concepts:- expression & progression of jing (ting, hwa, na, fa)
- yin & yang in jing
- vortices (whirlpools) & tangents
- beginning & end points
- rules of thumb
- closeness
- history
- 2-person forms, palm changes 1-4
- tournament versions of the 2-person forms
history
Sifu took the start of class today to discuss the current state of kung fu, particularly in terms of dominant patterns of beliefs and how they came to take so much attention in chinese martial arts. focusing on tai chi, he picked up on his thoughts from the UCLA class, and reviewed a lot of the arguments he made this past week regarding the misperceptions surrounding tai chi (reference: days 123 & 124). he pointed out a lot of this came from the public fascination with certain masters and certain books, some of which came from dubious martial arts backgrounds in terms of skill. many of these sources, he asserted, come from people with little or no martial arts skills.
he brought up several Yang and Chen tai chi treatises as examples, saying that while they hold a place among many modern practitioners as part of the tai chi canon, they actually contain a lot of mistakes, distortions, or even lies about the nature of tai chi for combat, and reflect a low level of understanding about actual fighting. Sifu said that skilled practitioners coming from a genuine martial arts backgrounds (particularly those who've experienced combat in war or street fighting settings) can see this, but unfortunately they are too few and receive too little attention.
this applies not only for tai chi, but for chinese martial arts in general, which Sifu says has been victimized by charlatans, con artists, & show business, and decimated by repressive governments & breakneck modernization. he said tai chi is the clearest example of the deterioration in kung fu as a fighting art, but that the erosion in martial ability is something that has occurred across all styles in kung fu.
Sifu said he'd bring some books in the future that he said demonstrated what he was saying--books that are taken as standards, but which have very little relevance to combat.
2-person forms, palm changes 1-4
wrapping up his discussion, Sifu instructed us to work through the 2-person forms for palm changes 1-4 while he went to start the baji students on their lesson plan. he said he'd return to breakdown and polish our forms, but stressed that in the meantime we need to switch partners to adjust to differing body types.
i ended up working with Eric, John, and Richard during the course of class. we went through the 2-person forms, taking time to review and make sure we remembered them, and then practicing the techniques involved. i noticed that there were marked differences in the forms switching being the body types, and that working against one person with one set of dimension required a different set of emphases relative to another--for example, with Eric, who is taller, there were a number of nuances i had to employ to guard my head while attempting to control his strikes, and which i'd been able to gloss over working against a shorter person like Phunsak. it was a useful reminder to some parts of the form that i'd forgotten...and a notice of just how useful it is to switch partners every once in awhile.
something that's become apparent over the past 2 weeks regarding the 2-person forms is that they're not set in stone. we'd covered this in prior classes, with Sifu saying that the actions in the 2-person forms really depends on which particular techniques out of the movements in the palm changes you want to emphasize. today, i could see that there were all kinds of possible variations, including not only the alternative applications we've covered to date for palm changes 1-4 (sides A & B), but also others we found on our own.
of course, employing these alternatives requires that both partners in the 2-person set understand what they are trying to do.
when Sifu returned, he had us demonstrate our 2-person forms, asking us as to what techniques we were trying to demonstrate as we did them. he stopped us at a number of points to highlight particular aspects that he felt were necessary to match the intended technique with the movements we were doing. i'll summarize his points as follows:
- expressions of jing (ting, hwa, na, fa)--this, i suspect, was to continue the thread raised from the UCLA class this past week. today, Sifu said he wanted us to employ greater use of these concepts in analyzing the movements in the forms so as to better understand their application and their purpose (or intent). the movements, depending on the intent behind them and the application adopted to fulfill the intent, will experience changes in their composition of ting, hwa, na, or fa jing. for an example, Sifu demonstrated that the opening movements in palm change 2, side B, can from one perspective be seen as strikes, and if given the right set-up (i.e., the practitioner has gone through ting & hwa to set up na) can be expressions of fa jing, but he showed that from another perspective, they can be seen as sensing actions (or ting jing) to set up hwa, na, & fa. from a third perspective, they can also be dissipating actions (hwa jing) receiving and redirecting an opponent's strike.
- progression of jing (ting, hwa, na, fa)--staying on the thread, Sifu stressed that regardless of the intent, application, or technique, there is always a progression in jing, going from ting to hwa to na to fa, with the prior elements being pre-requisites for the later elements (e.g., to have hwa, you must first have na; similarly, to have fa, you must first have ting, hwa, and na). as a result, contrary to popular perceptions of combat arts as being highly forceful, ting jing tends to be much more common in martial arts than fa jing. this is why the goal of having fa jing requires mastery of ting, hwa, and na jing. Sifu said this is logical when seen using a military analogy, in that in order to have an effective strike, you must first gather intelligence (information) about the opponent, which means you have to sense their actions, purpose, and strategy, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. once you have sensed this information, you have to neutralize their attacks on you and then position your assets in a way that will maximize their destructive power against the opponent's battle plan.
