day 236: guess i don't know things like i thought i did

concepts:

• chi
• structure
  

lessons:

• miscellanous

this Sunday was more miscellany, since i think most people were more focused on going to the Las Vegas tournament (next weekend).

we took a little time today to review the teaching device Sifu has used--the one involving looking down in order to generate force down into a person's hand. i've written about this before, and to a degree i thought i'd figured it out.

of course, this meant that no, no i hadn't really. for some reason, i could not get the technique to work on Sunday, and i spent the rest of class trying to figure things out.

Sifu, Josan, and John Eagles all offered advice and comments, but i think i was getting to the point where there was just too many different source of information saying different things that while not necessarily conflicting still ended up just muddling things up for me (too many cooks...). based on what i was being told, a lot of it involves being able to direct focus as a way of directing force (or, in the terminology today, chi), with the note that 1) you're not supposed to use your upper body (chest, back, arms, etc.) to exert strength but instead to just direct it, and 2) the force is coming from the ground. Sifu says it involves dropping the chi into the ground and letting the reaction forces come back up. he pointed out that in order for that to happen you have to maintain proper structure, so that the energy, or chi, doesn't get dissipated or blocked as it comes back up from the ground through your body.

i practiced this w Martin and then Aurelijus, but just couldn't get it to work. i'm still scratching my head. i'll have to think on this some more.

the remainder of the time i took some videos of Aurelijus demonstrating the cane forms. you can see them here:

• cane short form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2A-3ZgxZyY
  
• cane long form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQWZNtGNg-M
  
  

Auri told me that these forms aren't really in the Wutan system, but that they were forms that Sifu had learned from another instructor outside of Wutan. Auri considers the cane a useful weapon--more useful than say a sword or stick, since in modern society it's more likely that you'll be carrying a cane relative to any other weapon and more likely that you'll be allowed to carry a cane (by security, police, guards, etc.) relative to any other weapon as well. he also sees it as being very effective.

i haven't learned the cane, but the last time it was taught was some time ago (i think Auri was the most recent person to learn it). but it looks interesting, so i'll have to make a mental note as something to look into learning at some point in the future.