day 140: rules of the jian!

concepts:

• jian shu tournament rules
• basics
• jian wu, jian jing, jian tsao
  

forms:

• kuen wu jian

today was even hotter than yesterday, making for a brutal Sunday. the only saving grace was the fact that the clean-up crew and had gone in and cleaned up (somewhat, at least) the remains of the school carnival Saturday, and while our typical spot was still a mess, it was passably clean enough that we felt comfortable (or desperate enough) to return to the shelter of the building shade. everyone ended up huddling in the shade.

Sifu announced today that he was going to start holding Sunday class every weekend from here on out through to the tournament in Las Vegas. the only exceptions are the 3 weeks he will be gone back home to Hawaii (from June 2 to June 20). there is a possibility he may return earlier, but it depends on what happens with the summer UCLA class (he's hoping to Ching-Chieh run things for the 1st week) and with his government contract (which may require an extended trip). outside of this time, he says we need to have every Sunday during the summer to help prepare for the tournament, since he plans to use them for sparring and jian shu training.

for this Sunday, Sifu decided we needed to change things from the usual lesson plan. he thought it crucial for the jian shu tournament rules to be finalized (apparently, they are not), since this is making for some complications with other kung fu schools preparing for the jian shu tournament. he singled out Alex as being responsible for resolving this situation (since Alex is the primary force behind the creation of the jian shu tournment), and said we needed to take care of this ASAP. as a result, he said he was going to work with Ching-Chieh and Jo, to get them up to speed on the Chen tai chi long form, and asked the rest of us (today, it was Alex, Phunsak, Richard, John Eagles, and me) to focus exclusively on addressing the issues with the jian shu tournament rules.

kuen wu jian

Alex and Phunsak took the lead on dealing with the jian shu rules. apparently, they've been discussing it for quite a while (it appears before Alex ever started manufacturing the polycarbonate jian swords, which i'm guessing was more than 2 years ago).

this is really Alex's baby. from what i can tell, and from what others have told me, there is no actual competitive jian shu as a sport comparable to fencing. there is forms competition, but the issue here, according to Alex, is that forms competition is somewhat limited in preserving a martial art, and forms competition for jian shu really on fulfills the same role forms competition does for hand-to-hand styles, which all too often is unable to teach practitioners how to use their martial art in a realistic, full-speed setting. for this, hand-to-hand practitioners often turn to full-contact sparring, either in practice or in a tournament. Alex says that his goal was to try and create a similar situation for jian practitioners, where they could turn to full-contact fighting to help learn how to apply their martial arts in a realistic, full-speed setting.

Alex, however, is stressing that the best he can do is to create a tournament. and a jian shu tournament is just like a hand-to-hand tournament, with rules and restrictions on what is allowed, and hence only serves to approximate--but never seriously duplicate--a realistic 1-on-1 combat situation. Alex says that's why he's making it clear that he's creating a jian shu sport, and readily concedes that it can't be seen as a truly realistic representation of jian shu in combat. for all this, he argues that it's still better than nothing, and goes farther to approximating reality than just simply solo forms.

in essence, my sense is that Alex is hoping to create a sport which is to traditional jian shu what fencing is to traditional European swordsmanship...not the same, but about as close as you can safely get, and still valuable as a training tool, challenging as a competition, and entertaining as a sport for everyone involved.

of course, the issue is trying to get these rules finalized...and this is what was the focus today.

Alex and Phunsak have already created a draft of tournament rules, and they've already been issued to teams (yes, the tournament will have teams) coming to Las Vegas. there are a number of unresolved issues, however, and it was these that Alex and Phunsak wanted to try and sort out today.

their idea was to hold a series of mock tournament fights, in full pads and going full contact, with Alex acting as referee and other students as judges. Alex would test out different rules, and try to see what seemed to work best in terms of improving game-play and entertainment value. Alex also wanted to see if there were any unforeseen problems that might arise which needed addressing. Alex said his main goal was to try and create a sport that gave competitors and spectators a sense of excitement and fun, and which could demonstrate the practical application of jian shu techniques. he hoped to create fights that were smooth, fluid, and constantly varying--akin to the pace of basketball or soccer games--since this is what he thought historical jian shu fights were probably like. having said this, he also said he hoped the jian shu sport could also provide a forum for alternative sword styles (such as fencing) to participate and thereby demonstrate how competing styles of swordsmanship might face off against each other.

since i'm not going to the jian shu tournament, and i don't feel sufficiently far enough along in understanding jian shu, i bowed out of fighting. but i did serve as a judge. Phunsak, John, and Richard took turns playing the role of competitors and judges.

i won't go into detail about what we discussed, tested, experimented with, discovered, and figured out...that's for Alex to present. i'll be brief and just say that we went through 6 tournament-situation matches, following formal rules, and did our best to hash things out. Alex seemed content, although he felt there were some lingering issues he wanted to try to resolve.

by this time, Sifu had returned, and took some time to talk things over with us. he eventually said we should take another weekend to work on the rules, but then Alex needed to issue final rules. Sifu said that at this point it was more important for everyone to familiarize themselves with the rules, since they at least needed to have something in common to work with and prepare in time for Las Vegas. he also said that we could also issue a public statement that this jian shu tournament was only the 1st, and so really a beta, and that competitors should just see it as a test. Sifu suggested that this would also allow us to be more inclusive of all the participants, in that we could ask them for feedback and comments, and thereby help them feel more involved in jian shu as a sport.

with this done, and having finished helping Ching-Chieh and Jo with the Chen long form, Sifu instructed us to finish the day with some jian shu basics.

this was a bit of a blessing for me, since i've never had them. everyone else has. for today, Phunsak led us through the 8 jian shu stances (strangely similar to the usual slate of kung fu stances, but just with a sharp object that is switched alternatively between left and right hands), and then led us through 5 basic jian drills:

• pi (left & right hand) : this is a slashing movement vertically downwards going slightly from right to left, or left to right
• kan (left & right hand) : this is a slashing movement diagonally downwards from right to left, left to right (more horizontal than pi, such that you visualize crossing diagonally from corner of a box to another)
• moi (left & right hand) : this is a slashing movement horizontally from right to left, or left to right
• hwe (left & right hand) : this is kan, but slashing diagonally upwards
• liu (left & right hand) : this is pi, but slashing vertically upwards
  

the key thing here is the orientation of the hand, which has to be done specifically in relation to where the sword arm is in the movement. the orientation of the hand affects 1) the ability to take the shock of impact, 2) the direction of the force vector, and 3) the movement itself.

Sifu noted that we were not following the traditional Wutan curriculum for jian shu. the jian shu curriculum has 3 components:

• jian wu (or basic form) -- with little emphasis on combat relevance, making it more a dance
• jian jing (or advanced form) -- with emphasis on combat applications, and hence incorporating power projection
• jian tsao (or basics) -- with focus on combat applications, addressing the fundamental techniques of using a jian in combat
  

in the Wutan system, Sifu said that traditionally students began with jian wu, then progressed jian jing, and finished with jian tsao. this meant that students could learn a form, like the kuen wu jian form, but not actually be skilled enough to considered combat-ready swordsmen.

Sifu commented his personal preference is to begin with jian tsao, then go to jian wu, and finish with jian jing. he said this was because learning the basics made it easier for students to pick up the forms. in addition, it was also more consistent with the curriculum for hand-to-hand fighting.

we took some further time doing the drills, and then eventually called class to a close.