concepts:
- pole drill, front
- pole drill, side
- 1st palm change
- 2nd palm change
to start, i was moving very poorly today. i strained my lower back pretty bad last night while doing a series of plyometric drills with the team. i felt my lower back muscles pull right near the tailbone. it was excruciating.
last night and this morning were bad. it hurt (and does hurt) to walk, sit, stand, drive, turn, everything. and the pain is bad enough that i literally can feel my legs buckle.
i contemplated skipping today's class, but decided i'd go anyway after thinking about the tuition check i had just given to Phunsak last week. i decided i'd attend class, and if thing were too bad then i'd just observe and take notes. i went ahead and taped an icy-heat patch to my tailbone, then popped some Advil and went to Monterey Park for class.
the class began as the seeming typical, with the usual cast of regulars: Lee, Ching-Tzieh, and me. Ching-Tzieh this time had brought some of her dance friends. we introduced ourselves, and then loosely began to line up for the initial stances, which apparently seem to be the beginning of every class. Lee, as per the apparently common, led. Lee said i should go ahead and do the stances, since he felt that it might actually help my back pain.
Art showed this time, and greeted me warmly, asking me if i'd shown up last week and how it had gone. i told him we had started the Single Palm Change and Art gave me a puzzled look and said, "oh no, it wasn't the Single Palm Change. it couldn't have been the Single Palm Change."
all i could do was shrug. i mean, who knows, maybe he was right and i was wrong. honestly? i'm so new i'm not entirely confident that i know what's going on half the time anyway.
by this time Sifu Jason had shown up from his Jianshu class (which is the martial art for the Chinese sword-a relatively light one-handed straight double-edged sword) down in Long Beach (which he teaches every Saturday morning before driving up to Monterey Park for his regular martial arts classes). he had everyone come together, and then broke people off into groups to work on technique.
i told Sifu Jason about my back and he took a close look at the icy-heat patch i had put near my tailbone. i told him i was going to go ahead and try to do the rest of the class, since i wanted to get my money's worth. he laughed.
pole drill
Sifu Jason had me break off into a pair with one of Ching-Tzieh's friends, a woman named Tayesha. i'm guessing she's another dancer. Sifu Jason then instructed Phunsak to work with us, working on a drill that he demonstrated involving the hands, but whose name i completely forgot. he told Phunsak to have Tayesha and me practice for left and right arms, front and then side.
Phunsak took some time demonstrating the drill to us, and then took longer to observe and correct our form. i lost track of the other students, who were working on drills of their own.
at one point, Art came over to observe us. Art told me 2 weeks ago that he had had his prostrate removed as a result of prostate cancer, and that he was still in the process of coming back from the surgery. as a result, he told me, his stamina wasn't what it once was, necessitating that he stop every once in awhile and take a breath. i took it he was using one of these breaks to observe how i was doing.
Art stopped me at one point and said that it was probably helpful if i saw the application of the drill for combat. he performed the drill on me and explained its concept of redirecting an opponent's arm thrust and countering with a strike forward to the opponent's head. he then had me perform the drill on him to feel the pressure and how the drill was supposed to work.
Art was right. once i understood the concept, it was much easier to understand the proper technique.
Sifu Jason interrupted Art and said it was better if we practiced on a pole, and then directed Art to take it easy for a few minutes and told Phunsak to do the drill using a pole of a jungle gym at the playground next to where class was being held. Phunsak complied, and then explained how the pole was used to better understand the proper technique for the drill.
he was right. using the pole made a dramatic difference. particularly when we shifted from doing the drill facing the pole to facing it sideways. Phunsak showed us how performing the drill sideways incorporated an additional element of footwork, which he said was crucial for adding extra reach and more power.
Phunsak was relatively patient with us, and he was certainly attentive to detail in making sure we were following proper technique. but I could tell he felt left out of the more advanced drills Sifu Jason was demonstrating to the other students.
i felt for him. Art had told me Phunsak was one of Sifu Jason's best students, and evidently has become the most senior even though he is dramatically younger than some of the longest-tenured students (Phunsak is, for example, in his mid-30s while Art is in his late 50s) and has been with Sifu Jason for far fewer years (only 4, compared to Art's 20+).
Art had also told me Phunsak had the best form of any of Sifu Jason's students, and i can see it whenever Phunsak performs any of the techniques. i suspect this was why Sifu Jason wanted Phunsak to work with us beginners on the basic techniques; he wanted to make sure we learned the fundamental things the right way from the very start.
double palm change
after some time, Sifu Jason stopped the class, then motioned for everyone to gather around him. he told us he wanted us to learn the Double Palm Change.
Art whispered to me with a measure of disbelief, "I guess we really are doing 64 Palms."
Sifu Jason began by reviewing the Single Palm Change from last week, then he continued by showing the Double Palm Change.
from what i can tell, the Double Palm Change builds upon the Single Palm Change, using the same initial circular motions, shifts in weight from leg to leg, and "fire and water" in progressing from one movement to another. it is also similar in that it's a sequence of stances. the one difference is that it is longer, and involves a change into a more complex finishing series of techniques.
Sifu Jason took some additional time to explain the concepts behind the technique in terms of what they were supposed to do in a combat situation, particularly in terms of hand movement and progression in weight shift. he also reminded us of the importance of "fire and water" and the idea of spiralling force, which evidently is supposed to increase the power of the actions.
for some reason, while it is definitely more complex, the Double Palm Change seemed easier to pick up than the Single Palm Change was last week. i think this may have been the product of the practice i put in over the past week working on the Single Palm Change and the attendant "fire and water" drills. i also think this is a result of my muscles and my mind becoming more accustomed to the movements, and my body starting to acquire muscle memory and sense of physical coordination for a new way of moving.
initial thoughts
the class ended with Sifu Jason giving us some basic pointers and then dismissing us with a bow.
a couple of things i suspected were confirmed today:
- understanding the concepts and rational behind movements really helps, since it helps the student focus on what it is important in the movement and also helps in developing visualization of the proper technique
- Sifu Jason is definitely mindful of the need to learn fundamentals the right way, and is making sure that the beginners are getting focused attention--even if there are only 2 of us
- i'm starting to get more comfortable, but over time it's going to take more attention and energy to learn names and connect them with concepts and techniques--enough so that i'm going to need to take notes
i felt definite progress today.
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