day 176: memory is a tricky thing

concepts:

• nuances
• looseness
• balance
• extension
• memory
• explosiveness
  

forms:

• 64 palms, side B
• chang quan
  

things seemed to start pretty late today, which was ironic considering that i thought i was struggling to get myself to class. i've started having private lessons with Sifu on Fridays in chang quan, with the 1st session yesterday. i'll post summaries of these sessions with these Saturday posts, since i don't think they warrant independent write-ups, particularly since Sifu wants to concentrate on refinement of my chang quan and also cover combat applications.

people straggled in slowly. for a good portion of time, the only people present were Siwannda, John Eagles, and me. while we waited, we ended up spending most of our mutual time talking to a prospective new student, Gloria, who initially visited back in June but then went away. she seems intent on giving an extended try to class, and had a fair number of questions, most of which i deferred to John and Siwannda. John took it upon himself to show Gloria the bagua stances, taking her on a brief lesson through each one.

Sifu and Phunsak arrived later, but Phunsak was having some stomache issues (i still think it was a case of food poisoning from some bad sushi he had the previous day--Simon even noted that Phunsak made the mistake of eating a spicy tuna roll, which was invented to allow use of old tuna...i'd trust Simon on this one, since he's a sushi chef). as a result, Sifu asked that the bagua students take it upon ourselves to continue refining side B while he went to work with the baji students, and said he'd return to evaluate us.

64 palms, side B

we went through each of the palm changes for side B, following the same pattern as last week. this time, however, since everyone was feeling more adventurous, we also experimented on doing it in a circle. Eric bowed out of this, and dedicated his attention to helping Gloria with some bagua basics.

when Sifu returned, he watched us again for evaluation. i did a little better this week, but largely because i could remember the individual palm changes a little better.

we finished class with this and went to lunch.

chang quan

the private lesson yesterday was a bit involved. the plan is basically to work through chang quan, since Sifu believes that 1) it will help rectify a lot of issues i'm having in bagua (and elsewhere), 2) help me get a better sense of the origins of a lot of northern chinese martial arts (and thereby put a lot of what we're learning in historical perspective), and 3) provide a more simplified aspect of northern chinese martial arts combat applications (compared to the changes in approach introduced by later styles like tai chi, bagua, etc.). since the class curriculum is pretty set, and i appear to be the only one of the newer students interested in this, we agreed to make it a separate teaching session.

it turns out i'm not the only one getting private lessons--Tommy is getting additional instruction in spear and fight training (i.e., drills and bag work). he was finishing his lesson when i arrived, and stuck around to see what i was doing.

i asked Sifu if we could start from tantui, particularly the combat applications, since i've never gotten them. but he said this is something that will come out in the process of learning pao quan, and so it would be more efficient to just refine my pao quan for now.

he began by noting that the pao quan in chang quan is NOT the same as the pao quan in chen tai chi quan. the pao quan in chang quan is actually a different ideograph (i.e., character), and the pronounciation involves a slightly different tonal variation. unfortunately, because so many chinese students were illiterate and so many of them became sloppy with the pronounciation, the 2 forms became confused with each other. it didn't help when the styles were introduced to Western cultures, wherein the 2 forms both received the label "pao quan" even though they are very different.

Sifu wrote the characters for each down for me (although i didn't save them...at some point i'm going to have to ask him to write down the Chinese characters with accompanying English translation for EVERYTHING--it would clear up a lot of confusion and i suspect resolve a lot of ongoing debates floating in the Western world). he showed that the pao quan in chang quan is actually translated into "running fist," and thus reflects the training purpose of the form, which is:

• help students develop dynamic power
• indoctrinate students in the need to constantly move while fighting
• teach students how techniques are supposed to work in a state of constant motion
• develop overall fitness levels

in contrast, the pao quan in chen tai chi quan is translated into "cannon fist," and is more indicative of the form's focus on introducing students to a way of generating greater power in tai chi techniques.

Sifu then said that the version of chang quan he's been teaching is jia men chang quan (Islamic long fist). he knows others (emei, or plum flower, and taizu being among them), but he teaches jia men since 1) it's the standard introductory style taught in the Wutan curriculum, and 2) it contains a very clearly defined progression in the curriculum, with the basic-level tantui fulfilling a very specific set of objectives, the intermediate pao quan aimed at a different and distinct set of goals, and the advanced chao quan directed at its own unique purposes.

from there, he started me directly with pao quan, first asking me to perform as much as i could remember. he stopped me about a quarter of the way through and said this was a good portion to work on for the day. we went back and started from the beginning, with him showing me the refinements for each movement. he also demonstrated the combat applications, and pointed out why the details were so important.

my notes on this are as follows:

• nuances. there are a LOT of nuances. as much as chang quan is often perceived as "simple" or direct relative to other styles (like bagua), i'm seeing a lot of subtleties--and they're all important, since Sifu showed me just how much a difference they made in terms of the effectiveness of the techniques.
• looseness. chang quan requires a lot of suppleness, but not of a kind that means absolute relaxation. it calls for a constant transition in and out of states of relaxation and tension.
• balance. more so than tai chi, i'm seeing that it really tests balance. of course, this may be that pao quan is a dynamic form, and so involves being balanced while going from states of movement to stillness. but it's a new experience.
• extension. i have a bad habit of not extending my legs in certain movements. it's very apparent in pao quan, and i'm having to really think consciously about this. Sifu said this was one of the reasons he wanted me to learn pao quan, since he figures it will help me eliminate this habit.
• memory. my memory of pao quan is a little spotty. i had to struggle to recall some of the movements at certain points. but i figure this will be resolved through practice.
• explosiveness. pao quan calls for a lot more explosive movements than i'm used to. i'm having to adjust to this, particularly in terms of how the explosive movements are generated (some of it is plyometric, which i'm very familiar with, but some of it involves explosiveness generated from the feet, which i'm not so familiar with). but this too, i think i can pick up pretty easily with enough practice.
  

this consumed the entire session. we stopped about 1/4 of the way through the form. which was just as well, since my mind was getting saturated. there's a lot to remember--particularly in terms of the nuances. of course, the solution to all the above is pretty straightforward: practice, and lots of it. the issue is actually doing it.

Tommy actually stayed all the way through. we wrapped things up, and set the time as a regular slot in the calendar, meaning i'll be doing this every Friday. i'm looking forward to it--it feels like i'm learning history, and history is actually kind of fun.

day 175: things about the circle

concepts:

• circle
• energy
• focus
  

forms:

• 64 palms, side B

we had a number of people out this Saturday due to vacations or work, leaving the bagua group with just 4 of us (Phunsak, Ching-Chieh, John Eagles, and me).

Sifu started with both baji and bagua groups together to go over the plans for classes this fall, and also reminded everyone to settle the bills from the trip to Las Vegas. Phunsak said he needed to send out a reminder email, particularly since we haven't yet figured out just how to divide up the costs of the van ride to and from Vegas (made more complicated by the fact that i used my credit card, but neither i nor Phunsak rode the van back from Vegas). i figure we'll get it sorted out eventually, so no worries.

64 palms, side B

Sifu instructed Phunsak to lead us through a review of 64 palms, side B, and said he'd come back to evaluate where we were at. Phunsak decided to review the line forms of side B, and we took a fair amount of time going through the palm changes, working through 8 iterations of each palm. it turned out that there were a few confusing points for everyone, so it worked out to go through the review for all of side B. in particular, palms 4 and 6 still seem particularly vexing, since they both have different versions that we've learned.

this took awhile, and it was sometime before we were ready to have Sifu return. when he did, he had us perform side B individually in front of class, and then took time to make observations. since we're just starting to refine side B, he gave us the option of doing side B in a line or in a circle. i chose a circle, not so much because of the challenge (although, i admit, this was definitely the seductive side of it), but more because i've been practicing side A in a circle so often i figure i might as well stay consistent.

i struggled to remember side B at a couple of points, but managed to make it through. Sifu made the following comments for me:

