Intent is a tough one and although I believe that I have a pretty good grasp of it's concepts and meaning I struggle with applying intent as needed in any given moment.
I learned something new with regards to how intent can be successful or not work as intended while working on a sticky section in Lao Gar a few days ago. The ball throw in part III had been giving me some trouble. I felt that the timing was off and my harmonies were not working together. It also wasn't a move that felt very powerful. Sifu Ward took a look and offered me a few suggestions. Firstly, he told me I needed to be aware of the shape of my ball as it was increasing in size as it came around. We also talked about intent and being aware of catching the ball, bringing it around and tracking it with my eyes before throwing it out. I had listened intently and tried to apply all the information that he provided.
For the first go round I managed to keep the ball in a somewhat consistent size and shape. The next few reps where spent trying to track the ball which didn't go quite as smoothly. It seemed that my eyes wanted to lead the ball. When I slowed down and let the ball lead, my eyes stopped at the top and waited for the ball to finish it's circle. Who would have thought that some simple instruction could be so complicated? At some point Sifu Ward had pointed out that I need to visualize an actual ball in my hands. That became my intent as I worked through some more reps. Visualize a ball! Visualize a ball! I've got this. Should be simple enough. Oh, poor Sifu Ward, at least these are learning opportunities for him as well.
I remember saying to him, "I am visualizing a ball" and he'd respond, "no you are not". How could I not be visualizing a ball when that is exactly what I was thinking of doing? Back to the drawing board. Eventually, as he was walking away I decided to stand in place and just focus on the movements of the "ball" and tracking with my eyes. It finally felt better and at that moment he turned around and said "yes, that's it, you're visualizing a ball!" Well duh! Of course that is what I am doing and what I thought I had been doing all along, but yet this time was different. Why was that?
My intent had always been to visualize the ball and yet something had gotten in the way of that happening at first. As I thought about what had changed I realized that by not moving my feet I was able to focus my intent on the imaginary ball. The other distractions dropped away and allowed my true intent to come to the surface. Those first few reps at the beginning, my intent had actually been on my hands instead of an imaginary ball. At the time I didn't realize that I had been focusing more on my hands than on the ball. And yes, that made all the difference.
In the end there was a fair bit of laughter on both our parts, and I learned much more than just how to track an imaginary ball.
Namaste!
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