day 302: Shanxi hsing-yi continued

concepts:

• loose
• snap
• kiu xing (sp?)
• jin xing (sp?)
• spine
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

so i'm starting to get caught up, although i still suspect there's quite a bit of things that i've missed. it's hard to say. details that i think are important may not be thought the same by other people, and so whatever they relay to me may not be what i would have focused on. but i'll work with what i have.

hsing-yi

i'm going to combine all the Shanxi hsing-yi videos that we've done to date and bring things up to where we are now.

so far for Shanxi style we've done dragon, tiger, monkey, and horse. you can see what they look like:

Shanxi dragon: http://youtu.be/fKDe90afZVA


Shanxi tiger: http://youtu.be/9xc4v0-DEgM


Shanxi monkey: http://youtu.be/my2ODmxPSEA


Shanxi horse: http://youtu.be/oM5vK3HCbnc

in terms of notes, i already have what i managed to collect in previous posts for above animals with the exception of horse. for horse, Sifu gave the following:

• the wrists and hands have to be loose, with a heavy feeling, and extend but to a lesser degree than in ostrich (tai bird)
• the wrists and hands have to snap in the form
• the idea is that power is being transmitted from the ground through the body and out through the hands. tensing the wrists or hands acts to choke off the power. similarly, not snapping also throttles power.
  

on a more general comment, Sifu said that to understand the intent (yi) in each animal we can look at them (Hebei, Shanxi, or Henan) in terms of 2 components (someone will have to correct my spelling here, since i'm guessing):
kiu xing (sp?)--this refers to the hunting/predatory phase of an animal's movement, and so reminds you that you're supposed to utilize that kind of mindset and mimic that kind of behavior
jin xing (sp?)--this refers to the spirit or characteristics of the animal, and so reminds you that you're supposed to use that mindset in performing the animal

we spent the class practicing Shanxi horse, as well as the other Shanxi animals. which was good, because i need it.

kyudo

kyudo went well tonight. Sensei said that i'm "developing a nice release," and i took that as a sign of progress. he reminded me to keep my left hand loose enough to allow the bow to rotate, since this is the major issue preventing my release from being clean.

apart from that, i am also working on my extension in the form. this continues to be a major problem. i've been working on this in tai hai (practice without equipment) to try to get a feel of the movement, but there's a difference between practicing without equipment and then doing the form with the tension of the bow. the resistance of the bow induces all kinds of instincts that are contrary to the form, and so disrupts my draw.

right now, i think the issue is not the extension through the arms or legs. the issue is more with my center and my spine, particularly in terms of how i push off the ground and extend my spine from the center up through my neck.

Sensei noted that at full draw just before release i should have a visible opening up of the body through the back, neck, and shoulders. right now, i release while slightly hunched over, meaning that i release short of full extension. i suspect that the extension through the spine up through the neck (i.e., so the neck lifts the head) will help this, since it naturally adjusts posture in terms of the back, neck, and shoulders. i'll see.