day 32: bagua qi-gong & palm changes 1 & 2 (A & B)

concepts:

• quick qi-gong
• looking
• twisting
• vectors

forms:

• palm change 1 (side A & B) - circle
  
• palm change 2 (side A & B) - line
  
• 2-person drills (palm changes 1 & 2, side A & B)

today ended up being a clean-up day to try and get everybody up to speed with palm changes 1 & 2 for side B, as well as with the 2-person drills for each one. which is fine, because things were pretty ragged going into today.

class turnout was a little light today for the bagua side, with a larger number of baji students than bagua--i think this is a first for the time that i've been here. i ultimately counted 5 bagua students and 7 baji. it was just as well, since we all definitely needed some personal attention correcting our forms.

quick qi-gong

Sifu started us with a review of the quick qi-gong. it turned out that the version Phunsak had showed us wasn't so different from what Sifu was demonstrating now. the only difference was the opening and closing. apart from that, the quick qi-gong routines both followed the same pattern of stances from the 8 Mother Palms.

in some ways, i like the quick qi-gong (which i'm calling the "Qi-Gong Express" or "the Liu Yun Chiao Special" to recognize who taught it to Sifu); it's fast, it's easy, it's ascertainable, and very useful for quickly centering the mind. in other ways, i still prefer the regular bagua qi-gong; while slower and more difficult, it's much more meditative and much better at focusing the mind, connecting to the body, and sensitizing the self to the surroundings.

we went through quick qi-gong, to help everyone review and also to help teach some of the students who had missed the last few weeks.

palm change 1 (side A & B)

Sifu said that we needed to learn side B in a circle, and so that we needed to spend some time back-tracking before advancing further with side B. he asked us to review palm change 1 for both side A & side B along a line. after doing this for few minutes, he then had us walk a circle performing the 1st palm change for both side A and side B individually in front of the class. he then took time to make corrections for each one of us.

i'm starting to think that there are certain advantages to this teaching method. having each student perform the palm changes individually in front of the class allows everyone to see what corrections Sifu is pointing out. moreover, because we get to see the corrections for everyone, it allows us to hear the solutions for many different kinds of mistakes. in addition, it helps us to recognize and understand just what we need to focus on to perform a palm change correctly.

having said that, i can see that it is a teaching method that Sifu can only use when there's a small number of students. once the students become too many, it dramatically slows down the class.

this time, Sifu made a number of comments about what he saw us doing:

• looking--this was specifically directed to me. admittedly, i have a tendency to look down at the ground (i suspect this is a product of my years in Texas, where you are advised to always look down when walking to watch out for poisonous snakes). Sifu said that for bagua, you need to have your eyes higher, towards the horizon.
• twisting--i wasn't twisting enough, particular with the entry into leaf covers summer flower. Sifu actually grabbed my hands and turned me farther to show just how far i needed to twist into the stance. in addition, he said the twist is supposed to go down into the stance, whereas i would initially go down but then rise into the stance. in essence, the stance is supposed to be a downward spiral into the stance.
• up and down--so now, i seem to have too much up and down movement while moving from one technique to another. before, i didn't have enough expression of "fire and water", and i must have over-compensated and integrated too much up-and-down. i think this goes back to a comment Sifu made some months ago about "fire-and-water" being about coordination of up-and-down movements of different parts of the body, which would imply that it's not about total up-and-down movement of the entire body.
• vectors--Sifu said that too many of us were relying on our arms to perform the techniques, and not incorporating enough contribution from our shoulders, torso, waist, hips, legs, or feet. he told us that this was denying power into our movement. he said that we need to remember that power is a summation of energy from all parts of the body, and not just one single part. he told us the analogy of force vectors (a vector is defined by 2 characteristics: magnitude and direction), where the ultimate force vector is the sum of the force vectors of the various parts of the body. for example, in discussing pushing moon out the door, there are contributing linear force vectors from the arms, the waist, the hips, the legs, and also a rotational force vector from the turn into the stance, all of which combine to a resultant vector into the opponent.

2-person drills

after polishing our technique, Sifu went to go work with the baji students, and left Phunsak to lead us in doing 2-person drills for palm change 1. we broke off into pairs, with 1 partner serving as side A and the other partner serving as side B. each pair repeated palm change 1 until they were satisfied. at periodic intervals, we switched roles. after some time, we also switched partners to develop a feel for different body types.

palm change 2 (side A & side B)

eventually, people took a break. Ching-Tszieh, however, asked about the 2nd palm change, since she had missed a day and wanted some help learning it. several of us joined her and Phunsak to work on palm change 2.

this ended up taking a fair amount of work, since most of us were still uncomfortable with the palm change. Phunsak had to go through the techniques step-by-step, and demonstrate them in a line so people could get a feel for the techniques.

things weren't any easier when tried to do 2-person drills with the 2nd palm change. similar to the 2-person drills for palm change 1, we broke off into pairs, with 1 person being side A and the other being side B. we switched off roles and also partners. things, however, were still very awkward, and everyone still had to think through the movements. we didn't move with the fluidity and timing needed to do the 2-person drill with palm change 2 properly.

i can see that this is going to need quite a bit of practice. i shudder to think what's going to happen with the next palm changes.

we spent the remaining time performing the 2-person drill for the 1st and 2nd palm changes in pairs.

after some time, people began gradually leaving. Sifu called us together and ended class, and then reminded us that lei tai training was tomorrow. with that, we went to lunch.