empty hands, worn shoes

apologies, excuses, promises...

2012-01-30T06:51:00.001-08:00

Not much action on this blog lately, sorry about that. Have been quite busy with new life in a new country, setting up a martial arts studio (can't call it a dojo yet), the likes. If you're interested take a look at the Facebook page for Lawrence Martial Arts.

More coming to this blog before long (that's the promises, promises part).

unfinished business (1)

2012-01-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

In terms of the harder / external / gongfu styles, I didn't set out to learn any chang quan / long fist routines. I was after the nan quan / southern fist routines from the start. But the place where I was taking my daughter had a strong emphasis on chang quan. Good teachers, good environment, and most importantly, my daughter was interested. So I worked out with her every time and got to know some of the basic chang quan routines (though i cannot claim to perform them well!!).

After a couple years the doors finally opened and I was introduced to the nan quan competition form as well as some weapons. I kept the chang quan alive to have something to do with my daughter, even while strongly preferring the nan quan. Besides, good basics are good basics and are always something useful to work on.

We had been looking forward to a big finish, both my daughter and I just starting on new routines about a half-year before leaving Japan. Then the earthquake hit and almost all local school gyms were no longer available (curtailed electricity usage). We stumbled along here and there but it wasn't enough. Practice routines finally got back to usual late in the summer - and by then everyone was focused on upcoming tournaments = drill in the familiar stuff to compete with, not time to learn new things.

In principle, my daughter and I both reached the end of our new routines but neither of us learned them well and they have been on hold. As with the other Chang Quan routines, I have learned in tandem with my daughter (mostly so I can check her practice at home), but I was really in the dark on the Elementary Routine for the straight-edged sword or jian. Anyhow, I have finally put it back together -- not well at all, but enough to show my teacher when next we meet. She will not be satisfied with the result, I am sure, but it should be enough stimulus for her to become disgusted with my attempts and whip me into better shape.

Now - while keeping that one alive - it is time to get back to my own unfinished business, the nan dao form.

Chen Plunge

2012-01-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Chen Plunge

Starting out the new year right, my third class with an excellent pair of teachers in nearby KC. Third and best yet, with much more to come.

I have dabbled in Chen Style tai ji quan for a few years, but it has been very much back-burner for me, other things to focus on with my teacher before leaving Japan. Curiously, I did not complete the xin jia form, but did have special access to intensive year-long seminars in both dao and jian. I am able to get through both weapon forms, but neither is good yet.

And now I am in a new country with a new teacher, a pair of new teachers. The relationship is just getting started, but I have very good feelings so far.

However, there are a lot of new things for me to get used to.

1. For more than ten years, almost all my tai ji instruction has been in Japanese. Except for a year in China in 1999, it has been 16 years since I have had any instruction in tai ji in English. Suddenly I can learn about tai ji in my native language, and it takes some getting used to (and brings back good memories of my main {and Chinese} teacher {D.M.} of tai ji here in the U.S.

2. I am driving about 45 minutes each way to class. I don’t think I have ever regularly driven to martial arts classes – always by bike in the US and China (or taxi), and by bike or train in Japan. I am a Nebraskan and I do not do well on the interstates of the big city like Kansas City. My tension level goes off the charts with each visit.

3. I am learning from a wife – husband team. I did this for many years in Japan when my daughter and I went to gong fu classes. The husband of the pair focused on Chang Quan / long fist, which is what my daughter focused on. The wife of the pair focused more on Nan Quan / Southern fist, which I concentrated on. But in my new situation, both spouses are teaching the same art.

Anyway, I am full of extremely good feelings as we enter the new year. I am starting from absolute ground zero – endless silk reeling exercises, zhuang zhan standing exercises, the likes. And it feels good.

My only complaint so far this year is that, due to reasons both gastronomic and economic, I have moved another notch downward, from Pabst Blue Ribbon to Milwaukee’s Best Light.

Ugh. Fortunately I did find some 绍兴酒 for cooking purposes at the store of many 8’s.

adjusting to your environment (7)

2011-12-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

Oh yes, the good old Inside-The-Train stretch. Not advisable in the crowded trains of Tokyo during rush hour, but once you are deep in the countryside with almost no one else on the train, what better way to while away the hours while heading to your in-laws' place????

Getting Your Weapons

2011-12-29T20:56:00.001-08:00

Actually, it has already been several days but they have arrived safely, all of them that were shipped. My pointy Klingon bagua weapons are still buried somewhere in Tokyo, but I have enough other toys to keep me busy.

moving your weapons

2011-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

waiting, waiting, waiting.

Most of them are due to arrive in Omaha today or tomorrow (or next Monday, depending on who I talk to). They are already over a week overdue because of some kind of trouble in LA, where they landed at a port after traveling over the ocean from Yokohama.

A normal person would probably have packed all the weapons, especially long pointy things, in one box and shipped it economically with the other zillion boxes for very little increase in cost. But between Moving Day #1, when the truck came to take stuff from our house in Tokyo to the port in Yokohama,and moving day #3, when we actually flew out of Japan, I had a kobudo demo and last practices with long pointy and non-pointy things. My daughter also needed some of her stuff for her last practices.

So I made a giant box out of littler boxes and put in naginata, spear (oops! one inch too long...no spear), sticks, lots- o - swords, etc) and sent that in advance with the other stuff. Then I made another giant box for the leftover stuff and brought it over as luggage (oh, they charge for oversized boxes now, even if within the baggage limit....). Of course I also snuck a few goodies into the suitcases. You know, nunchaku, tonfa, sai, pointy Klingon bagua weapons....

Somehow we got through the Tokyo and Minneapolis airports without them opening the giant weapon box. And the security people only searched one of our suitcases in our absence, one stuffed with clothes, not weapons. So the group of late weapons made it over safely.

I've had plenty of toys to play with these weeks in our new apartment in Kansas but it will be nice to get them all together again. And nicer to set up a little studio over here...

last kobudo practice in Japan

2011-12-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

Last practice, and back to the basics: how to use the wooden staff or bo. There are several weapons in our group's curriculum, but the bo is the most fundamental and has the most forms, as well as the most detailed sets of basic motions. We practice many techniques against the bo with the other weapons as well.

adjusting to your environment (6)

2011-12-10T11:48:00.001-08:00

Oh yes, the second floor of xyz Junior High School, somewhere in Tokyo. We usually practiced in the gym but arrived one Friday night to find that the school had already decorated it for a weekend event. The young kids worked out in the hallway outside and I went upstairs to work on the nandao southern broadsword routine.

Didn't get that form down as well as I would have liked before leaving Japan. Anyone teaching nanquan / nandao / nangun in the Kansas area??

leftovers from Japan

2011-12-08T07:14:00.001-08:00

ninja beer ?!?!

last tournament in Japan

2011-12-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

Days before moving out of Japan, my daughter joined her last tournament. It was for young people, so I could actually enjoy the day, not worrying about my own performance. I was free to videotape people for my reference library, chat with folks, just generally enjoy for a change.

My daughter placed fairly low as I had expected - you've got to practice more than once a week to be among the best...but it was a good stimulus for her, and a good memory to bring over to the US.

essential training equipment (9): the one-shape-fits-all hockey stick

2011-12-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

Used by junior high school kids for floor hockey on occasion, this little piece of plastic can double as a double-bladed straight sword (jian) for your daughter as well as for a single-bladed Southern-style sword (nandao) for you on those last nights of practice before leaving the country. Yep, you are stuck in a junior high school gym for a training hall. You have your own swords but your teacher needs one two. Of course you grab the hockey stick so your teacher can use the real thing while demonstrating. And you hope no one takes video and posts it on Youtube....

relaxed at last

2011-12-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

OK, the last couple months have been a whirlwind. It is not so easy to wind down 16+ years of life in a foreign country and return to your home country (with family in tow). But we have made it, are now spending our first night in our new apartment in Kansas.

Now we are waiting for the 115 boxes we shipped over the ocean to arrive at a warehouse in Omaha....

new uses for your weapons

2011-11-13T03:31:00.000-08:00

skis or skates or something like that.

Anyway, the last enbu / demo went well. I did a tunfa kata, bo vs. sai (on the sai side), and bassai dai. I felt a sense of redemption as I once failed miserably in a tunfa demo in Hachioji....

saying good-bye to old friends (2)

2011-11-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

This one was a hard parting.

From the basement of the former Japan Energy kendo dojo....a karate group also used the dojo and left behind a makiwara as things were being shut down (company was acquired by another company....former president was a kendo man, had a kendo dojo built in the basement of his company's building, a center of kendo that attracted the highest level of kendo players throughout Tokyo (and a few like me, who slipped in between the cracks). But the president of the new company does not seem to value kendo and the dojo is long gone.

have used the makiwara for several years at my home. But it could not be left behind in moving out, and cannot be taken to the US, so it met a sad fate. Long wooden posts, after all, do not fit into the specified size of garbage bags here in Tokyo.

I've kept the leather pad and hope to give it new life in the US.

going to fu

2011-11-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Just a couple pictures of my daughter on our way to gong fu practice, she proudly bearing her jian for a change.

Big build-up to last weekend's regional kids' gong fu tournament, good progress in her changquan. That was the total focus for a few months (she did 初級長拳) and now she is hoping to start work on the double-bladed straight sword in our remaining practices over here.

Cleaning house and desktop before the big move...

saying good-bye to old friends

2011-11-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Less than one month left in Japan and everyday is filled with good-byes // thoughts of the future.

I said good-bye to two close friends yesterday, my kendo striking dummies. We have been close for many years but sometimes we just have to harden our hearts and cut ties.

I sent them to another kendo person not far away in Tokyo. Curiously, we share a strong China connection even though we have never met. He will use them, may send one up to a tsunami-affected kendojo in Iwate Prefecture.

Farewell old friends, thanks for the time shared, and sorry to have neglected you in recent years.

my last practice....

2011-10-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

…outside my home of ten years.

Yes, it is moving time in (from) Japan. One month to go – and that means moving out of our nice little two-story rental house of a decade, into a tiny, one-room apartment for the final month. There are only three of us moving now, as we carted the cats off to a cat motel for the final month.

So, I should have been packing and cleaning. But knowing that Tuesday night Sha Style sword class would almost certainly include my performing the Chen Style Dao form for scrutiny by the instructor, I went outside for “just five minutes” to buzz through the form. After all, I had given it good attention at last Saturday’s all day practice (oh, yes, should have been packing and cleaning).

But one time led to another and I spent a perfect hour outdoors with Chen Style Dao. The space is not great – it is paved, basically large enough to park one really big car, and it is shared by four homes. However it is my practice space and just outside my home, the biggest advantage.

I fired up some trusty mosquito coils and got to work. Dusk was falling and a heavy breeze was loosening dried leaves from their branches across the street. Many good final memories – the sound of the trains down the street, a huge and intricate spider web waving in the breeze (the seasonal joro gumo – more on that spider elsewhere).

