Concentration

[Midnight]

Being involved in not only Wing Chun, but Tai Chi, meditation and weapons training. Was curious if anyone practices any of the above to music?

I tend to throw on a little mellow/dark acid jazz or drum 'n bass when I workout. I find I flow with the music, especially when practicing with my nunchuks.

[Phenix]

Originally posted by Midnight
Being involved in not only Wing Chun, but Tai Chi, meditation and weapons training. Was curious if anyone practices any of the above to music?




I practice with music called silence......
And it is not about concentration, but about awareness and effortless alertness to transcent.......


Zen right? hehehehehehe

[yuanfen]

In stillness there is motion.

[Midnight]

Originally posted by Phenix



I practice with music called silence......
And it is not about concentration, but about awareness and effortless alertness to transcent.......




Yea thats what I said :P hehe...

True enough tho, now that I really think back. The music wasn't there to help me concentrate, but rather ensure there was nothing happening around me to concentrate on other than what I was doing.

How's that for zen? ;)

[Gangsterfist]

I listen to just about every kind of music. I found that when doing form work I like classical or hip hop. Godspeed is a great band to listen to when doing my taiji and wing chun forms.

When I work out I will listen to metal and rock, but I don't find them that good when doing form work.

However, music can definately be spiritual and definately can have a purpose with MA. Basically music is one of the few things you can blend to almost any situation.

[anerlich]

Shameless free plug:

http://www.wingchunkuen.com/why/columns/nerlich/mirror04_music.html

[Ultimatewingchun]

Andrew:

Wow!...Read your article about training to music - somebody should do a thread someday about martial arts people and their seeming addiction to music as a fight-along training tool - I've been doing it for years myself...

Have many favorites...but here's a few of the top ones: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" - Remember Kubrick's movie...2001, A Space Odyssey?...and the last three minutes (no singing going on - just the band playing) of Santana's "Dance, Sister Dance"...

[anerlich]

and the last three minutes (no singing going on - just the band playing) of Santana's "Dance, Sister Dance"...

Wow, memory lane ... I think I still have that album on vinyl somewhere ...

[anerlich]

I've been listening to classical a lot lately, Bach, Vaughan Williams, etc. , though NOT for training, more for reading, studying and chilling.

I have two Siamese kittens, about 9 months, who run around, play and wrestle like maniacs all day ... the classical music is the only thing that calms them down ... must be something good there I guess.

In the car I'm listening to one of Oz's best hard rock bands, Grinspoon.

[PaulH]

If I have to listen to music while training, I like natural sound music for a deeper relaxation. Something like you are alone lying on a boat listening to the creaking and groaning of the sailmast under the wind. The roaring waves gently rock against your drifting boat in soothing rhythms. All is calm and quiet save for the occasional seagull cries that break the deep silence of the vast ocean. Listening to your own breaths - how they come and go together in beats with the moving water. Ah, what a joy!

Regards,
PH

[Phenix]

Originally posted by PaulH
If I have to listen to music while training, I like natural sound music for a deeper relaxation. Something like you are alone lying on a boat listening to the creaking and groaning of the sailmast under the wind. The roaring waves gently break against your drifting boat in soothing rhythms. All is calm and quiet save for the occasion seagull cries that break the deep silence of the vast ocean. Listening to your own breaths - how they come and go together in beats of the moving water. Ah, what a joy!

Regards,
PH


Listerning to Jigglypuff is Zen! :D

[Simon]

on the topic of concentration - does anyone consciously train with one of their goals as better (longer) concentration (to observe and react for the length of an encounter)?

[Phenix]

Originally posted by Simon
on the topic of concentration - does anyone consciously train with one of their goals as better (longer) concentration (to observe and react for the length of an encounter)?


One live in NOW or this Instant, thus what is longer? :D
If one try to hold the concentration to be longer.... that will create a dull mind. Try it and see for yourself if I might be wrong. :D

The reason one using music background is it contribute to a more lively awareness. But then it might carry one away to a dream state too. Always pro and con. :D


jiglypuff. JIgglipuff..... sleep .. sleep....

