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When people say stay calm or calm down.
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It's so often misunderstood.
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Calm isn't something that you pretend
or you can just flip a switch,
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but you can cultivate it.
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You can cultivate calm.
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calm is a physical state it allows choice.
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it's trained or cultivated, not willed.
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These are the three points
that I want to go over today.
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So first of all breath is available
and your vision widens
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when you calm yourself.
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And it's not always easy
of course, but it's it's
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worth
working at and it's worth cultivating.
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So when you calm yourself, as I said,
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the breath becomes available,
the vision widens
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and the muscles are ready
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but not braced,
so you have less chance of trying to
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to complete techniques
by using force against force.
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And all of us in Aikido, we
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know that force against force,
just the stronger person wins.
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Always.
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So it's a physical state.
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Hey, sorry to interrupt the video,
but some of you have been asking
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how you can get a copy of my book,
The Teacher.
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The book includes topics
such as from horse riding to budo,
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the Japan experience back home, building
intuition, attracting new students
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to aikido nonviolence and aikido
leading by example, women and aikido.
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Arrogance.
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No to homogenization in Aikido,
Aikido and distance teaching.
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Body alignment. More.
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If you haven't yet purchased it
and you'd like to just head to
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lia-suzuki.com/book, or you can find that
link in the description here on YouTube.
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The book is available
in English and Italian.
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If you want it in Italian,
you've got to go to Amazon.
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There's plenty of really cool photos.
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There's
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me. When I first started Aikido.
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Even before I got to Boston, which is,
where my first teacher is
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also Takara Sheehan Bill
Gleason sensei, my first teacher.
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And for those of you
who might know him, Gary
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Small sensei taking alchemy long ago.
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another up to Kira
Sheehan Yamaguchi sensei.
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Right?
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We've got a couple of me
teaching seminars.
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Of course.
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And then even one with me
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with, explaining something with Shoto.
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This is in the,
no to homogenization section,
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as I said, the link is in the description
below.
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Just click on that.
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Go to lia-suzuki.com/book and order yours.
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Let's get back to the video now.
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When I say that, your vision widens.
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I really like to use
soft eyes is the term that I've heard.
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And the way I explain it
is that it's almost as
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if you're using your peripheral vision
for everything.
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the times that feel the best
when I'm training are the times
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when I have allowed myself
to get into this state
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where I'm not using my regular vision.
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It's as if it's peripheral vision
360 degrees,
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and I can't do that
if I'm uptight or nervous.
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So sometimes I can calm myself.
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And then these other things happen.
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Like the wide vision,
the peripheral vision and the breath.
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Other times it works the other way around.
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I can go, oh, I want to be calm.
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So I purposely, slow down my breath,
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make longer exhale than inhale.
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And I purposely widen my vision or use
soft vision.
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Soft eyes.
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when I do that
the muscles become more loose.
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The next point that I want to talk about
is how calm allows choice.
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If you're calm, you have more time
for making decisions.
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You're replying to things, but you're
not just reacting without intelligence.
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And when I say intelligence, I don't mean
having to think through things.
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If we've trained for a long time
and we've trained well,
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then we have certain things
that are like reflexes,
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like how the knee moves when the doctor
hits it with the with a little hammer.
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Okay.
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Things that are as smooth as that
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just happen.
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It's not like
you don't have control over them at all.
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But you have more time, more milliseconds
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to choose intelligently.
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So. What kind of reflexes do
we want to build?
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That's another big question.
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A really good question.
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If you've been watching my videos, you've
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probably noticed that I
sometimes use Shoto or Shortsword.
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I find that it helps students
drop their shoulders,
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stop pushing
and really feel the technique.
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Right now
I have a limited number of these Lia
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Suzuki Signature Shoto available.
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They're made in Japan from premium
Japanese white oak.
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They're engraved with my signature,
and they're really beautifully balanced.
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Because of the lumber shortage in Japan.
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I was only able
to get a small batch of them.
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So once these are gone,
that's it for the time being.
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So if you'd like one, click
the link below to reserve yours
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during the checkout process.
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You'll be prompted to let me know
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which seminar you'll attend,
and then I'll bring it right to you.
00;05;43;05 - 00;05;44;24
Now let's get back to the video.
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also when you're calm, it's easier
to change direction.
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You can receive
the information, digest it.
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And this is all in milliseconds.
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Sometimes receive
the information, digest it
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and then make your reply.