I can’t say that my final run through the form was perfect, but I was feeling good.

And indeed, my instructor gave the form a very close look later that night. It looks like I will need to find another practice space right away.

one month gone

2011-10-05T05:47:00.001-07:00

It has already been a month since Liu Laoshi's last seminar in Tokyo. It was a glorious 10+ days and passed much too quickly. Now it is time to practice and consolidate and get ready for the next meeting.

How long will it be before I can go to Beijing again??? Gearing up now for moving from Japan back to the US at last, every day a blur. My taiji friend and mentor in Canada told me to live my last days in Japan to the fullest. But now there is nothing to do but work work work and get ready for the move. oh, and practice in those spare moments.

We'll be moving from our current house to a small weekly rental apartment in a few weeks, and I will have less work. time at last to start the years-delayed Liu Laoshi interview / article???

beware pandas bearing tunfa

2011-09-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, hand-delivered fresh from Shureido in Okinawa, one hot steaming pair of tunfa, a weapon I have neglected far too long.

I brought a clunky, too-short handles, cheap wood set over from the US, had an all-too-brief exposure to a tonfa kata at my karate dojo here in Japan, then nothing for years....now it is time to start all over again, starting from zero, this time with a much better pair of tunfa.

Not very good timing, given the amount of new material I have amassed on the Chinese side over the summer. But what can one do? Grab the sticks and start swinging.

essential training equipment (8): small sticks

2011-08-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

The ba gua dao is a weapon unique to ba gua zhang. I translate it rather loosely as “big-ass sword” because it is just pretty dang big. People love old photos of ancient Chinese masters of smaller stature standing next to swords as tall as them.

Think of a normal dao or broadsword. There is only a single blade and it is curved (in contrast to the jian, which is straight and double-bladed). It has a nice, workable length and is used in a large number of Chinese martial arts.

Then comes the ba gua dao, with the same curved single blade but much bigger and longer. In last month’s trip to Beijing, one of my goals was to learn the ba gua dao form taught by Liu Jing Ru Laoshi.

I learned the form but have yet to practice it with a real ba gua dao. I had contacted my usual martial arts supply store in Beijing but they had none on hand (though, as usual, I walked out of there with a large stock of weapons, Fei Yue shoes, and the like).

We spent the first couple days working through all the praying mantis forms in his set (liu he tang lang quan). The next morning he showed up with a small branch from a tree, nothing more than a switch really. That was to be my ba gua dao. Maybe half the length, no curve, no distinction between the bladed and non-bladed sides….

No big deal for now. I learned the ba gua jian form from him in the same Beijing park in 2007 using foot-long folding fans. But at least later in that trip I was able to buy a ba gua jian at the supply shop.

The ba gua dao form is quite similar to the ba gua jian form (he created them both) so I already had most of the principles of motion down. The biggest challenge was finding and working through the differences in doing the form with a totally different kind of sword, thinking about which motions he had deleted / altered / added to take into account the shift from a straight, double-edged sword to a curved, single-edged sword.

The next day, some groundskeepers were cleaning up in the park and I found a longer branch with more curve to it – not the same as a real dao but much closer, anyhow. It felt much better than the small branch, but was still not satisfying. If any of you readers has a spare, unused ba gua dao available, do let me know.

adjusting to your environment (5)

2011-08-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

I flew out of Tokyo as a typhoon hit the main island. My plane was delayed three hours, not too bad.

Practice started early the next morning in the Tao Ran Ting park as usual. It was raining heavily in Beijing. We usually practice outdoors but not in heavy rain. If it rains, we go inside the little tea restaurant, move some tables aside, and practice in there. But it was completely full that day. We walked across the park in the rain and found a hotel with an empty room (no easy feat in Beijing).

The space was very narrow, so all plans for ba gua zhang review / ba gua dao were set aside. Liu Laoshi ran me through several of the smaller Liu He Tang Lang Quan forms -- a little cramped but workable in the small space.

Though my intention was to focus on ba gua zhang this trip, I had also polished my mantis fist forms, and that was a good thing due to the sudden change in content.

We continued working on the tang lang forms the next day and, after reviewing all the others, I finally got started on the remaining form in the set, zhao mian deng 照面灯, whose namepiece motion bears striking similarity to a fall - back - and - attack motion found in several ba gua weapons forms. More on that later, as we get to the ba gua dao later in the trip...

The remaining days were marked by excellent practice in severe heat and humidity. The moisture finally broke one hour before my scheduled flight. Beijing AIrport was hastily shut down and we hapless travelers were marched back through immigration, customs, picked up our luggage and began the hours and hours of waiting in line, fending off line-jumpers, arranging flights the next day, fighting for a hotel room, giving up and sleeping in the airport and arriving one day late in Tokyo.

2011 Beijing

2011-08-03T04:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick mention for now - spent five days in the massive heat and humidity of Beijing last week, four days of good training with the boss, Liu Jing Ru Laoshi. More on that later - ba gua dao is nice, so is the 7th/final form in Liu He Tang Lang Quan.

And the boss is coming to Tokyo for his (final) annual seminar at the end of this month....

All-Japan tournament

2011-07-18T18:32:00.001-07:00

Every summer in Tokyo we can see the all-Japan tournament, combining tai ji quan and wushu/ bujutsu/ other martial arts. It is really an extraordinary event, overwhelming because there is just too much going on, with action in six courts running almost non-stop for three days.

Due to work or practice commitments, I usually go for just part of each of the three days. I spent far more time there this year than usual, mostly because my daughter wanter to meet her gong fu friend. They didn't watch any of the action on the main floor - DS and other games were more important.

Fine for me, plenty to see below and many good friends to talk to. A quick search at youtube you bring some highlights for those interested.

kung fu fightin'

2011-06-30T05:48:00.001-07:00

I love this picture, something my daughter drew some months back, a couple people in gong fu uniforms.

We are still going to gong fu practice together, but since the earthquake in March, our practice time has been limited since many public buildings are closed at night to save energy. Still, we had an excellent class with our teachers last Sunday morning. It was kind of a breakthrough for my daughter. The first two hours were 自主トレ or self-practice, meaning that you are completely on your own to review by yourself, no help from the teacher. For the third hour, we had a lesson with one of the teachers (chang quan or long fist) and it was quite good. My daughter had her long-awaited introduction to the double bladed sword or jian.

More importantly, she worked hard for the first two hours. She loves her teacher and has no passion for self-practice. We tried a couple times at various locales, but being 8 years old, she was not interested unless the teacher was leading the class. So this past Sunday was great. Of course I had to guide her a bit and we did some drills together, but mostly she worked on her own, a big step forward.

Seeing her practice reminds me of my time spent teaching a childrens' karate class many years back. Not sure if she will continue gong fu in the US or not, or whether I will teach kids once back in the US, but it makes me think a lot.

kuden -- oral transmission

2011-06-23T05:32:00.001-07:00

What is kuden, the oral transmission? It represents an extra bit of teaching, something not given to everyone. It figures highly in iaido, though it is no longer so secretive as in the past. You can even find a book which collects many kuden teachings, now available for anyone to read. And it is even translated into English.

We sometimes practice variations in the established technique called kae-waza 変え技 in iaido. To me it is a great chance to explore and add options to the regular syllabus. Simple as the changes / additions are, many of the students cannot seem to grasp them and we endlessly review the same stuff. Hence group practice is slow, not advancing much at all.

Once in a while I can catch my teacher whipping out a slight variation on a higher level okuden 奥伝 form. Of course I will copy it on the spot, glance to him for comment. The best I can get is the tiniest of occasional, grudging nods. More often, I am left wondering whether I should be copying it, doing it in front of others.

Once I asked him about one such variation. He had done it in front of many people but no one seemed to notice. I practiced it on the spot (and did not get a nod). I asked him about it and his reaction surprised me. That’s not kae-waza! That’s kuden 口伝! (oral transmission, usually somewhat secretive)

I think I had made a mistake of asking too directly (and in front of other people), and had unintentionally put him on the spot. Hence his reticence / anger.

In the Chinese arts the same feeling comes up, though it may be more about haphazard transmission than guarding secrets (though that secrecy would have been much more important and guarded in the past).

Working on my notes for the Chen Style sword (jian) form, I realized I had encountered the same thing, just without the terminology of Japanese style koryu bujutsu.

I was running through the Chen taiji jian sword form. My teacher walked over and said “Haven’t I ever shown you this?” Then he proceeded to demonstrate a crazy new variation which I have never seen him show anywhere in the past ten years.

That was it. I have never seen it from him again. I make a point of adding that motion whenever I practice. When I have the chance, I try it out in front of him, seeking encouragement or at least reaction.

No nods of approval yet. But neither any smacks on the back of the head. Yet.

(notes for a better and more well-organized piece to come in the future)

pure and correct transmission

2011-06-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

I met Mr. Wu in 1999. I had been living and training at Ping Yang Wu Shu School in Zhejiang Province, China. I suddenly relocated to the larger city of Wenzhou and was introduced to Mr. Wu forthwith.

We began practicing tai ji immediately, meeting early every morning atop various buildings and in a few parking lots. He taught me the 42-motion competition form which I had started at the Ping Yang Wu Shu School. It was basically an English language and Chinese tai ji exchange and most of the lessons were one-on-one. We made occasional visits to the masters in the park for advice, but otherwise it was just he and I, morning after sleepy morning.

After my short year in China, I made a few trips back to Wenzhou, trying to balance my time between my many friends there, my former kendo students, and Mr. Wu. Each visit, we ran through the 42 form and he noted my progress as well as places for further improvement.

We keep in touch by email and his messages are often sources of inspiration for me. I will paraphrase one recent message below and may take great liberties in giving certain points more emphasis than they received in the original.

“It is your long-term goal to transmit Chinese taiji directly in America. Moreover, it is your goal to transmit it purely, exactly as you learned it, without changing or adapting it in any way.

This is an admirable goal. But to be honest, if your aim is to transfer it directly, purely, exactly as you learned it, without any changes or modifications, it may be impossible.

According to the scientific view, a message is always attenuated during transfer / transmission. This change or reduction in the message is inevitable.

I used to see some Italians and Portuguese teaching Chinese Gongfu in Europe, in a very different format or a strange format. But people enjoyed it. That is enough.

And anyway, Chinese Gongfu is developing, even in China. It will die if it does not change and develop.

In short, you work harder at Chinese Gongfu than most Chinese people. You should make a great contribution to the future of Chinese Gongfu.”

Fairly heavy burden, but that is not our topic at the moment. Given that I will be relocating to the US within a year, I have much to think about. And much to practice and polish in these final days in Japan with my teacher here.

My first several years in Japan, I was extremely focused on Japanese martial arts and planned to take them back to the Midwest in the US. I have never thought of anything but pure and exact transmission, however much that may limit my commercial opportunities and the like. I have always seen myself as a cultural preservationist.