• my eyes are wandering. this is a persistent problem. Sifu says he suspects it's because i'm still trying to remember the forms. still, i need to work on keeping my eyes focused on an imaginary opponent in front of me (in the case of 64 palms, this would be towards the center of the circle)...and my eyes shouldn't just be fixated on the center of the circle, but should be holding a general focus that also encompasses the surroundings beyond the center and outside the circle.
• the energy in my movements is currently being constrained within the circle. Sifu says this is a mistake in bagua--the circle should not be seen as the perimeter marking a boundary of activity, but more just a path you are following. as a result, your intent and your force vectors should be aimed within the boundary of the perimeter, but should instead be free to move in any direction in or out of the circle. in fact, it should be free to move in any direction at all....Sifu reminded me that bagua involves the creation and manipulation of whirlpools (vortices) upon which force vectors are to be applied, and that these vortices will take any orientation and any direction and any magnitude, and so as a result are only limited in the sense that they involve your body and your mind (which essentially means no limit at all) and follow you as you move along the circle--and just because you are moving along the circle doesn't mean that the vortices are confined to it; it just means that they trace their origin to your path, which happens to be along a perimeter of the circle.
• open. i need to be more open in my movements...and not just linearly, but in rotational movements as well.
• i need to practice the forms, so i can remember them better, and recall the intent behind their movements without having to think about them.
• i am not moving smoothly between techniques or palms. Sifu noted that this is crucial, in that part of the power generation in bagua comes from moving (i.e., dynamic) energy (which i take to mean borrowing the momentum...which requires a force vector with a sustained or non-zero magnitude, and hence smooth continuous motion). he noted side B really challenges this, and so is meant to help train this aspect of bagua power generation, and that i should treat it as a tool for helping me improve this.
  

regarding the second point, i asked Sifu if this means that the circle is really just a teaching tool to help practitioners understand the meaning of direction (and changing direction) and angles (relative to an opponent), and so has no other function in terms of instruction. he said in part the use of 64 palms in a circle is intended to do this, but that the use of circle walking in bagua is also meant as a larger framework to tie the bagua curriculum together, with basic components like mother palm and xaio kai men being taught via circle walking just as much as more advanced elements like 64 palms and forest palm, thereby giving students a starting point upon which they can gradually add and layer the components of their bagua education in a coherent, logically apparent manner.

additionally, Phunsak also noted that circle walking also had another role in terms of qi-gong, with the qi generation during circle walking being dramatically different than static or linear qi-gong. Sifu agreed, and said that this is another reason why circle walking is such an important component in the bagua curriculum.

Sifu also provided some additional background regarding side B, saying that it did not always exist, and that there are questions as to whether the original bagua taught by Dong Hai Quan had a side B (with the dominant viewing being no). the side B currently taught by the North American contigents of Wutan is one that was developed by Adam Hsu and Sifu sometime around 1982. there is another side B version developed earlier by Damon Hwang, and which is taught in other Wutan branches, but Sifu says it is dramatically different in appearance and movements. Sifu also noted that all current branches of bagua (Yin, Cheng, etc.) teach their own versions of side B.

Sifu pointed out that while all styles of bagua have their own unique side Bs, they are all consistent in that side B is meant to be a partner component to side A, wherein each palm change in side A has a corresponding palm change in side B. this means that any 2 partners can demonstrate the techniques in 64 palms by pairing off with one partner being side A and the other being side B, and then having both partners perform a palm change (palm change 1, palm change 2, etc.). this fulfills several different goals 1) it helps practitioners see the intent behind the techniques, 2) it helps practitioners get a sense of the movement and spacing in the techniques, and 3) it helps practitioners get a feel for the bagua fighting style, at least in terms of seeing its principles in action.

regarding the version of side B he teaches, Sifu said the hope had been to try and create a corresponding match to side A that 1) matched side A in intricacy, 2) matched side A in attack/defense/counter-attack, 3) matched seamlessly with side A in technique, 4) forced the practitioner to face situations challenging free-flowing movement (relating to my prior observations regarding power-issuing in bagua, this is crucial...in bagua, a lot of the power is built of free-flowing movement. reference: ), and 5) developed skills for issuing power in a variety of situations in addition to those taught by side A.

we eventually wrapped things up around 1, and took off for a post-class lunch.

day 174: the Sunday plan

forms:

• push hands, chen

we had an even lower turnout today compared to yesterday, and i think it was a continuation of the post-tournament hangover. i arrived early and was eventually joined by John Eagles and Phunsak, who were followed by Ching-Chieh and Jay. Sifu came and waited for a few minutes, but after a while decided we should just go ahead and start.

we began with a discussion of the plan for the Sunday classes. since the summer and tournament are over, we're returning to the schedule of class every other Sunday to go along with the regular weekly Saturdays. Sifu said his original plan was to continue with chen tai chi, in particular going into chen push hands and then moving onto pao quan. he also said he wanted to teach miao dao. however, he was willing to take alternative suggestions, since he was already providing private instruction in other areas to other students (apparently, Tommy and Simon are learning long spear).

Phunsak, for his part, has his own list of things he wants to cover. for me, i'm pretty happy with the plan, so i had no objections. i think Jay was more interested in staying with bagua, but i sense Sifu is going to reserve that for private lessons. as for Ching-Chieh, she doesn't seem to have any preferences which way or another.

taking stock of the situation, Sifu decided to just go with his plan. he said we'd spend today just doing an introduction to chen push hands, and continue with this for a few weeks.

push hands

in his introduction, Sifu said chen push hands is somewhat different from yang, in that it stresses more movement in terms of the body and the feet. practitioners don't remain as stationary as they do in yang, working instead on moving about the partner across the ground with the goal of trying to probe and enter the other person's defenses (or, conversely, defending against the other person's attack). as a result, it is much more dynamic and much more active in terms of speed, direction, force, and placement.

i should note, however, that push hands--at least as Sifu has taught it--was never meant to be the static, fixed-feet, single-plane-of-motion exercise it has become so frequently these days. push hands was always supposed to be a much more free-flowing, free-moving, free-form, complex-range-of-motion activity. this is because it was meant to be a stage in the tai chi curriculum preparing a practitioner to use tai chi in full-speed combat, and hence was supposed to help train the practitioner for the chaos of a combat situation. there were different variations of push hands corresponding to different stages in the progression to full-speed fighting, with each variation following one another in a progressive series gradually leading the practitioner to develop the skills needed to use tai chi in combat.

in addition, i should also reiterate Sifu's admonition from prior lessons that the term "push hands" is actually a very misleading title, and very likely an error in translation. in particular, for the initial stages of push hands training, where the goal is to focus on ting jing (i.e., sensing) and hwa jing (i.e., redirecting or receiving), the better translation is "listening hands" or "sensing hands."

Sifu began us with the very basic chen push hands. to be quite honest, this seemed almost identical with the yang push hands he taught in the UCLA class. the only difference i could see was that today he went farther into the "random circle" movements for the hands, arms, and torso that were shown in his tai chi DVD. since i've seen the video, i was pretty familiar with this.

he had us review the basic movements taught in the DVD, with the assumption that we were far enough along in our martial arts practice that we could pick them up pretty quickly. after a few minutes of this, he had us start with basic partner drills. for today, he said we should focus on just sensing the other person's movements and redirecting them away while avoiding direct force-on-force confrontation. he commented that eventually the drills would involve actually trying to apply--and defend against--tai chi attacks in free-form movement, but that for now we should just keep our feet stationary and work on feeling out the motions of another person in close proximity. he suggested we try closing our eyes and just relying on our hands and arms to sense our partner's movements.

we worked in pairs, switching between left and right sides and then shifting the way we faced each other (i.e., instead of both partners having their right sides forward, 1 partner would be leading with their right while the other would lead with their left). we also switched partners, to get used to different people.

one of the things i noticed with this exercise is that you can get a feel for another person's personality and mental state from their body movements. i recall my grandmother telling me that you could learn a lot about a potential love interest by dancing with them, and learn from their physical movements if they had the kind of character and personality that would be a good match for you. i've come to suspect the truth in this over the years, and i could see a lot of similarities with today.

generally, in a free-form situation where people are allowed to follow whatever movements they choose, you can tell by their choices and way of executing those choices just who they are and what they are thinking. here's what i mean:

• movements that are restricted to only a few types of action in a limited range of motion tend to be indicative of someone lacking creativity--either because they are not creative or because they are scared to be so, or because they are distracted in their mind and unable to think freely
• a push hands partner that is responsive to changes in your movements (in direction, force, speed, location, etc.) indicates someone who is open-minded, and willing to experiment with new conditions, particuarly if they do so without resistance
• a person who responds instinctively with an immediate response of physical resistance (even if they then switch to soft receptiveness) suggests someone not as open-minded
• actions that are applied with a level of physical power throughout the range of motion suggests someone fixed in their mode of thinking--although, variation in that power can show some flexibility in thinking (i.e., creativity and open-mindedness), particularly if the magnitude of variation is great (i.e., goes from emptiness to firmness)
  

the trick here is to determine just how creative and just how open-minded a person is, and thereby actually reading something about their personality and character...which leads to the real trick, which is to then figure out what you are supposed to do about it.

