Imaging and imagining technique
Recently (the last year or so), I started doing something different when effectively applying a technique. I would get an image in my head of how the technique should feel - mostly as some sort of flowing line, combined with sensations along parts of the line. Depending on the technique, there might be loops, a fulcrum or two, or branching or steps. It's very weird, but whenever I do the technique with that image in mind, it almost always works exactly as it should. Now, when I am learning techniques, I try and work out what its image should be, and I find that doing so allows me to pick it up quicker - If an image looks forced or doesn't hang together, I tend to find that I'm doing the technique wrong. Mental imaging as a way of helping to understand and guide the body through a technique is something I have seen mostly mentioned with regard to kata practise, where one is often exhorted to imagine they are being attacked by opponents, and to work out how the movem...