day 240: returning to chen pao quan

concepts:

• sinking
• center
• structure
  

lessons:

• chen tai chi pao quan

Sunday turnout this time was a little light, but there was a new student--a former student of Sifu's from Cal State Long Beach, who showed up today to work on jian shu. Sifu ended up running parallel classes, with Martin and the new student working on jian shu and the rest of us (Jo-San, Ching-Chieh, Phunsak, and me) returning to chen tai chi pao quan.

chen tai chi pao quan

since it had been so long since we'd worked on the pao quan form, we ended up going back to the beginning and revisiting the major points. Sifu took advantage of this to observe us and polish up some mistakes we were making--most of it involved us making the wrong interpretations of the applications in the movements (wrong in the sense that they didn't work) and Sifu showing us the correct interpretations (continuing the theme from yesterday, there were several correct interpretations for each movement in the form, with "correct" meaning they actually worked).

we spent class time dividing things roughly evenly between reviewing the form up to the point we were at and working on the applications. in the course of practicing the applications, Sifu stressed a number of things:

• sinking--not all, but many of the techniques in the form involve sinking. sinking, however, does not mean loosening the body so that it becomes an uncontrolled limp amorphous mass. sinking requires some level of substance so that the act of descending serves to 1) integrate the sense of pushing through the feet into the ground (enabling Newton's law regarding equal and opposite reaction forces), so as to add the reactive force to your own, 2) direct your body mass as a single unit (and hence increases the workload the opponent must exercise), and 3) stabilize your self while destabilizing the opponent.
• center--the techniques we worked on today involved a recognition of centers (yours, the opponent's, and the common center between you both). Sifu has discussed this extensively before (reference my entries under the blog label "combat concepts"). today, however, served as a reminder, with me discovering that the techniques were dramatically more effective (more power with less effort) if i directed things towards my center or the common center and away from the opponent's center.
• structure--in order for force to be transmitted properly in a desired direction (i.e., as a vector), it must not incur any losses along the vector. for this to happen requires that you maintain structure. we've taken time to work on this before. but today, it became apparent that Sifu viewed structure as something dynamic. i think the tendency for many (including me) is to think of maintaining something rigid or static whenever the word "structure" is used. however, based on what Sifu was showing us today in demonstrating the applications, structure is something that is actually fluid and transitory, and can change in any number of ways. this means that "structure" isn't so much about fixed conduits transmitting force vectors, but more about a vehicle that can create and direct force vectors in any direction at any time. i see it this way: structure is not about pipes and girders and walls and braces, structure is about a car with forward, reverse, and 4-wheel drive.

Sifu also pointed out a number of techniques we're learning have been misinterpreted in popular understanding, and demonstrated the difference between their popular perception versus what he believes is their actual application.

he also, similar to yesterday, stressed that there were a number of movements which may appear insignificant (e.g., yin movements, yang movements, switches from yin to yang), but which are actually crucial in making techniques work. again--repeating his points from yesterday--they act to misdirect or distract the opponent enough to open gates for you to penetrate and engage techniques.

we wrapped up a little later today, since we started late (after 10), and finished after 1. we skipped the post-class lunch, since everyone had things to get to. Jo-san announced that he'd be gone for 3 weeks, so we won't be seeing him for awhile, which leaves 3 of us to continue on with the form.