day 25: bagua qi-gong & circle-walking - 8th palm change

concepts:

• history (ancient, traditional, wushu/modern)
• forms, basic principles, applications
• qi-gong and jing, chi, shen
• transitions

qi-gong:

• bagua qi-gong (level 1 and level 2: lion, snake, bear, dragon, big bird)

forms:

• 8th palm change

today began very, very, very...very slow. i woke up feeling slow. i had breakfast feeling slow. i read my e-mail and newspaper slow. i went to the grocery store and mailbox slow. and then i drove to class slow. needless to say, i warmed up slow. in short, i was slow...the kind of slow you get waking up on a misty morning in the middle of a forest with no one around--the kind of place i sometimes think i need to be.

given how i was feeling, i decided to show up early and give myself time to get up to speed. i ended up using almost a full 30 minutes just to stretch, walk around, drink tea, and get my mind back to reality. i did level 1 qi-gong, which seemed to help. but i was interrupted by the arrival of an ambulance and police cruiser--apparently, there'd been a serious accident at the basketball court involving an injury, with the unfortunate victim being strapped into a gurney and put into an ambulance.

the ambulance and cruiser drove away just in time for the arrival of Charles (a baji student), Laura, and Phunsak. Phunsak showed us a copy of the book Chinese Martial Arts Manuals (i have this, and it's a pretty decent survey of the classic manuals in Chinese martial arts history). Sifu arrived as we were going through the photos in the book, and took a few minutes to peruse the images with us and comment on his personal assessment of some of the manuals.

we waited for other students to arrive. Charles was eventually joined by a panoply of baji students: his fellow beginners (Simon, Tommy, and Siwann-da) and a range of more advanced disciples (Jonathan, Andrew?, James). the bagua group was pretty small this morning, with just me, Laura, and Phunsak to start.

Sifu instructed Phunsak to lead everyone through the 1-hand and 2-hand drills while he went to start the baji students. as we did these, we were joined by Ronald, Lee, Art, and Jay (the new student).

xiao kai men and transitions

the hand drills concluded pretty quickly. while everyone took a break, i had a conversation with Phunsak about the lei tai training Sifu was holding starting Sunday. i was basically interested in finding out how useful it would be for someone not actually going to the tournament (July, in Baltimore) and just what Sifu was going to cover.

he said that it was more intensive and focused on tournament fighting, and so good in the sense that it helped people learn more about using bagua. in particular, regarding what Sifu was going to teach in the Sunday morning sessions, he said Jason was going to work on footwork, as well as conditioning (speed and stamina), along with techniques relevant for the tournament. Phunsak then demonstrated some of the footwork drills, showing how he mixed and matched bagua techniques in line, triangle, square, and circle.

i told Phunsak that i still wasn't clear on just how bagua techniques could be mixed in a triangle or square (i've only seen--and done--things in a line or circle). he did an example of the square, using xiao kai men.

this was something i hadn't seen before. i thought i'd gotten a feel for how it was done in the circle, albeit only in a rudimentary fashion. but from what Phunsak showed, my attention had been on the wrong thing--the important point in mixing techniques isn't the techniques themselves, but the transitions between them, since this is what determines the practitioner's control, fluidity of motion, speed, and sets up their next technique. it also allows the techniques to be applied in any direction, regardless of whether a person is acting on a line, circle, triangle, or square. i remember Art had mentioned the critical nature of the transitions at some point in the past, but i didn't really understand the meaning of what he was saying until now.

of course, having understood this, the issue is now figuring it out how to do it. i'm guessing this may be something that will be covered in the lei tai training.

history

Sifu soon came back. he ordered everybody to come in close, since he wanted to talk for a little bit about the history of Chinese martial arts and its organization by historians into 3 major periods: ancient, traditional, and modern. he said that in conceptualizing these periods, it was useful to compare them based on their view of forms, basics, and applications.

