Mike Baldwin
02-18-2004, 01:33 PM
There is an unusual toy that may be purchased (often best found in the educational type area) at kids' toy shops that is comprised of pieces of dowel that ‘float’ without touching each other in a web type arrangement of elastic. In technical terms, they belong to a class of structures called ‘tensegrities’.
The original structures were developed by an artist Kenneth Snelson. R. Buckminster Fuller looked at these and called the study ‘Tensegrity’ from the phrase ‘tension integrity’. These structures maintain their shape/integrity due to the balance of elastic forces pulling mainly inwards with compressive forces in the dowel pushing outwards.
This toy may prove useful as a model to help explain some dynamic aspects of the simple yet beautifully sophisticated nature of our bodies.
It has been stressed since forever that the image one carries around of one’s body and performance potential, directly influences both the body carriage and dynamics.
It is suggested that considering one's body as just a continuous compression structure (with the head resting on the neck which rests on the thorax, which rests on the lumbar, etc until all weight/forces are transferred down into ground) is limiting - one may not fully appreciate how profound the influence of the elastic myofascia (muscles, connective tissue etc) can be.
Push on one area of the structure, and if allowed to move freely, little localized force builds up - instead the structure effortlessly yields within, distributing that force throughout itself. If it is loaded too much, the structure will break, though often nowhere near where the load was placed.
Of significance, is the fact that in a pure tensegrity structure (read: get out of the way of your own body and train ‘with it’ / let it do its job with minimal interference from any hindering/erroneous bits of headspace), all interconnected structural elements will readily rearrange themselves, allowing a greater resiliency to develop and actually becoming more stable the more it is loaded.
The softer side that different systems over the years have strived to advocate ( eg Taiji : yielding concepts, use of simple and quite complicated pushhands type activities) has often been scoffed at. Get hold of one of these toys and play with it. See what a well functioning tensegrity structure can do and determine if you would ‘like a bit of that’ in your own body. If so, when you return to your training you may appreciate much more the “Soft Work”, amongst a myiad of other related material, that Scott advocates so strongly.
I purchased such a toy (it is actually a toddler's rattle/ball) from Mr Toy's - I dare say you could purchase them at almost any good toyshop around Australia.
(If we are lucky, we may be able to encourage Bob_Stra to elaborate further on this Tensegrity Structure concept and to provide insights into the significance of these areas in his work situation in particular.)
Cheers:D
The original structures were developed by an artist Kenneth Snelson. R. Buckminster Fuller looked at these and called the study ‘Tensegrity’ from the phrase ‘tension integrity’. These structures maintain their shape/integrity due to the balance of elastic forces pulling mainly inwards with compressive forces in the dowel pushing outwards.
This toy may prove useful as a model to help explain some dynamic aspects of the simple yet beautifully sophisticated nature of our bodies.
It has been stressed since forever that the image one carries around of one’s body and performance potential, directly influences both the body carriage and dynamics.
It is suggested that considering one's body as just a continuous compression structure (with the head resting on the neck which rests on the thorax, which rests on the lumbar, etc until all weight/forces are transferred down into ground) is limiting - one may not fully appreciate how profound the influence of the elastic myofascia (muscles, connective tissue etc) can be.
Push on one area of the structure, and if allowed to move freely, little localized force builds up - instead the structure effortlessly yields within, distributing that force throughout itself. If it is loaded too much, the structure will break, though often nowhere near where the load was placed.
Of significance, is the fact that in a pure tensegrity structure (read: get out of the way of your own body and train ‘with it’ / let it do its job with minimal interference from any hindering/erroneous bits of headspace), all interconnected structural elements will readily rearrange themselves, allowing a greater resiliency to develop and actually becoming more stable the more it is loaded.
The softer side that different systems over the years have strived to advocate ( eg Taiji : yielding concepts, use of simple and quite complicated pushhands type activities) has often been scoffed at. Get hold of one of these toys and play with it. See what a well functioning tensegrity structure can do and determine if you would ‘like a bit of that’ in your own body. If so, when you return to your training you may appreciate much more the “Soft Work”, amongst a myiad of other related material, that Scott advocates so strongly.
I purchased such a toy (it is actually a toddler's rattle/ball) from Mr Toy's - I dare say you could purchase them at almost any good toyshop around Australia.
(If we are lucky, we may be able to encourage Bob_Stra to elaborate further on this Tensegrity Structure concept and to provide insights into the significance of these areas in his work situation in particular.)
Cheers:D