day 11: legs (or, it takes 2 to tango)

concepts:

• 1-person drills
• walking the square
• walking the circle
• footwork game
• sparring (circle)

forms:

• 5th palm change
• 2-person drills (legs, 1st palm change)

today was another busy day, but the focus turned to legs and footwork, as well as basic sparring. we moved with a greater pace through the lesson plan, taking fewer breaks than usual. i don't know if this is because the baji students were absent this class (as they had been last class), and so Sifu Jason's attention was more targeted to us, or because he was trying to meet a timetable before the upcoming winter break.

1-person drills

Sifu had everyone start with basic 1-person drills (1-arm and 2-arm). these are starting to become straightforward, although i'm still not sensing the rhythm (or energy) that John had told me as an aside when we'd first started learning them.

i notice that Jason does these drills with a certain level of artistry that could be alternatively labeled grace relative to everyone else--at least, i don't see anybody else in class getting close. obviously, he's been doing them for a whole lot longer, and he probably has a higher level of physical coordination than the rest of the class. but my point is the same: some of the other students have been doing these drills for years (as in decades), and still haven't gotten to the same state of grace as Sifu. which makes me wonder just how long it really takes.

walking the square

once we finished with the 1-person drills, we promptly moved to walking the square. Jason watched as everyone performed the exercise. at random intervals, he would call for an inside or outside turn. i'm still new to this, so i found myself doing the turns at less than full speed, particularly the outside turn, which for some reason i find to be somewhat unnatural. i remember a ballerina once told me outside turns took longer to learn than inside ones, and i guess that insight carries over--outside turns are just not done as often as inside turns by human beings.

walking the circle

immediately after walking the square, Sifu had us divide into 3 groups of 4 to perform walking in a circle. Jason again took to calling out for inside or outside turns at random points.

i'd been practicing this during the week, and thought that i'd gotten a greater level of comfort with the exercise. but i still found myself struggling several times with the outside turns. i think this is because there's a difference between doing initiating turns that you choose to do versus initiating turns someone else is calling out; there is a certain level of uncertainty involved that calls upon reflexes--reflexes which i am working to develop. that, and we were doing circle walking at a decidedly faster pace than i'd been doing in practice.

2-person drills (legs)

after a brief break, Sifu said it was time to show us the 2-person leg drills. similar to the 2-person drills from last week, the purpose of the leg drills is to develop sensitivity with respect to the lower body relative to an opponent. i worked with Mike as a partner on these. Jason showed us a series of exercises, with a ko and bai set for when 2 partners both face off with their right or left leg leading, and a ko and bai set for when 2 partners face off with one having a left leg leading and the other a right leg leading (or vice versa).

for the exercises with partners both leading with the same leg, the practitioners are supposed to join their ankles, or knees, or thighs. each time, they are supposed to rotate their point their contact in a clockwise and subsequently counterclockwise direction. the point is to maintain the point of contact, so that each partner can sense their fellow partner's movements. this generates the following list of leg drills:

• ko, ankle--contact point: inside of ankles, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• bai, ankle--contact point: outside of ankles, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• ko, knee--contact point: inside of knee, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• bai, knee--contact point: outside of ankles, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• ko, thigh--contact point: outside of quadriceps, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise

for exercises with partners leading opposing legs, the practitioners still join their ankles, knees, or thighs. this generates the following list of leg drills:

• ankle--contact point: outside of ankles, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• knee--contact point: outside of knee, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise
• thigh--contact point: outside of quadriceps, rotate: clockwise or counterclockwise

footwork game

we went directly from the leg drills to a footwork game that Jason said he'd learned when he was a student learning bagua. he smiled knowingly at us and said it was time to "have some fun."

in the game, participants line up, facing in the same direction to the head of the line. the person in front then turns and faces the 2nd person behind them. at this point, the 2 then engage in a game trying to catch each other's feet, ankles, or legs, with no use of arms, body, or head. they are allowed to switch legs, or stay with the same one. they are expected to try and catch each other for a few moments, after which the person who was in front moves on down the line to the next person and repeats the performance. the 2nd person, who is now the leader, is supposed to then turn and engage the person behind them. this cycle repeats until the entire line is pairs of people trying to catch each other's feet, ankles, or legs. once the line is done, then it turns around and does the same thing in reverse. everything repeats until the instructor calls for an end.

