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Using visualization in kung fu training can increase your skills without physically working out. Most top athletes use visualization to “see” themselves going through the movements needed to perform their best in their particular sport.
Visualization is a way to train your body by using your mind. Mentally practicing movements and techniques will stimulate your nervous system, making these movements more a part of you. It supports and reinforces your physically practicing movements.
Every action begins with a thought. Visualization in kung fu is both the beginning and the reinforcement of that thought.
When you visualize yourself executing a technique, your ability to physically perform that technique increases. You are literally stamping in the details of forms and techniques, making them a part of you by exercising your brain. You are training your brain to recognize and deal with the complex patterns of signals that would be coming from it to the muscles of your body if you were actually performing the movements.
It is important for you to progress to the point of getting tremendous detail into your visualization in kung fu. The more detail, the better. Bring in all your senses. See yourself completing even difficult moves with fluid grace and without hesitation.
Thinking about these moves before going into actual sparring improves your muscle memory of the moves. This is important because when you are sparring or in a contest, you won’t have time to think everything through. You must be able to act immediately. The thinking, the visualization, must come prior to the need to use the moves or techniques.
Not everyone can use visualization easily. For some, a great deal of practice is required. But it is a technique that can be learned. One requirement is also learning to quiet your mind.
Most of us go through life with a great deal of “noise” going on in our minds at any given time. To use visualization in kung fu successfully, you must learn to shut off that “noise”. Only then can you practice visualization in the way that will benefit you most.
Shifu Ahles at Blue Dragon School of Martial Arts is ready and able to help you in learning to use visualization in reaching your goals. Contact him at 201-385-3130 today and get started or started again!
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