day 27: drills, qi-gong, & side B palm change 1 (it takes 2 to tango)

concepts:

• hips
• circles
• hand weapons

forms:

• drills (2-person hand, stationary and moving in line)
• qi-gong
• 1st palm change, side B

i knew today was going to be trouble when i woke up. i'd been feeling sluggish, tired, and (worse) sore the entire week. from what, i don't know. i just know things didn't feel right. and they didn't feel any better when i woke up.

qi-gong level 1 helped...although, it may have been the 2 cans of itoen green tea i sucked down. or maybe the half loaf of japanese english bread (yeah, the japanese make english bread...go figure). or just the fact that i laid out on the grass and spent a very, very, very, very long time stretching before class started.

i think some other people in class felt the same way i did, since everyone straggled in slowly. things didn't really pick up until Sifu showed up with the jian shu students and called us to order.

drills

the major subject today was drills. drills, drills, and more drills...but good ones: 2-person stationary and moving drills. we need more of these.

Sifu announced that today we were going to do 2-person hand drills, saying that it was important we do them before progressing any further. this was different from other 2-person drills in that these were 2-person drills employing the 1 and 2-hand drills we'd been doing in prior classes for warm-up. he did a brief demonstration using Phunsak as a partner, which unfortunately in my state went completely beyond my comprehension--i just saw a jumble of arms and hands. he instructed Phunsak to guide us through the drills, and then left to start the baji students.

stationary 2-person hand drills (front and back)

everyone broke off into pairs, with me working with Kieun. Kieun has apparently done this more than once, since he went about with a certain nonchalance despite the fact that he informed me he was suffering from a hangover. he asked me if i knew what we were doing, and i said "not a clue." he then asked if i remembered the single and double-hand drills, to which i said "of course." he said "it's the same thing, but just do it with your partner's arm in front of you."

we first did the front stationary 2-man hand drills. here, each of the pairs began by lining up with partners facing each other at arm's length. one partner acted as the "defender" and the other as the "attacker," and by turn switched positions. for purposes of the drill, both partners assume the stances with their legs (for us, it was either bow-and-arrow or 60-40) and maintain stationary foot positions, with the only motion being the interaction of arms or the rotation and shifting of weight through the shoulders, waist, hips, and knees. the "attacker" alternates holding left and right fists out in mock punches, but slow enough that the "defender" has the opportunity to respond to the punches using the motions of the 1 and 2-hand drills. in effect, this is simply increasing the application of the 1 and 2-hand drills to actual use, so that the practitioner can start to get a more natural and intuitive feel of using the motions of the 1 and 2-hand drills to redirect opponent's strikes and open them up for counter-strikes either from outside (dragon gate) or inside (tiger gate).

the drill can be varied:

• both partners standing, with both having left leg leading or right leg leading
• both partners standing, with opposite legs leading (i.e., if 1 partner has the left leg leading, the other has the right leg leading)
• the "defender" standing with their leading leg inside the partner's leading leg (with foot in ko position) or outside the partner's leading leg (with foot in bai position)
• the "attacker" can change the location of their strikes, so that it can be up, down, side, center, etc.
• the partners can increase or decrease the speed of the drill, with the "attacker" setting the tempo

i found myself having an inordinate amount of difficulty doing this drill. Kieun told me bluntly that "this isn't working." for whatever reason, i could not assemble any level of focus or coordination, and found myself moving my arms in awkward, jerky motions. both Kieun and Phunsak commented that my hips were not involved enough in the drill--which is no surprise, since i've had more than 1 coach tell me my hips are too rigid and stiff (what can i say, i'm just not a hips kind of guy).

Kieun kept reminding me that the 2-person hand drill is just the same as the single person 1 and 2-hand drills, in the sense that the hand motions are identical (or at least, they should be, if they are done right). he and Phunsak tried a number of tricks to help me: imagining that i held weapons in my hands (to open up my movements and encourage more lower body action), actually holding sticks (fake weapons) so that i was actually forced to open up and integrate my legs and hips, and doing the drills with my eyes closed (to go back to the single person drills). this helped a little, but not a lot.

after awhile, Phunsak suggested everyone try doing the back 2-person hand drills. here, the "defender" stands with their back to the "attacker." both partners are standing with feet aligned with their own shoulders (i.e., horse stance). the "attacker" repeats posing arm strikes, alternating left and right hands slowly enough for the "defender" to get a feel of extending their arms and engaging and deflecting the attacker's strikes. similar to the front drills, the variations here are:

• the "attacker" can change the location of their strikes, so that it can be up, down, side, center, etc.
• the partners can increase or decrease the speed of the drill, with the "attacker" setting the tempo

i found some difficulty with these drills as well, with my arms struggling to make contact with the opponent. Phunsak and Kieun both commented that i was "reaching" and "looking" for the opponent, when instead i needed to focus more on just turning and following the motions of the drill itself.