I learned it well. You come to my school, you do it my way. Changing or adapting the arts or the teaching style to the culture is not to be considered. (Am I getting old and stodgy or what?) (Yeah yeah I know, go read Dave Lowry’s book)

Ten years back, I met Mr. T, who has been my primary teacher ever since, and so began my drift into a heavy focus on Chinese martial arts. Though I now envision teaching mostly Chinese arts in the US, my stance remains the same: pure and correct transmission.

Then comes this message from Mr. Wu, throwing everything out the window…..

Storm rolling in

2011-05-25T06:12:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I had a short time slot between other events in the late afternoon, my only chance for some outdoor practice. I could practice any of 57 forms that need work, but I opted for some Ryukyu Kobudo, since I have a test coming up soon.

The dark clouds of a storm were rolling in quickly and the smell of rain was in the air. Time only for a short stretch, then outdoors to get down to business. I focused on a form with the bo or staff, 佐久川の棍小, sakugawa no kon sho. got through several reps before the rain started, and a few more as the drops fell lightly, tentatively.

Many thanks to the weatherguy in the sky, as those few reps were what I needed most. Heavy rains after that, but I got in what I needed just in time.

I will swing a wooden bo staff about in light rain, but certainly not my metal weapons like the sai. Just a few more days before the test. Today was sunny and I had an hour open in the afternoon, just right. tomorrow looks good, then rain from tomorrow night until test time....

you shoulda seen the other guy

2011-05-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

yeah, not a scratch on him. Total self-inflicted wound, 自爆.

We were working on bo vs. sai.

hmmmmm. test coming up for me, lots of pressure every practice, very good feeling.

But I smacked myself good.

teacher / friend T. said that until you injure yourself with a weapon, you don't really know the weapon. Well I have cleared the nunchaku (past post) and tonight cleared the sai. Which one is next?

I recovered well, switching into free-style and doing whatever worked to restrain the opponent, but still, the pictures are not pretty.

We ran through the full set of bo vs. sai and I mucked up a couple times but recovered well -- not the official form but I adjusted naturally, smacked the other guy in an unexpected but effective way. Still, tonight's performance would not pass the test.....So I was satisfied, I could adjust in different circumstances, still whack the guy, but I couldn't pull off the needed techniques to pass the test.....

Check back next week....

more reps of smaller chunks

2011-05-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

That’s the advice I dole out to language / communication students and trainees regularly.

If you want to work on listening comprehension in whatever language, you need to take a small bit, say 3-5 minutes or less, and repeat it several times. But most people don’t take this approach. They have an hour’s commute by train, so they listen to a one-hour CD in the target language. Or they watch a complete, two-hour movie, rather than targeting a few minutes of that movie for intensive drilling.

It is human nature, I suppose. After, movies are supposed to be fun. You put one in the machine, sit back and enjoy uninterrupted. None of this once-with-script, once-without-script stuff. No vocab review and preview.

Vocab works the same way – to really master new vocabulary, the best approach is to work through several repetitions of a small list of target words or phrases. But most people (myself included…) invest the same amount of time in going once through a longer list. Less effective / efficient, but again, human nature.

Same in martial arts. I am one of the people who tends to do reps of entire forms, even though I know it is better from a learning perspective to isolate a part of the form and do more reps.

I attend several classes with my main teacher most weeks. In a typical class, we might go through a form once or twice uninterrupted, then spend most of the class isolating small chunks for intensive scrutiny and repetition. That’s especially true with the more common competition forms like tai ji jian 32. But it might also reflect the generally lower experience level of most people in the 32-motion tai ji sword classes.

We also have a class that focuses on the tai ji sword sets of the Sha family. Sometimes we follow the pattern above. Other times, like last week, we get a surprise. We started with several reps through the 36-motion tai ji sword form. Then we ran through the two-person paired sword form – an unprecedented 11 times.

I was wondering about the very unusual class format. In part, it must be related to the generally higher level of experience (even so, many of The Venerable Tai Ji Ladies were not quite on top of the form, shall we say). But I think it may have been the instructor’s way of cementing the form, drilling it in deeply one final time before moving on to something else.

And indeed, it looks like we will be starting the long-awaited second two-person / paired tai ji sword form of the Sha family. More reports on this later as it develops.

This is so-called Golden Week in Japan, when a number of national holidays fall together closely in sequence. The lucky people are able to arrange their schedules for about ten consecutive days off work. Others among us will be working most of today, teaching Business Communication Skills (notice the capital letters? It’s a fancy way of saying Business English. Which is a fancy way of saying “teaching English”).

I’ll be working one-to-one with a guy (oops, a Salaryman) from Company K. I am sure I will give him my regular lecture on “More Reps of Smaller Chunks”. I’ll also be running through some of the Sha family tai ji sword forms this morning before work. I wonder which style I’ll follow…

late night xing yi quan

2011-04-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

I have never been much of a morning person. My natural body rhythm would have me going to bed about 1 or 2 AM and getting up about 9 AM. That worked very well during my 8 years at university but had to be modified slightly upon coming to Japan. And then modified significantly as I made the painful transition from a practice-first, work-second lifestyle to a work-first, practice-second lifestyle (and added a family, just for good measure).

I am known to return home at 1 or 2 after a few nutritious health drinks, but now that reality has sunk in, getting up early is unavoidable.

But that reality changes once in a great while. Like last year in Beijing. I was heading back to my hotel about 2 AM in the morning when I stumbled across a fellow practicing xing yi quan in the street. Well, on the sidewalk anyway.

We got to exchanging words and then exchanging techniques and it was quite nice. Two guys who had each been doing xing yi quan for awhile comparing notes on their styles in a friendly, non-threatening way. It was really a strange and fortuitous meeting. We study different strands of xing yi quan, but the roots were clearly the same.

He declined my parting offer of a beer and I declined his of a cigarette. He continued his practice and I ambled on my way.

xing yi quan form of the month: bear

2011-04-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

We have been working on the bear form for several weeks now. In the short / simplified version of the 12 animals, the bear form is combined with the eagle form. But in the set of longer, more complicated forms, the bear and eagle are separated. There are still motions where the bear blocks upward while looking up at an eagle overhead, but they remain separated.

To be honest, I wasn’t very sure about the practicality of the bear form – there seemed to be a lot of motions without much combative usefulness, which is very much unlike most xing yi quan.

But that was while just doing the form, whether reps of isolated motions are going through the whole thing. This week we basically “played” with the form, exploring how each motion could be used. And suddenly I gained a lot of respect for the bear form! The form is nice by itself, but by moving off at an angle for most defenses and attacks, instead of moving directly forward / back as in the form, everything was much more useful.

This was one of my best xing yi quan practices in a long time, and I hope we’ll spend more time like this, actively exploring applications. And not just focusing on one application (yes, that is important too) but freely mixing motions from different parts of the form.

This is part of my long-term situation. I came to Japan after 7 years’ hard training in the US, with free fighting a regular part of most practices in karate. After some years of transition here, Japanese arts to Chinese arts, I am in a wonderful training situation and am satisfied with most practices. But we don’t do any free fighting.

Someday, back in the US, I will be teaching this stuff and one of my long-term challenges will be how to convey the things I have learned here in Japan within a different country / culture, and how to add in much more fighting practice to the basics and forms I have learned.

This week’s practice was a good wake-up call to me. Forms are all fine and good but I need to be doing much more application work, and moving in the direction of training with un-cooperative partners. I have been away from that for too long. Maybe I have been sleeping like a bear and am now ready to wake up after the long winter of hibernation?

more shoes

2011-04-10T06:29:00.001-07:00

OK, I really wasn't going to put up any more cheeseball photos of worn-out shoes, but these were hard to pass up. Besides, I was enjoying ohanami cherry blossom viewing with a friend and he complained about the prior post having been up so long.

sigh.

No thoughtful reflections on the meaning of practice tonight, then. Actually the loss of much work lately has meant a great increase in practice time. But for now, just a shoe for you.

adjusting to your environment (4)

2011-03-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Factory floor

It has been over a week now since the earthquake struck and the tsunami followed. Small aftershocks continue throughout the day but everyone’s attention remains focused on the danger of nuclear meltdown / fallout.

I was teaching in a beer company’s factory in Yokohama when it struck. I had been out two days earlier and joked about it feeling like a small earthquake each time one of the heavily loaded beer trucks passed by.

It was immediately clear last Friday that the shaking was much more than that caused by a beer truck. It didn’t stop and didn’t stop, just kept on shaking. We took cover under a sturdy table and listened to the voices outside.

When it finally subsided, I packed my gear in a flash (computer etc.) and we went to the main office, donned helmets, watched the news a moment…and then it all started again. Under the desks this time for another long rumbling and shaking.

Once it stopped, we all went outside, several hundred employees, everything amazingly neat and orderly, lining up by work unit. I watched the weird clouds in the sky and waited until the all-clear.

We went inside, found out that all the trains were stopped, no way to get home that night. All the hotels filled very quickly. Streams of employees from the three large companies based near that train station began long walks home (those who lived in the Yokohama area). We Tokyo people settled in for the night. At that point, we knew nothing about the nuclear reactor situation. True, another quake might come at any moment, but that is everyday life in Japan for 16 years for me.

First things first. No email of course (I don’t have wireless on my laptop and couldn’t use company computers for security reasons). After an hour or so, there was very sporadic text messaging available on my mobile phone, but no phone calls were possible.

By lucky chance, there had been a PTA meeting that day and most of the moms were at school with the kids when it happened. So my wife and daughter (and all her friends) made it home quickly and safely, and we exchanged text messages intermittently.

Next important things. I went out to the local convenience store which, though busy, was not in a panic. After withdrawing cash in small bills from an ATM machine, I leisurely walked about and picked out snacks, beer, instant noodles, and more beer. Like many people, I naively thought “what the hell, let’s make the best of a bad situation”.

I got back to the factory with two bags full of food and beer. I was quickly told the bad news. “Um Bryan we are very sorry but we cannot drink tonight.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that. I’ll drink quietly by myself in this room”
“Um, very sorry but ‘we’ includes you. We have to think of safety and be able to evacuate safely if there is another big quake”.

I was quite disappointed but had to admit their point. Moreover, I was a guest in their premises and presumably they would have legal liability for anything that went wrong. So I underwent a quick attitude adjustment and settled in to eat instant noodles and drink alcohol-free beer-like substances.

Let me be very clear: I have no complaints whatsoever toward the company. In fact, I have nothing but praise for them. They took excellent care of me and let me --- a non-company person -- stay overnight on their premises. I shall be forever grateful for that.

Also, once I got all Buddha-like and threw away my earthly desires for beer, I felt liberation (as opposed to libation). No alcohol. Several hours of free time. My teacher’s tang lang quan (mantis fist) book in hand. You know what happened next. And seeing as we had recently run through the sixth of the seven forms in Liu He Tang Lang Quan, what a perfect opportunity.

Many of the TLQ routines are quite short and can be done in a small space, and the longer ones (duan chui, shuang feng) can be easily adjusted.

