day 26: lei tai training (part 1 - 04/01/07)

concepts:

• tournament fighting
• footwork (combat)
• point versus general visual focus
• closing versus separation
• engaging versus disengaging

agenda:

• introduction
• lei tai drills: footstepping, visual focus, 2-person circle, multi-person circle

Sifu began lei tai training this past weekend, and even though i am not going to the tournament, i decided that it would be valuable to attend the lei tai training since i thought it might supply more of the combat application of what we've learned in bagua relative to what we've had so far. that, and i figure it is extra teaching that i can benefit from and should take advantage of.

in contrast to the normal bagua class, which meets for 3 (or more) hours on Saturday, lei training is being held every other week, and from 8-10am on Sundays. still, it is a pretty intensive seminar directed specifically at preparing students for full-contact tournament fighting. as a result, i figured each session deserves listing under its own day in this blog.

there were a total of 8 students today (Sunday)--4 bagua (me, Jonathan, Richard, and Jay) and 4 baji (Simon, Charles, Tommy, and Jonathan). Phunsak was also present, but i think he's partly acting as a teaching assistant for both bagua and baji. out of the group, only 4 said they were actually going to the lei tai tournament in July (the Jonathan studying baji, Charles, Richard, and Phunsak).

introduction

Sifu began the session with a brief overview of lei tai. the tournament consists of matches of 3 rounds lasting 2 minutes each. matches are within a square ring comprised of a padded mat. points are awarded by a panel of judges for strikes and throws. some strikes are illegal: strikes to the knee and inside of the legs, as well as to the back of the head and back of the neck. participants wear helmets (with facemasks) and gloves that leave the fingers exposed (meaning grasping is still difficult).

Sifu emphasized that we should treat tournament fighting as a learning experience, and a way to get better insight as to 1) our actual level of skill, and 2) what is actually important in applying martial arts techniques in combat. he repeated his points from Saturday class that it should not be seen as a test of actual combat skills, since tournament fighting is a controlled environment whereas real fighting has no rules.

Phunsak shared his experience with the tournament, saying that he learned that the most crucial things in fighting are 1) speed and 2) stamina. in addition, he pointed out that the lei tai fighting poses challenges in that the helmet restricts peripheral vision and the gloves prevent grasping. having said that, he said it clarified for him a lot about exactly what is really relevant in learning techniques for self-defense, since it allowed him to personally see what he needed to do to use techniques in a full-contact fight.

with this said, Sifu broke us up into 2 separate groups: bagua and baji. eventually, we'll be sparring against each other. but for now, Sifu wants the groups to work separately.

for the bagua group, Sifu identified a number of things he wanted us to focus on:

footwork

Sifu said that in bagua it was crucial to have good footwork. in bagua, footwork enables a practitioner to evade an opponent's strike and find positions to attack them. Phunsak agreed, saying that the footwork was critical in being able to get behind an opponent, or being able to open their gates.

Sifu went on to point out that while much of what we have been doing is in a line or circle, that we need to understand that this isn't necessarily the same in combat. in fact, it's anything but. bagua footwork, in combat, is about changing directions--any direction, meaning anything including or excluding lines or circles. circle walking is just a training device, just like line work or triangle or square walking, to help students learn 1) how to perform techniques in different directions and 2) move around an opponent in a way that places students in the most advantageous positions.

to apply bagua with any proficiency, we need to be able to apply our footwork instinctively and naturally, without conscious thought. enough that we don't have to look at the ground or think about where we are placing our feet, but instead keeping our attention on our opponent.

this was a bit of a revelation to me. i had read on various bagua sources on the internet that real combat using bagua did not involve a circle. but this is the first time that i found out that bagua techniques in combat are supposed to be random, and not limited by concepts of circles (or lines or triangles or squares...). this is not something that i had understood from normal Saturday class.

focus

Sifu said we need to understand and become skilled at switching between point and general focus. he referred to this as being able to distinguish between focus on specific parts of our opponent (e.g., their hands) versus being able to observe our opponent's entire body while simultaneously seeing our surroundings.

from what i was able to gather, point focus is dangerous, because it can essentially lead to target fixation, wherein we lock our attention on just 1 element of our opponent and thereby become oblivious to other dangers from different directions (e.g., a hook, an uppercut, a roundhouse, or even other opponents). general focus, in contrast, allows us to see actions by any part of the opponent's body, and also allows us to notice actions and components of our surroundings.

separation and engaging

Sifu noted that we have to be able to instantaneously shift between closing to engage an opponent versus separating to disengage. this prevents the opponent from easily grappling or striking. but it requires that we develop a sense of distance between us and an opponent--particularly a sense of distance in terms of the opponent's reach. a sense of separation allows us to determine how to move within and outside an opponent's reach. it also allows us to know just how close we need to be to engage them and how far we need to be to disengage them.

lei tai drills

today's agenda was centered on preparation drills. some of them we had done before in class, others were new.

footstepping

this is the same drill we have done before in class, with people lining up and taking turns to face off against the lead person. the lead person is supposed to avoid getting their feet stepped on, while each person taking a turn is suppose to try and step on the lead's feet. after some defined time, the next person in line takes a turn. when all the people in line have had a turn, the lead person then assumes a position at the end of the line and the next place in line becomes the lead.
this time, Sifu emphasized that we should try to do the folllowing:

• look at the opponent, not at our feet
• try to maintain general focus, not point focus on our opponent
• use bagua footwork (ko and bai, and maneuvering in random directions in a random pace)

visual focus

this was a solo drill. Sifu ordered us to walk individually in circles, with our eyes focused towards the inside of the circle. however, he made it clear that we needed to avoid point focus and hold general focus, so that we could become aware of people and things in our peripheral vision.

2-person circle

this was a drill done with a partner, walking the circle facing each other. Sifu had us do a number of things in the circle:

• close distance every time we heard the command "touch," so that our guard hands made contact, and then separate every time we heard the command "separate," so that our guard hands were about a foot apart.
• change direction every time we heard the command "change"
• avoid point focus and target fixation on our partner (especially their hand), but instead try to gain awareness of their entire body, the surroundings, and our relative positions

multi-person circle

this was a drill done with all of us walking the circle. here, Sifu instructed us to do the following:

• on the command "engage," 1 of us was to cross the circle and engage another person, so that we walked a 2-person circle as everyone else maintained the larger circle. the engaged partners would then separate and return to the circle. Sifu said the key was to engage, separate, and re-enter the circle smoothly. Sifu at first had us engage 1 person, and then 2 people.
• on the command "change," change the direction of the circle.

the drills took the bulk of the time, and turned out to be quite intensive. i think people were getting tired near the end--which either is a reflection of the difficulty level of the workouts, or a reflection of our conditioning.

we finished with Sifu reminding us that the next lei tai training session would be in 2 weeks. i'm going to miss this, since i'll be at Ironman. i'll have to ask Phunsak to fill me in, and then catch the next session after.