i mentioned all of this to Sifu and he replied "of course." so i guess this is something that most practitioners seem to know. still, i found it interesting, since it let me see more of the personalities of the other people in the class. i'm going to have to continue developing this as we go further in push hands.

we finished the day around 12:30, and Sifu reminded us that the next Sunday class would be in 2 weeks.

day 173: recovery

forms:

• 64 palms side B

Saturday was a slow-moving day. turnout was a little low, and everyone was moving at a pretty leisurely pace. i think a lot of it was a post-tournament hangover, with everyone still recovering from the prior weekend trip to the Las Vegas tournament and the immediately subsequent disciple ceremony (more on this below). that, and i also think that everyone was in the process of trying to catch up on a lot of school and work that had been postponed because the tournament, meaning that everyone's mind was otherwise occupied.

i should note that Sifu and several other members of his generation in the Wutan organization (Masters Yang, Hom, Wong, and Su) conducted a disciple ceremony the previous Monday (Labor Day), with several senior students from Kurt Wong's school and our school being officially inducted as disciples into the Wutan system. it was a pretty formal ceremony, and a reflection of Sifu's plans to try and institutionalize Wutan Los Angeles as a formal branch of the international Wutan organization.

i would have taken pictures of the ceremony, but the battery in my camera died (booooooooo!!!), and so i have nothing really to show. i can say that it was typical of most ceremonies you see for induction into any organization, with formalities and oaths and celebration. but it was also different, in the sense that 1) it followed a lot of Chinese traditions, none of which i am familiar with, 2) it was in Mandarin (sic?), of which i know nothing, and 3) involved some secret lessons (well, sort of...it was not so secret in the sense that the doors were still open when they were presented, but it was still secret in the sense that everything was in Mandarin and so i didn't have a clue about anything that was said, raid, or fed). it was, to say the least, intriguing. i'll leave it at that.

64 palms side B

Sifu announced his plan to begin refinement of 64 palms side B. he wanted to wrap up the refinement of side A, and then spend some time on side B, which should consolidate everyone's form enough to enable learning forest palms. he instructed Phunsak to lead the review of side B, and then went to work with the baji and mantis students.

we spent the remainder of class on side B, doing several iterations of each palm (the usual 8 per palm) along a line. i took some time during breaks to also go through some of side A, just to refresh my memory.

most everyone went to lunch at the end of class, but i had to skip it today, since i had to meet a friend of mine at UCLA to have him show me the library system.

day 172: las vegas kung fu tournament

well, we finally had the big trip to the Las Vegas Kung Fu Tournament.

this was a first time for me, and i figured to just go and experience things. as a result, i didn't have any expectations.

originally, i was entered the beginner sparring competition and was also serving as a referee for the sword sparring competition, but i knew there was a conflict between the 2 and the chances of me being able to do both were pretty slim. this was all the more assured by the announcement that the organizers were going to try and have everything in 1 day, compressing the schedule. with this in mind, i'd pretty much made up my mind that if there was a conflict, i was going to referee the sword sparring, since it seemed to be a bigger event and something that involved a lot more people than just me (as opposed to just beginner sparring, which only involved me), and hence had greater significance that called for greater priority.

the tournament was hosted by Tony Yang and Nick Skrima. Tony is a kung fu brother of our Sifu, Jason Tsou. the tournament, while open to anyone, seemed to also serve as a reunion point for the North American representatives of the Wutan organization, with the list of masters including a roll call of Wutan flag-bearers: Su Yuchang (New York), Jason Tsou (Los Angeles), Tony Yang (Ohio), John Hom (Canada), and Kurt Wong (Alaska). they were only missing Adam Hsu, who relocated to Taiwan a number of years ago but used to be in San Francisco.

this was a bit of a revelation for me. even though this tournament was in its 1st year and hence had a smaller turnout relative to the other national ones, it still seemed like a big event. part of this was that i've never seen so many kung fu practitioners gathered into 1 location. another part of it was that i'd never seen such a diversity of kung fu participants. the tournament crowd covered a full spectrum in age and gender and race and background and styles and skill level. i spoke to a few people who'd driven or flown from as far as Alaska (from Kurt Wong's school) and Florida.

i took a few pictures so you can get a feeling of the visitors:
for Sifu and the other Wutan masters, i could tell this was really more a reunion, and thus a time to catch-up on news and events in their lives and share time with friends they don't get to see that often. the tournament was really a secondary thing. as a result, they were quite relaxed and seemed to be have a good time.

i had a chance to meet all of them, enough to get a feel for their personalities. Master Su Yuchang, who is the most senior of the group, doesn't speak very much English, so i had some difficulty talking to him, but he seems to be a very friendly individual once he feels comfortable around you--i've been told he's quite a socialite, and is renowned for staying up late into the night and early morning, and the little i saw this time confirmed this for me (i don't think i've stayed up past midnight in YEARS, perhaps decades, but Master Su seemed to do this with aplomb). Masters Tony Yang and John Hom also seem quite gregarious, with Tony Yang appearing to be the more outgoing personality, and the leader of conversation in the group. Master Kurt Wong turned out to be what i had expected, with a much more reserved personality (i've always believed it takes a certain personality type to live in Alaska, particularly as a teacher, and he fit it almost exactly).

this also gave me an opportunity to see Master Tsou in context...he's the only martial arts instructor i've had, so i've never really been able to have a feel for how he compares with others apart from people have told me. he's not quite as socially outgoing as Masters Su, Yang, or Hom, with a slightly more toned down edge. and his kung fu practice seems to cover more of the traditional asian medicine aspect compared to the others--with the exception of Su Yuchang, who i understand is an actual TCM doctor. in addition, he also seems to be in better health.

i wasn't able to take as many pictures or videos as i would have liked. because the schedule was compressed into a single Saturday, i found myself busy the entire day. as i had expected, there was a conflict between beginner sparring and sword sparring, and i had to forfeit beginner sparring to help out with the sword tournament. this was just as well, since it turned out that the sword tournament had 19 competitors (by far the most popular event of the entire tournament) and had a shortage of judges (even with me, we still had to rotate in Mike DiSargo and Sifu to help). that, and Sifu mentioned to me that because this was the 1st year for the sword tournament, he considered it more important than anything else we had going on and wanted to try and make sure it had a good debut.

i managed to make some videos during breaks, mostly of the events closest to the sword ring. you can see them for yourself.
kung fu kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTHRfro_zI

women's sword: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJWb54ThUA

women's sabre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJEcDqKEQE

men's sword: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRamUBtClm8

i had wanted to take video of everyone from our school who was competing, but i missed out on most. Laura was in beginner forms, John Eagles was in 2 events (advanced forms and sword sparring), Jonathan Shen was in 3 events (advanced forms, intermediate sparring, and sword sparring), Simon was in beginner sparring, Phunsak was in advanced forms (solo, and 2-person with Ching-Chieh), and Richard was in sword sparring.

i ended up mostly taking video of the post-tournament Master's Demonstration, which served as the closing ceremony. Sifu did demonstrations of san cai and bagua 64 palms, and Phunsak did a 2-person demonstration with Ching-Chieh of 64 palms as well as a 2-person demonstration with Kieun of san cai jian. you can see the video of them, as well as the 1 video i caught of Jonathan, below:
Sifu Jason Tsou, 64 palms A & B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nABvS5e3O2E

Phunsak & Ching-Chieh, 2-person 64 palms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaPRTUpsmA

Sifu Jason Tsou, san cai jian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPzsSjRbNQ4

Phunsak & Kieun, 2-person san cai jian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IBQAhHyoEM

Jonathan Shen, mantis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ9rMtqYQeM

one of the things i should note is that i got a real sense while being in the audience that my kung fu school, and my instructor, is really unique. i heard whispers of excitement and curiousity about bagua and san cai jian, with some people saying that it was important to record them because they were the kind of things people don't often see. i even overheard one person tell his partner to ignore all the other forms and to make sure to record ours, since they were more important and more worthy of video time on his HD video memory card. i could see that our school is much more traditional, and much more closely aligned to the fighting function of kung fu, relative to many others that were present, which were more modern and related to current wushu practice.

most of the other forms i saw were all shaolin-related. they were impressive, and definitely very showy and crowd-pleasing. you can see the videos i took:
shaolin weapons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COGzF4x-O24

shaolin rope dart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0omJ7BwkA

would i go to a tournament again? well, this tournament is being held in Las Vegas again next year, and then the year after is moving to Tokyo. i'd like to go, and actually make an effort to compete. and for sure, i think it's important to try sparring, if nothing else to help motivate learning how to use kung fu as a martial art--Kieun mentioned to me that compared to other forms of self-defense, kung fu generally doesn't do anywhere near the same amount of person-on-person application training that other styles like boxing, judo, wrestling, etc. do, which i see as important in terms of actually being able to defend yourself.