Also, as it turned out, my student happened to teach a style of karate there in the factory so we got to talking and comparing a few notes on my old Shotokan karate kata. Further distraction came when I found buried treasure – a giant tome on “research into Okinawan karate kata” by old guys at Todai. The section on Gankaku took me back several years and good memories. But the focus for me was TLQ.

Anyway, next morning we decided to continue the previously-scheduled 8-hour training (language and communication skills, not MA) there in the factory since no trains were running and we could not get to the intended location in Tokyo.

By the time we finished in the late afternoon, there was limited train service and I made my way slowly back to Tokyo and home, glad to be with family. We watched the news and learned more and more about the increasingly bad situation. It was the beginning of a very long week here in Japan.

essential training equipment (7)

2011-02-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Oh yes, the chopstick swords.

These can be found after many kendo practices have dissolved into drink and further into drunk. Great secrets of swordsmanship derived from centuries of practice and actual combat, amazing pearls of wisdom, bestowed upon young neophytes....and too often forgotten the next day.

Once in a while the chopstick swords come out at gatherings of Chinese martial artists as well.

after a tough demo....

2011-02-24T05:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, after a tough day at the gongfu demo / exhibition, what better way to relax than reading Japanese manga!

November and December passed in a blur of demos, then a couple in January....February has been quiet, time to focus on regular practice. one more demo coming in March....

worst technique (3)

2011-02-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

Continuing the series…here is another motion that I just can’t seem to nail.

It should be simple, really. This is a chest-level block, swinging into the center line from the outside. The forearm is kept vertical and the block is against an opponent’s weapon – probably a bo staff – thrusting in at your own body.

I do it well in solo forms. But in the sai vs. bo set, where some amount of real pressure comes on, I get hurried and the metal of the sai separates from my arm, a definite no-no. The problem is even worse when blocking from the centerline outward…

the fruits of practice

2011-02-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

My daughter's school had open school for a few days. I was lucky enough to be able to go and observe for a short period each day. Mostly I was interested in how she interacted with other kids, whether or not she would raise her hand and volunteer answers, and so on.

Then I noticed something that made me very happy. Not only was she raising her hand on occasion (she used to be too shy); but the shape of her raised hand was just right.

All the other kids were raising their hands with the fingers slightly spread. Her four fingers were together and the thumb was bent in slightly -- if the thumb were bent in a bit more, it would be a perfect open hand from chang quan or long fist. We have recently been running through a section or two of one of her chang quan forms every morning before school - a very short amount of time, but the daily rhythm is now established.

And the results are not just showing in the practice hall!

grasp the sparrow's tail

2011-02-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a motion who is an old friend: grasp the sparrow's tail, or 揽雀尾, lan que wei. But it can also be four component motions: our old friends peng - lu - ji - an.

I was going through the tai ji quan 24 motion form. My instructor's comment was that I was doing the motion in the style of Yang tai ji (from which 24 is largely derived, though there are differences). In particular, the precursor to the ji motion was much too small for the 24 form; the hand which will be reinforcing should be drawn much further back to the rear on the side before folding in to make contact with the other hand and pushing forward.

It was quite unconscious on my part - it has been years since I had contact with any "pure" Yang style forms, and even that was tai ji dao or broadsword. So where could this interference have come from ? Probably not cross-over or interference in this case, just getting loose, forgetting details.

Or discovering details for the first time. I asked him about the 42 form - the motion appears twice in the form and should be smaller (like Yang) the first time and larger (like 24) the second. Still later, I thought about the 48 form. In my books it looks large (like 24), but my homework list continues to lengthen.

Over 20 years with some of these forms and still not doing everything with full consciousness....

ping pong goes xing yi quan

2011-02-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Everyone in Japan loves Ai-Chan, or Fukuhara Ai. Groomed to be a world ping pong champion since childhood, everyone was moved by TV footage of the hard-driving ping-pong practices that drove a 6-year-old girl to tears....and how she kept swinging that paddle, never giving up, shining example of Japanese perseverance.

Not much of a ping-pong fan myself, I know her better for her part in an NHK Chinese language learning program. Many Chinese say she has the dreaded northeastern accent to her Chinese (she was living and training pingpong there), but I love her voice.

In this poster, we see that she has apparently taken up a new discipline. What a fine example of zuan quan, the drilling fist rising up the center line, about to come out in front of the chin or mouth. Yes, it seems she is now practicing xing yi quan.

(no relation, of course, to the anti-drug stance being promoted on the poster)

essential training equipment (6)

2011-02-14T15:42:00.001-08:00

Yes, the mandatory healthy sports drink and nutritious dietary supplement to nourish and repair the body after a hard workout.

Chen style tai ji jian notes

2011-02-12T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a well-used page from my future text in the making: notes on the Chen style tai ji jian form, with extra notes and illustrations from my daughter.

I am feeling much more comfortable with the form these days, but I also find it daunting how much work lies ahead – I can stumble through the motions of the form, yes, but there is neither beauty nor power yet.

worst technique (2)

2011-02-11T05:14:00.001-08:00

Yes, the sai again. A little strange, since I am usually at my best with pairs of short / small weapons (sai, yuan yang yue, nito ryu in kendo)…My chosen bed-side (futon-side, actually) weapon is a pair of short sticks.

I am working on the bo vs. sai set lately, 10 simple and elegant techniques which will feature in my upcoming testing. Two of these ten techniques have a technique which I have had much trouble with – the opponent swings the bo staff across at my left side.

I rotate my body to the right and block with the sai in the left hand (hand down, tip up). The key is to keep the left arm braced against the body (against the rear in one technique, against the left hip in the other) and the sai in contact with the forearm, not letting the tip flare out.

Failure to do this technique properly results in pain. I don’t seem to be learning from pain as quickly as I used to.

excuses

2011-01-27T22:33:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to go to kobudo practice last night. but but but but but but but but

The Trees are Getting Shorter

2011-01-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

I have felt this several times lately – the forms which seemed so long when starting to learn them, seeming to become shorter as you get to know them better. And then when you get fairly familiar with the form, you look back and wonder how it could have ever seemed so daunting.

The Chen style tai ji jian form seemed endless, like I would never reach the end. Now I can stumble through it and it seems so much shorter. I finish the form fearing that I might have left out a sequence of motions. It couldn’t have been that short! Then I go back, check every motion, and they are all there.

Same with the Sha Style tai ji sword routines – seeming endless at the beginning, then not so terribly long after all. Especially the paired / partner form we have been working on and demonstrating lately.

It is not getting any easier – just the opposite, if anything. The stage of rapid progress is finished and all further progress will come in smaller advances and will require increasing amounts of effort and practice for each gain in understanding.

anywhere, anytime (2)

2011-01-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Have to find those small pockets of training time wherever you can

pot-stickers

2011-01-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

In the middle of practice, my teacher asked me how to say 焼き餃子 / yakigyouza (J.) in Chinese. Known as “pot-stickers” or “dumplings” in English, these are the fried kind, as opposed to the boiled kind.

I guessed incorrectly, trying to put the Japanese directly into Chinese. Our resident Chinese language / tong bei quan expert was called over. 锅贴 / guotie, he reminded me, easy as that.

OK, great, how does that connect to the Chen style dao form I was working on? When wrapping around the body in a vertical position, the dao should pass very closely to the back – almost sticking to it, just like pot-stickers stick to the pot.

The dao is a single-edged sword and it is common to reinforce the non-edged side of the blade with the left hand while cutting or slicing. You cannot do this with the jian, because it is double-edged.

Similarly, the user commonly wraps the dao around the body in either direction, and it should be kept extremely close to the back, even scraping along from one side to the other. Obviously, you don’t want to do that very much with a double-bladed weapon.

Anyway it was a great day, over six hours spent on Chen style tai ji dao (with a few other diversions along the way) and jian. The last all-day dao marathon had brought me almost to the end of the form – so close it hurt, in fact.

As of Saturday, that is taken care of – just two more motions and it was finished, and then a lot of re-working the basics. What better way to celebrate afterward than a large pot full of pot-stickers for dinner?

worst technique

2011-01-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

I frequently hear about tokui waza, or one’s best / special technique to be used when fighting or sparring. I have a couple of those.

I think there should also be a word for the opposite – a technique that you practice but have a very hard time with, just can’t get it right. I have a couple of those as well, more than a couple.

One that stands out recently comes from the sai kata / form. The motion is 左上段返し打ち, or hidari joudan kaeshi-uchi, a strike to the opponent’s head which circles once outside the left arm before striking downward.

In practicing the first sai kata, chikin shita haku no sai (or tsuken shita haku no sai, if not in Okinawan dialect), I have gotten pretty comfortable with this motion on the right side, as it appears in the form several times. It is a great motion, really: after blocking the opponent’s strike (they are using a bo staff), you roll the sai outside the arm – keeping the opponent’s bo away from you – while moving in closer and striking their head with the sai.

It appears only once in the form on the left side, however, and I am right-handed. I try to keep well-balanced in my training with left- and right-side repetitions. I have even been using my chopsticks in my left hand to improve dexterity. But I just can’t seem to nail this motion.

Last week, it re-appeared in another incarnation. I am not officially learning the next sai form yet (chatan yara no sai), but I have had a glimpse of things to come. It is a wonderful kata full of great motions – and another one of these left-handed circling attacks.

So, there is one more item on the homework list – doing more things left-handed. Chopsticks of course. Brushing teeth. Operating iPods and other small gadgets. And, of course, the technique described above.

what I'm looking for

2010-12-30T00:39:00.000-08:00

Since I started learning Six Harmonies Praying Mantis Fist from Liu Jing Ru Laoshi, I have been seeing praying mantises like I never have before. I wouldn’t begin to suggest this is some kind of Divine Sign of Mantis Approval, but it has been quite curious.

It started last summer, in the middle of Liu Laoshi’s annual visit to Tokyo. Coming home one night from a few drinks after one of my first Mantis practice (heh heh), I found a mantis on the glass door of a temporary ATM facility just outside my train station – not the usual place to find such critters. (see last year’s post)

So here he was and there I was and we communed awhile and then I decided to take him to a small park near my home where I sometimes practice – crowded spaces in front of train stations are not good habitat for mantises. He bit or clawed me or something and DAMN it hurt, even drew some blood. Maybe that was the Divine Sign of Mantis Approval? Anyway I released him in the park and hope he found a nice place to live and was not captured by insect-hunting human kids.

No big deal, probably just chance, but it kept happening.

Some months later, there was one I found on the steps of Jindaiji Temple, where I had taken my visiting mother for a visit. She must have thought me crazy as I bent to study the brilliant green creature.

This year, I found another mantis outside my mothers’ house in Texas (ironically, I had been practicing Compulsory gongfu forms – maybe he was telling me to dump the competition stuff, and return to tradition?). I lived in Texas six years as a child and don’t recall ever having seen a praying mantis in that time.

