day 166: forms prep

concepts:

• physics
• sloppiness
  

forms:

• 64 palms

we were a little low on turnout today (actually, for this entire weekend). Sifu dedicated today towards working on forms and continuing refinement. in particular, since Kieun is going to be out for the next few weekend up until the tournament, Sifu had Phunsak and Kieun devote as much time together to work on the 2-person forms they will be presenting in Vegas.

64 palms

the rest of us worked separately on 64 palms. we also spent a good portion of time going through applications from the form, with pairs of students practicing entering and using techniques chosen at random with the goal of feeling out the physics in a free-form (i.e., non-planned and spontaneous) setting. this actually was pretty useful, since it ended up revealing some sloppiness in our technique (e.g., things are sloppy if the technique doesn't do what it was meant to do), and also showed just how sloppiness can creep into your movements when you attempt to engage an opponent with any level of indecision.

Sifu has told us before that we have to respond to the opponent's actions in a free-flowing mode of action, where we operate without any predetermined or preset plans of what we want to do--you're supposed to just act and work with whatever conditions arise in a fight. however, this doesn't mean being passive or observant. you still have to have to exercise mental concentration to 1) understand what is happening and 2) decide how you are going to respond. and this has to be done rapidly, meaning that you have to be decisive in choosing and executing a response. being indecisive means a split-second hesitation, creating at worst a pause that your opponent can exploit and at best a loss of muscle coordination that slows and breaks down your actions (read: sloppiness). thing is, sloppiness is just as bad as pausing--either way, it gives your opponent something they can take advantage of.

we finished and went to the regular post-class lunch around 1.