day 185: all about movement

concepts:

• movement
• multiple degrees of motion
  
• tension and looseness
• smoothness
• level
  

lessons:

• chang quan (chao quan)
• bagua forest palm
  

i returned to the usual schedule this week, since i was feeling back to normal. i ended up not attending kyudo on Saturday, since there was a cultural event sponsored by the Thai Consul General in Los Angeles that i felt compelled to attend (a friend of mine was associated with the show, and it was the kind of show that does not appear that often--if ever--in Los Angeles).

chang quan (chao quan)

the Friday chang quan lesson marked a progression to chao quan, which is the 3rd form and follows pao quan. Sifu had me do a few iterations of pao quan to start class, working with me on some points to refresh my memory and refine my movements. he said that i could work on refining pao quan on my own, since he felt i was at a stage with the form that it is now largely about repetition and practice to emphasize the major elements. he reminded me that i needed to focus on developing the "flavor" of chang quan, and that to do this i needed to follow the points of the acronym he had given last week:

• smooth (as opposed to the tai chi "slow")
• long
• even
• deep
  

after working on pao quan for the first part of class, Sifu said it was time to move onto to chao quan. he introduced chao quan by reiterating the curriculum's progression of forms: 1) tantui, 2) pao quan, and 3) chao quan. to review, he noted that tantui focuses on the basics of stretching the body (muscle and connective tissue), improving balance, and increasing coordination. pao quan works on developing dynamic movement to apply the chang quan techniques introduced in tantui, and also accentuates overall extension, smooth flow between techniques, conditioning, and coordination. chao quan, in contrast, challenges the practitioner to develop better transitions (i.e., staying smooth through even more challenging sequences) between techniques, and to constantly adjust direction, pacing, and states of hard and soft.

Sifu noted that chao quan is what most people identify as chang quan, or long fist, since it is the form utilized by wushu competitors in tournaments. he cautioned, however, that the chao quan utilized for wushu is NOT the traditional chao quan, and that while many of the techniques and their sequence may be the same, the appearance is very different. unlike wushu, traditional chao quan if performed in a way that reminds the practitioner of the techniques--and more importantly, the physics involved in them. as a result, the intent of the traditional practitioner can clearly be seen as distinct from the wu shu competitor.

Sifu continued by observing the context of chao quan in the traditional curriculum. he noted that for jia men chang quan (islamic long fist), it composes the 3rd form. however, some styles of long fist have as many as 5 forms, with each form intended to teach differing sets of principles and techniques. Sifu asserted that you don't need so many forms, and that with islamic long fist, the principles still managed to encompassed in just 3 forms, making it unnecessary to have any more.

Sifu then led me through the initial movements of chao quan. as we went through them, he emphasized the following points:

• movement--with chao quan, you have to think in different directions, not only on a horizontal plane, but also vertically and rotationally
• multiple degrees of motion--chao quan utilizes all degrees of motion (horizontal, vertical, rotational, angular, in all ranges, directions, and magnitudes). as a result, in chao quan you can see the seeds that were picked up and utilized to form the basis of other later styles (baji, piqua, tai chi, bagua, etc.). as a result many of the chao quan movements should be very familiar to anyone who's learned these other styles.
• tension and looseness--even more than pao quan, chao quan requires a looseness in the body, and constantly asks the practitioner to shift back and forth from states of tension and looseness.
• smoothness--just like pao quan, the practitioner has to be smooth in transitioning from one technique to another. however, in chao quan, this is made harder by the greater level of complexity in the movements and transitions.
• level--i have to be sure to remain level, since i have a tendency to move up and down (vertically). Sifu has pointed this out to me before (i.e., in bagua), and it's something i'm working on. it's a bad habit, since any up-and-down action usually means a lowering or raising of the center of mass, which makes it easier for the opponent to get under your center of mass and break your structure.
  

we'd started a little early (before 4 pm), since we'd both arrived at the park in light traffic. as a result, we finished early, sometime a little before 6pm.

bagua forest palm

Saturday morning was a continuation of forest palm. we began with a review of what we'd done, taking some time to help some people who'd missed last Saturday to catch up. after this, Sifu took us a little further into the form. he allowed us to practice this while he worked with the baji students, and then returned and asked to see us do the form individually.

i'm feeling somewhat comfortable with what we've done so far, since so many of the movements are coming from 64 palms. the only difference is that the directions are different, with forest palms constantly changing into different directions, which is different from 64 palms, which largely limits itself to directions along the perimeter of a circle. having said this, i should point out that today we came to a juncture where i'm definitely having to work harder to remember everything we're learning, and having to spend more time strengthening my memory of what we've done.

we ended class when Phunsak and Ching-Chieh left to visit her acupuncture therapist (he decided to try it today, and so was carpooling with her). the rest of us went to lunch.