day 91: 64 palms in the circle

concepts:

• placement & positioning
• footwork
• ling cung jing
  

forms:

• 64 palms, palms 1-4

it was a beautiful day in the park, with clear sun, no clouds, no wind, and temps warmer than the forecast 70 degrees.

before class started, i worked with John, and later Phunsak, trying to figure out 1 of the techniques from the Chen tai chi form (a variation of strumming the lute involving a throw) that had given me so much trouble last week. as much as i understood the principles (or at least, thought i did), i didn't really seem to get the mechanics. turns out we all had some issued remembering the technique, so we ended up spending a fair amount of time trying to figure things out. i didn't really improve my mastery of this technique, and am still scratching my head on this one. Phunsak says it's a coordination issue, but that's not really very reassuring.

class began with Sifu gathering everyone together for some announcements about the next steps in the curriculum:

• forms--bagua is finishing 64 palms. originally, the plan was to proceed to the fist form. but Sifu says that the fist form is very long, and potentially overwhelming. he thinks it will be better to go to the arm form first, which will help provide the necessary building blocks for the fist and eventually elbow form.
• weapons--as part of our bagua training, Sifu said that we should learn the deer-horn knives, particularly since it incorporates so much of the core components for the arm, elbow, and fist forms. he thinks it will help with our training for those forms, as well as strengthen our existing body of development in bagua. in addition, he would like to see everyone (both bagua and baji students) acquire staffs and possibly double sticks.
  

the issue about the latter is purchasing the weapons. Sifu says he no longer knows of any high-quality sources for them, since the ones he knew have either gone out of business or have declined in quality. Phunsak showed printouts from one source, and Sifu seemed somewhat satisfied. ultimately, however, the decision was made to continue researching places that sold high-quality materials. also, Sifu and Phunsak seemed to think that Andre would have better knowledge of reputable dealers, particularly ones that could sell high-quality weapons in bulk with discounts for group sales to all of us.

64 palms, palms 1-4, in a circle

finishing announcements, Sifu instructed the bagua students to do palms 1-4 in a circle, and that he would polish our technique after starting the baji students with their lesson plan.

to start us off, Sifu stood in the center of our circle, and told us to practice doing the palm changes with changes in our focus. he asked us to first do the palm changes focusing on an opponent in the center of the circle (i.e., where he was standing), and then to do the palm changes focusing on a point beyond the opponent.

Sifu stressed that this drill was about more than just visual focus, but about overall sensory focus and imagination, so that we see our movements and actions working not on a 2-dimensional plane placed perpendicularly in front of us (i.e., we don't see the opponent as a figure on a television screen), but more in 3-d space, so that we operate not into the opponent, but through them. Sifu noted this is important to express the true nature of bagua, which involves moving to surround the opponent and overload their senses. in addition, it also multiplies the power and effectiveness of the techniques.

Sifu explained that this was a drill he'd forgotten to incorporate in the bagua curriculum, and only recently remembered. he noted that it was a drill Liu Yun Chiao had his students do, but that when he had done so he had only explained it very briefly. Sifu himself has apparently not taught this drill in quite some time--Phunsak told me he's never seen it.

apart from developing the nature of bagua (i.e., the bagua "spirit" or "essence" or, in Sifu's words, the "true flavor of bagua") and power, this drill also seems to train the student's ability to switch seamlessly between point focus (i.e., the ability to focus on a specific point) and soft focus (i.e., the ability to focus on general surroundings while still maintaining awareness of a target). you need to have both, since it allows you to maintain and develop the sensory capacity necessary to operate effectively in a dynamic, constantly moving setting--particularly one where you are asked to be the dynamo, moving in 3-d space about an uncooperative and hostile attacker.

Sifu watched us for palm change 1, then instructed Phunsak to continue leading us through palm changes 2-4 while he went to work with the baji students.

so far we've done palms 1-8 in a line and in 2-person sets. technically, this is the 1st time we've done them in a circle. in truth, however, i know that some of us (me, i know, and John, i suspect, and Phunsak, without question), have already been doing this. i've experimented with it, not knowing the official form normally done for presentations. i've pieced it together, although i have no idea if it comports with the official version.

we did 10 iterations of each palm change, with 5 focusing on the center of the circle (1 iteration including both left and right palm changes) and 5 focusing beyond the center of the circle.

after awhile, Sifu returned to make comments about our palm changes:

• placement & positioning--continuing his statements from the start of the lesson, Sifu pointed out that each palm change's sequence of techniques had a purpose other than just helping to remember general applications. he said the order of the techniques also has the purpose of helping understand just where and when the practitioner should be moving. using the 2nd palm change as an example, he demonstrated how it shows the user 1) where they should be placed relative to an opponent, and 2) their positioning (orientation and posture) in relaton to the opponent. moreover, it shows how the practitioner can move seamlessly from one technique to another. Sifu said we should note that the palm changes illustrate his point about doing more than just visualize the opponent in 2-d, but instead place yourself to attack the opponent in 3-d so that your power goes through the opponent.
• footwork--Sifu called upon us to notice the nature of attack and defense in bagua. the palm changes, he noted, show you that you don't have to be facing the opponent to be effective, but that instead you can attack and defend from any placement or positioning. if anything, you actually need to do this. bagua calls upon the practitioner to understand that you operate without facing the opponent, and avoiding face-to-face confrontation, but rather exercise an "insurgent" mindset of locating and exploiting weak points in unexpected, unconventional, unknown places. to make this possible, you have to exercise good footwork, and recognize that the footwork is the essential element of getting yourself behind, around, under, over, or into an opponent...and even at the point of attack, when you seek to disrupt the center, you are not going directly at the opponent, but (again) through them.
• ling cung jing (sic--sp?)--as an additional point, Sifu asked us to observe that bagua, similar to tai chi, utilizes ling cung jing. using tai chi push hands, he demonstrated that you can overcome a force-on-force (yang-versus-yang) confrontation by a slight pulse of yielding and then force (i.e., slight yin, and then immediately into yang). he showed how this works with the 2nd palm change, and that it serves to break the force vector and opponent's concentration just enough to instigate instability into their structure, which you can then exploit for further destruction. i should note that i may be wrong in this interpretation (as well as spelling) of ling cung jing, since this was something new to me (i've seen it in typical schoolyard settings, but not in the context of formal martial arts application).
  

we eventually finished for the day, with Sifu pointing out that it was time everyone got ready to go to UCLA for Ching-Chieh's performance. we called class to a close and went to lunch.