Late this autumn – well after the time they are usually to be found – I spotted another praying mantis on the side of our neighbor’s house. I have not seen any other praying mantises in our neighborhood in the nearly ten years we have been in this house. I had been practicing Compulsory Southern Fist forms…

And the best one – about a month ago at our monthly tang lang quan / mantis fist gathering in the park. Obviously I was working on a tang lang quan form at that time. I noticed something fall down from above in front of me. Lots of leaves were falling, so that was not unusual. But I noticed it in the brown carpet of leaves below – yes, another mantis, also well past the season when they are usually seen. A female, she had already given birth (I was told by our resident mantis expert). She played on my hand a bit, showing no signs of wanting to leave. I walked her over to the giant tree, placed her on the trunk, and she scampered upward at a brisk pace.

Yeah yeah, I know, we find what we are looking for and all that. If I were to start, say, snake fist, I would probably begin seeing all kinds of oh-so-symbolic and meaningful snakes all around. But there have just been too many coincidences for me.

Sudden Blasts

2010-12-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the year, the long winter holiday when I usually do a lot of catching up, consolidation and review. It is one of my favorite times of the year, going back and putting some polish on a year's worth of work.

This year that process has been complicated by the absence of teachers.

Last gong fu practice of the year - the teacher was out and I ended up learning another (unexpected) large segment of the nangun / Southern staff competition form. I learned the first two sections in two huge blasts....then repeated those endlessly. First drilling them in, later focusing on an abridged version of the nangun form we have shown at recent demos. Now the third section is mine, and the fourth and final is in sight.

Last kobudo practice of the year - the main teacher was out and I ended up learning a new sai form (have been through it before, but this time I set out to grab it and make it mine) and moving more deeply into another bo form (have been through it before, but this time....).

I do love these long days of little work and much practice - but it is also daunting, knowing how much I have to review and consolidate.

demo / exhibition season again

2010-12-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, 3 weekends back to back full of demo / exhibitions of Chinese martial arts. A couple weeks to recuperate over the holidays, then several more key events in January. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.

Anyway, time to get the iron out and try to get the wrinkles out of those silk uniforms....

Chen style tai ji quan

2010-12-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

"The most important thing in learning Chen style is not to rush."

From an email from my teacher last year...

Well we certainly have not been rushing on the empty hands form (a version of xinjia which he teaches). But necessity has meant learning large chunks of the chen style jian and dao forms in a very short period of time. A few days of extremely concentrated, intensive practice -- but even then I don't feel rushed. I only feel the excitement of surging forward in a form. But really the not-rushing part begins now -- weeks and months and more of practicing and refining and searching deeper.

eight days a week

2010-12-15T23:41:00.000-08:00

The prior weekend was filled with a demo / exhibition. My daughter and I both made appearances.

Monday – tough and wonderful night at kobudo, many glimpses of things to come, encouragement to test – and many reminders to get back to basics.

Tuesday – Afternoon gongfu with my daughter, evening focused on Sha style tai ji sword.

Wednesday – xing yi quan, much needed.

Thursday – open practice at night – a return to Liu Jing Ru’s two-person ba gua zhang form and a start on Sha Style two-person xing yi quan.

Friday – gong fu with my daughter.

Saturday – the highlight of the week, an all-day session on the Chen Style tai ji dao or broadsword (sooooo close to finishing the form…but not quite….).

Sunday – Tokyo Chinese Martial Arts demo / exhibition, my daughter and I both making appearances. Our group got a special prize for performing a two-person set of Sha Style tai ji jian.

And so on, with review of all the above before and after….Now it is time for assimilation, assimilation….

stick figures

2010-12-13T19:27:00.000-08:00

My daughter drew these after Sunday's exhibition / demo. Three consecutive weeks of exhibition / demos, finally a short break (= time to get ready for January demo....and February demo....).

Anyway, she did a chang quan stick form (初級棍術) and I did a shortened version of the nan quan competition stick / staff form (南棍). She also did some of the basic empty-hand routines, but we had worked the hardest on the staff forms, and I was pleased to see her in action.

I was part of a group of four doing nan gun / Southern staff. Each of us was OK but we hadn't practiced together or matched the timing until the day of the demo, since we all practice at different times / places with the same teacher. Anyway it came off pretty well - though watching the video, I see several spots I need to work on....

anywhere, anytime

2010-12-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

Your Faithful Blogger, hard at work in the office....

cuttin' down trees

2010-12-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

oh yes! The people across the street are doing some industrial strength shrub - and - tree - trimming. Really noisy and just what I needed.

time to run out and pound the makiwara awhile so no neighbors can complain. Recall that Tokyo homes tend to be really close together...

tournament / demo season

2010-11-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is that time of the year again. Next weekend, all-day special training on Saturday, tournament on Sunday. Next next weekend - all-day special training on Saturday, tournament on Sunday. Next next next weekend....tournament only.

Anyway, my daughter will be showing her stick (staff?) form from Chang Quan. I will be showing mine from Nan Quan. Though the pace is hectic, this is a great season for concentrated practice and improvement.

essential training equipment (5)

2010-11-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

Another in the series: 1/2 " plastic PVC pipe.

So you're in small town Texas and you need a stick or staff to practice with. All the trees were chopped down to build all of the new houses on the street. You go to WalMart or some other monstrously big store but can't find a parking space for all the pickup trucks. You go home and scrounge in the garage and, just about when you had given up hope, you spy it in the corner, adorned with spider webs.

A five-foot length of PVC pipe. Not tapered but it will have to do. It bends easily and has too much snap on the end of a strike but once again, it will have to do. And it does do fairly well...

old xing yi quan notes

2010-11-12T20:38:00.001-08:00

From Liu Jing Ru Laoshi’s visit to Tokyo last summer: in xing yi quan, we never stop, not even when stationary. Of course there are pauses between motions, but he is talking about something different here.

Even when we are just standing –and time spent in an unmoving stance is a crucial part of the XYQ practice – we are still working on xing yi. Checking, checking, every part of the body, seeking proper alignment and natural relaxation. This can be some of the hardest work, because there is no escape, only relaxing and maintaining a proper stance.

kobudo dojo opening

2010-11-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

I am winding down my own trip to the US just now. Had hoped to get to Mankato Minnesota for Tim's dojo opening up there, but had to focus on my own goals for this US trip. It was a real shame, as it seems the dojo opening, headlined by Akamine Sensei's visit, was a success by all measures.

Here is a link to some local newspaper coverage:
http://mankatofreepress.com/sports/x180470095/Mankato-Martial-Arts-studio-is-newest-place-to-get-your-kicks

More kobudo action coming to this blog in the future...

(photo from Akamine Sensei's Tokyo visit earlier in 2010)

Lawrence Kansas tai ji quan

2010-11-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

Enjoying our long-delayed US trip, found this guy on the KU campus in Lawrence.

Any chance you readers have any tai ji / gong fu contacts in Lawrence, Kansas???

Akamine Sensei in Tokyo

2010-10-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Stilllll catching up on old photos. Akamine Sensei visited Tokyo last spring (and has since been to the US for the opening of Tim Jurgens Sensei's dojo) and led a fantastic seminar. I would really like to get down to the honbu dojo in Okinawa while still living in Japan...

mantis fist

2010-10-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for this one, found on the path at yoyogi park.

Meanwhile our mantis sessions continue. Another 5-hour blast on Sunday, mostly focused on the short xian shou ben form (先手奔) form of Liu He Tang Lang Quan, coming down through Liu Jing Ru laoshi. Even so, there were lots of connections to the other forms we have studied so far. Rumor has the remaining two of the seven forms coming to us on next year's Tokyo visit. Until then, review and consolidate...

essential training equipment (4)

2010-10-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, brooms.

My daughter and I lucked out again, the only two in the upper class (this is the week before last, posts all out of order).

Good chance to work on the stick/ staff form of chang quan 初级棍术 instead of the usual empty-hands stuff.

We don't usually take our sticks to this Tuesday practice, but a quick look in the storage room revealed a reasonable substitute.

baseball and wushu

2010-10-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

I had two long days of work in Yokohama this week (Japan’s second largest city, but really feels like part of Tokyo to me since it is all one connected urban mass) – until the second day (today) got cut short.

There is a lot of cost-cutting going on in Japan these days, some of it on short notice and quite annoying. I was pretty grumpy about suddenly losing 3 hours of work (on an already-shorter-than-usual intensive training course).

Then I realized the good side of things – I was suddenly free to go to Tuesday afternoon gong fu with my daughter. We have been regulars at the weekend class(es), but have missed several of these Tuesday classes lately due to my work schedule.

The loss hits especially hard since the class size is small and we get more attention than in the ususal weekend classes.

I ran from company XYZ’s industrial complex in Yokohama, found a taxi, raced to the station, fairly ran through all the transfer stations, conscious that every minute was valuable.

I made it to my daughter’s after-school activity club just in time and was ready to hurry home, change clothes, and make the 30-minute bicycle ride to practice.

But she was involved in a Very Important game of baseball with her friends. Sigh. The choice was clear and I had no regrets. It was a special opportunity to see her playing with her peers. And I snapped up the bat (still in pinstripe suit and tie) and belted a triple when one of the second-grade baseball stars suddenly decided he had tired of the game. My daughter (sort of) caught a pop fly and then was struck out at bat and I was glad to see every minute of it.

Once finished with baseball, though, we did hurry home and then on to the training hall. The class was smaller than usual – just the two of us in the higher level class, so she got good focus on the first stick / staff competition form (chang quan) and I got drilled on the nan gun or Southern style stick / staff.

Though I couldn’t bring myself to tell the teacher why we were a bit late, I was glad for every minute of my daughter’s baseball playing that I got to see.

wubo (4) wrapping up

2010-10-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

Just some wrapping up on the wubo / Sport Accord / Combat Games posts (see previous).

I would like to hear from anyone else who was there as an athlete, journalist, or whatever, just to compare notes. I was only able to attend the kendo events and I was quite satisfied with the organization and execution overall. And now I am especially glad that all the events were completed before the recent….downturn…. in relations between China and Japan.

How was the level of competition in other events? The judging? Both were quite good for the kendo events, as were the additional demonstrations which helped to introduce a relatively unknown martial art to the audience.

For those interested in more in-depth coverage of the kendo events at wubo / Sport Accord / Combat Games, you’ll just have to wait for the next issue of Kendo World!

weapons

2010-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

How do you treat your weapons?

Had a long and wonderful talk the other day, rambling all over the place, hitting old themes and exploring new ground. I need more talks like that.

One of the many topics was the treatment of weapons. We can see a very clear difference between Japanese and Chinese thoughts on this matter. In a Chinese training hall, it is common to see someone using their foot to roll and scoop a staff or spear from the ground up into their hand.

Handling a weapon like that could well get you thrown out of the typical Japanese martial arts training hall or dojo. I come from a pretty strict background, where you drop to one knee before putting down / picking up a weapon, where people kneel in the not entirely comfortable seiza position even while folding their uniform or putting away protective equipment / armor.

