Intention

The subject of intention will most likely come up frequently in this blog as I have found it to be such an essential component of everything we do. In massage therapy school I was exposed to some of the power of intention in many situations. For example during myofascial work you can impact deeper fascia not by pushing harder, but simply by intending to do so. A very challenging concept and one I still haven't totally got my head around. More easier to grasp is the answer to people's concerns about massage and sexuality. Therapeutic massage is not sexual because there is no sexual intention behind it. If a practitioner had sexual feelings for the client the intention and energy in the touch would be different and it would be obvious to the client.

While training in massage therapy the excellent instructors would continually hammer home to us "what are you trying to achieve with your contact right now?". We were trained to question ourselves and if we could not answer that question then we needed to do something else. This creates the difference between a massage therapist that wants to make the client feel 'nice and relaxed' and a therapist that is trying to make a specific change to improve the musculo-skeletal health of their client.

So back to kung fu. Intention came up in the last class during sparring. While sparring we need to remember:

Why am I here? What am I doing? Is it real?

With every technique we need to be able to answer the question "what is the intention behind that technique?" if we can't answer that we are just waving our arms and legs around and wasting energy. Every attack needs to focussed on an area of the opponent that is vunerable to attack or be used with the objective to create that opening.

Is it real? That is a great way to remind us that although we are 'playing kung fu' as the Chinese put it, we are learning to fight for our lives while sparring.

That is enough about intention for now, but I guarantee it won't be too
long before I write about it again...

Nick
White sash