Understanding.....It Comes Slowly

[Steel Tiger]

Recently I have been examining a form I learned nearly twenty years ago. It is a Liu style linear bagua form called Eight Thunders Serpent Palm. It is the central form of the style of bagua I have learned and I think on it and consider it a lot.

The form consists of thirty double hand elements. Each element is performed on each side giving sixty total movements. It is a beautiful but not flowing form. Between the elements there is a return to a start position. There are two start positions - one is an obvious bagua stance, guarding the greater and lesser doors; the other is called the Sun and Moon stance ( horse stance with left hand level with upper chest and right hand at Dan Tien).

What I have been looking at most recently are the transitions from the end of an element to the set position. It may seem odd, but I have found that they, themselves, are very interesting and effective techniques. Bagua is an art about movement and change, then why have these returns to a set position? I think it is because they only end up in a set position, but are in fact additional techniques that add to and modify the essential elements of the form.

I was looking in particular at an element called "To Bind" which could be a deflection of a kick of uppercut to the body followed by a throw or a bodycheck. An important aspect of this is that you step from hung bu (evenly divided stance) to fu hu bu (tiger stance, a long low stance with most of your weight on one leg, very common in CMA). From there you move forward to the set position (hung bu in this case). This movement foreward carries you into very close range with your opponent and given the style of hand movement typical in bagua allows for a double attack in the form of an elbow and a forearm strike or hammer fist.

It has made me re-evaluate the entire form and I have made many interesting discoveries as a result. I am fascinated that such a small, seemingly insignificant element of the form can produce such a sweeping reconsidering of the whole. It has made something that I have been doing since 1988 new again.


Thanks for reading through my ponderings and musings. Its just that it struck me so profoundly that I had to share it with someone who would understand what the hell I was talking about.

 

[grydth]

This sort of research and reflection brings out new meanings and benefits, and keeps our forms from becoming 'old'.

You, at least, seem to get these insights while working out. I get my extremely few insights usually while showering, or drifting off to sleep - suddenly wide awake I go flying down the stairs to test out and practice.... followed by delighted midnight E-Mails to friends who wonder if I've gone insane again.

 

[Sukerkin]

Always a pleasure to have confirmed by others in different arts that sometimes the revelations tucked away in a form only shine through to the surface once you've 'polished the mirror' enough :tup:.

In the JSA, altho' the lineages are generally unbroken, sometimes things are not explicitly explained because they were simple, plain, and obvious common sense to those that devised and used the forms. Over the centuries these elements, whilst not lost per se, do become 'masked' until such time as you've studied enough to reach the realisation on your own.

Sometimes it's as straight forward as a technique from Kata A being a counter to a technique from Kata B or that a given kata contains more than one Decision Point. Other times it's more subtle and nebulous, like realising that, for yourself at least, why a certain thrust has a slightly longer 'reach' than another is because it allows a full sleeve to fall out of the way of the tsuka before you turn.

My sensei likes to exemplify this by saying that you can spend a lifetime training in an art, be able to flawlessly demonstrate all the techniques in half an hour and still, one day, be surprised by a nuance in the movement of the sword or the body that you'd never appreciated the significance of before.

 

[Steel Tiger]

I am beginning to suspect that we cannot grasp the depth of forms and kata until we are past the understanding of the gross physical movements. Once those are at a point where we don't have to think about them, we begin to see the intricacies that live just beyond them.

I have to admit to never having been awoken by some realisation, but I have had experiences of clarity in the shower and while cooking dinner.

Sometimes it's as straight forward as a technique from Kata A being a counter to a technique from Kata B or that a given kata contains more than one Decision Point. Other times it's more subtle and nebulous, like realising that, for yourself at least, why a certain thrust has a slightly longer 'reach' than another is because it allows a full sleeve to fall out of the way of the tsuka before you turn.

It is interesting that you mention kata that operate with regard to other kata. I have seen a number of Chinese forms that are similar except that they seem to have two forms incorporated into one. For example, a jian form I know, San Cia Jian (Three Powers Sword) has two parts and is often performed as a paired routine. One person starts at the beginning and the other starts half way through. Essentially, the second half of the form is attack and counter for the first half. Both practitioners work through the whole form just in opposition to each other.

I think that it may be the beauty of the form that we begin to see when we can carry out its operations without focusing on how to do them. That sort of focus can obscure the complete nature of the form.