the catch for me is that i'm in a bit of a fluid period in my life, since i'm looking for a tenure-track job and don't have a lot of stability. i'm also still committed to endurance sports, and my friends are saying that there's only so much time for us to get together (since everyone has family and careers that are pulling us away from each other) and that we should commit to doing an Ironman as a group--and all the ones they want to do occur at the same time as all the kung fu tournaments. i'm going to have to take some time and sort this out.

but this was a good experience, and i got to see a lot of things i didn't know before. it helped improve my perspective on traditional chinese martial arts, and learn more about the Wutan presence within it. hopefully i can go again...i'd really be interested in Tokyo, since it would give me an excuse to stay for an extra month and really tour a country i've always wanted to visit. we'll see.

day 171: final pre-tournament Sunday

forms:

• tournament prep

this was the final Sunday before the tournament, and we followed the same pattern as last Sunday, doing a few rounds of light sparring and then doing a few rounds of mock jian shu.

as a result, i'm keeping this post this short, since we didn't cover anything new and just worked on tuning up everything we've done before.

day 170: final tune-up forms

forms:

• bagua 64 palms

i'm writing this post about a week late, since things have been rather busy lately. but there isn't much that was missed, since the Saturday for this post (August 23) was largely devoted to finalizing the forms of those preparing for tournament competition: Chieng-Chieh and Phunsak in the 2-person category, and Laura and John in the individual women's and men's categories.

Sifu also reviewed everyone else's form while he was at it. he noted that while my form is improving, i'm continuing to stop and start my actions--in his words, i'm not "letting the power flow." this is a problem, because it throttles the power generation. he said i needed to be more continuous in my transitions between techniques, especially with anything involving a change in direction...which, unfortunately for me, in bagua pretty much means every technique.

i think i can see how i can rectify this. based on what he described, and reflecting back on conversations we've had in class, i think that the continuity in movement is important to power generation in bagua because it allows the practitioner to generate and maintain momentum. in other words, a lot of the power (but not all) comes from the momentum of the practitioner's movements, and hence requires that momentum be preserved--which, in turn, means that actions follow a continuous, smooth-flowing pace throughout all changes in direction and magnitudes of force vectors.

this adds to the power sources in bagua. from what i've seen to date, it means the nature of power issuing in bagua comes from a number of sources:

1. reeling silk energy, or the classic "chan si jin" (sic)
2. force vectors from muscular movement (what i consider to be my usual modus operandi)
3. alignment of skeletal structure
4. reaction forces driven through the body through the ground (Newton's laws of motion)
5. momentum.

out of these, i really only know 2, have started to figure out 1 and 4, have no clue regarding 3, and i think i can sort out 5.

but having said all this, Sifu said we'd work on this once we got back from the tournament.

day 169: rules changes & tournament prep

forms:

• tournament prep-sparring
• tournament prep-jian shu
  

we learned of a bit of a hiccup today. Jonathan Shen checked the sparring rules for the tournament, and found out they'd been changed to san shou rules, with 1-minute rounds for beginners and 2-minute rounds for advanced competitors. this means that there is now full-contact strikes and also throws. hearing this, Sifu said we needed to work on handling throws, both employing them and countering them, and had this be the focus of sparring work for the day.

tournament prep-sparring

we worked on throws in the grass area, with people breaking off into pairs, so that 1 partner was using only throws and the other partner was using only strikes. the general idea was that the "thrower" had to focus on entering and executing the throw against a non-cooperative "striker." the "striker" in turn, had to counter the throw by resisting it, breaking it, or escaping it.

Sifu had us focus on very basic throws today, with just 2-3 variations. he said there wasn't enough time to do any more, and that we should just focus on learning a handful well.

we worked on this for awhile, and then started working on sparring rounds. i did a no-punch round with Richard and then a light-contact round with Jay, trying to use the throws. i have to say this is going to need some more work, and i definitely want to continue with this next Sunday. although, whether or not there's going to be enough time to get comfortable is another question, since the tournament is the following Sunday.

whatever. it's a learning experience at this point, and that's just how i'm going to have to see it going into it.

tournament prep-jian shu

we continued with jian shu practice, doing the mock rounds with the goal of getting practice for both judges and competitors.

there's some concern at this point with the tournament, since Nick Skrima informed Alex that no one signed up for the jian shu tournament (which is even less than the 4 he told Sifu). this doesn't quite match what Phunsak and Alex have, since their estimate based on the confirmations they've received from other places is at least 10 competitors.

whatever. we'll see once we get to Vegas. at this point we'll work with whoever shows up.

we finished around 1 and everybody had to go to their various commitments, leaving me to go to lunch with Phunsak.

day 168: forms

forms:

• bagua 64 palms

we started the day with finalization of rides to the tournament, as well as distribution of kung fu uniforms. apparently, Sifu learned that everyone going to the tournament is going with full uniforms, and so as a result decided that we needed to make sure that we had something presentable as well. the plan right now is to obtain some uniforms through a vendor in Taiwan who seems to know Simon, and then work on more traditional uniforms after the tournament when time is not so pressing.

bagua 64 palms

continued the plan from last Saturday, with everyone working on continued refinement of 64 palms. generally, Sifu says people are getting better, with their versions of 64 palms coming closer to his standard of presentable. however, he still sees a need for refinement.

with respect to me, Sifu said today that my performance of 64 palms used too small of a circle, and that i needed to use a larger circumference. he said that i should even expand it beyond the standard, which is the perimeter marked by 8 steps, to something even bigger. he believes that my body type has a reach that goes beyond the standard-sized circle, and that it's constraining my movements. he also noted that this is something that will also be ameliorated with continued practice in long fist--which is something i've spoken to him about working no during this coming year...but that's a post for another time.

we finished the day around 1:00, after Sifu had managed to review forms of all bagua and baji students.

day 167: tournament prep

forms:

• jian shu

we were short-handed today in terms of turnout. given the low turnout and the pressing time needed for Kieun and Phunsak to practice, Sifu decided to skip sparring practice and concentrate on jian shu. i suspect he also did this because of the lightened sparring rules in Vegas and the need to get jian shu consolidated--both for judges and competitors.

jian shu

Kieun and Phunsak spent some time practicing the 2-person san cai form, while Jonathan Shen and John Eagles put in some practice time with the jians. Kieun and Phunsak finished just as Alex showed up, at which point we began running mock jian shu rounds--but this time actually running things with the full regulation slate of 1 ring judge, 4 line judges, and a timekeeper (i think this may have been a first!). we practiced calls, hand signs, the procedure for point rulings, the procedure for starting and stopping matches, and the procedure for switching judges.

i have to say things are running a little bit more smoothly now than they have in weeks past. and it makes a big difference to have the full crew of judges. although, it definitely requires practice and experience to be an effective judge, and there continue to be things we need to work on--particularly in making quick decisions and clear calls. but i think things are going to be all right for the Las Vegas tournament.

day 166: forms prep

concepts:

• physics
• sloppiness
  

forms:

• 64 palms

we were a little low on turnout today (actually, for this entire weekend). Sifu dedicated today towards working on forms and continuing refinement. in particular, since Kieun is going to be out for the next few weekend up until the tournament, Sifu had Phunsak and Kieun devote as much time together to work on the 2-person forms they will be presenting in Vegas.

64 palms

the rest of us worked separately on 64 palms. we also spent a good portion of time going through applications from the form, with pairs of students practicing entering and using techniques chosen at random with the goal of feeling out the physics in a free-form (i.e., non-planned and spontaneous) setting. this actually was pretty useful, since it ended up revealing some sloppiness in our technique (e.g., things are sloppy if the technique doesn't do what it was meant to do), and also showed just how sloppiness can creep into your movements when you attempt to engage an opponent with any level of indecision.

