Psychological rebound
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by Vladimir Vasiliev
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The new film release – STRIKES – has brought up many positive comments and many questions as well. I would like to respond to an important
group of questions. Once people have watched STRIKES, they seem to be in a rush to start hitting, and that is surely not wise.
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Notice an explanation in the film about positioning yourself and your arm properly to avoid the physical rebound of your own strike back into your
body. There is an even more important consideration here – the psychological rebound. A strike impacts the body as much as the psyche. You are
not just hitting a body, there is human interaction behind every punch.
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Not only do you have to assume a comfortable position physically before a strike, you should also be comfortable psychologically; do not try to show
how strong and skilled you are. Before you strike, take a look at yourself; are you ready to hit someone? If you are not, your tension, negative
emotions or vain thoughts will be multiplied and will rebound right back to you.
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Mikhail’s strikes, which you see in the film, are a finished picture; years of hard work to understand himself are behind it. In my experience 99.9 % of
all practitioners approach striking experimentally – they hit and look their partner in the eyes hoping that the strike was effective. You should know
the effect of your strike, even if you have just touched the partner. While you are practicing, as soon as you feel frustration let your partner hit you.
Especially if you are an instructor, you should be receiving punches 10 times more than delivering them yourself. The whole point of training is not
to beat up your partner, but to help him learn how to take strikes.
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Remember that your partner trusts you, he is just standing there with his body and his psyche open. Do not rush, and do not feed your ego. Learn to
set yourself straight first, respect and be thankful to him, and then proceed.
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