So it often shocks me to see weapons lying all over the floor of a training space, sometimes getting stepped over (oh shudder in horror – such an offense would bring Great Unpleasantness in most Japanese dojo), and so on.

I tend to be in the middle somewhere. I think some Japanese training halls place a bit too much emphasis on formality, outward form, and the like. And I also think some Chinese training halls would benefit greatly from more respect toward weapons and a bit more formality in general.

Well, I’m a kind of formal guy to start with, and my formative years were spent in Japanese training halls, so that’s my bias. And in this country, swords were forged with the guidance and blessing of the deities, so it is natural for the depth of that tradition to be carried on into the modern day.

These days, I do it the Japanese way when in a Japanese dojo, and I do it… not the Chinese way, but less formally… when in a Chinese training hall.

But wherever I am, I try to be very aware of my weapons, where they are, and how they are handled. One thing that drives me crazy is seeing Japanese martial artists – after the full range of bows and talk about etiquette and all that – walk through train stations and get on trains with no apparent awareness of people around them, bumping into people with their bags of armor, turning suddenly while holding long weapons at an angle, and so on.

uchiki

2010-10-04T07:25:00.001-07:00

Learned a good new phrase in last week’s tai ji class: 打ち気にはやる, basically meaning that the opponent can easily see your own readiness / eagerness to strike. The dictionary says it can be used in reference to baseball, where I suppose it might be a good thing (until the pitcher throws something low and inside, knowing the batter will go for an impossible pitch).

But in taiji push hands, which places so much emphasis on “listening” to the opponent’s energy, having such a feeling only sets yourself up for defeat, making it easier for the opponent to “read” your intentions and unbalance you.

Of course, after being cautioned on this point by the teacher, I then swung to the other extreme, become too careful and cautious, missing good chances to push my partner.

I struggled with this same tension in kendo – the balance between eagerness for quick, decisive action vs. rashness, acting too quickly or signaling one’s own intentions. And I suppose this tension also comes out in games of chess, in business interactions, human relationships, almost everywhere.

wubo (3) the fans

2010-09-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

So the first annual Sport Accord Combat Games seemed to come off fairly well and I look forward to next year’s events. First, some notes from the sportaccord.com website:

“…the competition will showcase 13 Martial Arts and Combat sports, both Olympic and non-Olympic. The event will also include a Cultural Program that will reflect the social and cultural values of these sports and Combat Games as a whole.”

The site goes on to list the arts, beginning of course with Chinese wushu, then adding wrestling, sumo, karate, judo, jujutsu (why both were included I am not sure – maybe to separate the judo we can see in the Olympics from the more recently developed Brazilian Jujutsu?), boxing, kick boxing, Muay Thai (again, why were these two separated?), Tae Kwan Do, kendo, aikido, and sambo.

Unfortunately I was only able to attend the kendo events, two very long and satisfying days of competition and demonstration.

I am sure the arena was packed for wushu but kendo is much less known in China. And the kendo events were on the final two days of the week. The stadium (Beijing Science and Technology Gymnasium) was fairly full, largely due to the masses of students who attended (class outings?).

Everyone in the audience was given a little flappy fan (nice in the late summer heat, but needed to be more sturdy) with the logos of the various arts on one side (see picture) and a guide to being a good / polite audience on the other.

wubo (2) Chinese watching kendo

2010-09-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, I took part in two brief kendo / iaido tours of China. Both were excellent experiences and I wish I had known a lot more THEN that I know now (in terms of Japanese martial arts, Chinese martial arts, the languages involved, everything). (Human relations, too).

On each tour, we gave demonstrations in several cities in the Southeastern province of Zhejiang. We toured together with members of a local wushu school. At each stop, reactions were fairly similar.

The Chinese crowds knew something of Chinese wushu and knew how to appreciate the Chinese martial artists. The crowds did not know much at all of Japanese martial arts, nor how to appreciate our demos.

They were used to flashier demonstrations with large numbers of techniques. Kendo, iaido, and other Japanese martial arts are not flashy and tend toward pursuit of a single technique which finishes the encounter. Our kendo and iaido demonstrations were usually met with curious silence, followed by tentative applause, often at unusual points in the demonstration.

In just ten years, general knowledge about the Japanese martial arts has increased significantly in China, and fledgling clubs can be found scattered across the country.

At the Sport Accord Games (wubo or 武博), there was an overall greater understanding and appreciation of kendo in particular. Even so, I loved the fact that the greatest crowd response seemed to come not after the masters’ bouts or any of the other excellent demos, but during the childrens’ kendo demo.

You just have to love the kid who is shorter than everyone else’s shinai (bamboo sword) – and who is trying twice as hard as most of them.

What did I eat last night?

2010-09-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

It had been a long hard day. I walked into Matsuya, a Japanese fast-food place specializing in bowls of rice with beef on top.

But there were no beefbowls on the menu. And they were out of the two other things I tried to order. It seemed quite busy, yet not much seemed to be getting done.

Not too happy, I was headed out the door when one of the curiously idle workers hailed me from behind the counter.

He was quite friendly and we spoke a few minutes. Then another worker, further in back, suddenly burst into a martial arts form. It was a xing yi quan form unknown to me but performed quite well.

Enough of that! I stripped off my jacket, ready to show one of my forms. It was not a challenge, just a hope for mutual exchange. I don’t even think he saw me. He finished his form and took off out the door.

Several other workers joined him in sprinting quite a long ways, apparently part of their daily afternoon workout.

I started running, too, hoping to join them.

Then my alarm went off.

Maybe it was the late night tortilla chips and beer???

wubo (1) Combat Games

2010-09-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

I finally made it back to Beijing a couple weeks ago - the trip was much too short but good in many ways. I traveled on a journalist visa for the first time, for Kendo World but also teamed with journalists from Kendo Nippon and Kendo Jidai magazines.

More on that later...About the games - this was the first of what is to be an annual international event, gathering martial artists of various disciplines. I have heard that these "Combat Games" will be followed by a "Mind Games" event in 2011, which could be a lot of fun. Personally, like "chess-boxing" (was that in the UK?), I would like to see (or be??) contestants participate in both games.

I wanted to see the wushu event but our journalist visas were extremely strictly controlled by the government of a certain country involved in it all. We were allowed in the night before the games, and had to return home the morning after they finished (two days of competition).

Overall, things went well and I look forward to next year's Combat Sports tournament. More details to follow...

Nebraska

2010-09-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tokyo is a crazy city. Where else can you, in a drunken haze near dawn, stumble across a small rock bar with about 10 regulars and 7 bar stools named after your home state? And enjoy the remaining hours until dawn there, stumble “home” to the apartment of two martial arts scions where you are housesitting, and then have no idea where you were the previous night?

And, years later, stumble about in another drunken haze and rediscover the bar? Well, that could be done in other cities, I suppose.

But in what other city could you, more years later, return to the bar and engage in conversation about satsujinken and katsujinken with a rock musician / descendant of the Yagyu clan???

And then blend into a talk on the intricacies of kendo vs. naginata isshu jiai with another denizen of that part of the city crawling with rock musicians???

Alas I had to leave at an early hour to catch the last train home. I have already had too many last-minute runs up that loooooong hill to the train station. And more than a few have ended in rather unpleasant words upon finding the train platform chained off and the lights out. And a walk back to the same bar to drink or sleep until the trains start running again the next morning.

I should have moved closer to that bar….

The guy in the street

2010-09-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Most of the time, I really love China. Like when I am walking down a street at 2 AM and spy someone practicing the martial art of xing yi quan on the sidewalk. It is the end of a very long couple days’ work and I am free at last to savor some alone time in this city I love. I watch him for a while, my arms beginning to twitch a bit, as I also practice this art.

He notices me watching, tones down his practice, almost stops. OK, I get it. I feign disinterest and saunter off, grab a couple beers from the 7-11. I return slowly and give him a smile and a wide berth. I sit on the concrete steps but don’t open a beer. He keeps practicing this time.

When he finishes his form, I ask him whether or not it is xing yi quan, and the ritual begins.

“Oh, you know xing yi quan?”

“Yes, I practice a little.”

“Let’s see one of your forms.”

As if I didn’t know that was coming. I pick za shi chui – I might be going in too high, showing off a bit, but it is the form I have been practicing the most lately. We compare notes on a few of the motions. He doesn’t know this particular form, but he has a good eye for the basics. Our strains of xing yi are different yet the core is the same.

He then asks me to run through one of the five basic fists, piquan. He is not condescending, but does offer some advice: slow it down. My form is too rushed. We should practice the internal martial arts slowly – the motions will come out quickly when needed. He repeats one key phrase which has stayed with me since returning to my home in Japan: 慢功出细活 (man gong chu xi huor). We need to practice slowly, carefully, for the important details to be realized.

He declined my offer of a beer, lit another cigarette, and got back to practice after goodbyes. What a fine night in Beijing (post-Sport Accord Combat Games).

The dust is settling

2010-09-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Quite a hectic few weeks, things finally settling down and returning to "normal". Highlights included Liu JingRu Laoshi's annual seminar in Tokyo (next year to be his last...), working at the Sport Accord / Combat Games in Beijing, late night xing yi quan exchanges on the streets of Beijing, you know, the usual.

More details and photos forthcoming.

a tough day

2010-08-31T07:10:00.000-07:00

Kind of a rough day today, but a good one.

The Liu Jing Ru seminar is going great – but already half over, too fast as usual. He comes to Tokyo for a short two weeks each year. I had been focusing on ba gua zhang and xing yi quan but last year opted for my first taste of tang lang quan and was quite pleased.

This year I chose tang lang quan for the first two days (Saturday and Sunday). Days 3 and 4 (Tues-Wed), being in the middle of the week, have much lower attendance. Running the circuit through all three groups runs Liu Laoshi ragged, so today and tomorrow are BGZ / XYQ only, no tang lang quan.

OK, back to the ba gua zhang for me. 9:30 AM – opening remarks are short, we have all already stretched, so we are ready to circle by about 9:32. He starts with the ba gua zhang group (the XYQ people are told to review for a bit). He calls me out in front of all and has me start circling. By 9:33 I knew it was going to be a long morning. He totally reworked me on just the first main palm, completely kicked and fixed my ass.

Sure, I had sped up my ba gua zhang review in recent days, but especially after a new blast of tang lang quan to get on top of….

Anyway I survived the morning and learned a lot and all that. We are in the middle of the 64 palms which, when being learned, seem like about 647 palms but who is counting.

Good and bad news after that – I have work in Beijing (the first international “combat games”) on Friday and Saturday, fly back to Tokyo on Sunday. If I am lucky and there are no traffic jams, I will make it back just in time for the goodbye dinner on Sunday. But I will miss the last two days’ training, pian pian.