Sifu has told us before that we have to respond to the opponent's actions in a free-flowing mode of action, where we operate without any predetermined or preset plans of what we want to do--you're supposed to just act and work with whatever conditions arise in a fight. however, this doesn't mean being passive or observant. you still have to have to exercise mental concentration to 1) understand what is happening and 2) decide how you are going to respond. and this has to be done rapidly, meaning that you have to be decisive in choosing and executing a response. being indecisive means a split-second hesitation, creating at worst a pause that your opponent can exploit and at best a loss of muscle coordination that slows and breaks down your actions (read: sloppiness). thing is, sloppiness is just as bad as pausing--either way, it gives your opponent something they can take advantage of.

we finished and went to the regular post-class lunch around 1.

day 165: more sparring & jian shu

concepts:

• closing the gap

forms:

• tournament prep-sparring
• tournament prep-jian shu
  

this is another short post, since we followed the same format as last Sunday, doing sparring rounds and jian shu rounds.

tournament prep-sparring

i had 2 sparring rounds today, with the focus on following up from my observations from last week to work on dealing with larger opponents. i ended up having some insightful conversation with Jay and Phunsak regarding the ways you face a larger opponent.

the general idea is to close the gap and engage, but the question (and certainly my problem to date) is how to do this. the tactics are to use movement and timing to find and exploit angles and openings. but again, here too, the issue is how you do this. i ended up getting a number of pointers from Jay and Phunsak as to just how this is supposed to be done, and what you should be trying to do once you have managed to engage.

both of them also pointed out that it's a fallacy to look at a person's physical dimensions and automatically issue judgments as to who has an overall advantage. rather, the reality is that each person has certain advantages in certain areas in certain conditions, and hence each person has different sets of tools given a particular set of conditions. in which case, a good fighter uses those tools to maximum effect and minimizes those the opponent has an advantage in.

this was pretty useful for me. it's the kind of training and experience i think is necessary to really learn how to employ a martial art...and the kind you don't get just practicing forms or techniques, or talking about objectives and principles. you can't really learn how to defend yourself unless you actually learn how to use your martial art.

tournament prep-jian shu

we spent the rest of the day doing mock rounds of jian shu, practicing the formal calls and hand signals. we also went through several hypothetical scenarios to evaluate how the rules would work. after that, we went to lunch.

day 164: refining the 64 palms

forms:

• 64 palms

i'm keeping this post short, since we generally followed the same pattern as last week's class, with everyone practicing 64 palms and then presenting it for Sifu's observation and judgment, with him providing feedback and directions for improvement. practice was good, with us getting a lot of time in to refine the palm changes. i'm starting to get a better feel for them, although i'm sure this is a function of just putting in the practice.

Phunsak and i spoke before class, and he largely confirmed my suspicions that Sifu wants to consolidate everyone on 64 palms before continuing onto the forest palm. this makes sense, since it's always good to perfect previous lessons to generate a base to build later lessons on, particularly when later lessons incorporate previous ones. the analogy is a football coach having a team stop to master a draw play--because if the team can't master something as fundamental as a draw play, then they're going to struggle with more advanced things like end-arounds or flea-flickers.

day 163: sparring & jian shu

forms:

• tournament prep-sparring
• tournament prep-jian shu
  

we warmed up with some of the partner drills from last week, and then went straight into tournament prep.

tournament prep-sparring

i had 2 sparring rounds today, the 1st against Richard and the 2nd against Jonathan. my round against Richard went better, with me able to hold a slight edge, even though it was mostly a draw. even though Richard had more experience, i was able to use my height and reach advantage against him to hold him at range.

in contrast, my round against Jonathan was pretty much a disaster. he's taller and has greater reach, and as much as i tried, i still wasn't able to figure out how to close in and engage him. every time i thought i had it figured out, i found myself getting hit. granted, he has more experience, but this is proving to be quite a puzzle for me--the prescription against a bigger opponent always seems to follow the same formulas (i.e., close the gap, move, engage), just as much as it does for smaller opponents (i.e., keep them at distance, control movement, engage), but i'm finding it's hard to actually do the things necessary to achieve these formulas.

from what i'm seeing, there's an issue in knowing what to do with your body and skills to exercise these formulas. basically, it's like having a set of objectives, but then struggling to figure out how to achieve them given a limited set of tools defined by the parameters of your body, your mind, and your skills. you have to know how to use what you have to meet your goals in order to be effective in a fight.

i spoke with Jay about this the next day, and he nodded and confirmed my suspicions. he said that's why experience is so important--because it's one thing to know what you want to do, but another thing entirely to know how to do it given your personal capabilities. and the only way to know how is to learn from personal experience, because only you can know your own capabilities. whatever someone else knows is based on their own body, own mind, and own skills, and so may not be appropriate for you. you have to know yourself, meaning you have to go through the process of exploring yourself, and learning what you can do and what you prefer to do.

this of course, relates back to the constant admonition in martial arts that a true practitioner has to "master the self" in order to master others--you have to know yourself before you can hope to be effective in fighting others. that's not the whole truth to the admonition (there's many other levels i know of), but it's one level i'm learning now.

i asked Sifu about this over lunch, and he nodded, saying that is why you have know your identity as a martial artist--you have to know how you want to do certain things given the assets composed of your body, your mind, and skills. and you can improve those assets through training and experience. and if you're good enough, you can change your identity...but apparently this is a topic for another time, preferably when i've achieved a certain level of development.

tournament prep-jian shu

we finished the day with mock rounds of jian shu, so that judges and referees could get practice and competitors could also get training. Alex and Sifu seem to have decided to try to formalize the calls, with specific terms and hand signals to be used by judges and referees. this threw an additional layer of difficulty in, and required more time to get comfortable with. from what i could tell, we didn't really get entirely used to the terms and hand signals, and definitely need to get more practice.

by the time we finished, it was approaching 2, and we decided to wrap things up since people had other commitments to get to.

day 162: more refinement

forms:

• bagua 64 palms

this Saturday was more refinement of the 64 palms form. Sifu started class by explaining why he was insisting everyone (both bagua and baji students) take time to refine their forms. ordinarily, he wouldn't be pushing so hard, especially with so many beginners. but since he's expecting to leave Los Angeles and return to Hawaii full-time next summer, he wants to make sure that there is a solid foundation left that is strong enough to be self-sustaining and identifiable as the Wutan branch in Los Angeles. in order to make this happen, however, he needs to have a cadre of students capable of exemplifying the true flavor of Wutan martial arts.
this means students who can do the forms that are technically flawless, and vary only in the sense of personal expression (i.e., a bagua form looks like a classic bagua form, with the techniques smooth, clear, and in accordance with the ideal, and with the only difference being the intent and mental state of the performer.

this is all part of an apparently recent decision by Sifu regarding his plans for Los Angeles after he leaves. he's said in the past that he'd distanced himself from the Wutan organization for awhile, for various personal reasons. but now that he's leaving, he wants to leave an institution, and has decided to tie in more closely to the original Wutan organization. to do this, he wants to formalize things so that 1) there's an identity, 2) there's an infrastructure, and 3) there's a support network. for an identity, he wants to have things known as the Wutan Martial Arts Center of Los Angeles, with a clearly identified focus on preserving the Northern Chinese martial arts taught within the Wutan system. for an infrastructure, he wants to have certified instructors and qualified representatives (i suppose that's where we come in) following a clearly delineated curriculum and objectives, such that there is an institutional corpus that is self-sustaining and self-propagating. for the support network, he wants to see us part of the larger global Wutan community, so as to benefit from the resources and assistance of Wutan members around the world.

all of these things are apparently being done simultaneously now. he's apparently been in contact with Wutan offices in other locations. we're looking at getting uniforms, website, Facebook presence (yes, there is one now), email, and location (in essence, using marketing terminology, we're "branding"). and we're accelerating the pace of refinement before Sifu leaves, with students expected to move farther along in their mastery of forms than might otherwise be expected.

personally, i haven't been aware of too much of this. most of this has been dealt with between the more senior people in the class. although, i do notice that i've gotten quite a bit more correspondence in recent months from Wutan people around the world, and this would certainly explain why.

bagua 64 palms

Sifu had us repeat the evaluation from last week, to give each of us more pointers. i won't cover what was said about others, but instead just focus on mine:

• eyes--apparently i'm not looking at the direction of the opponent, but instead am dropping my eyes to the ground. this affects my yi (intent), and so throws off my power and balance.
• short--my movements are still a little short in some points, particularly in entering and closing each palm change.
• muscle--i'm using too much muscle power. i need to be using more skeletal power, meaning i need to allow the forms to generate power simply from the movement of good technique.
• flow--i need to just flow smoothly from one technique to another, and from one palm change to another. this means having smoother transitions between each one (and apparently, the transitions are just as important as the techniques and the forms, since they allow you to produce combinations of your own choice to fit any set of changing conditions, and to react to anything that may happen to you).
  

between the bagua and baji students, this took the entire day, and we finished around 1pm and went to lunch.

day 161: punch and kick drills

forms:

• tournament prep-sparring
• tournament prep-jian shu

we had a long Sunday, with Alex back and wanting to get in practice time for referees. we ended up dividing things equally between sparring and jian shu, starting at around 9 and ending around 1:30.

tournament prep-sparring

sparring work today consisted primarily of punch and kick drills, with the goal of acclimating people to free-form offense and defense. Sifu had us work in pairs, with each pair doing several rounds of each drill before switching partners with another pair. in addition, to help us adjust to tournament rules, he had us work in full gear, with helmets, gloves, and pads. he cautioned that since this was meant to acclimate people to full-speed actions that we should hold off on full contact power and focus on just adjusting to timing and velocity.

the drills were as follows:

• punching drill--this involved 1 partner attacking and the other partner defending. the attacking partner was supposed to attack with any type and combinations of punches, with the defending partner defending himself. both partners are free (and expected) to move around each other as if it were a real fight, either trying to get around one another or opening or closing distance from each other.
• kicking drill--this is the same as the punching drill, but with the partners both using their kicks. the defender, however, could use hands to defend against kicks (using go and gua), although the primary defense was supposed to be the feet.
  

