day 245: corrections of misperceptions

concepts:

• close-distance entries
• rolling
• wife and husband
• looseness and tightness
  

lessons:

• bagua elbow form
• kyudo

we were a little short-handed today, with a number of people (including Phunsak) out. it made for a slightly more intimate setting, with more time spent practicing the form and applications.

bagua elbow form

we worked on the elbow form, with Sifu asking each of us to do the form to date individually and then providing us with feedback to polish what we were doing. he then demonstrated the applications in the form, pointing out to us the corrections that we needed to make to get the applications to work. he made a number of comments on this subject:

• close-distance entries--Sifu noted that not all the elbow movements needed to serve as strikes or controlling actions. he reminded us that the sequence of jing involves ting, hwa, na, and fa, meaning that the elbows could also serve as sensing (ting) and redirecting (hwa) actions, so that the elbows could actually function as gate-control tools to generate entries. in fact, the elbows are ideal for this in close distance combat, since they can be much more immediate and require less effort at close range.
• rolling--he went on to note that in the form there are a lot of rolling elbows, and that this serves as a reminder that with the elbows it helps to maintain constant rolling motion to counter and respond to an opponent's actions. he demonstrated how you can adjust the direction, orientation, and scale of rotation depending on what the opponent is doing.
• wife and husband hand--Sifu reminded as that another adjustment we can make in response to an opponent's action is to change the wife and husband hands. he showed that even if an opponent has a counter to a desire outcome from an application, you can change the roles of wife and husband to produce a different outcome (i.e., change yi, or intent) so that the same application is still effective.
• looseness and tightness--Sifu continued on the concept of adapting to the opponent by noting that the yi, and the outcome of the application, can change depending on the looseness and tightness of the application, and that this can vary even during the execution of the application. i think this was an extension of yin-yang principles, since it seems consistent with the idea of identifying yin aspects of the opponent and exerting yang, and similarly identifying yang aspects and exerting yin, so as to complete the circle (or loop) of the systemic force vectors in the system of 2 fighting bodies.

Sifu demonstrated a number of variations of the form we'd just learned. which was just as well, since it appears that we'd been operating completely wrong interpretations of the movements. we laughed over this--we'd taken the movements to be elbow strikes, and had tried to judge the yi and striking surfaces accordingly, but Sifu said that they were actually controlling actions leading to throws, and so involved different yi and no striking surfaces at all.

we spent the remainder of the time polishing the form and practicing the applications, as well as correcting the misperceptions we had.

kyudo

i made it to kyudo tonight. things are different now that we have 5 makiwara, since with even 12 people it now makes for a continuous round-robin shooting. this is good, in the sense that it allows much more practice, but also means that it means there is no rest.

this evening yielded some corrections to misperceptions as well. i thought i'd been holding the bow with a loose grip, but apparently not loose enough. during one round of shooting, the bow actually inverted, even thought the string stayed attached. this is not good for the bow, since it's very stressful, and is actually dangerous, since it can snap.

Jean pointed out to me that this happens because 1) the string is mounted off-center on the bow, 2) the string is too loose, and/or 3) the grip on the bow is too tight. she helped me unstring the bow and diagnosed it as being all of the above. we made some quick adjustments, and i was able to stay in the shooting line. during the next round of shooting, it suddenly dawned on me that i really was holding the bow too tightly, since i could feel it being slow to rotate seamlessly after the release of the arrow (it's supposed to rotate freely in the hand) and hand to consciously think about loosening my grip.

i think i'm becoming more comfortable with the form, since i'm able to think about it without as much conscious effort. this is good, since i'm now able to work on improving my form, by focusing on individual aspects of my technique and polishing them so that things are smoother. the big issue now is consistency.

Jean said that she was going to bring a video camera to the next session, so that she could record me shooting and i could thereby see what i was doing wrong and right. Leslie said she was going to bring a camera and take pictures of everyone in the dojo as well. this would be good, since i think it would really help me figure out what areas i need to work on.