This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to the Martial Arts, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to do a martial arts form with ease, power, poise, and released joints.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
Primary Control is the basis of an organized, coordinated, powerful, and reflexive martial arts form in the Alexander Technique. A reflexive movement, is a movement done as quickly as possible from the reflexes. When a martial arts expert is moving with the most organized posture and movements possible, then the head is leading the expert’s spine upward, even as the martial arts expert is doing moves that require incredible poise and balance.
All of this is done with a decompressed, vertically balanced, and aligned spine.
This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you do a martial arts form, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.
The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension, compression, and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF A MARTIAL ARTS EXPERT’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.
The Alexander Technique recognizes that any wear and tear and physical pain to the martial arts practitioner is caused by how you MOVE, not by the difficulty of the kick etc., how quickly you move, and/or how much time you spend in practice or competition.
The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.
If you were to observe a 1,000 martial arts experts, you’d be hard put to see one expert moving with beautiful true Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). True Primary Control is the flow of the head upward, an upward vector. A vector is a direction, not an immobilized place to be. What does doing a martial arts form without a compromised Primary Control look like?
The martial arts expert moves fully upright with free knees with a completely mobile body (not trying to stand straight). The expert’s neck is free and the expert is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward, which means that the martial arts expert is able to see the room and the opponent and continue to lead a lengthening spine upward with the head.
This means that the martial arts expert is completely engaged in the form and competition without hunkering down. This fully upward lengthening mobile posture balancing on free legs and bending knees on grounded feet, gives the expert a balanced torso, so that the martial arts expert can effortlessly move the arms, the torso, and the legs, as he or she flows quickly and reflexively through the movements.
When the martial arts expert’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the expert is free to place all of his or her awareness on a martial arts technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the expert’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific martial arts technique of the expert can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.
WHEN THE FOUNDATION OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED, THEN THE SECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF A SPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKE A MARTIAL ARTS FORM, WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESS OR AS ACCURATE AS IT COULD BE.