Sifu made a number of points:

• for us, high kicks are considered dangerous, and so normally in a street fight setting we'd stick to low or medium kicks. however, we employed them in practice to learn how to defend against them.
• on defense, don't try to watch the punch or kick. it can be too fast to observe or react in time, and often can be used as just a diversion. it's better to simply focus on the overall body of the attacker, and read their actions based on their body movement. this allows more time to respond.
• you're going to get hit. you can't always successfully defend against every punch or kick. the goal, however, can still be to minimize the damage.
• keep the chin down, eyes up. this can be hard when you're constantly moving, which is why you have to train for it.
• keep the hands up. this can be hard when you get tired, which again is why you have to train for it.
  

tournament prep-jian shu

we finished the day with jian shu tournament prep, holding mock rounds to help the judges train to either be referees or to work as line judges. we also worked on some tournament formalities that Alex wanted to institutionalize into the sport.

day 160: evaluation day

forms:

• bagua 64 palms

this Saturday began with a run-down of who was going to the tournament and some talk as to group transportation. the plan--at least for now--seems to be getting 2 vans to drive out to the Vegas on August 29 (friday) and returning August 31 (sunday). this is subject to change, since there seems to be some curiousity about getting a charter bus (which unfortunately needs more than the 15 of us to be made cost-effective), using a train (not sure if this is possible), or flying.

bagua 64 palms

Sifu had this be an evaluation day. he gave everyone time to practice 64 palms, and then had each of us perform the form individually in front of the class for evaluation. this time, however, in contrast to last week, he showed us opening and closing movements from bagua forest palm that he wanted added to the form.

originally, he just wanted us to do 64 palms side A, but i asked to do both side A and B as a personal challenge. i went ahead and got John Eagles to record me doing it, since i wanted to get a sense of where i'm at in the form. i tried to address my issues from the last time, concentrating on extending into the actions and moving more smoothly between techniques, but still found some sticking points.

you can see the video of me at the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqzDzQY_9F0

Sifu's comments on my performance was as follows:

• palms 1, 2, 3, and 7 are coming along
• palms 4, 5, 6, and 8 need some more work in terms of making the techniques more clear and having the yi (intent) behind them expressed more clearly
  

in addition, looking at the video, i can see that i'm still all angles and lines, and that i'm still not moving in fluid, free-flowing circles. in addition, i'm not moving with power at the times i should be, or shifting into softness when i should be. that, and i think i still express a lot of tension in my musculature and bone structure, and so don't really seem to have really gotten a sense of yin.

after we finished, Sifu then did the same thing with the baji students. we finished the day with this and went to lunch.

day 159: partner drills & sparring

forms:

• partner drills
• sparring
  

this turned into a Sunday, since Alex was back and Sifu wanted to work on both sparring and jian shu preparations. we began around 9:30 but didn't finish until around 1:30.

partner drills

we warmed up with some of the footwork line drills from last week, and then Sifu took us through a series of partner drills. the partner drills this week involved partners moving in circles, with multiple sets of partners going at the same time. Sifu told us to switch off partners randomly during each of the drills, so as to have us acclimate to constantly changing partners and movements. the partner drills today can be broken down in the following:

• moving forward, small step-big step--each partner faces each other, with guard hands in contact, and stepping in a circle so that both move around the center. both partners step forward, and if they want to change direction (e.g., go from clockwise to counter-clockwise), they have to pivot and change guard hands. either partner is allowed to change direction at any time, with the other partner required to match. Sifu said to mix up the steps, with either small steps or little steps.
• moving backward, small step-big step--this is the same as above, except that the partners move backwards.
• moving forward or backwards, small step-big step--this combines everything above, with either partner allowed to change direction as well as moving forwards or backwards using small steps or big steps, and the other partner required to match.
  

sparring

after the drills, Sifu had us begin sparring, with the plan being to go in 2 rounds of 2 minutes each for each person. i ended up being paired with Randy.

this ended up being an educational experience. to be frank, it was a disaster from my end. as much as i tried to apply the principles i knew, i ended up just getting beat down. Randy is larger and more experienced than me, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise. but it was frustrating nonetheless to not be able to avoid his punches or land any of my own, despite my best efforts to do either.

from an educational perspective, this is the kind of experience i need to advance in learning martial arts. to date, i've done light sparring, but it's not the same as going full-speed and full-contact, and it is definitely a challenge to adjust. in order for me to really understand kung fu--or martial arts in general--i know that i have to be able to use it effectively (key word: effectively) in a realistic setting. but in order to do this, i have to get experience to know just what i need to do to protect myself and just how principles are supposed to be used.

my effort was bad enough that i ended up working with Jay for the remainder of the session on my sparring skills, even after everyone else had done their rounds and had moved onto to jian shu training. Jay was willing to share his experience with me, and had me work on learning how to take punches and kicks, holding a guard, as well as working on movement. there were a few things he told me that i thought were pretty useful:

• don't focus on incoming strikes. they move to fast to react to, and you can respond quicker by just focusing on the opponent's body and face, which often relays signals as to their movement
• don't chase incoming strikes. meaning don't reach out to intercept strikes. opponents usually want you to do this, since it often places you in positions vulnerable to the opponent's follow-up attacks. good fighters actually try to lure you to chase strikes to set you up for their big hits.
• eyes down, hands up. i apparently don't do this right.
• move. always move. opponents will try to force you to move in certain directions to set you up for their strikes. they also try to close off your routes to deny you attacking angles. you have to keep moving to deny them a stationary target and to seek out opportunities.
  

of course, the big issue for me again is experience. i don't have enough experience to recognize what is a "good" opportunity (versus a "bad" opportunity) to strike, to read an opponent's body language to know what they plan to do, or to know when a strike is a ruse or a real attempt to hit.

later over lunch i told Sifu i think i need to be doing this on a more regular basis during the course of the year, just to develop the above skills and get a better sense of just how a fight situation really works. he said that this is something we should setup as students on our own, and something he definitely encourages.

that was it for the day. definitely a wake-up call.

day 158: evaluating forms

concepts:

• short and long
• continuity
  

forms:

• bagua 64 palms

this Saturday proved to be an evaluation day. Sifu spent some time at the start discussing his intentions regarding the sifu/disciple ceremony (which is apparently a pretty big deal, and is planned for the Labor Day after the Las Vegas tournament), as well as his plans to formalize Wutan Los Angeles as an institution (so that it exists as an institution even in his absence). following this, he reminded us that we were making a group trip to get martial arts equipment (for today, it was going to be to Golden Tiger Martial Arts, which has a store in Koreatown).

bagua 64 palms

we warmed up by reviewing 64 palms, sides A and B. following this, Sifu asked to see each of us doing 64 palms solo in front of the group, so that he could evaluate and make comments.

i won't go into detail about all the comments he made for everyone, but i'll note what he said about me:

• short. apparently my movements are too short, and i need to go long in terms of extending into turns and reaching with the arms and legs.
• continuity. my progression through the form still functions like a series of steps going from one checkpoint to another. Sifu said this is okay at a beginner level, but that i should progress in the form by becoming more continuous in my movements.
  

we weren't the only ones being evaluated. after we had finished, Sifu gathered the baji students together and had them present their forms solo in front of the class as well.

all this took the bulk of class time, although we finished slightly early so as to make the trip to Koreatown for lunch and then going to get equipment.

day 157: more leg drills & mock jian shu

concepts:

• footwork

forms:

• tournament prep--leg drills
• tournament prep--jian shu
  

today build on the drills from last Sunday. we had a new person today, Randy, who had been in Sifu's Long Beach sword class, and is preparing to go the Baltimore tournament. Alex was back today as well, to help practice running the jian shu tournament rounds. we warmed up with a repetitions of the Chen tai chi long form, although a few people filtered in after we had started.