Kieun asked me to do this drill with my eyes closed. i gave it a try, and suddenly found it dramatically easier to perform. for whatever reason, my waist turn became much wider and my arm extension took on much larger motions--which apparently was what was necessary to effectively deflect the "attacker." i suspect that, because of my unfamiliarity with the drills, i had subconsciously pulled away from the muscle memory built from the single person hand drills and had made a greater effort to consciously rely on my eyes and arms. this, however, had only served to impede the proper form and performance of the drills.

at Kieun's suggestion, i turned back to try the front 2-person hand drills again. here again, i suddenly found these easier to do. Kieun commented that for whatever reason, i was now doing them much better. my hips and knees were much more active, and i was generating more power and getting better control in redirecting the strikes. Kieun theorized that the back 2-person drill had probably pulled my mind into the proper form, and removed the dependence on the visual cues (which had apparently done nothing more than frustrate my movements).

reviewing my experience with these drills, my observations are as follows:

• big circles, small circles--for arms, legs, hands, feet, shoulders, hips, waist. vertical, horizontal, angular. the hand motions of the single person 1 and 2-hand drills are meant to redirect opponents' strikes while avoiding direct force-on-force confrontation (i.e., the idea is to have force vectors act indirectly; force vectors should never act directly). this means circular movements.
• fluidity--the stationary 2-person hand drills are meant to be fluid, without the counting done in the single person hand drills. they are much more effective, and much easier to perform, if done without counting.
• practice as if someone is there, fight as if no one is there--Sifu had said this on several different occasions. the clarity of this became very apparent today. whenever i tried to do the drills with a conscious awareness of the opponent's body, my technique broke down horribly. however, whenever i focused on just doing the technique, the results against the opponent were significant. moreover, the best results (i.e., the most effective) came when i did the techniques without effort, whereas the worst (i.e., the most ineffective) results came when i attempted to do the techniques with extra effort. things just worked better acting as if there was no body in front of me.
• imagine there are weapons in the hands--i said that this helped a little, but not a lot. still, i recommend it. once i managed to coordinate my lower body with my upper body, i have to admit it did help significantly to imagine there are weapons in the hands as you do the techniques in the drills. for some reason, it helps reinforce proper form, and it just makes things work better. bagua seems to be a style very adapted to hand weapons usage, since the techniques seem to become much more natural and instinctive with weapons, even if imaginary, in the hands.
• hips--hips, hips, hips. lots of hips. moving hips. rotating hips. up and down and back and forth hips. it's almost obscene. the hips seem to control so much of the lower body, and so determine much of the effectiveness of techniques. without the lower body, there is very little power generation in the techniques and much waste of body movement (i.e., the practitioner becomes very inefficient in terms of gathering, utilizing, and applying energy and force), and the hips control (or at least initiate movement within) the lower body. and to coordinate the lower body with the upper body, the hips must be coordinated with the waist, chest, back, and shoulders to create a unified torso that is a twisting, rotating, bending, rising, falling, launching, retracting whole consistent with the principles of bagua.
• techniques must be performed correctly (it goes without saying, i know, but i figure it's important enough to repeat)

from what i can see, the purpose of these drills are:

1. help students progress from the single-person hand drills by requiring them to move in a smooth, fluid, continuous manner crucial to practical application of techniques. this is done by performing the drills without counting or stopping.
2. familiarizing students with the scale and size of body movements, but asking them to adjust their motions with respect to their opponents.
3. acclimating students to interacting with another body, by helping them understand spacing, distance, and timing in performance of the drills.
4. removing student aversion to physical contact with the opponent, by letting become accustomed to sustained physical interaction that reduces the "fight or flight" reflexes

moving 2-person hand drills (along a line)

Sifu returned and watched us briefly. he made a number of corrections with students, and then announced we were going to take the drills 1 step further by doing them along a line. he asked Phunsak to lead everyone, and then instructed us to choose lines in the yard with our partners (which was convenient, seeing that the asphalt lot of the school we're using is full of parallel lines).

the general idea of the moving 2-person hand drill is to practice engaging, opening, and entering an opponent's gate--either from the dragon or tiger gates, and regardless of the positioning of the opponent's arms and hands. similar to the stationary drills, 1 person is the "defender" and the other is the "attacker." for the line, the partners progress back and forth along the line, with the defender (at least for today) stepping forward into the attacker's gate and the attacker stepping back after the defender has entered the gate. essentially, the defender goes into the attacker's gate (by whatever technique of the defender's choice), and each time defender takes their step (ko or bai) to do this the partners progress further along the line.

it should be noted that the moving drills contrast to the stationary ones in that the stationary 2-person drills seem to focus on just redirecting an opponent's strike, while the moving drills seem to ask for more, with the idea being not just re-direction of an opponent's strike, but also counter-attack in terms of opening and entering the attacker's gates.

in addition, the moving drills are also distinct from the stationary ones in that the moving drills are a much more free-flowing, flexible exercise in terms of allowing the attacker and defender to choose and apply their choice of techniques and targets. Kieun and i worked on applying any techniques we could recall from the combat application sessions of prior classes. in short, it's a controlled, limited form of sparring.

