First of all….hello to all the EDS staff and students!!! Hope everything is going well for you.
I don’t really post on the blog much, but every now and then I witness something that excites me enough that I want to share. For months I’ve been teaching Carrenza (a weapons based drill) to the beginner students. And often, I’ve told them that it is more than just a great workout, it can be mental and even spiritual as well as physical.
Tonight in the open mat, I started the class out with some carrenza to some light music and made some small suggestions that I believe would help. As we began moving around asked everybody to slow down and “feel” what they are doing, increase the mechanic and so forth. For the first time in a long time, I saw literally a night/day difference. All the students were moving, flowing, and just being smooth with everything. As I called some changes and watched….I noticed that the behavior was changing. The students were forgetting about everything around them, no problems, no work, no thoughts of anything. Truely an “empty cup” as Bruce Lee called it. As they continued moving, I noticed that they were moving in ways that they never have. It seemed that they actually felt what they were doing, and by doing so their Carrenza was truely graceful and amazing to watch. I then quickly realized, these guys “owned the moment.” It was theirs, nothing was going to take that away. No more thinking….angle 1 then angle 3 or whatever. Just move. It was awesome.
I guess this was exciting to me because I truly care that our students are really progressing (as all our staff does) and seeing what I saw tonight was kind of like watching your own kids take their first step.
So to all of you that were with me tonight…I commend you on your progress. Nice work. And for those of you who weren’t, shame on you!!! Just kidding. Keep training hard, listen to your instructors, self evaluate, and the results will be there.
God Bless,
Sifu Nik
Nik, wonderful words! I’m sad that I missed last nights session. through these weeks that you’ve been working with carrenza, I too have been noticing great changes in everyones and even in my own. It seems that everyone is beginning to understand what carrenza truly is, that it is not a state of mind, instead it’s a state of body and emotion. I know for me personally it is more then a drill. Carrenza is like morning and bed time self purification and communication.
Out of it all, I must give it up to the students, it’s them putting in the real hard work. Carrenza isn’t a simple drill! Congrats to all on your awesome progress and keep shooting for the stars!