How to stay super loose/ and relaxed to the point where your arms etc become really heavy

[Towel Snapper]

Any cues?

Any teaching methods?

Any analogies?

Its so natural for me to tense up, I find even when I think im loose and relaxed tension creeps in without me realizing it.

 

[Reedone816]

Also interested to hear from systema practitioner.
Curious for what to me like a robot punch, where the punch made from body movement on a still hand...
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[K-man]

Not sure what you guys are actually asking. What you seem to be referring to is 'heavy hands', where we rely on the weight of the arm to do most of the work. By accelerating the mass of the arm with no muscular tension it develops the maximum amount of power without a lot of effort. Exactly the same principle is used for the strikes in Aikido which has very similar concepts to Systema in that you don't fight force with force.

Now the principles of this apply across the spectrum. In a sporting context where you have weight classes it doesn't matter. That is designed to pit strength against strength in a fair contest. RBSD is not about 'even' or 'fair'. A smaller person cannot fight a bigger stronger person in a head to head contest and expect to use strength against strength. Hence the fact that many systems have been designed to work around your opponent's strength. Some are soft like Aikido and Systema, some are a bit harder like Ju Jutsu, and some are harder still like Okinawan Karate and BJJ, all of which work around the strength of your opponent. In reality only the first two mentioned here really train that totally relaxed state.
:asian:

 

[Badger1777]

Isn't this why most instructors (that I've had at least) insist upon lots of repetition? I.e you keep going over the same move many, many times. Not to bore you, but to train the muscles to just do it.

In a real fight, there is no time to think. When a punch is coming towards you, you don't have time to decide what is the best block and counter. You only have time to DO. What you do may not be what you've been taught, but it will be instant and autonomous, and if you've trained the right reflexes and the right muscles in class, then some of it might show a hint of its presence when the need arises, but I wouldn't count on it.

Its years since I've been in a genuinely hostile situation, but I remember when I was, everything happens so fast there simply is no tensing up. Half the time you don't get any say in what happens, your flesh just does what it needs to do to protect itself and the terrified mind is just kind of along for the ride.

 

[donald1]

I don't have a lot of advice i'd say for relaxing it trying to relax is what your asking there is one thing I could say, take slow deep breaths breath in with nose breath out mouth both slowly. Doesn't seem like a lot, helps me a lot maybe it will help you too

 

[Towel Snapper]

I don't have a lot of advice i'd say for relaxing it trying to relax is what your asking there is one thing I could say, take slow deep breaths breath in with nose breath out mouth both slowly. Doesn't seem like a lot, helps me a lot maybe it will help you too

Awesome thanks bro!!

 

[mook jong man]

In Wing Chun , performing the Sil Lum Tao form is the vehicle we use to attain relaxation and to become self aware of areas that are carrying tension.

Without this I dont really know how you would go about it , other than maybe doing some joint loosening type of exercises and concentrating really intently on what you are feeling in the joint and surrounding musculature.

 

[Argus]

Wing Chun, or internal CMAs like Taichi, Xingyi, or Bagua will go along way to helping you recognize when you're tense and learn to relax. It might be worthwhile to look into one.

The important thing about learning to relax is realizing that you need to know how to change and go with or around an opponent's force. If your opponent is tensing up and competing with you by means of strength, you can't compete with him head-on and stay relaxed. So, a large part of remaining relaxed is just building the skill to know when and how to change depending on the energy your partner is feeding you.