one is stronger when

“No one is stronger when they're tense. No one is faster. No one is more flexible or agile. We all know this. All of us. And even the instructors would pay lip service to it... but there was an awful damn lot of practicing tension while talking about relaxation.” - Rory Miller, Chiron Training, Concretes and Abstracts

Comments: I feel, especially the American culture, we all are socially conditioned toward a tension, both mental and especially physical. We instinctively and naturally know that to hold tension is to incite stress and stress of all kinds tends to be detrimental to our overall health and well-being. It is even more incredible how we gravitate toward tension, something I suspect comes from a natural instinct to survive, i.e., tension is felt to be a natural armor of the body and it is but to hold it unnaturally and for longer durations is counterproductive toward health, well-being and toward survival. Our cultural society has been conditioned as well toward a more ascetic presentation meaning a leaner and more symmetric  body presentation that is seen in the discipline of “Body Building.” When we perform and practice kata the focus is primarily on that symmetric ascetic presentation with any flaw seen as fault to be punished by a loss of points toward winning that competitive trophy.