My understanding of the CST process of creating original movement is based upon my study of Circular Strength Training™™ and Body Flow. I am very much an infant in this department, and I am still trying to understand and to explore this subject. I guess years of previous conditioning led me to believe that there was nothing new under the sun and how was it possible to do something really original? Could I really do something original? There is also a part of me that believes in creating something original, because as I learned and grew in CST/Rmax, I realized we are always in a new position each time we move and explore. We are indeed unique, because we cannot duplicate anyone else's movements, and likewise, no one can ever copy us exactly. When we try to copy the master, we give up our ability to consciously be original, and we fail to be, in the moment, the now in the new time and space. If we lose the “to be” and try to capture the “been to” of others in terms of movement, then it is no wonder that there are less masterful people in the present physical cultures. The “to be” is the metaphysical in-between position in which people fail to place themselves. It is too small, too visible, and maybe gray that makes it so easily missed through the invisible eyes. However, through the CST/Rmax model, one is reminded to search and to discover the “to be” position in their own breathing, movement, and structure.
CST's process of creating original movement involves the deconstruction of movements into its smaller parts or elementary motor components (EMC). These EMCs can make up biomechanical exercises (BME) or techniques, and within them, there are beginning, middle, and ending components. A basic way to understand this is to take a word and break it into its root meaning or alphabets. There are 26 alphabets (EMC) in the English language, and we can literately create thousands of words and millions of sentences (BME). Each sentence has a beginning, middle, and ending component. If we take this paradigm, we can create thousands of our own original movements instead of copying and looking for someone else's techniques. I believe we have a built in system to recognize movements and instantly to create new movements. Of course, like a baby’s learning curve for speaking and language skill, it will become more complex and sophisticated over time. So, too, our movements will develop in the same manner. In CST, we use our understanding of biomechanical exercises, kinetic chain methodology, and our intuition to create new movements. To create new biomechanical movements into a kinetic chain, we break down the movements into its basic parts and then look at its beginning, middle and ending components. From there, we Match, Patch, and Hem components together.
The Match, Patch, and Hem process of stringing movements together requires much creativity and discovering the joy and power of the “to be” position. Another way of looking at the in-between moves and the “to be” position is in the study of chess which, to me, is an excellent way to study war and the psychology of performance. Playing chess is not for nerds or the physically challenged. I welcome anyone to visit NYC to let me introduce to you some mentally tough and seasoned street chess players, and you will see what I mean about war and the psychological study of performance under street trash talk, fear of losing your bet, and the stress of the clock ticking on your next move. In Chess, “Zwischenzug” is a German word that is used to describe an “in between move which is an unexpected reply, tossed in the middle of an expected sequence of moves.” In chess, body flow, martial arts, break dancing, as well as in life, it is the Zwischenzug that we are all in awe of and admire. Please think about this word when you witness an expected new move you see in body flow or CST. In my opinion, this word should be used in CST’s lexicon. I would also like to mention that Zwischenzug is not so obvious in chess, but it is present waiting to be discovered by us all. Back to the Match, Patch, Hem process, you can match the ending component of one BME to the beginning component of another BME. Then, you may Patch an additional component between the ending component of one BME and the beginning component of another BME. Finally you can Hem X numbers of components of one BME to Y numbers of components of another BME.
As an experiment, I randomly chose a series of BMEs from the Body Flow book to see if I could create a series of new kinetic chains. I did not know if these things had been done before or if there were a name for this Kinetic chain? Remember that part of me that didn’t believe anything could be new under the sun? Well, I know that no one gave me these series of movements, and I used the CST process of making them. I randomly combined Long Arm Roll, Shin Box Switch, Leg Swoop, and Spinal Rock biomechanical exercises into a kinetic chain.
I found myself in a seated ready position on the ground, moved into a left knee forward and right knee back shin box, and did a standing shin roll, but I didn’t complete this BME. I stopped at the Cossack squat component position and Hemmed it to the beginning component of the long arm roll. You see, I could not move from a seated ready position component straight into the long arm roll without first doing a standing shin roll, so I hemmed it. After the long arm roll, I wanted to get to the leg swoop, and I was in a position of assurance component but wondered how I was I going to get myself into a leg swoop? So I matched the ending component of long arm roll into the beginning component of a spinal rock, so I could get myself into the seated ready position component. From this component, I patched a shin box component into a knee switch and hemmed it into a leg swoop. After the one leg swoop, I matched it with a shin box switch which completed my new kinetic chain. From shin box switch, I matched it to a standing shin roll and started the kinetic chain again.
This was an indeed awesome fun experiment that I realized I could be creative and express my own genius. Most importantly I discovered that even if I didn’t know about Patch, Match, Hem concept, my body knew this already. On a personal note, there were people looking at me and asked me where did I learned these series of movements from, who was my teacher, and what is my method called? I replied that my movement is based on my study of body flow, my teacher is Coach Scott Sonnon, I made up these series of movements myself just right now and my method is called “Baoism.” They became very interested in the idea of the creative process of CST and Rmax and then we all got down on the gym’s stretching mat area and started playing body flow.
For more information about BodyFlow: http://www.rmax.tv/bodyflow.html
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Originally Posted by Vash
