day 69: yang tai chi, strike concepts, & palm change 8

concepts:

• 6 aspects (hyun, jyin, kuai, jen, hwa, gi)
• 5 strikes (suai, da, na, ti, dien)
  

forms:

• Yang tai chi simplified 24 movement
• palm change 8

today was light turnout. i counted just me, John Eagles, Siwann-da, Kieun, Eric, and Art, making 6 students total--including the baji and bagua students.

we ended up having a lighter workout day, which is just as well since i was pretty tired. we spent the majority of time discussing fighting concepts.

Yang tai chi simplified 24 movement

we began by warming up with the Yang tai chi simplified 24 movement form. John Eagles asked to do it several times, which allowed me to record it. you can see the Youtube video:
the link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW9s2adm0Yc

aspects

Sifu then talked about the 6 aspects of fighting recognized within TCMA circles. his comments are as follows:

• hyun--this has several English equivalents according to Sifu: aggression, meanness, brutality, determination, or purpose of fighting...i'm a little unclear as to this, although i'm guessing that i can most readily identify with aggression, since this is a concept that is continuously stressed in U.S. military circles as a necessary quality for soldiers to fight, survive, and fulfill their mission.
• jyin--accuracy in strike
• kuai--speed in movement and thought
• jen--Sifu said this has 2 meanings: stealth and strategy. he meant the nature of fighting that involved planning and disguising plans. i'm guessing that this would involve words like deceptive, shifty, savvy, guile, or cunning.
• hwa--Sifu said this word was used to describe thoughts and movements that are slippery, smooth, sliding. i'm guessing other words that fit are evasive or elusive.
• gi--this was a hard one, but Sifu eventually settled on the words abrupt and explosive
  

note: these are rough spellings, and i have no idea what the usual standard English translation for the Chinese is. hopefully somebody can tell me, and better yet supply the Chinese characters.

strikes

Sifu went on to talk about the different kinds of strikes. we'd covered some of this when we recorded the applications for the initial set of the 24 Yang tai chi movements (reference: day 62), but today Sifu expanded on this to 5:

• suai--throws, trips
• da--punches, slaps, hits using he upper body
• na--joint locks, grappling
• ti--kicks, hits using the lower body
• dien--pressure points
  

Sifu did demonstrations for each of these. he also emphasized that in a fight a practitioner should never employ just 1 of these at a time, but should use combinations--not combinations sequentially, but simultaneously. for example, there should be 2 joint locks applied, rather than just 1, or a joint lock applied in conjunction with a throw, or a hand strike to a pressure point with a kick. the point is to overload the opponent's senses, mind, and reflexes so that they don't know how to react, increasing their vulnerability to attack.

palm change 8

we finished the day by reviewing palm change 8, side A. we did this in line, and then we did in a circle as a group.

Sifu reminded us about the Sunday class, and Art announced that the long-awaited tai chi qi-gong DVDs were finished and on sale for $35. i bought one for my library. we then left for lunch with Art.