day 102: chen, kuen wu, bagua leg (kung fu day!)

concepts:

• contact
• stability
• stances
• power
• footwork
  

forms:

• pao quan
• Chen tai chi long form
• kuen wu jian shu
• bagua leg form
  

today was a long day, with the morning being the usual Sunday chen tai chi and kuen wu jian class and the afternoon being a private session on the bagua leg form.

pao quan

before things started, i asked Phunsak to show me a little more of pao quan, and i ended up using that for a warm-up. we were working on this when everybody else started to filter in. we didn't go too much further, since i also had some concerns with some points in the middle of the form that i wanted to clear up.

chen tai chi

Sifu began class by recording the chen tai chi long form. i've been getting a number of requests for it over the past few months (names will be withheld to protect their innocence), and their frequency has been increasing as we've gotten further into the form. i expect everyone will be relieved to find the chen long form video, which you can see at:

chen long form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0uCzM3nTYQ


we spent time going a little further, to what i think is the halfway point of the form. Sifu demonstrated more of the combat applications.

he emphasized today the "sticking" nature of tai chi, and stressed that when we practiced, we needed to work on maintaining contact with our opponent. he noted this didn't just apply to receiving an incoming attack, but also afterwards, with the contact being maintained continuously through the subsequent counter-attack from reception to absorption or redirection to return and projection.

kuen wu jian

today we ended up dividing the morning section pretty evenly between chen tai chi and kuen wu jian. we took a few minutes to review the kuen wu jian form, and then went a little bit further. in addition, Sifu took extra time this morning to go through applications, pointing out areas where the applications called for changes in hand grip and the contact surface of the sword.

i should note that the kuen wu jian form was already recorded by Alex for the World Jian Shu League, and you can see it at:

kuen wu jian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oUSjvFqcZU


at this point, the morning class ended, and we went to lunch.

bagua leg form

the afternoon bagua leg form section was reduced to just me and Jay, although Phunsak eventually was lured into joining, especially when he realized that Sifu was showing some details he hadn't seen before.

Sifu showed more of the leg form. he also took more time today to work on practicing the combat applications.

in addition, he took a few moments to discuss the purpose of the leg form within the bagua curriculum. he noted that there's a common misperception that the leg form is about kicks. but he said this is a bit of a distortion, since the leg form is also used to fulfill several other purposes. Sifu listed the role of the leg form as follows:

• stability--to help you improve your stability in terms of balance and ability to remain upright while involved in defense or offense
• stances--to improve stances, both static and dynamic
• kicks--to teach kicks, and show how they can be integrated into bagua
• power--to train power, particularly explosive power, by teaching the student how to incorporate more lower-body activity into bagua movements. the lower body, Sifu stressed, is really where power in kung fu comes from
• footwork--to train footwork, and to show students how to manipulate the feet...both their own as well as their opponent's
  

in keeping with the rest of this post, i should note that i recorded the bagua leg form a number of weeks ago, and you can see it at:

bagua leg form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkwKylHWB5o


i have to say the leg form is a real workout...and if you do it right, it really provides an intense session for the lower body. we only went about an hour, but i was already feeling pretty tired.

by this time, Sifu asked me and Jay if we wanted to continue past the initial hour. we looked at each other and decided we'd had enough for the day. taking that as an agreement to end class, we wrapped things up until next Saturday.