the ancient period of Chinese martial arts is generally conceived as the time before the advent of cannons and firearms, and when martial arts was conceived almost exclusively as a military necessity, with armies placing a primacy on producing skilled soldiers. as a result, there was little interest in aspects of martial arts that did not accentuate a soldier's skill on the battlefield. Sifu states that this meant a firm grounding in basics, in terms of learning a core of fundamental techniques. it also meant a strong emphasis on applications, with practitioners aiming to use the techniques they learned in real combat situations. however, it meant little development of forms, which were seen as having little relevance in helping soldiers engage enemies.

the traditional period is taken as the era following the introduction of cannons and firearms and prior to the fall of the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century. according to Sifu, during this time the value of martial arts on the battlefield had fallen to the power of bullets and artillery. consequently, armies no longer had as much central interest in their training to soldiers, leaving martial arts to be preserved by citizen populations who took it as a form of physical conditioning and street-level self-defense. this gave rise to an encouragement of forms practice. while there was still a strong grounding in learning basics, there was nonetheless a lowering of focus on combat applications. coincidentally, however, historians perceive this as the time when Chinese martial arts had its great surge in the number of fighting styles and systems.

the modern period--what Sifu also labeled as the wu shu period--is essentially the time since the fall of the Qing dynasty, and definitely the time since the Communist Revolution in China. Sifu said that during this time, Chinese martial arts has largely become a sport, with wu shu tournaments featuring individual performances and judges, and full-contact tournaments subject to rules and referees. because of the nature of sporting events, there is a strong interest in teaching forms but much less desire to preserve martial basics or teaching combat applications, since the focus is no longer on fighting but rather on gaining points for a prize.

Sifu said that tracing the history of martial arts is admittedly difficult, since so much knowledge has been lost and there is very little documentation recording the past. because of this, historians who argue that there is no real proof that martial arts of ancient or traditional times were more effective than modern ones have some validity to their points. in addition, those historians who claim that there is very little, if any, connection between modern martial arts and historical ones also make strong points. all of this is in part why so much of current martial arts teaching is questionable in terms of self-defense and combat application.

having said this, however, Sifu insisted that self-defense and combat applications to Chinese martial arts still exist and can still be found. he argued that this is because of forms. forms, while not actually a good tool for teaching fighting skill, were still derived from actual martial techniques and were intended as a mechanism through which those techniques could be taught and learned. many Chinese martial arts use forms that have been preserved since ancient and traditional times. in essence, forms are a type of oral history that have preserved aspects of the original combat components of Chinese martial arts. hence, students trying to follow the trail of self-defense and fighting skill can still find it by learning the combat applications of the forms--they just have to learn from instructors who actually understand the combat applications of the techniques in the forms.

Jason concluded this with several points:

1. tournament fighting is useful in gaining experience applying martial arts techniques, and is about as close a setting to real fighting that you can get without actually being in real fighting
2. tournament fighting is not real fighting. real fighting is what soldiers do. tournament fighting is about rules and limiting "dirty" techniques. real fighting has no rules and no "dirty" techniques--all techniques are good techniques. tournament fighting finishes with all parties living for another day. real fighting is about the winner living and the loser dying.
3. wu shu martial arts is of questionable use in real fighting. to become better at fighting, a person needs experience against opponents in as realistic settings as possible. wu shu is more about performance in solo environments.

qi-gong

following the commentary about history, Sifu had us all line up for qi-gong. he promised that we'd get through level 2 qi-gong before i left for Ironman Arizona (which is April 15). we went through level 1, reviewed the first 2 level 2 exercises from last week (bear and snake), and then worked on the next 3 level 2 exercises (bear, dragon, and big bird). the bear stance is for northeast, dragon for east, and big bird is for southeast.

Sifu made the following comments about bear, dragon, and big bird:

• northeast, bear--here, the projection of force is down. we need to visualize that we gather chi from the earth as we raise our hands to shoulder-level (following the level 1 exercise). we then turn until our shoulders face southwest and release the chi downwards as we lower our hands into the bear stance.
  
• east, dragon--dragon follows from the level 1 position of elbows drawn into the rib cage. Sifu said that we should draw in qi to the liver in level 1, breathing in as the elbows are drawn in. from there, we hold our breath and then turn at the waist. when our shoulders are 90 degrees from east, we should simultaneously raise our hands into the dragon stance and breath out, continuing the turn until our shoulders face west.
  
