day 284: more hsing-yi (with revisions)

concepts:

• ding, ko, yuen, bao, chwei, chu, ting, du
• shing
• wu
• slow
• structure
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo

this post relates to Saturday, June 19. i'm also including the kyudo session from Sunday, June 20, since i'm not so sure as to how regular the Sunday kyudo is going to be.

hsing-yi

there's some revisions to make to last week's post regarding theory. Sifu went through the list of 8 principles from last time but made some clarifications. i'll list the revised version below:

• ding--support/out (hands) & up (head & tongue)
  
• ko--lock/inward (for feet & hands, knees & hips, shoulders & elbows)
  
• yuen--circle/round (front & chest, back & arms)
  
• bao--hug/embrace (body hugs the organs & courage, dantian hugs the chi)
  
• chwei--down/drop/sink (elbows, shoulders, qi into dantian, lower back & legs into the ground)
  
• chu--bend (elbow, knee)
  
• ting--stretch/extend (spine, tailbone, knees)
  
• du--determination/aggression/spirit (heart, eyes, hands)
  

Sifu said that all of these concepts are associated with each posture in hsing-yi, meaning that for each movement we make we should be able to see each of these principles in operation. in fact, he stressed that we need to make sure that each of these is being expressed in each movement we make.

there's a reason and a method here.

the reason, as with everything else in TCMA education, is to ensure proper body mechanics so that the body is positioned in a manner necessary to optimize the transmission of power. from a physics and engineering perspective, this means that the body has to align in such a way so as to convey force vectors without loss of magnitude in a direction (remember: vectors represent magnitude and direction) against the opponent.

methodologically, hsing-yi differs from many other TCMA styles. other TCMA follows a gradual, incremental process having the student practice and ingrain one concept at a time before proceeding to learn and integrate another concept. you can see this in styles like bagua and tai chi, which feature training introducing students to additional layers of concepts and principles in combat over time. hsing-yi, in contrast, asks that the student learn multiple principles from the very beginning, and requires that the student concentrate on incorporating and consolidating multiple concepts and principles starting from the initial lessons.

Sifu noted that this was a philosophical difference in teaching, with the reasoning that hsing-yi's founders suspected that the teaching styles of other TCMA allowed too many opportunities for corruption, errors, and bad habits to appear and propagate, and so actually served to impede student development as opposed to aid it--which is the opposite of what training intends. hsing-yi's philosophy, in contrast, asserts that a comprehensive approach from the very beginning serves to discourage such dangers with the hope that in the long term it served to enable better student development.

of course, Sifu observed, for the hsing-yi teaching method to work, it means that the student has to take great effort to learn and apply all the principles from the very beginning. this means that the student should start off learning hsing-yi using very slow, deliberate movements (akin to tai chi), with the idea being that the student should consciously think about all of the above 8 principles in each movement, and then make sure to correct their own movements to express all of these principles. eventually, as the student progresses, this will become second nature, and the student will be able to maintain proper body mechanics without conscious thought.

Sifu added this is why so many hsing-yi practitioners end up having good structure, since the conscious, deliberative process of learning stresses the student concentrate on body structure.

taking this discussion into the lesson, Sifu led us through the first 3 lines (we've done 2 so far, today he added a 3rd) slowly, with him pointing out each of the 8 principles as we held each movement in each line. he noted that we should be doing this in our personal training outside of class, and that we should try to do so whenever practicing hsing-yi alone.

he also observed that we need to constantly apply these principles not only in the movements, but in the postures. hsing-yi, he said, is typically interpreted as "mind-intent boxing", but that there were additional concepts associated with the art: shing and wu, with shing being shape/form and wu being movement. this means that as much as our minds are constantly thinking about the principles, it has to do so in relation to both our body shape/form (shing) and movement (wu).

this consumed the entire class, and we even went over--we were shocked to find that it was already 2pm, at which point Sifu called class to an end so that we could proceed to our other priorities for the day.

kyudo

i attend kyudo both Saturday night at the Pasadena dojo and Sunday morning at the Rancho Park (Culver City/West Los Angeles) dojo. both are held every weekend, but i've only been attending the Saturday evening one because of its proximity to my apartment. Rancho Park is a longer drive. also, it's an outdoor archery range with targets 25 m away from the shooting line, and so is an extra challenge above what i'm used to.

i decided to attend the Sunday morning class since i figured it was time to let myself take on the additional challenge. i wasn't so sure about this, actually, since i had trouble Saturday night and my shooting was suddenly deteriorating. but i figured i'd committed to both so i might as well go.

of course, this meant that this weekend of kyudo was pretty much a disaster. my shooting problems seemed to get worse as the Saturday night class wore on, and everything absolutely fell apart Sunday morning.

the problem seems to be a greater expansion on the issues i had last week: problems in my draw and release. according to Sensei, my draw is still not involving enough of my right side. that, and i'm not expanding into the bow. he said both are related, and that i can fix it by concentrating on having my elbows go forward and backward, so that i'm drawing by lowering the bow but letting the draw of the bow lead my elbows down. the distinction, while superficially semantic, is actually physically distinguishable--Jean showed me the difference, and you can see it in the arch formed by the bow in the draw: simply lowering the bow yields little or no increase in the lower arch of the lower bow at full draw, while extending the elbows to lead the bow down results in a greater arch of the lower bow at full draw. this means greater stability and power in the release.

in terms of my release, the shot is not coming naturally off the string. either the arrow releases prematurely or it doesn't release at all, leaving me to struggle to let the string go. Sensei said this is due to improper hand positioning, which in turn is due to my form in my draw. he pointed out that because of the problems in the form of my draw, my shooting hand is following an improper path in which it turns and holds the string in the notch of the glove. he said that proper form in the draw allows the hand to follow a path that has the string fall out of the notch at full release. Sensei said that i needed to have the elbows continue to extend, even beyond what i perceive to be full expansion, so that it goes naturally into release. he also added that i need keep the right hand loose, so that it's not gripping the string, but simply letting the string sit in the notch. he noted that the release is not in any action of the hand but instead in the action of the body.

i was pretty frustrated with kyudo this weekend. it seems simple but it's really complicated, and it's much harder than it looks. this is going to take a lot of work.