day 109: refinement side B, 64 palms

concepts:

• alternative applications
• intent
  

forms:

• side B, 64 palms

to be quite honest, i don't really remember too much about this day. this was my 1st day back from New Zealand. i flew in the day before (Friday, March 7), and was still suffering from jet lag. i also am still physically beat up from Ironman, with some bad feet and knee issues (reference: http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2008/03/skinny-blues.html), and so am hobbling around like an old man.

i ended up arriving a little late today (even though it was a Saturday, i still woke up late) and missed some of the class announcements. this is what i gathered from what i managed to hear:

• deer-horn knives: Sifu managed to talk to someone who is making a trip to China, and they apparently will be able to pick up the knives there. Sifu is currently taking orders, and so people should contact him or Phunsak for more information.
• chin na and tui na seminar: the date has finally been decided, the room reserved, and announcements made up. Phunsak and Art told me, but i promptly forgot. i just know that chin na will be done one weekend in early April and the tui na will be done another weekend in early May. in addition, Sifu and Art already had the DVD made, and it will be available for sale at the seminar. questions regarding information should be directed to Sifu, Art, or Phunsak.
• tournaments: Sifu has decided that the 2 big tournaments he wants people to go to are the Las Vegas and Baltimore tournaments. he asked that anyone interested in participating in either one should let him know ASAP, so that we can schedule training
• summer: Sifu will be around for a number of weeks this summer, as UCLA has asked him to teach a tai chi class for international students from China, and he is the only faculty member who 1) knows tai chi and 2) knows Mandarin.
  

side B, 64 palms

like i said, i don't really remember much, and everything is kind of a hazy blur. i know that the class apparently already began refinement of side B for 64 palms, but i'm not quite sure how far they've gone. there was quite a bit of review going on, since Laura, Mike, Kieun, and John were all asking for review of various aspects of side B. for me, i could handle about 5 minute stretches of standing, and then had to sit down to take the pressure off my feet.

i do recall that Sifu talked about:

• alternative applications--Sifu talked about alternative applications of various techniques in side B, as well as from side A
• intent--this was a major topic, with Sifu noting that our understanding of the physics was still a little limited, particularly for bagua and tai chi. Sifu observed that much of both styles involves focusing of the mind, not just in terms of concentration and focus but also intent. by this, Sifu said that performing an action with a certain intent can determine the effectiveness of that action, since the intent induces changes in muscle contraction that alter the magnitude and direction of the force vector. Sifu stressed this is something that you can't always see, even if you're up close, and this is often identified as the "internal" aspect of the "internal" styles (e.g., tai chi, bagua, xing-yi, etc.). he said this makes a major difference. for demonstration he used John Eagles' fist to do a chin na application, and showed the pressure point wrist lock with and without an intent being movement downward, with the wrist lock without intent resulting in a battle of strength against John, and a wrist lock with intent resulting in an effortless lock sending John down. Sifu had us break off into pairs and perform this same demonstration.
• extension and positioning--Sifu noted that too many of us were extending too far and positioning ourselves wrong in our applications, particulary with 1) black tiger steals the heart in palm changes 1 & 2 , side B; 2) divert and grab by the cloth for palm change 3, side B; and 3) big serpent coils its body and cloud crosses mountain road for palm change 4, side A. he said that exercising fa jing, or projecting power, requires that our limbs be slightly contracted (i.e., less than fully extended) so as to preserve some potential energy to be projected into kinetic energy in fa jing. this also applies to positioning, in that our positioning relative to an opponent prevents full extension and thereby helps to make sure we have potential energy that can be projected as fa jing. we broke off into pairs to work on this, except that Phunsak stuck with me and Laura to help her work on this (i was a little too banged up to be able to even perform the techniques).
  

the remainder of the time, from what i remember, was spent on trying to get everyone caught up with all the palm changes of side B, since there were so many of us who were having trouble remembering them. we were still unfinished when Sifu stopped class for lunch.