fiber is tuned to sense weakness, so that i can exploit it. a novice is a walking weakness-signal-generator. every movement in every moment is vulnerable. a master will attack you before you or he knows the vulnerability presents itself. his body simply does it. a novice knows the textbook condition-responses. (if you do this, then i will do that.)
in time, we no longer think about what to do. we simply have the singular goal to win. our body just does what it needs to do to attain that goal.
in tango, as you wrote, we strive for communion. the way i understand this is that we cultivate a common "something" between us.
in one case, i exploit a signal that my opponent does not want me to have. in the other, i exploit (although in tango this sounds so harsh) a signal that my partner wants to share with me.
in both cases, i must sense, with all of me, all that which comes from my partner.
in both cases, if i hold a piece of myself back, then i will not receive all of my partner.
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back to, "our bodies responded to each other."
the sparring is also a conversation, in which i say, "take this!" he responds, "not today, Bud!" then he says, "but do you know i have this trick?" and i say, "i saw that a mile away. by the way, while you are worried about my left arm, my right arm has nullified your left side..."
"responded" in this case, means a conversation without words.
Both my children study aikido ( I watch, though I don't practice the art) and I frequently think of how similar the tango and aikido are.
With aikido, the underlying principle is the exchange of energy. Taking the opponent (or partner's) energy and utilizing it to set up and move you through the next exchange.
Like you say, there are conditioned responses, but when you see the senseis spar, it is art and dance. There is the same zone, the same connectedness, and the embrace --though it looks different.
I don't know Judo, but aikido is very similiar.
And most senseis talk about the love they feel for their opponent as well.
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