leg drills

we began by repeating most of the solo leg drills from last week (reference: day 155), then went into some new drills:

• crossover step, solo--this followed the same pattern as the step and shuffle drills from last week, except this time we used a crossover step, with the rear foot stepping in front of the front foot to advance forward, and the front foot stepping in front of the rear foot to move backwards. Sifu said this was important, since it reduced the chance of tripping the feet.
• triangle step, stationary, solo--basically, you visualize an imaginary equilateral triangle on the ground, with each side matching your typical stance width and 1 vertex aiming at an imaginary opponent. you place 1 foot on the front vertex and the other foot on either one of the rear vertices. this will place you in a way that has 1 side of your body aiming at an angle in the general direction of the opponent. you then begin shifting your feet, so that you change which side of your body faces the enemy (e.g., if you began with your left foot on the front vertex and your right foot on the left rear vertex, you then move both feet so that your right foot is on the front vertex and your left foot is on the right rear vertex). Sifu said emphasized: DO NOT JUMP, but instead try to move in a way that has 1 foot taking the place of the other on the front vertex (i.e., shift the foot that is on the front vertex). we did this for several rounds of 16 repetitions.
• triangle step, moving, solo--this is the same as the above, except that with each shift in side you either move forward or backwards. we did several rounds of 16 repetitions, with each round either advancing forward or backward.
• triangle step, partner--here, Sifu had 1 partner be the attacker, holding a sword. the other partner was the defender. the attacker's role was to poke with the sword (ideally, it's a fake sword w a dull point, or just a plain stick) straight at the defender's chest. the defender's role was to then use the triangle step to shift out of the way. both partners would do 1 round moving forward, and then 1 round moving backwards. we did several rounds, again with 16 repetitions, and then switching roles.
• mix step, partner--this integrated all the footwork drills from last week. the drill is identical to the triangle step with a partner, except that the defender has to match the attacker's footwork, with the attacker choosing to either step, shuffle, or crossover while poking the defender with the sword. the defender's job is to retreat away from the sword. in this drill, the defender always retreats, and never advances.
  

after we did these drills, Sifu broke us into separate groups, with Simon and Richard going to give Randy sparring practice, and with me, Phunsak, Ching-Chieh, John, and Alex going to run some mock jian shu tournament rounds to practice judging.

jian shu

Sifu decided that we should have Ching-Chieh get some practice being a line judge, since she was going to act as a time-keeper for the jian shu tournament and might possibly have to fill in as a line-judge in case someone got sick or was unable to make the tournament. so we held several jian shu rounds, with everyone rotating in and out as line judges. Alex and i took turns being head referee.

this consumed the remainder of class time, and we kept going until the time Ching-Chieh had to leave (she's going away for 6 weeks for field research, which was why she's been trying to get in so much practice time recently). everyone had things to do and so had to skip lunch, leaving me and Phunsak to go eat.

day 156: practice and review

forms:

• tantui
• bagua 64 palms (A & B)
  

class started a little late today, with people filtering in slowly. i suspect this was because it was the July 4th weekend, and July 4 had been Friday, meaning that many people had been celebrating the night before and so were finding it a struggle to wake up Saturday morning.

we started class with more discussion about the tournament. Sifu had brought the entry forms and tournament pamphlet for both participants and judges, and wanted everyone to go through the documents. the entry forms included the tournament schedule and event rules, as well as information about hotel accommodations. i ended up joining Phunsak, Jonathan, and John Eagles for a 4-bed hotel suite.

there was some slight consternation in terms of rules and schedule, since the tournament pamphlet lists sparring and jian shu as being the same day, and a number of us are planning to do both. there was also some alarm at the sparring rules, which appear to be light contact with very short (30-second rounds)--which is not what we've been training for. Sifu didn't seem too alarmed with either issue, saying that the times could be changed to avoid conflict, and that he was going to talk to Tony Yang about the sparring rules.

Sifu said we'd need to figure out a way to get some school t-shirts made, since they're required by the tournament rules. he also said we would make a class trip for sparring equipment next week, since the rules specify what kind of equipment we're supposed to use. he reminded us to fill out the forms soon, since the entry and hotel discounts expire July 31, and to use his current address as the school address.

instruction today was largely all tournament prep, with review of 64 palms, both sides A & B. this was Ching-Chieh's last weekend until the tournament, and so Sifu wanted to make sure she and Phunsak got practice in with the form.

tantui

we warmed up with tantui. we haven't done this as a class in awhile, so it was good to do it as a group. i had reviewed it with John when he came back from his wedding trip, but hadn't done a very good job (turns out we both got lost in line 8, and needed some help remembering the left-hand part of it). not everyone in the class has learned tantui, and so a few were unable to join the rest of us, but the majority knew it, and so it served as as good group exercise.

bagua 64 palms (A & B)

we spent the remainder of class with 64 palms, first doing several repetitions of side A in a circle and then doing several repetitions of side B. during our break, i worked with John Eagles to review some of the palms, while Phunsak worked with Ching-Chieh on the 2-person form.

their 2-person form is becoming more refined. the tournament rules, however, required them to make some changes today, since they state a maximum 2-minute time limit for each form in the forms competition. as Phunsak and Ching-Chieh had been doing it, the 2-person form was taking around 5 minutes, which is too long. they ended up taking some time to excise parts of it so as to reduce it to under 2 minutes.

i ended up making a recording of one of their attempts at the tournament version of the form. you can check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x0YHDbK2w4


we finished around 12:30 and took our customary post-class lunch.

day 155: tournament prep - leg drills & mock jian shu

concepts:

• footwork

forms:

• tournament prep

i'm writing a short post for this Sunday, since it was largely straightforward, with Sifu having us go through drills to prep for the tournament. we had a pretty sizable turnout today, since John Eagles was back, adding another participant for jian shu. this seemed to make a difference in terms of running the mock jian shu rounds, even though Alex was absent today.

Sifu broke us into different groups to warm up. he had Ching-Chieh and Phunsak do several repetitions of their 2-person 64 palms form, Simon repeat several baji routines, Jonathan go through his mantis work, and John Eagles, Richard, and me perform several iterations of the chen tai chi long form.

tournament prep

once we'd gone through the warm-up, Sifu had us spend the day focusing on footwork drills. he said this was the paramount element in fighting (not just for tournaments, but also for real-life self-defense), since it drives your ability to move and position yourself with respect to a hostile enemy, and also acts to generate power in your attacks.

for today, Sifu had us focus on the following drills:

• basic step forward and back, solo--this is just the basic step (front foot stepping forward, with rear foot following) in the ready stance, with the purpose being to move back and forth along a line while staying in the ready stance (so as to keep the gates closed and the body ready to act) and keeping the feet flat and light (so as to not provide an opening for the opponent to trip the feet). we went 10 steps forward and 10 steps back several times.
• basic shuffle forward and back, solo--this is the shuffle (rear foot moving forward close to front foot, with front foot then moving forward) in the ready stance, with the purpose again being to back and forth along the line while in the ready stance with flat feet. we went 10 steps forward and 10 steps back several times.
• basic step forward and back, partner--same as the solo drill, but facing a partner. the added goal is to maintain distance with the partner that is just close enough to be near to hand range, but still outside effective kick range. Sifu stressed that we focus on being to sense the partner's actions, and that we do so without fixating on a single point of the opponent (i.e., we maintain soft focus). we did this 16 steps forward and 16 steps back several times.
• basic shuffle forward and back, partner--same as the solo drill, but facing a partner. the distance is the same as above. we did this 16 steps forward and 16 steps back several times.
• random footwork drill, linear, partner--this is something Phunsak had learned from his fencing class, and it combines all of the above, with 2 partners facing each other, and 1 partner designated as the leader and the other partner being the follower. the leading partner can move forward or back in any combination of step or shuffle in any number. the other partner has to respond by staying with the leader (i.e., step when the leader steps, shuffle when the leader shuffles). we did this in several rounds of several minutes, doing it slow at first and then doing it faster.
  

after we finished going through the footwork drills, Sifu had us run through several mock jian shu rounds, so that 1) he could get a feel for the jian shu fighting, 2) he could see how the refereeing and rules worked, and 3) get in practice time for participants and referees. Sifu also wanted to take some time to figure out logistics, particularly in terms of who we could get to serve as referees, as well as lines-people, time-keepers, scorers, and administrative support. Richard, John, and Phunsak took turns as competitors, and i and Phunsak switched off being the referee. we discussed a number of different scenarios and their possible solutions, but we'll have to bring them up with Alex before finalizing things.

