day 212: struggles with shuai jiao

concepts:

• throws
• entries
• feeling
  

lessons:

• shuai jiao

today was a rough shuai jiao day. for some reason, i just found everything hard. Sifu decided to spend today reviewing everything we'd learned, but adding in the process of setting up the throws.

this was just as well, since i'm at a point where i think i need to work on becoming more consistent with the techniques. there were a number of throws i'm still having trouble on, and even though we spent a good portion of class today working on them, things still aren't as consistent as i would like.

Sifu also pointed something today that i hadn't realized. before, i've asserted that throws require a proper set-up (i.e., breaking their center), since otherwise they don't work. i've also said set-ups require the right entries (i.e., getting around the opponent's defenses and entering their gates). however, it appears that there is another step that precedes this: feeling. Sifu said that even to attempt an entry requires that you be able to sense where your opponent is situated in terms of their focus, and where they are driving their force--in essence, this is the concept of ting jing, with the idea of being able to figure out an opponent's ying-yang distribution.

this is important, in that it allows you to figure 1) where their center of gravity is located, 2) where their axis (or axes) of stability are oriented, and 3) where their areas of instability are situated. once you know that, you can then figure out how to generate an opening to enter their gates and then move them to set them up.

Sifu had us try a number of throws starting all the way from an initial confrontation, with the goal of letting us work on feeling each other out and working to enter, set-up, and then initiate a throw. this turned out to be quite a bit harder than it looks. it was frustrating. it's going to take a lot more practice to get this down.

Viet didn't do much better. he actually ended up splitting his pants at one point, which caused no end of merriment for me and Sifu.

we ended class with a conversation on what we're going to do about next quarter. we're probably going to try and create a UCLA Shuai Jiao club (Viet already created a group on Facebook for it), and then maybe re-arrange the class schedule so that it's easier for people to make lessons. hopefully we'll be to generate some momentum and get some people involved. right now, it's the end of the winter quarter and i don't think we're going to be getting anybody new at this point.