day 139: 2-person forms refined (at least to palm 6)

concepts:

• variations, changes, modifications
  

forms:

• bagua leg form
• 2-person forms, palm changes 1-6
  

today was hot. brutally hot (close to, if not exactly, 100 degrees). and we were ejected from our typical meeting place in the shade by a street sweeper cleaning up the elementary school grounds from the prior day, when they'd had a carnival (in the middle of 100-degree heat, of course). meaning we were left huddling under the trees the entire day...not that it made much difference, other than enable us to avoid the glare of the sun; we still got to bake quite nicely, like cookies in the oven.

bagua leg form

i will include the private consultation i had Friday here. while it was outside the normal class schedule, it did finish off the bagua leg form, and so filled in a missing element of the bagua curriculum as it is structured within the Wutan system. as a result, i figure i should include it here.

the private session included me, Jay, and John. John had the leg form previously, but he seems to think he's forgotten a good portion of it, and so joined us as a refresher. for me and Jay this has been the first time. i've had prior sessions to go through this before (reference: day 84, day 85, day 102, & day 115), and this Friday was meant to finish off the last 1/4 of the form.

you can see Youtube video of the leg form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkwKylHWB5o

i haven't gotten as clean as this video, but i've been practicing it, and hope to make things better with time.

finishing the form went quickly, with the bulk of the private session spent on applications. i notice that even though it's called the "leg form," it's not really about kicks, and actually has a substantial portion devoted to applications that are not kicks. Sifu noted this, repeating his points from when we started the form that it was actually meant to not just only train kicks, but was actually meant for several purposes--all of which still involve the legs (and hence, justify the title "leg form"):

• kicks--in bagua, just like tai chi, most of the kicks are low, and largely never go above the waist
• power--in bagua (actually, in all TCMA, and martial arts in general), power (fa) in all movements begins from the legs
• manipulation--this is the hwa and na jing leading to fa jing, both of which require the legs to aid in controlling and positioning
• footwork--this is crucial to all jings (ting, hwa, na, fa)
• balance--this is important to holding structure while engaging the opponent's structure
  

the session lasted about a total of 2 hours, with Sifu leaving for other commitments and Jay and John staying late to practice the form. i left to get in an afternoon workout, since i'd skipped my usual on-campus training session due to the undergraduate commencement (which turns the campus into a mad-house, and something i do everything i can to avoid).

2-person forms, palm changes 1-6

this Saturday was a bit fragmented, with the heat causing people to break off into groups that could fit under the shade of the trees. as a result, different pairs worked on different things, with the only central agenda being Sifu's instruction to do a review of palms 1-6, sides A & B, and then concentrate on the 2-person forms for palms 4 & 5, with a little work on 6 for anyone feeling adventurous.

i ended up working with Phunsak, Laura, and Ching-Chieh, as well as Art, who showed up later. Phunsak led us through all the palms, from 1-8, for both sides. this turned out to be good, since it turned out that i'd forgotten some of the moves for the endings of palm 6, side B, and palm 7, side B. Art commented that this wasn't a major problem, since Sifu has changed the palms with each iteration of the curriculum, but i still consider it important to at least have a clear memory of what i've learned, so that i can identify when something is changed (as opposed to forgotten).

following this, since Ching-Chieh and Laura had never finished learning the palms for side B, or the 2-person forms that require them, Phunsak began taking us through the 2-person forms for palms 4, 5, & 6.

i stayed with this for a little while, but then bowed out to see what the other bagua students were doing--i'd noticed that Jay and John were doing something different for the 2-person form for palm 6. turns out that Sifu had shown them a different variation, making now 4 variations that i've seen between what we've learned in class, what Phunsak showed me from the 1st time he learned it, what Art demonstrated from the previous times he's learned it, and what Jay and John were working on.

we worked on doing repetitions for the remainder of class, with Phunsak and Ching-Chieh devoting the most effort. Sifu also took some time to review their forms, since they are going to compete in the 2-person forms competition at the tournament. he made modifications as they went, changing movements to make the forms more aesthetically appealing and observationally obvious for tournament judges who may not know bagua or the meanings in its movements. he also took extra time to review Laura's solo form, since she is also doing the solo forms competition at the tournament.

we ultimately called class to a close, not just because it was 1pm (the customary end time), but also because the heat was starting to become intense and people were becoming eager to find some air conditioning. we almost bolted to lunch.