{"id":333,"date":"2015-01-13T00:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T00:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dev.karateberkeley.com\/?page_id=333"},"modified":"2015-03-23T23:37:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T23:37:31","slug":"333-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.karateberkeley.com\/?page_id=333","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on the Emotional Content of Sparring<\/span><\/h1>\n
by Blaze W., JLAG dojo<\/em><\/p>\n

\"aablaze_spar\"<\/a><\/span>Many strong emotions come up in sparring \u2014 lots of fear, sometimes anger, joy, surprise, frustration, etc. \u2014 the emotions themselves are not a problem.\u00a0 In fact, they\u2019re a source of energy.\u00a0 The problem is often the stories that we bring to sparring, or that come up in sparring, that have emotions and beliefs about ourselves attached.\u00a0 Stories like \u201cI have to win\u201d or \u201cI can\u2019t look bad\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m lousy at this\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m going to get hurt.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s the stories that freeze you up, take you out of the moment \u2014 that lead you to try to prove or disprove them, and doing that takes you out of relationship with your partner.\u00a0 If the stories stay unconscious, they can lead you to hit too hard, or run too far, to move in abject fear, or strike in anger.\u00a0 Then you\u2019re not fighting your partner anymore, but with yourself, your past.\u00a0 They\u2019re your stories, so they\u2019ll always come up in some form, but you can learn to make some space around them, and free yourself up more to be in the moment.\u00a0 This also frees you up to access the power of the ground.<\/p>\n

The key is to focus your intent on being in the present and engaging your partner, with all your emotions, spirit, heart, intelligence and courage. When you and your partner are present and engaged, you can match and meet each other, play on your edge together. If you start a fight with the intent only to survive, then you\u2019ll focus only on the fear and while you will survive, it won\u2019t be that fun; if you start with the intent only to dominate your partner, you leave little room for spontaneity or new learning. \u00a0But if you start with the intent to be present and engage, then a whole different fight can emerge.<\/p><\/div>\n