Timing /Tempo Changes

An excerpt from the latest article for subscribers at www.leewedlake.com

Putting shuffles and steps in where they were not before changes timing and tempo. This is part of the exploration process a serious student should be doing to see how variables affect the form, technique, basic or person themselves. One factor is combat is to know what a person could potentially do and it’s another to see if they can actually do it. I might know what a cartwheel kick is and basically how and when to do it but in actuality I can’t do one. I’ve found this to be part of the question/answer function of combat. The big problem is that often there’s not enough time to get it figured out. Doing things at different timing and tempos will give you some insight into what you can and can’t do.

Sometimes we’ve been taught a sequence with the wrong timing and when someone points that out and we try it we may be surprised to see it works better. The message here is that it’s not always the mechanics that mess us up, sometimes it’s the timing.