2011 New Year Resolution!

My Goal:
This upcoming year will be the year of Lion forms.  My goal is to be proficient of 56 Lion forms.  The order of learning will be base on strategy.

My Plan:
I will be working on all the strikes with Single fighting strategy (For example, Sweeping & Cutting & Choping & Cutting & Hooking & Shocking & Blocking & Seizing & Grasping with Lifting and Holding strategy) before I move on to the next strategy.  The reason I decide to learn all 8 strikes with just single type of strategy because I felt this give me a better understanding of how you can apply different type of strikes in similar manner.  To put it plainly, when I practice Lifting and holding form, I'll try to figure out how each strike can be apply in upward direction.

Timeline:
On average 1 type of strategy per 8 weeks or 7 forms every 2 months.

The requirement of hands and arms

HJB tells us that the requirement of the hands and arms are rolling out - wrapping back in - drilling forward - and pulling back away.  I was perplexed when I first heard this. I was asking myself how on earth am I going to accomplish these requirements? Trying to grasp this conceptual requirement rationally, I broke it down to 2 parts which are

1. The lower arm rolling out and drilling forward
2. The upper arm is wrapping back in and pulling back away

First, lets look at the mechanic of rolling out and wrapping back in.  It was explained in the DVD that you need to rotate your upper arm and lower arm the in opposite direction, clockwise and counter-clock wise.  Now, stop and ask your self what is actually rotating? Does the muscle on the arm rotate? of course, your muscle can not rotate... It's your joint that rotate.  The two joints that rotate is your wrist and your shoulder.  Your elbow can not/ should not rotate because it's a hinge joint that can only open or close, like a door hinge.  Basically you need to rotate your wrist one way and your shoulder (including the shoulder blade) the opposite direction.  This also means that if you are doing a posture and both your shoulder blade and wrist is rotating in the same direction, what you are practicing is probably not correct even when the shape of your arm looks approximately correct.

Next, the mechanic of drilling forward and pulling back away.   This means that you need to drill out with your lower arm while keeping the ball of your shoulder in its socket.  It's only common sense, since pulling the shoulder out of its socket would weaken your ability to apply force.  Also persistent practice of pulling out the shoulder might make your shoulder susceptible to injury.

In my opinion, this requirement of the arms maximizes its function in the way nature intended.  With long term practice you will increase the flexibility of your wrist joints and shoulder joint, opens up your elbow, lengthen your muscle and tendon.  Therefore strengthening them.

ps.  For anyone that doesn't have the patient to read .  These three paragraphs can be sumerized to. 1.  Rotate the wrist one way and the shouder another way.  2.  Drilling out your hand while keeping your shoulder in its socket (of course, do not lift the shoulder up either.  Pull it into your body ,not away from it).  I hope this help with your training  =)

Jin Yinting

The person without troubles does not recognize their prosperity;
When trouble arrives, then one begins to know the prosperity of being worry-free;
The body without sickness does not recognize its happiness;
When sickness arises, then one begins to know the happiness of being healthy;

by Jin Yinting ( a Xing Yi master )

Wu Style Taiji Classic by Wu, Gong-Zao

I was reading Wu Style Taiji book written by Wu, Gong -Zao today. The first sentence of the book makes me re-think about how I should practice YSB. It reads

"The Dao of the fist techniques is no more than strengthening the tendons and bones, and regulate and harmonize the Qi and blood."  

Circle walking seems to satisfy the requirement of the sentence perfectly.  The practice is of twisting and extending action, hence strengthening the Tendon.  Walking in circular pattern for extensive of time helps increase your heart rate, hence harmonizing and regulating the blood.  Currently, I do not know how strengthening the bone works.  However, I have received a complement from my training partner that my bone seems to be hard and sharp... It bruises him just by I turning and rubbing my arm against his forearm.  I assume circle walking has something to do with that as I practice it consistently.

As for harmonizing and regulating the Qi,  I am completely at lost.  I have not feel anything in this this regard beside occasional tingling on my arm (This is not a tingling sensation due to blood not reaching the extremity, as I can tell the difference).    Some other note is that I could make my hair stand up on command accompany by a goose bump, this phenomenon is similar to you feeling very cold.  The different is I can do it even in the heat of summer when I'm sweating.  Amazing these phenomena are, they are not very useful to me at the moment in the fighting art. They do not make me hit any harder or faster.  I just feel tingling and able to make a goose bump occupationally....that is all.  Hopefully as time passes I will get a better understanding of these phenomena....

The Art of Appropriateness

Everyone knows that Bagua is an art of change.  But why are we changing?  Is changing always better than status quo? Can changing be WORST than status quo !?  Does it matter how we change ?  Of course,  common sense would tell you that changing is actually neutral.  It is neither good or bad.  Changing is only good when you are changing for the better.  Hence, changing is only a mean to an end, which is appropriateness.  Baguazhang is an art of doing the right thing at the right moment.