in addition to the observations i have regarding the stationary 2-person hand drills, there are several additional key points in performing the moving 2-person hand drills effectively:

• defenders must know what techniques they are going to use before they engage the attacker
• defenders, in executing a series of intended techniques, must be decisive. being tentative means eroding the proper form for each technique and becoming slow in movements; either one means evisceration of power and increase in weakness
• defenders must understand that engaging the attacker is not the same as opening or entering the attacker's gate (engaging can simply be making physical contact with the opponent's strike, but opening a gate involves redirecting the attacker to expose a vulnerability, and entering the gate means launching a counter-attack into an attacker's vulnerable area)
• defenders must be comfortable performing techniques from a variety of angles and foot positions--ko and bai, dragon gate or tiger gate, forward leg matching opponent's forward leg (i.e., right leg forward versus opponent's right leg forward), forward leg opposite opponent's forward leg (i.e., right leg forward versus opponent's left leg forward)

as poorly as i did this drill, i can see some very clear advantages to it:

1. your game is exposed. if you're doing techniques poorly, it become very obvious very quickly. there's no hiding poor technique when working against an opponent (even a nice one). which is good, because it helps you see what you need to fix.
2. integrating upper and lower bodies. while stationary drills do use the lower body, they don't call upon the mind to coordinate the movements of the legs, feet, hips, and waist the same way a moving drill does. as a result, there is a much greater exercise of overall physical coordination and mind-body interaction in moving drills as opposed to stationary ones.
3. it helps you get a better sense of working against another body. this helps see just what techniques are supposed to be doing.
4. improving familiarity and comfort with application. doing the drills in stationary stances are good for working out form, but in order to actually learn how to use techniques in self-defense, you have to learn how to use them in the context of spontaneous, unpredictable, fluid, and moving environments--the kind of environment that exists working against an opponent who doesn't want to cooperate with you.
5. it's a friendly transition to sparring. moving 2-person drills seem to be a mid-way point between stationary 2-person drills and free-form sparring, helping familiarize practitioners with utilizing lessons in a relatively controlled, limited encounter that allows them to work on proper form, timing, and speed before taking the next step to the chaotic, extended circumstances of open sparring.

i mentioned to Kieun that at some point we should probably try to figure out who lives near us in Pasadena and find a time during the week to practice together. my point is that it's possible to practice forms and 1-person drills alone, and so less necessary to set practice times with others, but that in order to practice sparring or 2-person drills you actually need more than 2 (or more) people, and so it is imperative to be able to have practice times with a group. in particular, to ingrain and gain the benefits of the 2-person drills, we're going to need to continue doing them during the week outside of class...it takes 2 to tango. otherwise it's not a tango; it's just 1 person looking really funny.

we took a brief stock of who lives in the vicinity. to our knowledge, it's me, Kieun, and John Eagles. we'll have to see if there's anybody else.

qi-gong

we finished drills after awhile in varying degrees. i stopped because i was feeling mental overload and needed to take a break (sometimes, my brain just. does. not. want. to. take. in. more. information...).

Sifu returned. he paused for a moment to ask Phunsak to go work with Scott (who was off by himself) on his piqua forms. he then announced that we should start doing 64 Palms, Side B.

i asked him about qi-gong, and he assented to take us a little further into level 2. we did level 1 first, and then the first 5 directions from level 2.

Sifu stopped by showing us the 6th direction (south). he told us to try a different variation this time (apparently, he's taught it differently before). ordinarily, you're supposed to raise your hands from the starting standing position upwards above the head, and then bring the hands down into a prayer position in front of the chest. this time, Sifu instructed us to raise the hands from the starting position to about shoulder height, then lower them down into a scooping motion at the abdomen. from there, the hands should be raised together in prayer position to chest level, where they separate and rise above the head with palms open to the sky, and continue by falling back into prayer position in front of the chest. this is for the level 1 (qi gathering) component.

for level 2 (qi emitting), the practitioner turns with the hands in the prayer position, holding the breath. when they turn to a 90 degree position from the legs, they are supposed to shift into the 70-30 stance with eyes gazing north, breathing out as they do so. they then return to the standing prayer position (that's what i'm calling it) and do the same turning in the other direction.

1st palm change, side B

Sifu stopped with this, and then asked us to line up for the 1st palm change of 64 Palms, Side B. he told us just to become familiar with it, and that we'd go more in-depth next week.

to be quite honest, i was so discombobulated by this time that i couldn't remember the palm change after class. but i figure it'll be easier to pick up once i'm feeling better, and am able to concentrate more. in all truth, this was not my best day.

we didn't spend too much time with the 1st palm change for side B--just a few minutes to see it what it looked like and to try out a few iterations. after doing this, Sifu called us together and dismissed us.

i'm going to miss next class since i'll be at Ironman Arizona, and so i may not be in much shape to be doing much of anything for awhile afterwards. but we'll see. i'm going to have to ask someone to work with me on picking up the 1st palm change, as well as review the materials for the day i'll miss. i'm also going to have to get some help for the Sunday lei tai training that i'm going to miss. we'll see how it goes.