day 52: palm change 6 & misc

concepts:

• fireman's carry
• openings
• options
  

forms:

• 2-person form, palm change 6 (A versus B)

today was largely review from last week, with the exception of the warm-up. there was a guest today from Cal State Long Beach--a professor who apparently had been responsible for getting Sifu to teach there, and so Sifu had to hold a conference with him and left Phunsak to run our class and James (?) to run the baji class.

Phunsak had us begin with dynamic stances, and then through a set of the basic 2-hand drills. following this, Phunsak then showed us a series of drills that Master Su had taught him. these drills were linear, and basically involved transitioning through a series of postures from closed position to open position in a way that progressed along a line. i was going to take videos, but Mike Hitchcock said that these were available on DVD, and so that it wasn't necessary.

2-person form, palm change 6

the main part of class was just the 2-person form of palm change 6. since Mike and Art had missed last week, we took some time to go through the 2-person form. we did a brief review of side A and side B individually, and then spent the bulk of class going through the 2-person form.

Phunsak had originally told me that we were going to start the 2-person form for palm change 7 today, but by the time we had gotten through palm change 6 class was drawing to a close and Sifu had come back to remind everyone about the September layoff.

Sifu took a moment to correct our sequence from unicorn spits out book of knowledge to black bear probes with its paw in palm change 6 side A. in the 2-person form, the knee rises into a strike into the opponent, and then goes into a kick at waist height. Sifu commented that the kick isn't actually targeted at the waist--it can, but that this puts you at risk of being pushed off-balance by the opponent (which is what side B attempts in the 2-person form as they roll around side A in avoiding the kick). in reality, the safer (and in many ways, more effective) target is the opponent's knees. Sifu said the kick can either go into the opponent's knee nearest you, or the knee away from you. from the positioning of the angle, intent is to stretch or tear the tendons and ligaments in the knees.

at the same time, the reaching hand in black bear probes with its paw can then be an actual strike to the opponent's upper body, with the options of being a fist, hand, or arm strike to the head, eyes, face, or throat, or even simply a way of grabbing the opponent for a follow-up throw.

Sifu pointed out that this sequence can be done with the hand strike being a feint for the knee and leg kick, or the knee or leg kick can be a feint for the hand strike.

at this point, Phunsak, Mike, Art, and Sifu got involved in a conversation about tai chi (since this is the course Sifu will be teaching at UCLA). a lot of it involved techniques. i did not understand most of it, since i'm not familiar with tai chi, but i managed to follow the comments regarding throws.

after awhile, i got onto a tangent with Phunsak regarding the fireman's carry. Phunsak noted that Sifu had advised him that it only works as a carry if you enter via the tiger gate. i told Phunsak that this is something i had found with John Eagles when we had tried it ourselves--by attempting it via the dragon gate (i.e., facing with the same orientation as the opponent), we had found it very difficult to lift the opponent, and had found that it had really been more effective as a way to throw the opponent off your back. but by entering via the tiger gate (i.e., facing the opponent), it places you much more under the opponent's center of gravity, making it easier to lift them into the carry position.

the tiger gate, i notice, seems to be the way wrestlers engage the fireman's carry, since the initial moves into the carry also gives the wrestler the option to simply charge forward into the opponent's legs, knocking them off-balance.

i subsequently fell into discussion with Phunsak regarding the nature of bagua. i told him that i'm getting the feel that much of bagua--at least, the way Sifu is teaching it--is not so much about the techniques by themselves, but rather about entries and positions that enable application of techniques. i'm starting to believe that bagua is really teaching the nuances of positioning, spacing, angles, and tools to find or create openings in an opponent's defenses, at which point the practitioner is then free to choose from any number of options for striking--options in terms of targets, techniques (throws, joint locks, grappling, open hand strikes, fist strikes, etc.) , or intent (maximum or minimum damage).

Phunsak responded that this is pretty much the nature of bagua, and which is why it is so important to recognized and practice the entry methods of bagua as much as it is to learn the techniques. he reminded me that bagua, in terms of fighting, deals with 1) entries, and 2) techniques. bagua, he commented, actually allows for techniques not taught in any of its forms, since bagua can function simply as a base from which a practitioner can locate and exploit the opponent's openings, from which the practitioner then has the option of using whatever techniques (bagua or otherwise) they may know.

class ended at this point, with Sifu sticking around to give Eric personal instruction. everyone else left for the month, with class expected to resume September 29.