While practicing the form, you should know its appropriateness(what does the opponent do to force you to change into this position?   How strong is his force?  What is the direction? ).  This ,by all mean, is not a small task.  However, I believe that if you want to truly progress in fighting skill, it is crucial that you know what each move in each form is appropriate for.  Without this kind of intention, your form practice is not a lot better than a calligraphic dance!

Yin and Yang in Daoyin.

 Watching a Daoyin in martial art video again today from the Traditional studies website (http://traditionalstudies.org/Internal_Cultivation/Internal_Cultivation_Welcome).,  I cant help but think about what is physically happening while you are standing for blood and standing for Qi.

According to Andrew, standing for blood require you to turn you limb similar to wringing a towel while stretching all body parts away from each other.  While standing for Qi, you relax your muscle and solft tissue as much as possible while keeping the posture with minimal muscular force.

Standing for blood, you are basically stretching your muscle and tendon in a spiral manner.  This would be similar to pulling a rubber band, which is your tendon and muscle, really hard.  Doing so probably causes a automatically respond of the body to toughen up the tendon, muscle, and fascia , as everyone know that micro tear int the muscle/tendon from any type of work out will cause the body to make a stronger replacement afterward

Standing for Qi, on the other hand, you are require to relax but still keep the correct posture.  This encourage you to focus on your bone structure.  Having bones line up in a way that gravity pull them directly down to the ground with the least muscle intervention.  Therefor, teaching your bones to line up in the most efficient manner. This probably will come to play when you try to push or receive a push from someone.  As transferring the force to the ground and generating a linear force is basically depending on how well all bones the body in the body line up.

I cant help but think about the Taichi of this practice, the yin (the tendon) and the yang (the bone).  It is also inline with the saying that after a long time of practice, you should have a solid bone and tough tendon.

Dodging Strike of the Phoenix

The phoenix sys. or the windmill palm emphasizes the windmill force of the strike.  While I was practicing the dodging strike today,  I start thinking of how a actual windmill works.  First, it must have a fix rotating point.  Second, The blade which to rotate around that fix point.

This concept above would be similar to having a ball attached by a string, swinging around an fix point.  Using this analogy, I realized that the longer the string, the more rotational force on the ball (provide that the string is not sagging.  The string should have a constant tension on it).  With that in mind, I tried out a phoenix dodging strike to the right with my left shoulder as a fix spot and my right hand as a ball connecting to my left shoulder with stretched arm and torso (the string).  I noticed a lot more horizontal rotational force on the strike.

Making sense of forms

Knowing exactly what each form means and what they are trying to teach us in fighting is crutial.  It is said by Dr. Xie that all traditional martial art must contain the concept of Rising, Shifting, Falling, Reversing, Advancing, Retreating, Defense preparation.  If you looking at the 8 animal in HJB lineage and its characteristic, you will notice that each animal contain those concepts mentioned above.

1. Lion -       Interlocking palm       ** Characterized by Continuously advancing
2. Snake -    Moving with the Force palm  ** Characterized by Moving with opponent force
3. Bear -     Turning the back palm  ** Characterized by turning the back to gain better position when in a losing position
4. Dragon -  Holding and Lifting palm  ** Characterized by it's long upward movement
5. Phoenix - Windmill palm  ** Characterized by its fast rotational type of force
6. Rooster - Lying step palm  ** Characterized by its shifting of the body while attacking
7. Unicorn - Reversing the body palm  ** Characterized by reversing the body to gain better position when in a losing position
8. Monkey - Enfolding palm  ** Characterized by its downward movement.

These animals sys. , in my opinion, also contains a directional meaning.
1. Lion - Forward
2. Snake - Yielding (any direction that's the same with the opponent line of force)
3. Bear - Backward , Backward rotation
4. Dragon - Upward
5. Phoenix - Rotation
6. Rooster - Shifting side to side
7. Unicorn - Backward rotation
8. Monkey - Downward

What does this mean then? It means when you practice, you should have a practical directional usage of the form in your mind. I usually interpret each form as follow

Lion Sweep Holding and Lifting   =  Advancing sweeping strike upwardly

Lion Smatch Enfolding                = Advancing smachting strike downwardly

Lion Chop Windmill                  = Advancing chopping strike in a rotational fashion.

Lion Shock Turning the back     = Advancing with Shocking strike while you are in losing position and turning around.
etc...

Between 2 and 5 , the development is real!

This phase has been on my mind since I read it from He Jinbao's paper.  According to HJB, this phase came from a book written by Men Baozhang.  The 2 is referring to the theory of Taichi.  The 5 is referring to the theory of Wu Xing.  It is these 2 principles that we must follow in order to make a real progress in Baguazhang.  As I was thinking about how to apply these 2 principles in to my practice,  I suddenly realized that may be I should learn these principles from  the art that directly related to those 2 theories.  Studying the principle of the movement in Taichi chuan and Xing yi qhaun seems to be a good place to start my quest of improving my Baguazhang.