The Eye

 The Eye For Detail

   Turning the Eye for detail on myself has been harder that I thought it would be. Prime example was yesterday at our weekly Saturday parking lot open training. Deb, Kody and myself where the only ones there so we really got the chance to scrutinize our forms. These are always productive because what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing can sometimes be dramatically different. It also helps develop an ability to express your thought and questions in a way that bears fruit. So we plodded along, doing our best to help each other to the best of our abilities. Comments here, suggestions there, thoughts shared, gentle nudges when needed, praise when deserved.

   Then, luckily, as if sent by the Eye for Detail itself, Master Hayes floated mystically and silently around the corner on his crazy electric unicycle. We all silently cheered, now we didn't have to muddle our way through this quagmire on our own, we now have a Master guide. And the timing couldn't have been better. 

   We covered so much in such a short time, infinitely more productive than anything we would have ever accomplished alone. Now I can only speak for myself, so I will. My biggest two take aways are hips and grrr. Whatt? Let me explain. 

   Hung has always eluded me. I know the form but I have never "felt" the form, my power has always seemed to be misdirected, mistimed, just missed. Master Hayes took one look and corrected one little detail and POW, there it is. I was loading my strikes from a stationary spot my hip, not flowing with my hip ( seeing it makes more sense that typing it, sorry ). This would have probably eluded for who knows how long as my Eye for Detail was not seeing this one minor but incredibly important detail. Now the form finally feels powerful, snappy if you will. Thank you.

   The second was my Grrrr factor. We where covering a single section of Lau Gar and I noticed a slightly different movement in the way Master Hayes was delivering his Tiger Strikes. A slight variation on what I was doing but still it add "purpose" to the strike. That started the discussion about intent and what happens between strikes, blocks, stance changes, transitions. He was taking a block and reacting with an appropriate counter, with grrr added to make the counter count. I wasn't doing this. I was just moving from block to strike with no "shazzam" between the movements. My Eye for Detain was focused on the form, not the intent of the individual components.  I was completing the form without "seeing" the form. This made me think my Eye for Detail needs glasses. I am totally missing any Grrr factor in my moves. Not that I need to be over the top aggressive but I do need to make each strike/block/transition mean something, cause if it doesn't mean something, why is it there?

   Thank you Master Hayes, you have given me a smorgabord of info to process, time to feast on the offering.

   So much to do in so little time, going to stop typing for now and get practicing, thanks for reading.