Can the (physical or mental) posture that’s appropriate for avoiding mistakes be opposed to the posture appropriate for focusing power on one point?
Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean.
I don’t do a lot of brick-breaking with my fists, so I might not know much about doing that well. But my impression is that the principles that transfer force well through the body in aikido will also transfer force well when trying to deliver a sharp blow to exactly one spot on a brick. In aikido at least, there’s no opposition between posture that helps make you do the right thing and posture that helps you avoid doing the wrong thing.
…but of course, it’s possible to compromise posture and still deliver a lot of power to one point, just like it’s possible to avoid falling over when throwing someone while you have a weak spine posture.
I think the analog in the mind is something like focus or concentration. I think it’s certainly possible to concentrate really hard in a way that violates good mental posture in other situations, but I intuitively wouldn’t anticipate very good results from that compared to the counterfactual where the focus is done while maintaining good mental posture.
But I really don’t know.
And I might have totally misunderstood what you were gesturing at. Please feel free to clarify if needed!
Are there multiple styles of posture or thought that are equally effective local maxima, while hybrids of them are less effective?
I don’t know. I don’t know of any for the body, I don’t think. Some people claim that you should never round your lower back outward, but as far as I can tell the real rule is to brace your spine so that it can transfer force well, which is much harder to do when it’s rounded but not impossible. There are some situations where using the rule of thumb of “curve in your lower back” just isn’t possible, so you have to go back to the reason why the rule is there. At that point you start getting things that look like violations of “good posture” but are actually quite good uses of body mechanics. (In this case you brace your spine with your abs while “lengthening” it.)
I’m less sure about mental posture. But that’s because I don’t have a very good reductionistic model of what “mental posture” is yet.
For my second question, I was thinking for example of different fighting styles, and whether it’s just that some are more effective in certain circumstances, or that each style is a local maximum.
I really like this post. Questions:
Can the (physical or mental) posture that’s appropriate for avoiding mistakes be opposed to the posture appropriate for focusing power on one point?
Are there multiple styles of posture or thought that are equally effective local maxima, while hybrids of them are less effective?
Thanks!
Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean.
I don’t do a lot of brick-breaking with my fists, so I might not know much about doing that well. But my impression is that the principles that transfer force well through the body in aikido will also transfer force well when trying to deliver a sharp blow to exactly one spot on a brick. In aikido at least, there’s no opposition between posture that helps make you do the right thing and posture that helps you avoid doing the wrong thing.
…but of course, it’s possible to compromise posture and still deliver a lot of power to one point, just like it’s possible to avoid falling over when throwing someone while you have a weak spine posture.
I think the analog in the mind is something like focus or concentration. I think it’s certainly possible to concentrate really hard in a way that violates good mental posture in other situations, but I intuitively wouldn’t anticipate very good results from that compared to the counterfactual where the focus is done while maintaining good mental posture.
But I really don’t know.
And I might have totally misunderstood what you were gesturing at. Please feel free to clarify if needed!
I don’t know. I don’t know of any for the body, I don’t think. Some people claim that you should never round your lower back outward, but as far as I can tell the real rule is to brace your spine so that it can transfer force well, which is much harder to do when it’s rounded but not impossible. There are some situations where using the rule of thumb of “curve in your lower back” just isn’t possible, so you have to go back to the reason why the rule is there. At that point you start getting things that look like violations of “good posture” but are actually quite good uses of body mechanics. (In this case you brace your spine with your abs while “lengthening” it.)
I’m less sure about mental posture. But that’s because I don’t have a very good reductionistic model of what “mental posture” is yet.
For my second question, I was thinking for example of different fighting styles, and whether it’s just that some are more effective in certain circumstances, or that each style is a local maximum.