concepts:- 6 harmonies
- chen long form
- kuen wu jian
the theme for the day was pretty much information overload. i received a fair amount of information yesterday finishing pao quan while also covering the bagua subjects for the class, but today was an extended session of memorization, since Sifu decided to go ahead and finish both the chen long form and kuen wu jian form. as a result, this weekend ended up being an intake of super-sized sections of 3 different forms intended to finish things off, meaning that that there was a lot of material covered.
which is fine, since i think if given enough time i can still digest everything, especially since we have the forms on Youtube video for reference. still, there's a lot of stuff, and it's going to take a lot of practice.
chen long form
we continued with the chen form, stopping to review certain applications along the way. Sifu noted that the fist punch to the ground doesn't necessarily have to be a punch, but instead--if done in conjunction with the other hand and proper positioning--a push of the opponent off-balance. he also pointed that there were some similarities with chang quan in terms of rolling of the fists (which can be an expression of chan si jin, or twisting energy, or a chin na application) and percussive inelastic/elastic hitting of one hand upon the other to better transmit energy into the opponent.
kuen wu jian
we went on to finish the kuen wu jian form. this actually was the most difficult part of the day. i'm not entirely comfortable with the form, or for that matter with moving while holding an object in my hands. for some reason, holding something in my hands seems to add an extra layer of difficulty in coordinating body movements, in that it gives me something else to keep track of while doing the form. it's been rather maddening, to be quite honest.
of course, part of this may be that i haven't quite learned all of the basics of jian shu in terms of fundamental movements and usage. i've been getting bits and pieces of this as we move along, but i haven't been able to quite assemble everything into a coherent picture of kuen wu jian as a form or jian shu as an art. it's making things a bit head-scratching, and i'm still feeling awkward handling the movements and the jian.
it's helped to think on the idea of 6 harmonies (i.e., that hands are coordinated with feet, elbows with knees, and shoulders with hips), since it focuses attention on the principle that no action by a single body part is ever done alone (i.e., every hand action is accompanied by a foot action, every elbow action with a knee action, every shoulder action with a hip action). still, it's still an adjustment to go from having the symmetry of my limbs to the asymmetry of one limb holding a weapon and the other limbs not--it throws off the body symmetry in terms of force and mass, confusing the sense of balance and aesthetics...enough to throw a wrench into muscle memory and neural programming set by a brain that has to date only geared itself to unarmed actions. it shouldn't make a difference (since a weapon should really be just an extension of the hand), but it does.
like i said, it's going to take some practice.
Sifu announced that next Sunday we'd begin sparring sessions for all the students who were going to the tournaments. i haven't made up my mind about this--for sure i am not going to the tournaments for jian shu, and i doubt that i could contribute much to the sparring sessions for the students who are. i definitely need to pick up the jian shu basics, and to learn a little bit more about the principles and concepts involved to get a better feel as to how jian shu works in a combat situation. i'll have to think about this a bit.
we finished the day with this, and Sifu reminded everyone that next weekend would be a double weekend again, so that it would resume the normal schedule of Saturday & Sunday back-to-back classes.
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