- yin & yang in jing--continuing his discussion, Sifu raised and expanded on his comments from the UCLA class regarding the connection of ting, hwa, na, and fa jing with yin & yang concepts. in martial arts, we've so far used yin & yang theory in terms of recognizing the distribution of force and effort in an opponent and ourselves, and from this analyzed how to apply our own actions to destabilize an opponent's structure. today, however, Sifu gave an additional application of yin & yang theory, stating that yin & yang concepts also work with jing concepts, in that fa jing & some types of na jing (depending on the direction of movement...yang is up, forward, & towards the opponent) are expressions of yang, and ting, hwa, and to some degree na jing (movements down, back, & away from the opponent) are expressions of yin. this means that the progression going from ting jing first to fa jing last is emphasizing that yin behavior must precede yang behavior in combat.
- vortices (whirlpools) & tangents--Sifu reminded us of the need to recognize the vortices and tangents we are trying to exploit in applying our techniques. he said that size, direction, and location of the vortices and tangents will depend in part on the desired application and intent, as well as the type of technique and the dimensions of our opponent and conditions of our surroundings. as a result, we have to recognize the need to adjust our force vectors to reflect what it is that we want to do to preserve the energy of our vortices and tangents.
- beginning & end points--Sifu extended the above to note that 1) in applying techniques, we have to recognize the beginning and end points of the paths our force vectors are tracing, 2) to properly execute techniques, we have to be sure to follow through our actions, which means we have to endeavor to move in ways that bring the beginning and end points together, and 3) the beginning and end points are not stationary. he stressed this last point with particular emphasis. even as we move, our actions will change the location of the vortices & tangents, and hence mean alteration of the force vectors and the paths which they are tracing, meaning that we have to constantly modify our beginning and end points of the force vector paths as we execute a technique.
- rules of thumb--the last part about the need to modify beginning and ends points as we move can be a challenge, and requires that we develop an intuitive sense of how the beginning and end points change given a particular type of movement. Sifu said this is partly why it's too complicated to try and memorize the proper vector paths (and their associated beginning and end points) for individual techniques...given the infinite possible techniques and ways of executing those techniques, it's too much to remember or think about, especially given the full-speed conditions of a fight. Sifu said it's better to understand the principles, and simply understand just how things change given circumstances. in effect, he was saying that it's okay to approximate a desired outcome, or that a technique be "good enough," since in a fight it's too tough and unlikely to always reach maximum effectiveness...especially since the only criteria is if you are "effective enough" to win. he described this using an engineering analogy: as a practicing engineer (i.e., one in the field, outside the laboratory or classroom), it's too time and energy consuming to employ detailed equations encompassing all potentially relevant variables to solve a particular problem, and that it's quicker and more efficient to follow rules of thumb that give approximate answers sufficiently close to achieve a desired outcome within the specified time and resource constraints.
- closeness--returning to bagua specifically, Sifu reminded us of the need to recognize the distancing between 2 partners is a function of the desired intent, application, and technique. sometimes you need to be close, sometimes not so close. regardless, you have to maintain some level of distance within your reach to exercise bagua. this doesn't necessarily mean within physical reach, but rather physical reach you possess holding a stable structure (there's a difference: you can reach farther by leaning over, but this means putting yourself off-balance in an unstable position).
we ended up discussing the nature of the 2-person forms for tournament purposes. i've never seen this done, and neither have some other people in the class. Sifu said the tournament versions of the 2-person forms work as follows:
- the entire set has to appear spontaneous, and so cannot appear mechanical in actions, or as a sequential act-react process between 2 partners. it has to be a smooth, free-flowing presentation giving the appearance of an actual encounter between 2 strangers engaging in a fight.
- because of the above, the partners don't necessarily proceed in order through palm changes 1-8, nor do they do each palm change on both the left side and right side. instead, they can do the palm changes out of order, and only have to do each palm change on 1 side.
- the palm changes have to be modified so that the applications chosen for demonstration are ones that are clearly visible and recognizable to the viewer. this is because most of the judges, and most of the audience, have never seen bagua, much less seen bagua 2-person forms, and so don't know what to look for or what they are even seeing.
- for tournaments judging 2-person forms, the emphasis is much more about aesthetics
- the 2-person forms event in the tournament covers different styles of kung fu, not just bagua, and so you have to compete against the 2-person forms of other styles, which are frequently better known and understood
- nobody knows what's involved in judging. it depends entirely on the judges.
by this time, the baji students were leaving. noting the time, Sifu called class to a close and we went to lunch.
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