Fundamentals

Techniques multiply. Fundamentals do not. After a few months of chasing new moves, I noticed the same handful of ideas sitting under every single one of them: base, balance-breaking, frames, posture, pressure. This tag is where I write those down.

A fundamental is not a beginner topic, which took me embarrassingly long to understand. Black belts drill these same things. The difference is that they know the ideas are the technique, and I am still being surprised by it.

The featured posts run in the order the ideas made sense to me: what base actually is, why kuzushi comes before everything, why a skeleton beats a bicep, and what to do while someone flattens you. Then drilling, which is how any of it becomes yours. If a technique you learned this week is not working, the answer is almost always in one of these.