we shall sell no wine before it's time....

Well certainly Mr Wells! In the meantime, have a glass or two... Anyhow, there's been a lot of proclaimations re: basics and what basics mean, why they're so important... foundational work, baseline, and "advanced" material i.e. complexity being piggy backed onto material that ought to be kept clean, sparse.... Coach Barakov always schooled us on movement principles, especially breakfalls/ukemi and standing posture/softness/footwork/positioning. Great to have that awesome takedown or KO punch or submission or knife stab, but if you don't have even the basic ability to deliver the goods then what use is it? If you can't be in the right place@the right time or not in the "right" place at the right time then not much good that little technique you've drilled will do you.... "Moving teaches you how to move." I remember Coach telling us this and frequently he would challenge us to move constantly, deliberately, softly and stay ahead of our conscious thought/analysis; which doesn't mean move fast necessarily, just move while unencumbered by our thought process. I recall him saying, "Breathing, not thinking. As soon as your movement stops, your breathing stops, then its like death." Also, expose ourselves to errors and understand why they were errors. I always revisit the early material, it's kind of humbling in seeing how much there is to be gleaned in those simple drills.... With those good times in mind, we've been working some very simple pummel, step&uchikomi, repummel, step&uchikomi drills and it's funny how much more difficult it is to acquire than just standing in one place and going thru the rote activity of loading up uke and throwing him. The hardest thing is to get people to look to the horizon, distant mountain gaze and not down at their feet. The eyes set intent and posture. Good posture is superior for structure, breathing, leverage etc etc. I go crazy seeing people being taught-so fixatedly-a technique in absence of the most essential principles. There is so much wrong with that video that I can hardly begin to discuss it suffice to say, sometimes it's really helpful to see something done totally wrong because it can highlight what should be done.

"Indulge me Mr Dekkard, I want to see a negative before I provide you with a positive!" Details can be right or wrong and the throw....even how you grip is far less important than the rougher, global movement. But we're smart with our hands so that's what we look at and that can too easily fool us and make us think we understand what we see therefore can replicate it. This is just an error and it has grown so widely thanks in part to the abundance of information out there at our fingertips, as opposed to available to our bodies, follow? Techniques learned on top of techniques will create a mish-mash that only can be overcome by a huge volume of training; assuming you don't get injured or just bored because you still "somehow" suck. Whereas, principles properly taught/absorbed/learned will open the circuit for techniques to be added correctly. You will find yourself saying "that doesn't feel right" because you've created a feedback loop. You'll have gone from lagging indicators: "that hurt, I fell over, I can't make this work, where do I grab?" to leading indicators: Position, movement cues, recognizing faults before you've committed to them It becomes more&more obvious with time and attention. ........ Not a drill we'd necessarily do but the power of Xingyi is that it has a simple, brutal efficiency to it and the solo training is some of the coolest shit I've ever seen. There's a story of a Xingyi student who would do his walking patterns all the way to/from his visits to train with his teacher. Over time, he'd created a gutter in the dirt path where he walked/stepped/stomped. Watch this badass and especially at :20 in where he's doing that clearing arms motion and then contemplate doing Osoto-gari with those motions, ignoring all that crap about what you would/wouldn't do in a cage,against your complinat partner. If you think it thru you'll realize why we start so slowly and softly in our classes, eh? I'm quite serious, we could apply all the principles right away, skip the slow drills, ukemi, posture/conditioning work and go for it but without the proper baseline preparation I believe we'd end up with separated ribs, sloppy technique and though the class turnout would be initially higher cause it'd be more aggro-cool, the dropout rate and idiot factor would be very high. The setup is everything and is so very important.. ...which gets back to the point of the Orson Wells outtakes: Orson, get the commercial done with then drink all you want not the other way round. Don't get ahead of yourself! Compare and ruminate: