concepts:- light touch
- hooking
- yin/yang circular motion
- bull fight, chicken fight, dog fight
- 64 palms (palm change 4)
i arrived a little early this morning, with the intent of reviewing some chen tai chi and pao quan, but i found Master Chow running around the park. we ended up having a conversation about kung fu, and i found it interesting that he had arrived independently at the same perspectives as we had:
- historically, the 20th and 21st century have been pretty negative on kung fu as a martial art, with much of it being watered down for sport and performance-based competition (i.e., it's more like the points-based judging competitions of gymnastics and figure skating)
- also historically, modern kung fu has been disconnected from its ancient origins, with people forgetting that the reason why traditional styles looked the way they did was because of the context of ancient Chinese military warfare (e.g., similar to Roman phalanxes or Napoleonic lines and squares, ancient Chinese soldiers fought in mass formations, and so had to fight in ways that maintained the cohesion and integrity of their formation). this kind of context is important in understanding why a particular kung fu style does things in a certain way--as well as understanding in what ways the style should be applied in self-defense situations
- there's a gap between Eastern traditions and Western science regarding the biomechanics of kung fu...a lot of the concepts in Western sports medicine are actually consistent with Eastern traditional medicine, but are just identified with different terms and analogies. as a result, this suggests kung fu can be taught using Western science as much as it can Eastern knowledge. Master Chow said this is something that the next generation of cross-cultural practitioners should try to focus on exploring, since it may yield some insights that will be new or revive insights that were forgotten.
64 palms, palm change 4 (the spirit of chang dong sheng)
i posted a picture of Chang Dong Sheng in a previous post (reference: masters: chang dong sheng). in that post, i noted that Chang Dong Sheng had been my master's master. Chang Dong Sheng was a noted practitioner of shuai jiao and tai chi (and perhaps a few other styles). as a result, i suspect a lot of his teachings find their way (interlace?) a lot of Sifu's comments.
well, today was a bit of an illustration. here's the picture from that post, showing Chang Dong Sheng engaged in a shuai jiao move:
now compare this picture to the video for palm change 4 (side A)--in particular, observe cloud crosses mountain road (the 5 second mark):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baaigBj8bhc
in the 2-person form for palm change 4, we this is shown as a counter to a kick (reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWEkDR-v1pI).
today, however, Sifu demonstrated an alternative application more consistent with the picture above. in the picture, it's a throw, with the upraised leg hooking the opponent's leg, one arm holding the opponent's arm, and the other arm projecting forward into the opponent's face. the net result is the opponent falling backwards.
we practiced this for awhile in pairs. i asked Phunsak about the shuai-jiao-esque flavor of this, and he nodded in agreement.
i said this didn't seem to be in the "spirit" of bagua, but more in the "spirit" of Chang Dong Sheng. we got on a brief discussion as to what a "bagua purist" would do, with Phunsak demonstrating to me what he thought might be construed as more "bagua-esque" alternatives. however, it was clear that this particular interpretation of the technique has a certain direct, no-nonsense appeal to it, and i have to admit that it allows a certain free expression of brutality that is decidedly seductive. i'll have to file this one away in my memory under "Note to Self..."
once Sifu returned from the baji students, he made a number of additional comments regarding palm change 4:
- in the shuai-jiao-esque application of cloud crosses mountain road requires that the shaving hand go up, to distract the opponent's eyes, while the rear leg hooks the opponent's front leg. this is necessary to 1) destabilize the opponent's orientation, making it easier to push them off-balance, 2) push their head back, forcing their body to follow, and thus destroy their structure, and 3) deny them a leg they would otherwise use to restore structure. the issue is the timing of the hooking motion of the leg with the shaving motion--while the shaving motion begins first (i.e., begin moving up the opponent's arm), it doesn't finish (i.e., push the opponent's head) until the leg hooks the opponent's leg...this took a little some effort for me to get in terms of timing, with the trick being that you have to remember the hand is first in, but last out (i.e., it starts the motion, but is not as explosive as the hooking leg, and so finishes the motion simultaneous with the hooking leg).
