Think how you felt when you wrote that, and try to reproduce it always. I have mentioned these personal experiences only because the distinction between live and dead movement is not easy to express, though it is clear and definite in the minds of the experts. He recommended exercises on judo lines, striking the air at a definite point and imagining an opponent there. In the exercise which consists of spreading the feet wide apart and sinking down on to the heels alternately, one should try as it were to push the feet into the ground. But its benefits can be increased by the vivid imagination that the outstretched limbs are thrusting to the ends of space, and that the in-breath is filling the whole body from the top of the head to the tips of the fingers and toes.
Relaxation is essential.
Japanese judo men understand very well how to relax the body when they have two or three minutes to spare. Unless relaxation is practised, the abdominal control of movement will not be felt, and the attention will not become bright and clear. Some teachers emphasise these special exercises more than others, but all agree that they help towards getting live movement. They also say that live movement is felt first when performing a trick which the student can do so well that he does not have to think about it. It comes in time, by constant practise.