Summer Camp Lesson: Balance

When it comes down to it, martial art is about balance.

It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about protecting yourself from violence, getting fit, or learning to meditate; balance is the key.

Questions:

• What is martial art?
• What is different about Kuk Sool Won™?
• What do you mean by balance?
• How does this apply to everyday life?

Martial art is any creative endeavor that follows from a study of war. This very broad definition includes everything from karate to gymnastics to chess. Not very helpful.

When people use the term martial art, they mean some system of self-defense. So, Kuk Sool Won™ is a system of self-defense that is from Korea. Essentially, it’s a study of the traditional martial arts from Korea. This means that it includes the striking arts (kicking and punching), grappling arts (wrestling), animal styles (tiger, snake, crane, etc), and many traditional weapons (staff, sword, spear, rope, fan, cane, etc.)

So, martial art is a big word, kind of like grocery store. Some grocery stores are very specialized, and some have nearly anything you can imagine. Here in Muncie, we have an organic grocery, the Downtown Farmstand, that sells organic groceries. At the other end, there’s Jungle Jim’s, an enormous store in Cincinnati that features food from around the world.

As martial art styles or systems go, Kuk Sool Won™ is more like Meijer. They have food that will keep you alive, and also things you need for life. Kuk Sool has great techniques and skills for self-defense, and those lessons carry over into daily life.

Which brings us back to balance.

Balance is a state of control. In stillness, it means that your center of mass is stable over your base. For humans, our center of mass is usually somewhere behind our navel. If we’re standing, our base is the space under and between our feet. The wider your base (the more distance between your feet) the more stable your stance.

Standing on one foot is inherently less stable than standing on two because your base is so much smaller. If you get down on your hands and knees, you’ll be much more stable than standing because your base is much larger. The trade-off is that the more stable your stance, the less agile you are.

Decreased stability means more agility.

Apply this lesson to whatever situation you want. It works.

Family? Find your base. The broader and stronger it is, the less it will be affected by changing conditions.

Work? Exert too much control over situations and people, and you lose agility, responsiveness, and creativity.

For health, balancing movement with stillness is super important. Learning to meditate brings benefits you might not think of. New research is being done all the time, but it actually changes the way your brain works. It also changes the way your brain and your body work together. Watch this space for more information.