day 305: a bucket of chicken

concepts:

• rebound
• soft/hard
• flicking
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

this is going to be a pretty straightforward write-up. i'd meant to post it earlier but Blogspot appears to have had some trouble in the past few days and access has been non-existent for much of it.

today, Sifu announced a series of upcoming events for everyone to note. his May is going to be busy, with something happening every weekend. you can check out the events at his website: http://www.jasontsoukungfu.com/news . May 14 is a tai chi seminar with Sifu Su ZiFang. for May 21, Saturday class will be moved to Cal State Long Beach for a seminar on tang lang (mantis). May 22 will be a panel discussion & presentation on kung fu at the Asia Pacific Museum in Pasadena. May 29 is the Joy of Kung Fu dinner banquet. everyone is encouraged to try and make all the events.

hsing-yi

we spent the class with a shortened review and time dedicated primarily to learning the Shanxi chicken. for today, the focus was on getting the form down, and so we didn't get into too much theory or all the applications within it. it's a much longer form compared to the other hsing-yi animals we've learned, Hebei or Shanxi, and so involved a lot more work in learning the sequence of movements. Shanxi chicken is dramatically different from Hebei chicken, not just because of its length, but because of the content of the form itself, which seems to integrate movements from baji, piqua, and chang quan (long fist).

here's the video so you can see what i mean:
Shanxi chicken: http://youtu.be/YJS0PR5zwHA

this is why this post is more straightforward; we didn't have time to get into discussion or comments. here is what we got today:

• rebound--the applications in the form utilize a rebound effect (e.g., ~14-second point of the video), where you are expected to go from one movement into the next by rebounding off the ground to bounce with force into the next application
• soft/hard--the form reminds the practitioner to switch off between soft & hard (e.g., ~26-second mark of the video) so as to help confuse and misdirect the opponent
• flicking--there is a flicking motion (~35-second mark), with the force vector going out rather than up. this motion isn't just for show, but http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifis meant to help remind you to send the force outwards by following-through on the extension of the arm
  

i asked Sifu about the history of the form to try and figure out its similarities with baji, piqua, and chang quan. Sifu said that Shanxi was the oldest form of hsing-yi, but that this didn't necessarily mean that it derived its similarities from sharing common roots with baji, piqua, or chang quan. he said that Shanxi and Hebei exchanged a lot of ideas with each other, and then also exchanged a lot of ideas with various other martial arts in their respective provinces. he suspects that this is where hsing-yi masters may have recognized some principles as being 1) useful and 2) compatible with what they were doing, and so decided to integrate it into their styles.

i should also provide the video from last week's Shanxi crocodile:
Shanxi crocodile: http://youtu.be/t1A3QzLMwG8


kyudo

kyudo was a little rough today. i was feeling really tired by the time evening rolled around, and so while i mentally was into it, physically i was struggling. i knew what i wanted to do and was conscious of everything, but physically i was just tired and had trouble just moving. as a result, i don't have much to say.

luckily, we had a large turnout this evening (~20 people) and so Sensei decided to start open practice early to allow everyone a chance to shoot. this let me rest a bit. it also gave me some time to do some bow and string maintenance that i've neglected for far too long. having said that, by the time class finished i skipped the midnight meal and just went straight home to rest--which turned out to be the right call, because as soon as i got into bed i immediately went to sleep.