Well, I have my network set up and will pick up the BGZ and TLQ (and, in other classes, will slowly get the XYQ) that I miss on the final weekend. So I will get there in the end, but I really wish I could spend the last two days here in Tokyo with Mr. L.

More to come on his visit. And I am edging closer to FINALLY finishing my interview with him which has gone on over five sessions so far in various cities and languages.

Enough of this – time for some late night circling.

Liu Laoshi is coming! (2)

2010-08-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Or has arrived, but the seminars have not yet begun. Stay tuned for more.

essential training equipment (3)

2010-08-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, it may look like a mere badminton racquet, but in the hands of a well-trained professional....

Let's say it's a hot, sweltering night down at the training hall. But it's the gym of a local elementary school so you can't store your own equipment there.

Alright, you've been working on the nanquan Southern Fist routine for awhile. And you got started on nangun, the Southern Staff, so you've been dutifully taking it to practice every time.

But then, in the middle of basics, you learn a new sequence of motions, practice it awhile, then hear that it is from the nandao (Southern Broadsword) form. You won't be learning that form for a while yet, but you don't want to lost the few moves you just got. So you keep practicing it empty-handed until the teacher walks over and hands you the next best thing...a badminton racquet.

It helps to do the motions while holding some kind of implement of destruction, though I do wish said object resembled a dao a bit more in terms of weight, length, single blade, etc.

essential training equipment (2)

2010-08-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, plums. Nice sour Japanese plums, dried outdoors to concentrate the sour power.

Went to another tai ji sword 42 style seminar, one held on a scorching hot day in an elementary school gymnasium with no AC and no fans. They were giving out free ice (to beat the heat) and Japanese plums or ume-boshi (to maintain stamina?).

I was thinking some free beer might have been a good addition.

the guy in the park

2010-08-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a student last night, a man the same age as me. He grew up near Zenpukuji Park in Western Tokyo, somewhat near my home. It is a wonderful park in the middle of the metropolitan monstrosity which is Tokyo.

When he was in junior high school, my student (“M”) discovered a snake fist teacher who taught there regularly. He was Taiwanese, tiny but quick, and about 60 at that time. I don’t know how well a junior high school student can evaluate the skills of a purported martial arts master, but he was quite impressed at the time. I respect his judgment because he went on to become a long-term practitioner of Nippon Kenpo.

He remembers them fastening a kicking bag high up on a tree and making tremendous leaps to get within striking range (this was snake fist?).

M didn’t study directly with the teacher but he (and other school kids in the area) often pestered him and/or watched as he taught others. Maybe his name was Liu Ming ??. I can’t find anything about him on the internet. It seems he had a single deshi or main student – can’t track him down yet, either.

It really got me to wondering about how many masters have passed away unnoticed. Given his age, (maybe 60 in about 1980?), he would have been in the prime of his youth when Mao and the Communists secured victory in the Chinese civil war. He might have joined so many others in fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, taking to that island the art he had learned on the mainland.

Or he might have been born and raised on Taiwan, and he might have learned the art there without ever having been to the mainland.

It makes me wish I had been born earlier, had gotten started in martial arts earlier.

Like my teacher T, who was among the first non-Chinese allowed to study at The University in Beijing in the early 80s as China just began to open up after the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution.

Like teacher S from Nebraska, who chanced upon W.C. Chen while still in school. Chen was a classmate of the widely known Wang Shujin but their paths diverged widely. Wang found fame (if not fortune) in Japan. Chen might have fallen into obscurity in the US if not for S, who carries on his tradition in the Yi Li Chuan art. Chen taught a small group in his basement and only S has kept the teachings alive.

If I had a time machine, I would go back even further in time and history – who was RyuRuKo, the mysterious fabled link between the White Crane style in the Fujian Province of China and the roots of the karate styles which developed in Okinawa?

And who wrote the Bubishi, and how did it get from China to Okinawa, where it would have such impact on the empty-handed arts of Japan as practiced today?

The Bubishi. I have finally been loaned a copy (of a copy of a copy…) of the original, with permission to copy it. Not by hand, thankfully. Another chance encounter resulting from a prior chance encounter. It makes one wonder whether it is all up to chance. Guarded so furtively over decades, now within reach.

When I lived in China, countless people delighted in teaching me new words in Chinese. From foul-mouthed gutter talk to ethereal four-character compounds, they have all been useful at one time or another. One that popped up again and again, upon people learning of my interest in martial arts, was yuan 缘 , fate, or 武缘, some kind of fate or destiny that brings certain people together through the martial arts.

Was it fate that took me to K kendo dojo upon my arrival in Japan? No, just the convenience of living nearby (and having an instructor who spoke English).

Surely it was fate that tempted me to stay much longer than my allotted year in China, most likely to train deeply with the dockworker Mr. Xie and his intense but probably unknown art. It may have been just what I have needed all along, one art which was the perfect bridge between the internal and external arts.

But I embraced my fate (?) and returned to Japan and continued life here. And, in a twist of fate, found my current teacher, living not far away at all, as he led a brief introductory class not far from my home. It was a small park where I had been practicing on my own all along.

NOTE: this is a post that didn’t go quite where I wanted it to go…look for a substantial rewrite in the future.

ALSO NOTE: This photo is from Tsunashima, not from Zenpukuji

kobudo

2010-08-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

just a quickie, some shite-hot kobudo tonight, much appreciated and much overdue.

Photo from some practices back, just after Akamine Sensei's visit. Very interesting, we watched the video of his visit to drive our kihon that night. Couldn't do it every time, but it was very fresh and appropriate that night.

wrists

2010-07-29T05:07:00.000-07:00

1) Went to shiatsu today. I’ve been dealing with occasional extreme back pain in recent years, can’t bend / stand up, the usual complaints. The shiatsu sensei is the demon roller guy, dealing out exquisite pain on the way to glorious recovery.

I am not quick to go to the doctor but barely being able to stand is when things get a bit out of hand. A chance meeting and chance recommendation, he is a local guy and very flexible in scheduling, both big pluses for me.

He does the usual shiatsu therapy, pressing various points to stimulate qi flow, re-align the body, and so on. But he also uses rollers to get into the deep tissue. These torture devices are arranged on a small rack near the treatment table. They look like paint rollers but there is nothing smooth about their application. He begins by rolling them over the surface tissue, then works his way into the deep muscles and tissue, grinding and drilling all the way, muttering about my tight muscles at each point.

It is hard to describe, an unknown sensation somewhere between pain and being tickled. And yes, I pay to undergo this treatment.

One simple point: it works. The short-term relief is of course wonderful. But the long-term treatment is also quite good. That’s why I keep going back.

I know what pain is and I know fairly well how to deal with it. I could take all the pain dished out by this doctor and his demon rollers (strangely laughing at times), except for one thing – the wrist bend.

The back, waist, arms and legs were all finished. He nonchalantly began working on one of my wrists, observing how various parts of the body are all connected. Using two hands, he bent my wrist and brought my fingers back near the inner forearm. It was the only time I couldn’t take the pain and asked him to stop.

He is an aikido guy with super-bendy wrists. He knows I am a martial arts guy and probably expected me to also have super-bendy wrists. I don’t. No problem – he eased off, continued the treatment, and all was well.

2) One other wrist-related memory, some years back in Japan. A friend and martial arts senior asked me to join in a group practice and outdoor demonstration. People from several different training backgrounds had gathered and many of us were meeting for the first time.

During the practice time, we all took turns introducing key points from our various disciplines. All went well until I got paired with Mr. Pain. He was fairly deep in an Okinawan art which includes joint locks as part of the curriculum. He began demonstrating on me and all was going well, though I began to sense that he liked putting on a show.

Then came the wrists. Same position as above, bending my fingers back toward the inner forearm. I felt extreme pain (as opposed to the “normal” amount of pain one expects at such times).

In a close teacher-student relationship, there are times when the student is made to question how much pain they can take, how much is appropriate for the learning situation. The pain tolerance threshold can indeed be changed through exposure and repetition. But that is in a certain social situation, with a clear relationship built on trust.

This guy was putting on way too much pain. He may not have realized it. I asked him to ease up. He smiled and increased the pressure. And maintained it for some time. And looked around to make sure others were watching.

Maybe I should have just shut up and taken the pain? No. I know how and when to do that. This was not the time. His techniques were clearly effective. But as for his way of demonstrating them….

3) Last night’s tai ji jian (sword) class took an unusual and rewarding departure…to the wrists. Five of us nine students that night had also just been to a weekend seminar in Sun Style tai ji quan, or 孙式太极拳. During a break in the sword work, two of the students were talking about one of the characteristic Sun Style motions (开合), in which the palms are held vertically with the wrists bent back as much as possible. The palms are then spread apart and brought back together in front of the chest.

Our teacher (who had not been at the Sun Style seminar) suddenly took us on a lengthy tour of wrist flexibility and strengthening exercises. One of them is commonly seen in chang quan: with the arms extended in front, sharply flick the wrists up with the fingers pointing upward. Then flick the wrists down (finishing with the fingers down or in a hook hand / 勾手 position. Repeat this for a while with maximum wrist motion and you’ll get the idea.

In the middle of a seemingly endless introduction to such exercises, he began talking about a famous sword encounter involving, of all people, Sun Lu Tang 孙路堂, founder of the Sun Style. Someone had insisted on a match. Ritual denial and insistence followed, and then came the inevitable match. Apparently Sun Lu Tang simply and quickly did a beng jian 崩剑 technique, snapping his wrist down and popping the sword tip up under the opponent’s wrist. The opponent’s sword flew out of his grasp and that was pretty much that.

xing yi quan form of the month: tuo

2010-07-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

I think I missed another month somewhere in there – so it goes.

The mysterious and mythical tuo – some kind of water-dwelling creature. No picture for this one, since it is after all an imaginary creature.

I have seen it referred to as being similar to any number of creatures in the past. My earlier conception was the alligator or crocodile, and the powerful swipe of its tail back and forth. Thus the zig-zag stepping of the basic form, and the hands grabbing and pulling across from side to side.

We are working on it this month in class and all references are to a water strider / whirligig or similar animal – gliding smoothly and effortlessly across the water surface. And we are edging our way into the longer, more complex version with a weird body-shaking motion – which makes more sense when stepping back to the side and slipping out of the grip of someone who has grabbed you in a bear hug from the rear.

This form has bugged and eluded me for many years, and I am glad to get a deeper look at last. It is one of the remaining animal forms Liu Jing Ru Laoshi has not taught us on his Tokyo visits. Nor will he be doing it this year, so I hope we make good progress in the form in the remaining month. Then we’ll have to wait until next year’s visit…

Dealing with fear

2010-07-16T06:48:00.001-07:00

1. The other day, I took my daughter to her weekly swimming lesson. It is usually one of the highpoints of her week and she is always excited to go. But that day, there was an unusual heaviness in her step as we walked to the pool. Outside the building, she paused, then called me over to the side, tears in her eyes.

