day 113: side B refinement

concepts:

• action/reaction force
• extension
• alignment
• intent
  

forms:

• side B, palm changes 1 & 2
  
• sticking drill
  

finally managed to wake up at a more regular time today. between the jet lag, allergies, time change, and pile-up of work, my sleep patterns have been pretty chaotic. but this time i at a more customary hour, with enough time to practice a few forms and review some concepts. i was grateful that it was a Saturday, with class beginning at 10am, giving me the luxury of getting myself awake and moving.

Sifu had the flu, and it appears there's a bit of a bug going around, so as a class we were a little wounded. we began with a reminder about the seminar--which has been firmly fixed for April 5 & 6 at Cal State LA. April 5 will have the usual class at Casuda Canyon Park, but the afternoon will be at Cal State LA. April 6 will have the entire day at Cal State LA. the seminar will be in different rooms--Saturday will be in King Hall B3008, 1pm-5pm, and Sunday will be in Phase II Student Lounge, 9am-5pm. Art and Phunsak have the flyers, so any questions should be sent to them.

palm changes 1 & 2, side B

we began today with a review of side B, palm changes 1 & 2. i missed last Saturday's class for an interview, so this was a good opportunity to get caught up with the rest of the group.

after getting the baji students started, Sifu came back and watched us perform palm changes 1-3 for side B. he then asked us to do the 3rd one solo in front of class, with the everyone critiquing the person performing.

the comments i received were as follows:

• extension--i seem to have regressed somewhat, in that i'm short-arming my movements, and curtailing them before my body is fully extended.
• action/reaction force--this is a principle consistent with tai chi, in that bagua is supposed to incorporate the use of action/reaction forces with the ground in order to add power to movements. while this is simple in principle, i find it decidedly harder to do in bagua relative to tai chi. this is because bagua utilizes more complex, multi-dimensional, multi-axis actions, making it harder to recognize in what way the limbs are supposed to be coordinated in order to properly direct and take advantage of action/reaction forces. today, this was amply evident with green dragon wraps around the column, which provided no end of difficulty.
  
• alignment--my head is leaning too forward (read: slouching), which is throwing my spine out of alignment in my technique and thereby decreasing the amount of energy my core can produce. in addition, it's preventing me from sinking my mass, since it throws my center of gravity off the desired position for balance.
  

these comments also applied to a few other people. Sifu said the solution, apart from practice, was to do some work in long fist to improve extension and alignment, and to try some slow iterations of the palm changes (a la' tai chi's slow pace) to help acquire the coordination necessary to use action/reaction forces in bagua.

after this, Sifu gave us some alternative applications for the moves in the 2nd palm change. he noted the following:

• cloud crosses mountain road doesn't have to be defensive. in prior lessons it was shown to be a defensive technique to redirect an incoming opponent or their strike. today, Sifu showed it as an offensive technique to help disrupt an opponent's structure. however, he pointed out that it shouldn't be seen as a percussive hit (e.g., like a punch), but more as a sliding along an opponent's torso to an appropriate point where force can then be projected (i.e., their center).
• green dragon wraps around the column is much more effective when engaged using action/reaction forces. this seems to additional power to that generated by the waist and hips. without it, it becomes a simple waving of the hands, making them vulnerable to seizure by the opponent.
  

sticking drill

we broke off into pairs to work on the applications, but not before Sifu demonstrated a drill he wanted us to practice. it's a different sticking drill, with one partner throwing a sequence of punches and the other partner then intercepting the punches using a variety of techniques that deflect and "stick" to the punches, and if possible, sets up a counter-attack. the punches are thrown at random, and can be done at a variety of speeds. the goal is to develop reflexes to redirect incoming strikes while simultaneously positioning the body to initiate a counter-attack.

Sifu stressed that these were not meant to be blocks. the defensive partner was supposed to be sticking to the incoming punches, so that there was little direct percussive impact on the arms, but more the act of making and retaining contact with only indirect impact.

we repeated this drill in different pairs, so that each of us had a chance to work with different partners. we also did this drill as a way of entering into applications from palm change 2.

from what i could tell, the sticking techniques we were using were extensions from mother palms and stances. in particular, it looked like we were using part of the upper body motions from dragon, big bird, and rooster. i worked with Sifu, Phunsak, John, Laura, and Ching-Chieh. i had a little trouble sorting out the general idea of the drill at first, but started to get a feel for it once Phunsak pointed out that it was supposed to be done with a random sequence, and so wasn't supposed to have a particular rhythm.

i actually like this drill. like some of our other 2-person interactive free-flowing exercises, i can see that this is a useful stepping-stone in learning how to use bagua in a real combat situation. of course, we probably should really be doing more of these kinds of drills, and we should be following a progression of exercises that gradually incorporate more and more bagua concepts, but little steps are always good to start on the way.

we finished the day with Sifu doing a brief review of intent. repeating his demonstration of how intent can empower a joint lock on the wrist against a closed fist, Sifu said that this type of intent is the same as what we should be exercising in all our movements. for example, he said that the action/reaction forces in green dragon wraps around the column rely on the practitioner having the intent to direct forces through the legs and feet into the ground--without this intent, it becomes much harder to generate the action/reaction forces.

Sifu emphasized that intent is not something you can necessarily see. returning to his joint lock demonstraction, he said you can't express intent as physical changes in the body (e.g., curling of the feet, bending of the knees, bending over of the waist and back, etc.), but it is something that you can visualize in the mind and feel in terms of direction.

we worked on this for a little while. to be quite honest, i had trouble on this. i was able to repeat the demonstration Sifu showed us, but only inconsistently. what was frustrating was that the most effective repetition occurred when i wasn't trying, making me confused as to just what i'm supposed to be feeling. we worked on it until we could at least distinguish between when there was intent and when there wasn't, but i think this is something that's going to continue to need time to learn.

Sifu called class to a close, and then said he'd have to skip the usual post-class lunch since he needed to get over the flu. some of us went on our own anyway to maintain the tradition.