Crafty Dog
11-06-2009, 03:02 PM
Alignment
by Crafty Dog
(c) Marc Denny
DBMA has as its mission statement "Walk as a Warrior for all your days". To this
end, we have "The Three Fs": Fun, Fit, and Functional. By this we mean that a)
the Art should be fun to train b) it should promote Fitness, and Health c) It should
be Functional-- it should work.
This point about Fitness and Health is also made by one of my teachers, GM Myung
Gyi, who speaks of The Three Hs": Hurting, Healing, and Harmonizing". By this
he means that we come to the Art seeking to learn how to Hurt. By so doing, we
accumulate injuries, and must learn to Heal them lest we and our comrades be reduced
in our capabilities, and by learning to Heal we learn Empathy and thus learn to
live a more harmonious life.
In DBMA we integrate the concept of The Three Hs into our curriculum. In other
words, there are portions of our curriculum which are not directly about Fighting,
but are about Fitness, Health and Healing-- as well as Harmonizing.
As some of you may know, in 1992 I had a terrible knee injury wherein my ACL, PCL
and Lateral Collateral Ligaments were all snapped in half due to a horribly misapplied
throw by a training partner. It took three surgeries over the course of many months
to replace these ligaments and during this time many muscles atrophied dramatically
which resulted in tremendous misalignment of my posture. Thus, as I returned to
training and fighting, many other injuries both small and large occurred.
Of necessity, I became extremely interested in matters having to due with postural
alignment and over time through research, investigation and experimentation, I developed
a body of principles which I call "The Self Help Principles". Although in their
development I ran them by experts in many fields to favorable reviews, please understand
that I have absolutely no credentials in these matters and offer them only as what
works for me. As always in anything having to do with my teaching, for reasons of
legal liability I am Dog Brothers Inc and only you are responsible for you-- no
suing no one for no reason for nothing no how no way.
The first principle is the importance of postural alignment. When our posture is
bad, certain parts of our body become overloaded. As such they wear out more quickly
and are more susceptible to injury.
So the first question becomes "How can we tell if we are in alignment?"
It will be helpful if you have a training partner to observe you from the side.
Stand in front of a full length mirror with your eyes closed. Open them and move
nothing.
The first thing to notice is your feet. They should be directly under your hip
socket and evenly weighted. They should be parallel. Many/most people will have
one or both feet pointed outwards to some degree. This is a sign of imbalance between
the external rotators (e.g. the piriformis) and the internal rotators (e.g. the
adductor complex) of the femur. Typically this correlates with pressure at the
sacrum (where the spine and the pelvis meet)
The second thing is to notice whether your hips are level or tilt forward. If your
training partner lacks the eye to discern this, a simple indicator is whether your
belly has a tendency to protrude (no matter how much ab work you may do) This is
a sign of tight hip flexors (psoas, ilio, and quads) and typically it correlates
with a tight/achy lower back
The third thing to notice is whether your thumbs point straight forward (parallel)
or inwards. They should be parallel. If they are inwards, there is an issue with
the shoulder being internally rotated/collapsed. This correlates with shortened
pec minor and overextended external rotators of shoulder (e.g. teres minor). This
often correlates with an irritated bicep tendon under the front deltoid muscle of
the shoulder.
The fourth thing to notice is the position of the ears in relation to the shoulders.
Your partner should see that your ears are directly above your shoulders-- the
seam of your t-shirt is a good indicator of exactly where. With many people the
ears are forward of the shoulders. This correlates with a tight neck and trapezius
muscles-- and the solution is not to be found in the neck.
To put things right requires a synergistic series of exercises. The muscular skeletal
system is a magnificent creation in tensegrity and to put things right requires
an understanding of how to restore function to a state of complementary opposites.
But that is another subject for another time and place.
The Adventure continues!
Guro Crafty
by Crafty Dog
(c) Marc Denny
DBMA has as its mission statement "Walk as a Warrior for all your days". To this
end, we have "The Three Fs": Fun, Fit, and Functional. By this we mean that a)
the Art should be fun to train b) it should promote Fitness, and Health c) It should
be Functional-- it should work.
This point about Fitness and Health is also made by one of my teachers, GM Myung
Gyi, who speaks of The Three Hs": Hurting, Healing, and Harmonizing". By this
he means that we come to the Art seeking to learn how to Hurt. By so doing, we
accumulate injuries, and must learn to Heal them lest we and our comrades be reduced
in our capabilities, and by learning to Heal we learn Empathy and thus learn to
live a more harmonious life.
In DBMA we integrate the concept of The Three Hs into our curriculum. In other
words, there are portions of our curriculum which are not directly about Fighting,
but are about Fitness, Health and Healing-- as well as Harmonizing.
As some of you may know, in 1992 I had a terrible knee injury wherein my ACL, PCL
and Lateral Collateral Ligaments were all snapped in half due to a horribly misapplied
throw by a training partner. It took three surgeries over the course of many months
to replace these ligaments and during this time many muscles atrophied dramatically
which resulted in tremendous misalignment of my posture. Thus, as I returned to
training and fighting, many other injuries both small and large occurred.
Of necessity, I became extremely interested in matters having to due with postural
alignment and over time through research, investigation and experimentation, I developed
a body of principles which I call "The Self Help Principles". Although in their
development I ran them by experts in many fields to favorable reviews, please understand
that I have absolutely no credentials in these matters and offer them only as what
works for me. As always in anything having to do with my teaching, for reasons of
legal liability I am Dog Brothers Inc and only you are responsible for you-- no
suing no one for no reason for nothing no how no way.
The first principle is the importance of postural alignment. When our posture is
bad, certain parts of our body become overloaded. As such they wear out more quickly
and are more susceptible to injury.
So the first question becomes "How can we tell if we are in alignment?"
It will be helpful if you have a training partner to observe you from the side.
Stand in front of a full length mirror with your eyes closed. Open them and move
nothing.
The first thing to notice is your feet. They should be directly under your hip
socket and evenly weighted. They should be parallel. Many/most people will have
one or both feet pointed outwards to some degree. This is a sign of imbalance between
the external rotators (e.g. the piriformis) and the internal rotators (e.g. the
adductor complex) of the femur. Typically this correlates with pressure at the
sacrum (where the spine and the pelvis meet)
The second thing is to notice whether your hips are level or tilt forward. If your
training partner lacks the eye to discern this, a simple indicator is whether your
belly has a tendency to protrude (no matter how much ab work you may do) This is
a sign of tight hip flexors (psoas, ilio, and quads) and typically it correlates
with a tight/achy lower back
The third thing to notice is whether your thumbs point straight forward (parallel)
or inwards. They should be parallel. If they are inwards, there is an issue with
the shoulder being internally rotated/collapsed. This correlates with shortened
pec minor and overextended external rotators of shoulder (e.g. teres minor). This
often correlates with an irritated bicep tendon under the front deltoid muscle of
the shoulder.
The fourth thing to notice is the position of the ears in relation to the shoulders.
Your partner should see that your ears are directly above your shoulders-- the
seam of your t-shirt is a good indicator of exactly where. With many people the
ears are forward of the shoulders. This correlates with a tight neck and trapezius
muscles-- and the solution is not to be found in the neck.
To put things right requires a synergistic series of exercises. The muscular skeletal
system is a magnificent creation in tensegrity and to put things right requires
an understanding of how to restore function to a state of complementary opposites.
But that is another subject for another time and place.
The Adventure continues!
Guro Crafty