concepts:- expansion
- skeletal (vertical) power & connective (horizontal) power
- ball & bowl
- palm change 6 (sides A & B)
- tai chi qi-gong
Sifu informed us that he was giving a seminar in Tai Chi to a group in Hollywood later in the day (apparently through connections of Art), and that we were all invited to attend. Phunsak whispered to me that it was going to cover tai chi ball and bowl qi-gong, and that it would be really valuable for me to attend.
palm change 6 (sides A & B)
we received our lesson plan for the day, which was to learn side B of palm change 6. Phunsak, however, said that we should warm-up first, and decided on dynamic stances.
i haven't gone entirely through all the dynamic stances, and today was actually the first day that i saw all of them. we've done a few in class and outside practices (particularly with dragon, low, 60-40, and 70-30), but today was the first time during my time here that we went through all of the bagua stances in a dynamic set.
the dynamic stances are essentially just the basic bagua stances, but shifting from left to right. unlike the static stances, which involve holding stances (left or right) and then returning to the horse stance before shifting between left or right, the dynamic stances involve shifting directly from left and right postures. the purpose, i suspect, is to train students to move through a stance without losing stability, as well as to improve leg strength.
from there, we did a brief review of palm change 6, side A. this was pretty straightforward, except that Phunsak noted that my finishing movement back to the opening dragon posture was too similar to monkey (from palm change 7). he said that in palm change 6, the opening movement begins closed and then opens with an expansion in the chest and simultaneous expansion in the upper back. the point i was glossing over was that the elbows are supposed to remain near the chest area, so that the expansion is more in the shoulders.
you can see side A here:
the YouTube link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrKIsIztoHE
after a short break, we continued with side B. side B seems to incorporate a lot of elements from the other palm changes, including the sequence of divert and grab by the cloth into white snake spits its tongue from palm change 3, side B, and snake coils its body from palm change 4, side A.
you can see the side B here:
the YouTube link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nslrqns-I7U
Sifu returned to observe us. after we stopped practicing side B, Sifu mentioned to us that we all needed to recognize the source of power generation in the techniques--not just for side B, but for bagua and even kung fu in general. he said he meant beyond just silk-reeling or fajing or anything else, but deeper to the actual mechanisms in the body: skeletal and connective power. he said that skeletal power is seen in the vertical movements, with power coming up from the ground. connective power, which is the power from the tendons and ligaments, is seen in horizontal movements. Sifu noted that this is why the techniques vary in the level of vertical and horizontal movement, since they are using differing degrees of skeletal and connective power.
we finished class with Sifu telling us that next week we'd begin with the 2-person set for palm change 6. he also repeated his invitation for the seminar.
with some urging from Phunsak, and seeing as i had nothing else to do for the afternoon, and further seeing that it was probably a pretty valuable thing to get (especially since the original reason i'd started looking for kung fu classes to begin with was for tai chi) i decided i'd go.
tai chi qi-gong
immediately following the end of class, several of us (John Eagles, Phunsak, and i) followed Sifu and Art to Bronson Park in Hollywood. it is a remote park in the Hollywood Hills, which is geographically surprisingly close to the city in terms of distance (i estimate only 2-3 miles from Thai Town), but in terms of access is innocuous to the point of being hidden.
we found a large group of tai chi practitioners there (i estimate 20-30) awaiting Sifu. according to Sifu and Art, their own sifu had recently died (who Jason had known professionally), and so they had been left without an instructor. Art apparently works with them on an intermittent basis, and had suggested that they invite Jason for a seminar to help them with their qi-gong.
