listen

Illustration by Yumi Sakugawa

learn your details with pride

Whoever first said "The Devil is in the details" must not have liked details. And I doubt that he was an economic botanist. Because when it comes to edible wild plants, the miracle is in the details. It is the details that give one the power not only to identify plants, but also to select the best specimens among them...So do not shy away from the details: an don't resent Nature for being so replete with complexity. That is its glory, not its downfall. We owe our very intelligence to this miraculous complexity. It is not the burden of the naturalist to learn this complexity: it is the awesome reality. More then anything else, which of these attitudes you chose will determine your success. So learn your details with pride and experience them with gratitude. Let the details excite you - for there are enough of them to excite you for the rest of your life.

-- Samuel Thayer: Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild plants

This applies to every application of biological principle...i.e. your movement practice too!

single leg squat progression

Love these preparations and progressions.

"investigated in all directions"

During the preparation stage, the problem is “investigated in all directions” as the thinker readies the mental soil for the sowing of the seeds. It’s the accumulation of intellectual resources out of which to construct the new ideas. It is fully conscious and entails part research, part planning, part entering the right frame of mind and attention. Wallas writes:

"The educated man has, again, learnt, and can, in the Preparation stage, voluntarily or habitually follow out, rules as to the order in which he shall direct his attention to successive elements."

-- Graham Wallas on the Four Stages of Creativity, 1926, via brainpickings.
(the other three are Incubation,  Illumination, Verification)

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.”

― Thomas Henry Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley 

(found here)

wrist preparation

Wrist preparations.
 These are golden!

Recommended Read: A Guide to Better Movement

I'm currently working my way through A Guide to Better Movement by Todd Hargrove, and even though I'm not done yet I highly recommend it! Todd presents recent work in neuroscience, and his extensive background in a variety of sports and movement practices, to guide an understanding of the psychological and physiological whys behind movement patterns and habits. Once your brain has finished digesting there are lots of practical puzzles and 'exercises' to try out for yourself, which I have personally found very usesfull when teaching my students how to map basic movement patterns. 

If you want to know more then check out Todd's Better Movement Blog (which the book consolidates) and have a listen to this interview over at Liberated Bodies. 

Happy learning!

preparation...

“Give me 6 hours to cut down a tree and I'll spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.” 

--Abraham Lincoln

Preparation

Wrist preparations.
 These are golden!