performed correctly, i think this is supposed to be an artful game, with skilled footwork. Jason suggested as much, saying that the purpose of the game was to improve foot speed, lower body dexterity and coordination, and reflexes. you know those kung fu movies that occassionally show opponents wrestling with their feet? the scenes where you scratch your head and wonder just why the director took time to focus on that? yeah, i'm guessing it's supposed to be like that.

unfortunately, most the game for class ended up being a lot of foot stomping and accidental shin kicks. this may be what happens in a fight, but i'd be interested in seeing skilled martial artists do this game to see how it's really done. still, this game seemed to make everybody a little happier, and we all ended up laughing.

sparring

we took a few moments to catch a breather, and Sifu then instructed everybody to pair up for circle sparring.

circle sparring is new to me--as is sparring in general. circle sparring has 2 practitioners face off in ready positions (the initiating position from the 1st and 2nd palm changes), with the forearms of their leading arms in contact. they conduct the sparring session by walking the circle facing each other, their arms maintaining contact.

Sifu instructed everyone to keep circling until he gave us the command to "enter." On this, we were supposed to engage our partner in mock combat using bagua techniques we'd learned in class. Sifu used the term "enter" as a connotative device to remind us that bagua was in part based on the idea of "opening the gate" (creating a situation where an opponent loses protective posture and becomes exposed to attack) and then "entering the gate" to attack.

this was a pretty interesting experience for me. going full speed with another human being capable of initiating and reacting to movement showed me a lot about the challenge of applying theory and technique in combat. things in a fight are not as neat and tidy and simplel as in practice, and the state of chaos is an additional order of complexity to overcome. i started with Eric as my partner, and then switched over to Lee.

i didn't do so well at first. lost is more like it. i found myself struggling to try and apply things i'd learned in class, while simultaneously have to guard against my opponent's movements. i started to get better after awhile, and a little more conscious as to what i was doing and how theory and technique could work for me, but i can see this is something that needs a lot more practice. i can also see this is probably one of the most important things in terms of being a martial art...i mean, it's never a martial art--and you are never a martial artist--unless you are capable of using it effectively in combat. funny, huh? a martial art actually being used in a martial situation. wow. what a concept.

2-person drills (1st palm change)

after a break, Jason had everyone gather in pairs again to work on another 2-person drill. he returned to the 1st palm change, which involves a turn into a push (pushing moon out the door). he showed us that for combat this is a simultaneous redirecting of an opponent's strike by the upper arm and a push into the opponent's torso with the lower hand.

Sifu said the drill for this involves 2 partners facing each other in a position to initiate pushing moon out the door, with each person's lower hand in contact with the other person's lower hand. the 2 practitioners take turns, with one initiating pushing moon out the door, and the other redirecting the attempt by bringing their upper hand close and slightly to the outside of the centerline (again, rotating the wrist...this is bagua, remember) and simultaneously bringing their lower hand slightly in.

Sifu said it's important that the defending partner subtly curve the back to receive the pushing partner's force. he instructed us to visualize "sucking" the opponent's force into our body.

this drill seemed relatively straightforward to the others, although i did notice that it could become awkward against a partner of a dramatically different size--the physics and feeling of the movements are different and take some adjustment, particularly if you're used to working against a person of a particular size. i started the drill with Mike, and then repeated it with Phunsak and a new student named Shatil (another friend of Ching-Tszieh's).

5th palm change

Jason had us finish the day with the 5th palm change. we went through the entire palm change, with all 3 of the previously divided sections united, as a single pattern. Sifu watched everyone, and went around correcting form. after several iterations, he seemed satisfied, and called everybody together to dismiss the class.

we finished with that, and also got a reminder that there would be a seminar from a visiting instructor next weekend. it's supposed to cover use of the spear. unfortunately, i'm rather busy next week with my other sport, and it looks like i'm going to have to miss the seminar. booooooooo!!!