day 44: palm change 5 (cont'd) & basic 2-person drills

concepts:

• basics

forms:

• palm change 5, A v. B
• basic 2-person drills

today was a long day. i had the usual class, but then also scheduled an additional session for personal instruction from Sifu with Jay (the new bagua student)--i figured i needed the review of basics, especially since i've only managed to learn them when the rest of class had periodic reviews during the course of the past few months. all told, i ended up with roughly 5 hours of class today (2 hours from the usual 11am-1pm class, with 3 hours of personal instruction following lunch from around 3pm to 6pm).

like i said, it was a long day. i got a mild sunburn (despite SPF 50 sunblock).

palm change 5, A v. B

we began with a short review of palm change 5 (solo and in line) for side A and then side B. Sifu stayed to observe everyone, and after comments and corrections instructed Phunsak to finish the review of the 2-person (A v. B) form, and then went to start the baji students with their lesson.

things went a little quicker than previous weeks, since we had done 2/3 of the 2-person form (Phunsak had divided it into 3 parts) and now were putting everything together. we did the 2-person form from the beginning and continuing all the way through the end. we followed the same plan as before, with 2 lines of people--although today there were only 5 bagua students (Kieun, John, Laura, Phunsak, and me), making it 2 pairs of partners with Phunsak as outside teacher.

Sifu eventually returned, and then had us perform in pairs. he appeared satisfied with our progress, although he noted that we'd have to practice this a little more than the other 2-person forms since it was so much longer than the other palm changes.

this consumed most of class time, and by the time we had finished Sifu said that we needed to join the baji students and begin sparring for the tournament, which is now only 3 weeks away. i chose not to spar today, since i'm not going to the tournament and figured i needed to pace myself for what was going to be a high-volume weekend of kung fu. i ended up making videos of a few of the sparring session (reference: http://www.youtube.com/user/jonathanonapath).

after awhile, Sifu called class to a close and we went to lunch.

basic 2-person drills

i returned with Sifu and Phunsak to the park after lunch and met up with Jay. Phunsak was getting his customary afternoon personal instruction (apparently, today it was a piqua form). Jay and i wanted to have an entire session reviewing the essential (and basic) 2-person drills for bagua.

i should state that these drills aren't the 2-person forms for 64 palms. when i say 2-person drills i mean the VERY basic drills utilizing the 1-hand and 2-hand drills, except that they are applied against a partner in a repeating pattern. i've had some of these before (reference: day 27: drills, qi-gong, & side B palm change 1), but they were done as review for the rest of the students (while i was still learning them for the 1st time), meaning that i hadn't gotten the same level of commentary and insight that everyone else had gotten regarding the drills, particularly in terms of principles and form. that, i'd struggled quite a bit through them before, and needed the practice.

Sifu started us with the stationary set, with partners both in horse stance facing each other:

• basic hand drill (alternating left and right side)--this is the very basic one (direct, wrap, thrust, draw) meant to redirect a strike
• basic hand drill, sliding (alternating left and right)--this is the basic one, followed by the other hand sliding along the redirecting arm, and is meant to redirect and then move aside a strike
• reverse hand drill (alternating left and right side)--this is the basic one, but with defender facing away from the partner, and is meant to develop waist movement in redirecting a strike
• basic hand drill, 3-count (alternating left and right)--this is the basic, followed by the other arm sliding up the redirecting arm to stop the opponent from switching their strike to a backfist, then sliding the redirecting arm back to maintain contact and move into position to repeat the count with the opponent's other strike. basically, the defender is using the same redirecting hand to counter the opponent's left and right strikes
• basic hand drill, 5-count (alternating left and right)--this is the 3-count, but with the hands continuing to slide to repeat the count on the opponent's same striking hand. unlike the 3-count, the defender is using the right hand to redirect the opponent's left strike, and the left hand to redirect the opponent's right strike

Sifu then showed us the stationary set, with partners facing each other with 1 leg leading (starting in 60/40 stance):

• above drills, with partners opposite legs leading (left v. right or right v. left), front feet in ko
• above drills, with partners opposite legs leading (left v. right, or right v. left), front feet in bai
• above drills, with both partners same leg (left v. left or right v. right)leading, front feet in ko
• above drills, with both partners same leg leading (left v. left or right v. right), front feet in bai
• basic hand drill to the side--this is one of the basic hand drills, and can be done either with both partners having opposite legs leading or same leg leading
• hawk chasing sparrow, front--this is one of the basic hand drills, and can be done either with both partners having opposite legs leading or same leg leading, so long as the defender's leg is behind the opponent's leg. the lead hand is supposed to redirect the opponent's strike down and to the side, and then guide the defender under the opponent before going up to throw the opponent off balance
• hawk chasing sparrow, back--this is the same as hawk chasing sparrow, except that the redirecting hand follows the back of the leg
• leg drill, ankle, shin, or knee--with permutations of partners having opposite legs leading or same legs leading, feet in ko or bai, and moving ankle/shin/knee clockwise or counterclockwise. the respective ankles, shins, or knees are supposed to remain in contact during the drill

Sifu continued by showing us the moving set, with partners facing each other with 1 leg leading (starting in 60/40 stance). the moving set is identical to the above drills, except the defender steps forward with each change of hands (or feet) and the opponent steps backward in response. the partners are supposed to move along a line, repeating the elements of the drill as they go.

to finish, Sifu then showed us the free-form moving set, in which partners do the moving set, but with the defender free to choose which drill (hand or foot) to apply against the opponent. if done well, it's supposed to help the student put together all the various elements of the drills into a continuously moving series of attack and defense against an opponent, so that the student can begin to instinctively employ attack and defense in reaction to whatever strike an opponent attempts.

Sifu made a number of points regarding what i was doing:

• hand v. arm--in the hand drill, the focus should actually on using the forearm to redirect strikes, but i was using too much of my hand, which only served to decrease the power efficiency of my actions
• dropping v pushing--the redirection of a strike should be done by dropping the forearm, so that the opponent feels the weight of the defender's arm down on the strike. i was tending to push to the side
• angle of the draw--the elbow is supposed to be down during the draw so as to maintain contact with the opponent, but not to the extent of being perpendicular to the ground. i had a tendency to lift my elbow or aim it directly to the ground
• hip and shoulder--the hands and arms are supposed to move in conjunction with the hip and shoulders, which adds power to the redirection. i'm still having trouble synchronizing this against a partner (it's straightforward enough solo, but with a partner it becomes discombobulating)
• expansion and contraction--the thrust of the hand is supposed to occur in conjunction with expansion of the chest, so that the shoulders open out, and the draw is then supposed to be a contraction of the chest, restoring the shoulders to an even line. i wasn't doing this smoothly
• free-form moving--i found the free-form moving set difficult. i had to slow this down dramatically to do it, so that i could actually choose what i wanted to do and also maintain correct form

by this time it was 6pm, and Sifu said we'd covered about as much as there was for the basic 2-person drills. which was just as well, because by this time i was getting tired, a little sun-baked, and mentally saturated.

after observing me and Jay for awhile, Sifu said he'd like to see a follow-up session in a few weeks to check up on our progress, and that we should practice the drills more to get them down.

i'm thinking i'm going to need quite a bit more practice with these, and i know that Jay and i have already marked out several Fridays to review them. we definitely have our work cut out for us.