Tornado Warning

I began applying some specific focus on my spinning back kick a few weeks ago.  As always, not as much as I should, or that I could...but some nonetheless.  As opposed to just telling myself "be better at this damn it!"...and with Todai Burke as my coach, I've been working on a couple of specifics.  

The first is my eyes.  With anything we do we should be leading with our eyes.  We don't blindly strike out without knowing what is there...or block without seeing a need.  And so Todai Burke suggested that I try to lead with my eyes.  Make my eyes the first thing to turn...followed by my head...then my shoulders...torso...arms....hips....etc....like a coil or a spiral.  I don't have too many thoughts on this quite yet, but one thing I do know is that I am finding this really, REALLY difficult.  I truly have to psych myself up to get my eyes to make the first move.  And I find that interesting.

The other specific that I am focusing on is my center.  With a few reps, we noticed that I have a tendency to shift back before initiating the spin...and not for any purpose that I can tell.  I believe this was lending to some of the balance issues I was having because I was moving off my center even before the kick began.  So I've been trying to stay very conscious and aware of keeping my body centered...and not spinning like a tornado...tilting this way or that...leaving everything in my wake a complete disaster.  So far, what I'm noticing is that as I lift the weight off my foot in order to start my spin, and as long as I remain centered, my energy drives downwards into the ground....almost a counter balance of sorts.  I have this feeling of a contraction in a vertical direction during the spin, which then turns into a horizontal expansion as I throw the kick.  It's difficult to explain and I apologize if my verbiage is confusing.  Realistically I have no idea at this point exactly what's happening, so right now it just guesswork that I hope will lead to some insight.  It certainly feels good when everything is firing so I'm thinking I'm on the right track and will just keep playing with it.

There are so many moving parts to the spinning back kick.  And so many things to think about in order to achieve the desired result.  At present, it's impossible to think about them all.  One day, the goal will be that I don't have to.  That with practice, many of these things will become second nature.  But for now I'll just continue poking these things with a stick to see where it leads.