- for the 1st part of big serpent coils its body, when you reach out (Sifu's "Bob's Big Boy"), you need to exercise a light touch. Sifu said that if you have the intent of making this a parry or even a redirection of the opponent's strike, it sends them a signal of the follow-up move, wherein the 2nd part involves the reaching arm turning into the opponent's face. reiterating his point from last week, Sifu said you have to disguise your movement by being very light with the hand. this effectively means that you are not blocking or diverting the opponent's strike, but simply avoiding it. the only time you want the reaching hand to change from a light touch to a firm touch is when it makes contact with the opponent's face and transitions into the 2nd part of big serpent coils its body.
- to reiterate the point above: even though you are reaching out, you are really seeking to avoid the opponent's strike, rather than block or redirect it away. Sifu made great effort to stress this. the technique is one where you are stepping to the side and along the opponent, so that you are trying to position yourself closer to them. as a result, it's not about the hands, or even the reach, but really about the feet and stepping around the enemy, with the reaching hand just being a distraction to the opponent as well as a way of maintaining a sense of their movement. i suspect that this is consistent with the bagua spirit--you don't really want to confront an opponent, but rather escape and evade, and use your evasion as a set-up for a counter-strike.
- also in the 1st part of big serpent coils its body, it is important to remain upright. Sifu emphasized this: do not lean. leaning too far over makes you unstable, and easier for the opponent to push you over. the action is a reach with the arm. the torso is upright.
- the 2nd part of big serpent coils its body, Sifu pointed out that it is more powerful if the turn into the opponent's face really is a turn, with the energy created by the hips and waist. at this point, unlike the 1st part (where it is a light touch), the reaching hand is a firm touch going into the opponent's face (pushing their jaw up, or their head back). in addition, Sifu said that it is important that the circular turn with the reaching hand is a yin movement, meaning that not only are you turning at hips and waist away from the opponent (circular yin), but also bringing the hand into you (linear yin). this is consistent with the idea of using yin (the turn away with the push of the opponent into your space) to counter the opponent's yang (their forward strike). in physics concepts, i interpret this as a way of decreasing the radius of the lever arm, thereby allowing the lever action force (your hand going into the oppponent's face) to increase the torque being generated.
- also with the 2nd part of big serpent coils its body, as you finish the technique turning down into dragon stance, the lower hand can be interpreted as moving along the opponent's leg down to the back of their knee, at which point it can either continue directly downward into the back of the knee, or it can go into the pressure points behind the knee, with the end result either way being the opponent losing stability in the joint--and thereby losing stability altogether. again, this is an expression of yin energy to the opponent's yang energy (their forward strike)
- with grab the yellow bird by the throat, where it turns into hide the flowers beneath summer leaves, the form can be interpreted as showing the yin principles. often the tendency for an opponent is to counter the throat grab by seizing the grabbing arms (yang). as a counter, you can visualize yourself using hide the flowers beneath summer leaves to roll into the grabbing hand, bringing the opponent's throat into you as you turn (yin). again, in physics terms, i see this as a way of increasing torque by decreasing the radius arm even as the gripping lever arm force is constant.
as a side note, i should mention something that was not covered in today's class, but was introduced by Sifu back in December in his commentaries about combat concepts, and which i consider to be relevant to martial arts in general. Sifu said that in kung fu, the idea is movement, particularly in bagua (where movement is not linear, but random). Sifu said it was contrary to the philosophy of kung fu to engage in 3 classic fight scenarios that he identified as follows:
- bull fight--where 2 opponents are placed body-to-body, and are pushing each other
- dog fight--where 2 opponents are stationary and facing each other toe-to-toe, and slugging it out
- chicken fight--where 2 opponents are facing each other, but just out of arm's reach, and fight by trying to kick each other while avoiding getting hit
we finished the day by going to lunch with Master Chow and his family.
NOTE: we chose to celebrate Sifu's birthday today, which i understand coincided with Chinese New Year this year. as a result, later in the evening, we met at Ocean Star Restaurant to host Sifu for a dinner. i know that normally his students haven't done this, but this year seemed a special occasion, since Sifu has relocated to Hawaii and we don't know how much more time he'll be around to teach in L.A. all the students had signed a card for him (a bit of an interesting exercise to do so during today's class without him seeing it...i suspect he figured it out), and in addition had made a special donation to help him build his new kung fu studio in Hawaii. not everyone was able to make the dinner, but i took a picture anyway--it's posted at the start of this post.
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