day 289: practice and problem-solving

concepts:

• right hand release

lessons:

• kyudo

this past Saturday was more kyudo-focused. Sifu was on a trip to give a seminar in Canada, and so kung fu was just an informal meeting for anyone who wanted to get some practice in. it was rather warm, so it made for a tiring afternoon. i won't go into details, since we largely just went through various permutations of the lines following what Sifu had told us last week.

kyudo

kyudo this night was at Sensei's house, where he hosted an all-day retreat for senior students. i showed up at 5pm, since that was the time he'd set for the class as a whole. this evening was a more relaxed environment, with the focus being refinement and work on our technique.

this was actually exactly what i needed, since i seriously have to sort out the ongoing issues with my release. Sensei worked with me on this, helping recognize a number of things:

• the wrist of the release hand, when the form is done properly, naturally follows a rotation as the bow is raised and then drawn. the issue is to make sure that the wrist follows the action of the bow, and doesn't lead it. i seem to be trying to anticipate things, and so am doing the opposite and making my wrist lead the bow.
• the wrist doesn't initiate the release, but once again follows the expansion of the bow. if anything, the wrist follows the elbow, which follows the bow.
• the release hand itself is not supposed to grip the string or the arrow. it's supposed to simply hold a form that allows the nocking groove in the thumb to hold the string. gripping with the release hand prevents the arrow and string from moving--which they must do as the bow rises and then opens.
• when the elbows open properly, the hand and wrist naturally turn in a way that allows the string to come out and release.
• the release can come with a snap of the fingers, but the snap doesn't initiate nor lead the release. instead, the snap is something that naturally results from the last expansion before the string goes to release the arrow.
  

i worked on this for the evening, and things seemed to be getting better by the end. but i'll have to see in the next class.