this consumed a fair amount of time, and we ended up going until about 1pm. we eventually wrapped things up, and everyone went to lunch--although i had to skip this because of some research i have to do.

day 154: refinement, side B

concepts:

• turning (yin into yang)
• moving with contact (using energy)
• rotation footwork (setting up rotation)
• sinking
  

forms:

• 64 palms, palms 1-4, side B
• tournament prep
  

Sifu returned this week from Hawaii, and class resumed with the full complement of students.

we began the day with a full discussion regarding several administrative items:

• the tournament. Sifu wanted to get a tally of everyone who is going to the tournament, and which events they are going to do. he wants as many people to go as possible, and to have us involved in more than 1 event. he says the Las Vegas tournament is going to be a major Wutan event, and so wants to make sure that we contribute to making it a success.
• class for the rest of the summer. as he said before he left for vacation, he will hold class both Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the summer up until the tournament, so as to get everyone prepared.
• equipment. for the tournament, we need 1) t-shirt maker (Sifu says if we know anyone who can silkscreen t-shirts, get a hold of them and contact him), and 2) sparring equipment (everyone involved has to get their own--a helmet, gloves, rib protector, cup, and mouthguard).
• hotel. a hotel has been chosen, and the link to it is at Tony Yang's website. we're supposed to be getting a discount on rooms, since the tournament is being held there.
  
• bus. Sifu wants to rent a charter tour bus to go to and from the tournament. this is to save money on gas, help people rest, and carry all our equipment. but it's also necessary as we will be having a much larger party of people returning from the tournament than going to (see below).
  
• sifu/disciple ceremony. Sifu says that a number of people will be returning from the Las Vegas tournament with us to help him hold the sifu/disciple ceremony on that Monday (Labor Day). apparently, this is a big thing, since he hasn't done this before for various reasons. he said he wants everyone to come and observe, so as to see the process, since it's fairly formal but also meant to be a celebration.
  

64 palms, palms 1-4, side B

after finishing the discussion, Sifu had us continue working on 64 palms, side B. for today, he said to review palms 1-4. after working with the baji students for awhile, he returned to observe us, and then made the following observations:

• turning (yin into yang)--this point was made in reference to palm 1, but it also applies to the other palms (particularly palms 1-6, sides A & B). the form ends going from leaf covers summer flower into the closing stance (which is the starting stance). Sifu says there should be a turn into leaf covers summer flower as well as a turn going out of it. the turn into the technique is going away from the direction of the opponent, meaning yin, and the turn going out of it is in the direction of the opponent, meaning yang. this should be a reflection that the initiation of the technique in the opening/closing stance should be done with a slight yin energy (i.e., slight yielding) to receive and read the opponent before proceeding into a yang state to attack to the opponent.
  
• moving with contact (using energy)--this was in reference to palm 2b, although it's a basic principle in internal martial arts. in palm 2b, there is a sequence of 4 movements: black tiger steals the heart, cloud crosses, mountain road, white snake spits its tongue, and effortlessly support the silver water jar. Sifu said we were doing each of these by recoiling first. he said this is actually wrong, since it means breaking the sequence into 4 separate techniques, and hence breaking contact with the opponent. the sequence of movements is supposed to represent a series of actions flowing continuously from one to another, so that the practitioner is moving while maintaining constant contact with the opponent. but more than this, you are actually moving using the contact: Sifu noted the central idea is that you are using the opponent's body as a source of energy to drive your own movements--in effect, you are using the opponent's body and momentum as a springboard to drive your actions, such that you are using the opponent's energy to add to yours.
  
• rotation footwork (setting up rotation)--this was raised in describing alternative applications out of palm 3b's white snake coils in its den. this technique employs the dragon stance. Sifu said the dragon stance can be interpreted as setting up a turn--not just into the direction of the leading foot (as done in palm 3b, which goes from white snake coils in its den to green dragon turns its body), but also away. in essence, the dragon stance can be seen as the opening step creating potential energy for rotation, with the footwork creating the position from which the practitioner can unwind in a direction away from the opponent's body. this means that the dragon stance is not a delimiter in the direction of rotation, as so offers options in terms of what can be done--Sifu demonstrated a throw, very similar to classic aikido throws.
  
• sinking--this applied for all the palms today. Sifu stressed that many of the techniques should be done with a slight sinking into their closing stances, with the sinking being into the kua (or hip and pelvic cradle). this creates a yin component to help draw the opponent's yang attack, and so helps to receive and control their movements.

we practiced these palms, as well as some of the applications Sifu showed us, which were comprised largely of throws to take attackers down. this took the bulk of class time, and filled out the remainder of the day.

tournament prep

we finished the day with an impromptu sparring round--actually, it was just me and Simon trying to fit in some sparring as everyone left. Simon had acquired the full regalia of equipment and so had everything to go. i had everything except the helmet, so we just agreed to not attack my head.

i decided to focus today on throws, since we'd been practicing this in class today, and i wanted to try and actually learn how to throw an opponent within a full-speed setting. to be quite honest, this is still a complete mystery to me, and i'm still sorting out just what is involved in trying to use take-down throws in a free-form full-contact scenario--it's one thing to understand theory and know applications, but it's another thing entirely to actually have a good enough grasp of things to actually employ them in self-defense.

Simon got the better of me today, in the sense that he was able to do more using punches and kicks than i was using throws. i noticed that i could receive and direct his strikes, but i couldn't engage a throw--at least, not often enough to have any confidence in the techniques. if it had been a tournament setting, or even a real self-defense situation, i would have definitely been in trouble. there was a number of things i learned:

• in employing throws, the priority is to break the opponent's centerline (i.e., their structure). if you don't destabilize the opponent, they will have a base from which they can resist you, turning the throw into a basic lock-up of both fighters, creating a classic force-on-force confrontation (Sifu's conception of a "bull fight")--with the stronger opponent being the victor. breaking the opponent's structure denies the opponent a base from which they can resist, allowing you to exert force without opposition. from a theoretical perspective, i can describe it this way: a stable structure is wuji, or a state of solid energy or nothing, meaning there is nothing to work with in terms of your yin and yang actions; in contrast, an unstable structure is a division into yin and yang, meaning there is something for you to work with and manipulate with your own yin and yang movements.
• you don't break the centerline focusing on hands and feet, or arms and legs. you break the centerline by positioning of your body. the limbs are just vehicles to position your body. once they set the position, your body then acts as a single entity to break the enemy's structure. this is because your limbs individually are not always strong enough to push or pull an opponent--especially a strong one, a stable one, or resisting one, especially if they know how to use physics. you have to generate more power using your entire body (limbs and torso) as a single integrated mass, and do so in a way that everything works in unison to apply the requisite physics...something not always easy in a full-speed full-contact environment.
• a throw is about the setup. again: it is about the setup. this means getting into the opponent's gate (by finding an opening in a gate, or luring them into opening a gate), positioning yourself, and breaking their structure. the take-down is just the reward that comes from the closing movements. this, of course, is pretty much the same for all of martial arts--punches, kicks, joint locks, etc. the infliction of damage to the opponent is just a byproduct of the setup...and this is really nothing more than the steps that we've talked about in class: ting, hwa, na, and fa jing, with the setup being ting, hwa, and na jing. the lesson is that the goal isn't the final step--the projection of power, or the infliction of injury, or the punch, or kick, or joint lock, or throw; the goal is really the setup. because the setup sets the stage for what will happen...it's almost biblical: the setup determines the finish, the beginning is the end, the alpha is the omega, the cycle is without end.
• there is a certain window of opportunity in which to execute the throw. if it doesn't happen within that time, you have to get out or change techniques, otherwise you've left yourself stationary, and thus in a precarious position. by being caught in a stationary position, you're making it easier for the opponent to recognize and react to your actions. and the better the opponent, the better they can recognize and react, and thus the smaller the window of opportunity. as a result, once the window closes, you have to escape and move on to something else.
  
• it's one thing to know what to do, it's another thing to actually do it. it's easier said than done, and easier visualized than done. and it's only through actual experience that you realize what issues are specific to you as a person (i.e., what may be a problem for one person may not be the same as a problem for another person), and what issues you need to focus on fixing. i'm going to have to keep working on my throws. they just are counter-intuitive to my instincts, which are to hit the opponent. throws, much like grappling (which, incidentally, leads me to think grappling is going to be another problem area for me), involve a different mindset of receiving the opponent--and by receiving i mean engaging close to the opponent (closer than you do with close-range punches) and then manipulating the opponent, which entails sustained contact rather than the staccato contact of punches.
  

by this time people were leaving, so we called things to a close and went as a group to the post-class lunch.