day 219: addendums and randomness

concepts:

• chin na
• control points
• misdirection
• yin-yang
• release
  

lessons:

• bagua fist form
• combat concepts
• kyudo
  

i have to add an addendum in this post, since there were some topics that i forgot to include in last week's. things have been a little busy this year, and i've been having a little trouble remembering everything--and incidentally, it's also the reason these posts are being written on the Friday evening or Saturday mornings after the previous weekend's lessons. i'm trying to get ahead, but it's a bit of a challenge right now.

bagua fist form

we went further into the fist form, and i'm guessing we're now only about 8-10 moves away from finishing (about time...this is one of the longest forms i've seen, bagua or any other--i would place it as being as long as the chen taichi liaojia form, which is around 5-7 minutes, depending on your pacing). since Phunsak showed up late (he's been taking systema classes on Saturday mornings in San Diego, and it's put his arrival time in LA at around 11:30), Sifu led us in a review of the form, and then into the next group of movements.

combat concepts

at this point, Sifu began showing applications from the moves. for this, he called the bagua and baji students together, since this dealt with TCMA as a whole rather than any particular style individually. today's applications built upon last week's (and which is why i suddenly remembered the discussion we had then), and opened up a more general conversation about combat concepts. i'll summarize Sifu's points--from last week and today--as follows:

• chin na--Sifu reminded us about the lessons of the chin na seminar, particularly on the need to focus on principles and concepts as opposed to specific techniques. he showed how various fist form movements are simply different expressions of the same principles, and how looking at them in this way enables you to see alternative applications from the same movements. he demonstrated that they could go from being throws and strikes to chin na and submission holds, and went through a series of chin na techniques based on individual movements (i.e., one movement leading to multiple chin na techniques).
• control points--Sifu stressed that in engaging an opponent, it's never enough to attempt a single control point. he said this is dangerous, because 1) it's very easy for an opponent to focus their effort on the single control point, and thereby possibly overwhelm it, and 2) it tends to cause you to fixate (i.e., target fixation), and ignore other avenues of attack (from the opponent, or his friends). Sifu said that it is better to always employ multiple control points (2 is better, 3 is good). he asserted that this 1) confuses the opponent, making it easier to produce sensory overload of their minds, causing their defenses to waiver just enough for you to successfully attack, and thereby 2) breaks them down faster, freeing you to deal with other threats. Sifu had us practice this with each other, to see the difference in engaging with 1 control point versus several.
• misdirection--Sifu also noted that we always need to apply misdirection. he said this is a fundamental feature of martial arts, and that it serves to 1) distract the opponent (again, cauing their defenses to waiver just enough for you to successfully attack), 2) deceive their senses so they send their force vectors in ways that assist your real actions. misdirection can be achieved in a variety of ways, including a flick of the hand towards the eyes, a shift in a force vector (either in magnitude or direction), or in contact and control points. he demonstrated this, beginning with one of the movements in the fist form (using a flick into the eyes), continuing with a movement in tai chi (shifting the force vector up, so as to set up pull-down), and then in chin na (to enable a take-down). he stressed the idea is to confuse the opponent. he then had us practice these to see the difference in effectiveness.
• yin-yang--Sifu finished off the conversation by going back to yin-yang distribution. he said that control points and misdirection need to be combined with the use of yin-yang concepts, not just for chin na but for any application. he argued that this adds to the overwhelming of the opponent's senses (their autonomic/neurological responses). more than this, however, it also magnifies the yin-yang distribution, making easier to employ techniques. this, in turn, makes it easier to 1) locate the "hole" in the vortices of movement (something always induced by yin-yang breakdown), and 2) induce the creation of the "hole" in a way we can control (preferably to actions and outcomes that we desire).
  

we spent the rest of class working on these concepts, and tying them into the fist form and assorted techniques from tai chi and baji.

kyudo

kyudo this evening was a continuation of last week: a pile-up of errors and struggles with shooting. at least tonight i managed to actually shoot a few more arrows than last time.

i found myself struggling quite a bit today with the form. things just didn't feel right. i began to realize that there was a certain tightness in my body, and it was causing me to pull inward--in terms of sitting (in kiza), in bowing, in standing, in shooting. all of this is bad, since kyudo ultimately gets to the act of expanding.

things kind of reached a nadir at one point when Sensei was helping adjust my form, and i suddenly found myself unable to release the arrow. for some reason, i just could not bring myself to let. that. arrow. go.

i was so dumbfounded by this incident that i ended up spending a good portion of the rest of the night trying to figure out what had happened. after awhile, i realized that what was really going on was that the problem wasn't physical--oh, it was, but only to the degree that the physical issues were a symptom of something else. and that something else was mental.

and on this, i have to concede, there have been a fair number of things going on in my life that have been pre-occupying me quite a bit as of late...and i guess that pre-occupation has been not only mental, but also spiritual, and it now turns out physical.

i know what i need to do is release. to just let things go. all the baggage. and in a symbolic and literal way, this relates to just letting the arrow go. because it's all just really the same thing.

i noted this to Sensei near the end of class, and he observed that he could tell there was something not right when he saw me struggling. he added that my experience was part of the "art" of kyudo--that is, the "do" in "kyu-do."

on a lighter note, our gloves came in today from Japan. kyudo gloves are custom made for the individual archer, and so fit only 1 hand. it's possible to use another person's glove, but the feel and response is not as good as a custom one. Yachio (Sensei's wife) had measured my hand (and Phunsak's) some time ago, and had sent the measurements and the drawing of our hand outlines to Japan.

the result is, to say the least, a work of art. the glove is exquisite, and is a composite of buckskin leather and bone, with a separate inner lining of light linen.

we spent the remainder of the evening learning how to care for the glove, as well as how to put it on and take it off.