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All right.
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So not again
not just reacting to everything
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immediately
and in a sort of a panicked way.
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So we get rid of the panic feeling.
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Finally, you can't just say like,
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oh, I have to be calm when you're nervous.
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We've tried it.
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Probably everybody has tried it.
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It is really,
really tough and it's manufactured.
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So you can't just tell yourself
to be to be calm.
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But there are some tools,
some things that you can you can try.
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Like I said,
you can try focusing on your breathing.
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And, one of my action videos on YouTube,
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people were saying,
oh, what's she doing with her breath?
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Or is she out of out of breath? Right.
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In that particular video,
I wasn't out of breath, I was.
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I do that a lot.
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It seems to help me.
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And when I do that,
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I try to make my exhale
longer than my inhale.
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And that seems to help as well.
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And and if you do get nervous
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and you can't calm yourself,
first of all, know that that's normal.
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And it's sometimes a good sign.
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I had a one of my top students.
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I was building up the membership in Los
Angeles, my Los Angeles
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dojo, and my top student came to me
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one day.
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He was about
first Q or Shodan or something.
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He said, oh, sensei, sensei,
I thought I should let you know.
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Some of the students are really.
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None of the other students
had, ever tested.
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He said some of the students are
really nervous about the upcoming test.
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And I was like,
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great,
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that's perfect.
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I'd be worried if they weren't.
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So, he was really surprised and confused.
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I said, well, it shows that
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they're really taking it seriously,
that this means something to them.
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So. And they all did great,
by the way, on their tests.
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That was actually a really incredible,
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bunch of tests,
that particular one in particular.
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we have to train how to move our body
as if it were calm.
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And then oftentimes the mind
will also become calm when we do that.
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So the breath
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then the vision.
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Like I said, I like to try to
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bring up my peripheral vision
for everything.
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we're so lucky in Aikido
by the fact that we have the opportunity
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to train with the same people over
and over every week, week in, week out.
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And then sometimes we go to a
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seminar where we meet people
that we've never trained with.
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I was in Japan one time and,
I was at hombu dojo.
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And I, I don't go to
the dojo very often,
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but when I'm there,
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of course
I knew that you get one training partner
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and you keep that partner the whole time,
but I had forgotten that.
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And I just sat down
in the middle of the mat by myself.
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And then, just like a couple minutes
before the classes,
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huge guy sat down
next to me, a huge beginner,
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I think, like, well,
I think it was a white belt anyway.
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But anyway, huge guy sat down next to me
and then we bowed in like immediately.
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I thought, oh
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oh. I didn't even
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think about trying to choose my partner.
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And and it turned out he was fantastic.
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He was a big Russian beginner and,
he was great.
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But anyway,
I was really nervous at first, like,
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whoa, this guy could snap me in half.
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And, and we had a great class.
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But anyway,
that's another way to stretch ourselves.
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I really recommend that
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you stretch yourself
and go out of your comfort zone sometimes.
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Really take those opportunities.
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And, we train with the same people
all the time, week
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in, week out at our own dojo.
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But then when we travel,
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we get to meet other people,
and maybe that'll make us nervous.
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But try these
these tips that I'm going over
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about the breath
and the vision and go for it.
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And when you take ukemi, if you find that
the person Is being a little bit
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rough,
you could be a little bit softer yourself.
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Maybe sometimes they
loosen up when you loosen up
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and you might not even notice,
you know, might
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not even be aware
that you're not as loose as you could be.
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So give that a try.
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For those of you
who would like to train in person with me,
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I've got some seminars
coming up in March in Asia.
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Sorry, also in Orange County.
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So I'll be in Orange County
the first weekend of March,
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and then I'll be in, Taiwan
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the third weekend and Kumamoto, Japan
the fourth weekend.
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So if you'd like to train together,
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come join me at those seminars then.
00;11;00;11 - 00;11;03;11
I've got other seminars
coming up the rest of the year.
00;11;03;12 - 00;11;07;14
For more details, just click on the link
below in the description.
00;11;07;17 - 00;11;12;11
So hope to train with
you in person someday soon.
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In the meantime, go to your dojo.
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Train with the person
who makes you the most nervous.
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Please, if there is somebody like that,
and then write in the comments
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below how that was
and try some of these tips.
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Let me know how it went.
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Thanks so much for tuning in.
00;11;29;24 - 00;11;31;14
See you again next week! Bye bye!
