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Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put-together form, through stylized movement.
This does not mean to do nothing at all, but only to have no deliberate mind in whatever one does. Do not have a mind that selects or rejects. To be without deliberate mind is to hang no thoughts.
Understanding requires not just a moment of perception, but a continuous awareness, a continuous state of inquiry without conclusion.
Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.
This evening I see something totally new and that newness is experienced by the mind, but tomorrow that experience becomes mechanical if I try to repeat the sensation, the pleasure of it. The description is never real. What is real is seeing the truth instantaneously, because truth has no tomorrow.
We shall find the truth when we examine the problem. The problem is never apart from the answer. The problem is the answer — understanding the problem dissolves the problem.
The mind is originally without activity; the way is always without thought.
There will be calmness, tranquility, when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed. Being tranquil means not having any illusions or delusions of thusness.
To meditate means to realize the imperturbability of one’s original nature. Surely, meditation can never be a process of concentration, because the highest form of thinking is negation. Negation is a state in which there is neither the positive, nor its reaction as the negative. It is a state of complete emptiness.
Concentration is a form of exclusion and where there is exclusion, there is a thinker who excludes. It is the thinker, the excluder, the one who concentrates, who creates contradiction because he forms a center from which there is distraction.
Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.
The physically bound go for puffing and straining and miss the delicate way; the intellectually bound go for idealism and exotics and lack efficiency and actually seeing into realities.
Training is the psychological and physiological conditioning of an individual preparing for intense neural and muscular reaction. It implies discipline of the mind and power and endurance of the body. It means skill. It is all these things working together in harmony.
# Practice your balance by standing on one foot to put your clothes or shoes on — or simply stand on one foot whenever you choose.
# Practice your balance by standing on one foot to put your clothes or shoes on — or simply stand on one foot whenever you choose.
IMPORTANT: To gain the greatest benefit from the warming-up procedure, the exercises should imitate as closely as possible the movements which are to be used in the event.
IMPORTANT: To gain the greatest benefit from the warming-up procedure, the exercises should imitate as closely as possible the movements which are to be used in the event.
A rehearsal of the skill before competition commences fixes in the athlete’s neuromuscular coordinating system the exact nature of the impending task. It also heightens his kinesthetic senses. The rise in body temperature facilitates the biochemical reactions supplying energy for muscular contractions. Elevated body temperature also shortens the periods of muscular relaxation and aids in reducing stiffness.
You are never set or tensed, but ready and flexible.
You are never set or tensed, but ready and flexible.
The position adopted should be the one found to give maximum ease and relaxation, combined with smoothness of movement at all times.
The position adopted should be the one found to give maximum ease and relaxation, combined with smoothness of movement at all times.
Above all, do not lay down restricting rules.
Above all, do not lay down restricting rules.
Like the cobra, you remain coiled in a loose but compact position and your strike should be felt before it is seen.
Like the cobra, you remain coiled in a loose but compact position and your strike should be felt before it is seen.
Coordination is by all means one of the most important considerations in any study of proficiency in sports and athletics. Coordination is the quality which enables the individual to integrate all the powers and capacities of his whole organism into an effective doing of an act.
The outstanding characteristic of the expert athlete is his ease of movement, even during maximal effort.
The outstanding characteristic of the expert athlete is his ease of movement, even during maximal effort.
The outstanding characteristic of the expert athlete is his ease of movement, even during maximal effort. The novice is characterized by his tenseness, wasted motion and excess effort. That rare person, the “natural athlete,” seems to be endowed with the ability to undertake any sport activity, whether he is experienced in it or not, with ease. The ease is his ability to perform with minimal antagonistic tension.
The well-coordinated fighter does everything smoothly and gracefully. He seems to glide in and out of distance with a minimum of effort and a maximum of deception.
Above all, he makes his movements with a purpose, rather than with a doubting hope, because he has confidence in himself.
Muscles have no power to guide themselves, but the manner in which they act, and consequently the effectiveness of our performances, depends absolutely on how the nervous system guides them. Thus, a badly executed move is the result of impulses sent to the wrong muscles by the nervous system, or sent a fraction of a second too soon or too late, or sent in improper sequence or in poorly apportioned intensity.
Well-executed movement means the nervous system has been trained to the point where it sends impulses to certain muscles, causing these muscles to contract at exactly the proper fraction of a second. At the same time, impulses to the antagonistic muscles are shut off, allowing those muscles to relax. Properly coordinated impulses surge with just the exact intensity required and they stop at the exact fraction of a second when they are no longer needed.
Learning coordination is a matter of training the nervous system and not a question of training muscles.
Learning coordination is a matter of training the nervous system and not a question of training muscles.
Training for skill (coordination) is purely a matter of forming proper connections in the nervous system through practice (precision practice).
Each performance of an act strengthens the connections involved and makes the next performance easier, more certain, and more readily done. Likewise, disuse tends to weaken any pathways that have been formed and makes doing of the act more difficult and uncertain (constant exercises). Thus, we can attain skill only by actually doing the thing we are trying to learn.
IMPORTANT: Do not practice finely skilled movements after you are tired, for you will begin to substitute gross motions for finer ones and generalized efforts for specific ones.
IMPORTANT: Do not practice finely skilled movements after you are tired, for you will begin to substitute gross motions for finer ones and generalized efforts for specific ones.
Thus, the athlete practices fine skills only while he is fresh. When he becomes fatigued, he shifts to tasks employing gross movements des...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Thus, the athlete practices fine skills only while he is fresh. When he becomes fatigued, he shifts to tasks employing gross movements des...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Precision of movement means accuracy and generally is used in the sense of exactness in the projection of a force.
These movements should eventually be executed with a minimum amount of strength and exertion, while still achieving the desired result.
The athlete who is building muscles through weight training should be very sure to work adequately on speed and flexibility at the same time. Combined with adequate speed, flexibility and endurance, high levels of strength lead to excellence in most sports.
Most beginning athletes are unwilling to drive themselves hard enough. They should punish themselves and then rest adequately, only to increase the output of effort after the rest. Long hours of work made up of many short, high-speed efforts interspersed with periods of milder activity seem to be the best endurance-training procedure.
Relaxation refers to the degree of tension in the musculature. The rule in sports is to try to have no more tension in the acting muscles than is necessary to perform the act, and to have as low a degree of tension in the antagonistic muscles as possible and still maintain any necessary inhibitory control.
Relaxation in sports depends upon the cultivation of mental poise and emotional control. A relaxed technician expends mental and physical energy constructively, converting it when it does not contribute to the solution of the problem and spending it freely when it does. It does not mean he is lax and moves and thinks slowly. Neither does it mean he is careless or indifferent. The relaxation desired is relaxation of muscles, rather than of mind or attention.
Always train in good form. Learn to move easily and smoothly. Start your workout with shadow boxing to loosen your muscles. At first concentrate on proper form; later, work harder.
Work arranged to permit an easy and natural rhythm is conducive to smooth and automatic performance.
