day 242: elbow to elbow

concepts:

• disruption
• misdirection
  

lessons:

• bagua elbow form
• kyudo
  

i managed to make both kung fu and kyudo this week. oddly enough, both classes this Saturday were on the theme of elbows.

bagua elbow form

we warmed up with the elbow basics, this time with stationary drills. Sifu had us devote some time to this, and then had us go through them again to see the applications.

today, he showed us some nuances in the applications, tying in the principles from last Saturday regarding the use of disruption and misdirection by demonstrating how the elbow basics integrate these ideas. Sifu noted that in the basics, we need to observe the role of the husband hand and wife hand, with the wife hand being crucial to controlling the actions of the opponent. in effect, the wife hand operates to set up the husband hand, and does so by breaking the opponent's jing (energy) so that it makes it easier for the husband hand to project power.

from there, we went to the elbow form, and revisited some of the applications from last week, with Sifu pointing out the husband and wife hands. in addition, he pointed out that the role of husband and wife changes in the applications, and that this is something we can freely do so as to adjust to the actions of the opponent. the idea, from what i can tell, is to not get married (sorry, pardon the pun, it was just too easy) to any 1 hand having any 1 role, but to let things vary to accomplish the principles of disruption and misdirection.

Sifu compared this to the magic shows you see in places like Las Vegas. he said that they're doing the same things, using hand tricks that attract and divert the audience's focus away from the actual trick. Sifu noted that essentially the magician is acting to let the audience believe what they want to believe, and that this is really what we're trying to do: using sleight-of-hand concepts to induce the opponent to believe something that really isn't there.

we finished class working on some of the new elements of the form, but we focused most of the attention on the applications.

kyudo

kyudo went well tonight. apparently, during the month of August the dojo acquired new makiwaras (the straw bundles used for indoor short-range practice), with the total now numbering 5. with 11 people shooting and 3 observing, this meant that we were going in an almost continuous shooting cycle (normally, there's a certain period of wait time as people have to cycle through the shooting range). this allowed me more practice, and helped me work out some issues.

Sensei also held a group lesson following the tea break regarding our form, focusing on daisan (which is the point before the final expansion into the moment of release). he pointed out that we needed to match our breathing better with the act of raising and lowering the bow, and allowing our posture to follow the arrow. he said that following the arrow will allow a much more natural feel to the setting of our alignment, and one that is more stable.

Sensei also devoted some time to the hand grip, saying that we needed to allow the grip to be more in line with the bow, and that this helps us raise and lower the bow in ways that support the necessary posture (i.e., alignment) for shooting.

something that caught my attention this evening was that Sensei stressed that the drawing of the bow shouldn't be seen as an act focused on the hands or arms, but instead through the elbows. he noted that the idea of drawing the bow is really about expanding into the bow (something he's stressed regularly), and that it helps to realize this by putting our intent into the expansion of the elbows (something that was new for tonight). this is a principle of the bagua elbow form, and caught me off-guard. i almost fell over when he said it.

i had to leave following the tea break, since i had to set things up for the next morning. as a result, i missed some additional practice time. but i did get enough that i look forward to next time.