day 148: commencing tournament prep

concepts:

• referee/judge
• timing
• combinations
  

forms:

• chen long form
• kuen wu jian
• mitt work
  

this Sunday was pretty much a transition into tournament preparation, even though it wasn't formally stated. Phunsak and Kieun said we were now 3 months away from the tournament, and needed to start training for it, otherwise we'd risk not being ready. Sifu apparently already decided the same thing, and announced that from this point on he was going to extend the schedule of both Saturday and Sunday classes to every weekend, with the focus on training for the Las Vegas tournament. he said he expected us to continue the schedule--and the training--while he was gone for the next 3 weeks, so that we'd be ready when he returned, when he wants to start us really going at it.

chen long form

we began the day with Sifu leading us through a few repetitions of the chen long form. this was more of a warm-up, since we didn't really go into any detail of it. Sifu asked Alex to continue with the jian shu tournament preparations, and worked with Ching-Chieh, Joe, and Viet on finishing the chen long form and Jonathan on praying mantis.

kuen wu jian

Alex already sent out the latest version of rules to all the jian shu tournament participants, and so wanted to change the focus of the Sunday session to more tournament training and less rules set-up. by "training," Alex means the entire infrastructure of the tournament, meaning not only having people work on their jian fighting skills, but also on preparing possible judges and referees.

currently, the only referee (the person who will actually be in the ring with the jian competitors moderating their match) is Alex, and the only judges (the people on the sidelines watching each match to determine hits and points) are Richard, Kieun, and me. Alex seems to want Phunsak to be a competitor, although i'm not so sure Phunsak is so enthused about this possibility. under the World Jian Shu League rules created by Alex, each match should have 1 referee and 4 judges. ideally, however, we want more, so that referees and judges can rotate in and out of tournament matches and rest. but to make this possible, we have to 1) find people to be referees and judges, and 2) train them.

we were short again today, and so had to make do with 1 referee and 1 judge. between the 4 of us practicing (Alex, Phunsak, Kieun, and me), we ended up taking turns as referee, judge, or competitor--i ended up playing a competitor, even though i'm not participating as one at the tournament, and so don't even have the equipment (and won't for awhile...no money).

i have to say we're going to definitely have to do training as referees and judges. it's harder than you think. you have to be decisive, timely in making calls, clear (loud and visible) with your calls, and be capable of seeing sword actions at full speed. in addition, you have to remember (and apply) rules, and follow a standardized protocol in making calls. these can be a challenge in intense sword matches, especially with competitors who may have opinions contrary to yours. based on my experiences today, we're all going to need to continue preparations to be referees and judges.

we consumed most of the time with jian shu. originally, i'd wanted to devote some time to jian shu basics, since i feel i really need to learn them to really understand jian shu. but this was bypassed by the tournament work, and was forgotten as we moved onto lei tai sparring practice.

mitt work

i'm using the term "lei tai sparring" loosely at this point. Sifu has informed us that Tony Yang has changed the rules at the Las Vegas tournament so that the full-contact sparring will no longer be kick-boxing rules (apparently, this made the tournament subject to Nevada state boxing commission requirements, which involved some expensive fees and infrastructure), but instead more traditional kung fu match rules. however, Sifu said that Tony Yang has not decided which rules to follow (i.e., lei tai, sanshou, etc.).

despite the uncertainty of the rules, Keiun said we should at least start doing some basic sparring preparation, since this at least works skills that can be used for any set of tournament rules. for today, Kieun suggested mitt work, with Phunsak agreeing.

from what Kieun tells me, mitt work is one of the fundamental aspects of fight training (all kinds: tournament, self-defense, etc.). it develops some of the basic components necessary to engaging in full-speed, full-contact scenarios: timing, coordination, working in combinations (i.e., combinations of punches, kicks, etc.), movement, and power generation--all while getting hit or avoiding hits. these are things not necessarily covered by other parts of the typical martial arts curriculum, which tends to focus on techniques, form, and principles. mitt work is one of many training tools that helps transition curriculum material into realistic application, and is typically part of the initial basic steps in preparing for using curriculum information in actual fighting. Kieun called it "kick-boxing 101," and then later corrected himself and labeled it "fighting 101."

for today, since i've never done this, Kieun had us focus on just basic mitt work, with no movement in terms of footwork. he told me to just work on timing, and combinations with punches and kicks. this was just as well, since i found this to be a challenge in and of itself. i'm finding the thought process is a bit different than what i'm used to, in that you have to really integrate your entire body in a forceful manner--which runs somewhat contrary to the placid mental state emphasized so much in the tai chi and bagua lessons i've had...although, i suspect, the point is to be violent in your physical movement while peaceful in your mental state, so that your external behavior is coordinated with your internal intent, and your internal intent can thereby manifest itself through your external behavior.

one thing i noticed today was the odd feeling of switching from right to left sides with the mitt work, particularly in contrast to jian shu. i've been trying to work on both right and left sides, so as to ensure symmetry in coordination, body, and skills. but i noticed that it seems easier for me using my left side with the sword than it does in mitt work. i don't really know why. i mentioned this Phunsak and he seemed surprised. i'm going to have to work on this, since i'm really concerned with symmetry, particularly because i've found (or my physical therapists have found) that so much of my aches and pains are due to asymmetry in my body's musculature and bone & connective tissue structure, and i've subsequently spent the past few years in some very painful efforts to correct them--making me leery of anything that might induce any kind of asymmetry, which would undo all the pain i've gone through to date and relegate my efforts to futility. this is not something i want to think about.

by this time even Sifu had left, and after continuing on for a while, we decided to finish for the day. since Sifu is going to be gone for the next 3 weekends (he won't return until June 23), Phunsak will be running the weekend classes. Phunsak told us he wouldn't be able to make next Sunday, so next weekend will just be a Saturday session, but after that he can make both Saturday and Sunday. we left on that note.