Sifu began with a brief statement about himself and his relationship with their former teacher, and then held a moment of silence to honor him. he then introduced the lesson plan as being ball and bowl tai chi qi-gong.
for background, he reviewed (for everyone else--for me it was the first time learning anything tai chi-related) the nature of tai chi in relation to taoist philosophy. he reminded everyone that wuji was the state of nothing (or 0), tai chi was the state of origin (or 1) , yin-yang was tai-chi separated into opposites (or 2). he noted that this fit the exponent progression of 2, (i.e., 2 to the power of 0 = 1, or tai chi, 2 to the power of 1 = 2, or yin-yang, and likewise 2 cubed = 8, or bagua).
he then asked everyone to recall the notion of yin and yang movements in tai chi, with yang movements being up or outward, and yin movements being down and inward. this corresponded to breathing, with yang being an exhale and yin being an inhale. he noted that in tai chi, the yin-yang properties of each limb changed and shifted as they moved through techniques.
from there, Sifu repeated what he had told us during class regarding skeletal and connective power, and their association with vertical (skeletal) and horizontal (connective) movements. apparently, this is a concept that is held by differing branches of kung fu, and not just bagua.
ball
following the background review, Sifu introduced the notion of the ball. this is not a physical ball per se, but more an imaginary one, about which the practitioner is supposed to move their limbs. visualizing the ball helps proper performance of the form. in addition, however, it serves as a form of qi-gong, and from what i could understand was similar to bagua qi-gong in that it helped practitioners gain a better sense of their own body and develop balance, coordination, and strength without tension--in effect, helping practitioners release the power mechanisms in their body by eliminating poor habits and bad biomechanics.
for the ball, Sifu had everyone begin with static qi-gong, by imagining a ball in front of them, whose size they could control by breathing and adjusting their arms. the ball would decrease by bringing the arms in while breathing in, and the ball would increase by expanding the arms and breathing out. Sifu showed us this could be done with the hands expanding and contracting in the following positions:
- hands on top of the ball (so arms rise up or down)
- hands below the ball (so arms go down and out or up and in)
- hands on sides of the ball (so arms go straight out or straight in)
- hands diagonal on the ball, with 1 hand on upper left and other on lower right, or vice versa (so arms go out on diagonal or go in on diagonal)
bowl
next, Sifu introduced the notion of the bowl. it was roughly similar to the ball, but here the practitioner imagines that they are holding a bowl instead of a ball. also, rather than focusing on expansion or contraction of the ball using the arms and breathing, the practitioner uses the bowl to help develop biomechanics for techniques that are less circular but more ovoid or which follow a curve. Sifu demonstrated static and dynamic qi-gong for this as well.
integration of ball and bowl into tai chi
Sifu finished the lesson by having everyone perform a tai chi form. since this was my first time with tai chi, i was not familiar with the techniques or the form, and had to mimic everyone else as best i could. from what i could ascertain, the group were Yang tai chi practitioners, and the form we were doing was the 24-movement form.
Sifu explained the ball and bowl concepts as we went through the movements, telling everyone which techniques involved the ball conceptualization and which ones involved the bowl. he also noted at what point limbs and breathing were yang and at what points they were yin.
like i said, this was my first time with tai chi, and it was clear everyone else had a much greater knowledge than i did. i did my best to just focus on following Sifu, and trying to remember everything he said. but i think i lacked a lot of the relevant basics to really grasp everything he said--although, this is something i suspect that will be resolved when i take his tai chi class this fall. still, for today, it made things a little difficult for me to remember and understand all the material, and so i felt some concern about missing important points--or any points in general.
when we finished, Art announced that Sifu had just finished DVDs of what we had covered today, and that the DVDs would be available soon. each DVD would be priced at $35, which seems pretty consistent with most other martial arts DVDs in the market (there is not a mass market holding down costs for martial arts DVDs like there are for popular cinema ones). i definitely think i'm going to buy one, since i couldn't remember everything from today's seminar in enough detail to replicate on my own.
with that, the seminar finished, and everyone went to the buffet for lunch (the seminar included catered food).
i ended up holding off eating so i could work with Phunsak and have him show me tantui line 8, which is something i've been finding difficult to remember. he went through it several times with me, enough to give me commentary and work on form, and hopefully enough for me to remember so i can practice on my own.
you can see line 8 as part of the following video:
the YouTube link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBEtYQZretY
once we finished, we went off to join everyone else for lunch. of course, by this time most of the food was gone. but i didn't mind, since i was scheduled to have lunch with a friend of mine later. i was more interested in the lessons today, which turned out to be quite a lot. i definitely have things to work on for next class. hooray!
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