• southeast, big bird--this is listed in the bagua curriculum materials as "phoenix." following level 1, our place our hands in front of us as if they are circling a tree. again, we hold our breath and turn at the waist, and when our shoulders are 90 degrees from southeast, we simultaneously reach our hands out into big bird and breath out, following the turn until our shoulders face northwest.

i should note that i need to correct my comments about qi-gong and jing chi shen from last week (reference day 24). i asked Sifu about this over lunch, and he said that bagua qi-gong is meant to help practitioners develop sensitivity and control over chi. as a result, it is not so much connected to jing or shen but rather on simply qi (i use the spellings qi and chi interchangeably).

in addition, he offered an engineering analogy (Jason is by profession an engineer) to help me better understand jing chi shen. basically, jing chi shen is analogous to an electrical wire. jing is the embodiment (i.e., physical manifestation) of qi, and so can be seen as being like the physical wire. chi is energy, and thus is the electricity flowing through the wire. shen is the projection of chi, and hence is akin to the electro-magnetic field generated by electricity flowing through a conductive wire. this clarified jing chi shen greatly, and helped me see how qi-gong really is focused primarily on chi itself, although it does thereby help improve skills over jing chi shen overall.

8th palm change

after qi-gong, Sifu instructed us to work on circle walking with the 8th palm change. he had us perform the 8th palm change in a line, and then ordered Phunsak to guide us through it while he went back to work with the baji students.

continuing my practice from previous weeks, i had taken the liberty of trying to perform the 8th palm change in the circle during my practice sessions since the last class. however, i found that there were some things that i had not been aware of.

in particular, Phunsak showed that the 8th palm change involves a turn transitioning out of the initial big bird spreads its wings so that the practitioner performs the subsequent phoenix spreads its wings pointing out of the circle. from there, the next techniques (lion pounces on the ball, lion rolls the ball, and lion embraces the ball) are performed pointing out of the circle, until the practitioner moves into wipe out an army of 10,000 men, whereupon the footwork is supposed to be placed so that the technique finishes along the circle once again.

Phunsak noted that Sifu has taught the 8th palm change 3 different ways, with 1 variation having phoenix spreads its wings pointing along the circle and another variation having phoenix spreads its wings pointing to the inside of the circle. in addition, Phunsak commented that Sifu has shown different ways to finish the 8th palm change. for this iteration of the curriculum, however, Phunsak said that we are performing the palm change with phoenix pointing out of the circle and the final techniques being hide the flowers beneath the leaves (also apparently known as leaf covers summer flower), single goose leaves the flock, and lean against the horse and ask for directions.

beyond this, Phunsak advised me to correct the following:

• removing the steps--i was performing the transition from big bird to phoenix following the numbered steps we'd learned from previous classes. Phunsak said that the palm change is actually supposed to be smooth and flowing, and so i needed to remove the count of steps.
• throwing weight--again, with big bird and phoenix, i've apparently been trying to control the swinging of the arms. Phunsak said this removes power from the techniques, and that i should just let the arms move freely in their circular patterns, so that the weight of the arms are free to create power from the generation of centripetal forces.

we ended up practicing circle walking with the 8th palm change for awhile. being the most recent palm change, it was the one that i had practiced the least, and so was the one that i continued (and continue) to find awkward. today, i managed to do it enough that i started to feel things becoming much more fluid and natural--at least, enough that i could start to feel more speed and strength in the techniques. we'll have to see if that's really the case.

Sifu returned after dismissing the baji students. he reminded us again of the lei tai training, which he said commenced tomorrow (Sunday) and would run every other Sunday until the lei tai tournament in July. he said that anybody was welcome to try the training, and that we would all benefit from it. i recall him saying the fee for the lei tai training would be $50 per month, although Phunsak said he hadn't heard that. i was still undecided about it (since Ironman is now only 2 weeks away, and the race and follow-up recovery time means i'd likely miss enough of the lei tai training to fall too far behind to catch up to everyone else). Sifu told me to think about it. i ultimately chose to hold the decision off until morning.

with that, class ended and Sifu dismissed us for the day.