There are awareness, focusness, alertness, stablility-ness.... which is concentration? :D

[Simon]

i spose i mean staying in the present! :)

easier said than done. hopefully it will come with training because I'm drifting off all the time :D

[PaulH]

Hendrik,

That explains why I keep falling asleep while trying to read some of your undying posts! Ha! Ha! On a more serious note, I never quite understand the connection between these long sleepy post practices and the ability to see people move as though in slow motion? What gives them away?

Regards,
PH

[Midnight]

Originally posted by PaulH

On a more serious note, I never quite understand the connection between these long sleepy post practices and the ability to see people move as though in slow motion? What gives them away?


Unsure if I understand exactly what you are trying to ask here. But I can share an experience I had one day.

While still in high school I used to work nightshift at burger king. My good friend was my manager, so when it was really slow we goof off, crack jokes. Well I was on my break and was sitting in the seats near the front counter. He was standing at the counter getting the daily tally. While I was sitting there reading the newspaper, I had this sudden feeling to look in his direction. Well the moment I did, I noticed something coming towards my head. It was a little creamer package!
Instantly I reacted, no thought involved. I began to pull my head back, without removing my eyes from creamer hurled at me. As it passed right infront of my eyes, I could see it. It was spinning both on a veritcal axis and a horizontal axis. No more than a second of two later, reality kicked back in, and the creamer exploded on the wall beside me. Immediately my friend asked how I did it, and picked up another creamer. After a couple curses he put it down :) but I still don't know HOW I did it. I just did it.

The best way to describe the feeling, was to relate it to a scene in the matrix movies, where the reactions of the actors go into a slow mode. I get things like this that happen from time to time. Tho nothing that has stuck out in my mind like what happened that day, I'll never forget it.

[PaulH]

That's what I mean, Midnight. Thank for that delightful story. Most people I know of train in super fast situations so that when the real thing happens, it seems slow to them. It seems there might be another way by the practice of post standing. I was hoping Hendrik may know something about it if I can manage to wake him up. Ha! Ha!

[Midnight]

Well I can't say I've ever done any form of training that would have helped me in the situation. I was just very relaxed, and at peace reading my newspaper.

I've done my best to explain it. And all I can say that it might be the cause of, is an irritation in my personal aura. I've always been able to manipulate my personal energy, molding it to what I wanted if I concentrated hard enough. It's almost as if, in situation like that one, that when the object penetrates my aura, I know, and have a moment to react to it.

I live in a very cold climate during the winter. Walking for blocks with my head held down, facing the ground to shelter my face from the cold isn't uncommon for me. I'll walk for 6-7 blocks with my head held down, looking up for little more than to check for traffic. But after 6 blocks of holding my head down, I will look up and move at just the right time to avoid my head hitting a low hanging tree branch. How do I know to react then? Just happens, like it irritated my aura and set off an alarm.

[PaulH]

You must be the real spiderman! Ha! Ha!

[Phenix]

http://www.higherbalance.com/default.php?ad=gmtion

OMMMM SLEEP OMMMMM SLEEP.

[Mr Punch]

To go back to the original question without wishing to p*ss on anyone's aura (I'm anal like that! :D )...

depends on my mood, sometimes I like nothingness (silence) but sometimes the only way to achieve nothingness is by blotting out the sounds around me with music. Then, I either train to the music, or deliberately off the beats, depending on my feeling. If I'm shadow boxing or working a bag especially, I'll try not to hit a rhythm, even with the dummy.

Sometimes I like loud aggressive music to get more aggressive, or soft music to chill. Sometimes I like to try and overcome loud aggressive music to chill, and sometimes I like to get aggressive to chilled music. My training is often about pattern breaking, now I've largely internalized the patterns, and bringing out the energy as and where I need to, as I know the energy I sometimes aim for and sometimes come across naturally or let go naturally.

And sometimes of course, I like to do all of the above to the music of what's around. There's your zen Phenix, if you like!