day 303: crocodile cousins

concepts:

• striking with the hip
• vertical v. horizontal
• yin v. yang
• renmei v. dumei
  
• gashuku
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• bagua
  
• kyudo
  

this past Saturday went in a fair amount of depth, and so we didn't go into breadth. i have a relatively large amount of material, so i'll try to condense things as best i can. incidentally, Simon showed up today after a long absence (apparently his schedule opened up so that he was able to make the Saturday class).

hsing-yi

the agenda for hsing-yi was Shanxi crocodile. however, it turns out there are a lot more subtleties in it than i thought, and we ended up spending a lot of time going through a lot of concepts that are not apparent from just watching the form.

we reviewed Hebei crocodile and then compared it to Shanxi. Sifu pointed out the major differences:

• Shanxi has different direction in intent. through the forward (raised) arm, Hebei projects more horizontally out, while Shanxi projects more vertically up. the rear (lower) arm in Hebei is engaged in more of a pushing motion, while in Shanxi it is more of a strike.
• the applications are different. while both have a range of applications, Hebei is more suited for pushing the opponent back and off-balance and Shanxi is more suited for opening up the opponent for a strike.
• the hand positions are different. with Hebei, the hands have the index and middle fingers extended (although not completely) slightly farther than the ring and little fingers (which are loosely curled). with Shanxi, the hands are open.
  

Sifu also pointed out the major similarities:

• the lower body positioning is the same in both, with power coming by pushing off the ground as you slide forward. this, in combination with the upper body, is the fa jing.
• the movement of the legs in the form involve a step and a slide. while the step looks like a single action into the opponent, it actually can be broken down into an entry and control stages--in essence, hwa and na jing. Sifu said that hsing-yi is more direct than other styles, and so it can be difficult to recognize the sequence of ting, hwa, na, and fa in the movements, but you can recognize them by seeing the purpose behind them.
• similar to other internal styles, if ting, hwa, and na are done correctly, the opponent will already be in a problem, and the fa will be a bonus.
• the forward arm aids in the entry, by opening the opponent's gate. for both Hebei and Shanxi, it's important to follow-through, with the finishing point being past the opponent. the point is to disrupt the opponent's centerline and get them off-balance in the entry phase, so that the follow-through is a continuation directing the opponent away.
• the rear arm directs the power. it has to be unified with the power coming from the lower body. to do this, the rear hand stays near (but not on) the back hip, and the rear hand goes with the rear hip as it turns forward into the opponent. while the front arm breaks the opponent's centerline, the rear arm attacks the opponent's center. again, it's important to follow-through past the opponent.
• in doing ting, crocodile has to be initiated with a yin movement. Sifu said this is consistent with all of hsing-yi, and also with all internal styles. the yin movement acts to sense (ting) the opponent's action and absorb/avoid its force vector. it also acts to position the body to release power in the fa phase--that is, it stores potential energy that will be turned into kinetic energy (similar to a pitcher's wind-up in baseball). in addition, it misdirects the opponent by giving them misleading signals as to which direction you're going. to have crocodile do this, it's important to visualize a crocodile looking at its tail, so that your body's entire structure turns to your rear end. this means more than the front arm turning to your rear, but your entire structure. it doesn't have to be an extreme turn, but enough that your force vector starts with a small magnitude generally pointing away from the opponent (yin).
• for both, while the force vector starts in yin, it turns with the hip and increases in magnitude with the pushing of the legs so that it reaches full power at the time its direction goes into the opponent's centerline. for this to occur smoothly, ting, hwa, and na all have to work to open the opponent's gate, disrupt their centerline, and expose their center. this turned out to be a challenge, as we found out when we began practicing its application. Sifu noted that there is a bit of timing involved, and so needs a measure of sensitivity in feeling out the opponent's movements.
  

i should note that the yin-yang discussion brought up some applications outside of hsing-yi. i experimented with the concept with Siwann-di, particularly involving some arm/neck locks that are popular in wrestling. Sifu helped us out, pointing out the various options between yin and yang points and helping recognize ways to think about the concepts in terms of applications.

bagua

Simon has apparently been learning bagua xiao kai men as part of his baji training. Sifu decided it would be good to review some of the applications as a point of reference to hsing-yi. for today, we just did black bear probes with its paw and black bear turns its back. both are similar with hsing-yi crocodile in terms of their lower body, and black bear turns its back is similar with crocodile in terms of how its force vector works.

something Sifu mentioned today that i had not picked up on before was the relevance of thinking renmei (front meridian) and dumei (back meridian) in the application. it helps to move the body in yin actions thinking about the renmei, and conversely helps to move in yang actions thinking about dumei. it may be a visualization tool, but it helps adjust the biomechanics to generate the appropriate physics for the applications.

Sifu also pointed out that with black bear turns its back it's not necessary to try and break the opponent's centerline. he showed how the application focuses instead on the yin-yang distribution of the opponent's stance and can utilize this to direct their center even if their centerline maintains structure. this was new to me, and i found it a little puzzling. i had some difficulty on trying to replicate Sifu's moves, and i think this is going to take more work to figure out.

kyudo

kyudo today was the gashuku. it actually lasted 5 days over the weekend, but i was only able to make the Saturday evening. gashuku is a period of intense training, and Sensei held it as a way of getting the dojo (and other dojos from anywhere in the country or world) together and thereby jump-start to another level in training.

my shooting is feeling more comfortable these days, and i'm not having as much difficulty in the draw as before. Sensei told me to be careful with my bow hand, since i'm gripping too tight and not allowing the bow to turn. the hand is supposed to be loose enough that when the arrow is released the bow can turn through a 180-degree range of motion.

Sensei said this isn't just for aesthetic reasons. he said the aim of the arrow is a function of where it leaves the string. if the bow is locked by the hand into an angle during the release, that means that the arrow will leave the string off the sight-line. this will send the arrow on a flight path deviating from the sight-line of the archer--essentially, you won't hit what you're looking at.

while you can try to lock the bow at the moment of release so it doesn't turn at all, it's very hard on the bow, and in extreme cases can break it. it's better to keep the grip loose and let the bow turn so that the moment the arrow leaves the string it is aligned with the sight-line.

this, of course, is a little harder than it seems. at least, it is for me. i find that my instincts are still to tense the hand on release, which makes my grip tighter. i'm having to retrain myself to loosen the bow-grip at the same time i release from string from the glove hand. i also think it has to do with trying to keep the bow under control as i draw, and the heavier the draw the more i have to work on keeping it under control. i suspect that this is probably a sign that my draw form is still problematic, since it shouldn't be so hard to open up.

it's a work in progress. but then again, aren't we all just a work in progress?