She has recently moved up into a higher-level class and is scared of one of the teachers, who is much stricter than her usual teachers. After several minutes I finally got her into the building – but then we had to sit down on a bench for a while.

I got lucky – she was stalling until she could see which teacher had her group that day. It was one of the less-strict teachers, so I got her down the stairs and toward the pool without much more trouble. But I also wish that she had had to deal with her fear more directly.

2. Back in my university days, I drove down to Arkansas with a friend and we sampled one of the heights of local small-town culture: jumping off a cliff into the lake below.

It didn’t look like that much of a jump as we looked up from below. But as we climbed closer to the top, the distance seemed to increase. Once at the top, I risked a life-threatening glance over the edge and it seemed we were impossibly high instead of the actual 50-or-so meters. Were I a less stalwart man I might have worried about oxygen depletion at such an altitude.

Like my daughter, I stalled a while but there was no one to comfort and encourage me – only the locals and their derisive stares. Somehow I got over the edge and was not splattered all over the rocks below. I landed safely in the water but made one fatal mistake: I had my arms extended out to the sides instead of raised overhead like those in the know.

Though it hurt like hell, my arms were not ripped out of their sockets and I climbed up for another jump. I was still struggling with my fear but I got over the edge with much less stalling the second time around.

3. I recall another incident, one from childhood, in which I did not overcome my fear. I was probably 8 years old or so. We lived in an apartment complex with a pool and a diving board. With a really huge bounce, you might catch one or two meters in the air. Nothing spectacular, in fact, but pretty good for an 8-year-old.

Once, we went with some friends to a public pool which had a high diving board. After some hours, I mustered the courage to climb the ladder. It must have been a mile high, up and up with no end in sight.

I couldn’t even get out to the end of the diving board. I might have eased about one step past the hand rails, but that was it. I had to climb all the way down. That meant that all the kids who had climbed up just behind me had to climb all the way down, too, to get out of my way. I caught some pretty mean stares as stole away from the foot of the ladder. The other fearless souls scampered right back up and launched themselves off the board without hesitation.

4. I was part of the university karate club for 7 years and sparring was a part of most practices. Some of the people I climbed up the ranks with really enjoyed sparring. Not me. It was an exercise in dealing with my fear every time, and it was very good for someone who had spent his entire childhood with his face buried in books.

Did I really deal with my fear at that time? Once inside the dojo / training hall, there was no time to think or worry. Every workout was full-on with no time wasted. By entering the dojo, I put myself into a routine that carried me through the practice, not giving me the luxury of thinking about it at all. But even so, there was no turning away, no climbing back down the ladder, and certainly no stalling.

5. These days, I am focused strongly on Chinese martial arts. In my particular case, none of my classes have any sparring activity or exercises with uncooperative partners. We practice applications, but only in an isolated manner. It is good for seeing how to apply the technique under the best of circumstances, but things never work out so nicely in reality, I think.

In the long term, once back in the US, I will have to graft sparring exercises onto all the things I have learned here in Japan. And I might need to hit the open tournament a time or two before heading back…

twins?

2010-06-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

which one is the evil doppleganger?

Are Competition Forms Useless (1)

2010-06-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

This may begin a series of posts on an important topic. Below is part of the text of a comment I received a couple months back. I have been sitting on it awhile (apologies to the writer) but am now ready to wrestle with it.

From the comment: “I just finished learning the 42 sword form, and I must say it is nothing compared to my trad. Yang style sword. Mostly useless performance moves, with lagging principles and uncertain applications. Do you have better experiences?”

I have been working on the tai ji 42 sword form for a few years now but I have to admit it has not been a priority, as it is one of the few forms I have learned outside the classes of my regular teacher (though with his blessing – all teachers in the same group).

It was created in 1991, not even 20 years ago (shorter than my martial arts career!) and draws motions from 4 of the main tai ji styles. Like other competition forms, it was created with the purpose of an international standard in mind. That way, people from many different styles can get together and compete on the same level with each other. Otherwise, how could we compare two people doing completely different tai ji forms? (This begs the question of whether we really need to do so, but hey….)

Those who practice only the traditional forms, improved and passed down over the generations, may well find the competition forms bland. Those who practice only the competition forms may indeed may be missing out on a lot, since the competition forms are hybrids, drawing motions and inspiration from many sources. Perhaps too much has been lost in the blending. But let’s look at the commenter’s points one by one.

“useless performance moves” – there are one or two movements I would eliminate if I could, but I feel most of the motions are useful and have a grounding in reality. (I write this as someone who has practiced kendo – an art in which people wear armor and actually strike each other with their swords – more than 15 years. Then again, those who practice kenjutsu – no actual physical contact but always done with a partner, much less experience in that area myself – often belittle kendo as being “useless” and so on).

“lagging principles” – hard for me to respond to this one, as I need more specifics from the commenter. But on the whole it feels consistent with the principles I hold to be important in tai ji. What principles are being referred to? Strength in softness? Sinking the qi? These are all over the 42 sword form.

“uncertain applications” – Here again, with the exception of a small number of motions, I would have to disagree. The applications seem clear and generally solid to me (though I doubt you would find me using any of the one-knee-raised, balanced-on-one-foot techniques (poses??) the next time I am fighting on the streets with a Chinese sword).

It may not be the perfect vehicle for teaching tai ji jian, but the 42 form does give us a way to distinguish between dian and pi techniques, dai jian and jie jian, and so on. It teaches the shifting of weight, use of force in opposing directions, and so on. And it introduces beginners to the basics stances, grips, etc.

I don’t know the traditional Yang jian form, though I do know a Yang dao (broadsword) form and quite like it. In terms of traditional sword forms, I am getting more familiar with the Sha family sword forms and I like them quite a bit. Are they better vehicles for transmitting excellence in tai ji? Too early for me to answer, but I sense it is a case of two different roads leading to the same destination- and that these two roads share much in common.

In my case, I prefer the closer, more personal form of transmission of the traditional forms of the Sha family. But I wouldn’t want to do those forms only. My experience in the Japanese martial arts has shown me too many groups lost in small, insular worlds. Too many people who, in the pursuit of purity of transmission of Traditional Forms, do nothing but criticize and belittle other martial artists, especially those doing less traditional arts.

As for me, I continue going to a 32-sword class 1-2 times a week. The 32-sword form was an earlier (and still more common) version of a competition form for international contests. Its history stretches back ot 1957 – much longer than the 42-form but still rather short in the history of martial arts.

While it may be a competition form, I am learning it for myself and am taught finer principles and unrealized applications each week. Many of the motions overlap with those of the 42-form. And many of the motions, principles and applications overlap with those of the Sha family sword forms and other traditional forms.

But I would have to say, I prefer doing the Sha family forms. Going back to the commenter’s question -- “Have I had better experiences?” I can only say that I have been and continue to learn from and be challenged by my teacher. He uses the 32 form (and occasionally the 42 form) as tools to teach. Both forms are quite suitable for large groups of people and are often taught to beginners. Generally, people move into the traditional forms after gaining experience with the competition forms. I followed that pattern and I feel it has served me well.

I am most interested to hear comments from readers on this topic (including the original commenter). Also, look for future installments in this series. I will certainly have to write about Long Fist and Southern Fist in this regard.

(photo of myself and a practice partner doing the 32-sword form about 16 years ago)

two

2010-06-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Was I just complaining about only moving forward one move at a time in my forms lately, instead of the usual mind- and body-stretching sequences of who knows how many motions?

Silly me. Typing notes and consulting Liu Laoshi’s text on Six Harmonies Praying Mantis Fist yesterday, I discovered that I had, in fact, learned two new motions. That’s right, not one but two. The psychological difference is, in my case, profound.

No longer inching along at a snail’s pace, I am suddenly surging forward and straining my capacity to absorb new material. Double what I thought!

But it still feels like one connected sequence, just a difference in how you count the motions. There are four hand motions, a foot adjustment, and a step forward. Is that one motion? Two? Four?

Enough. Time to get outside and practice. One motion, two motions. Who cares, just finish the fight. And get ready for the next mantis fist seminar, two weeks away, and sure this time to blast forward.

snail's pace

2010-06-08T07:18:00.001-07:00

In recent practices, the theme seems to be slow advancement.

Tonight’s class in Sha Family sword (沙式太极剑), I was hoping for a surge forward in the (first) two-person paired form. Instead, we got a (good and needed) review of the (second) 36-motion tai ji jian form, including four repetitions in all directions, which really messed with the mind if you let it, or didn’t mess with the mind if you didn’t let it. Do you know what I mean?

After basics, 36-form practice, and breaks, there was precious little time left for the two-person form we are learning. We reviewed the first several motions several times and learned a grand total of one new motion in the last three minutes of class. No complaints, mind you – every minute of class is valuable, and I appreciate the review.

Last Sunday, we had a special 5-hour class focusing on mantis fist or tang lang quan. It’s a small and experienced group and my only real chance to review the forms of Six Harmonies Mantis Fist (六合螳螂拳) as taught by Liu Jing Ru Laoshi.

My daughter was not satisfied with four hours of Daddy Time all morning, so I took her to the afternoon Mantis class. She was pretty good (as much as can be expected of a 7-year-old) and ran through the Long Fist Staff form (长拳棍术) with me a few times, but wouldn’t run through any of the empty-hand routines in front of others with me.

Between intervals of playing and practicing with my daughter, I reviewed Duan Chui 短捶 pretty well and reviewed the first 1/3 or so of shuang feng 双封 from last month. We drilled that many times and then learned a grand total of one new motion.

I suppose this theme applies to last week (or has it been two weeks ago already??) when Akamine Sensei came to Tokyo from Okinawa for a weekend seminar in Ryukyu Kobudo. Actually there was no advancement into new techniques for me, only pushing deeper into the already-practiced forms. It was enough, and yet I still felt a hunger, watching as others reviewed forms which I have been through but don’t know well.

So these are days of slow advancement and much consolidation for me, both satisfying and slightly frustrating at the same time. Anyway, I will strengthen my foundations and get ready for there will certainly be great blasts of advancement in the future.

(photo of a snail found by my daughter at the tang lang quan practice space)

no yue

2010-05-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Another tournament today, the last of the autumn 2009 –spring 2010 season.

My daughter did pretty well in chang quan or long fist – she was suddenly paired with another girl slightly older / more experienced than her. On the one hand, our teacher scolded her for watching the competition too much while performing. But on the other, I think it was good for her, it lit her fire a little bit. The other girl was right in front of her and an instant quicker on each motion.

I took third in the weapons division, without a weapon. The pudao guy was shithot and took first and deserved it. The double-swords woman was also shithot and took second place and deserved it. Kudos to them both – I don’t think I could have beaten them even with my yue.

The authorities stuck a magnet on my yuan yang yue just before my turn and, well, the magnet stuck. They are indeed made of steel. Hurried consultation, verdict – can’t use the steel weapons, but you can perform the routine empty-handed. Alright, I’ll go.

I really hate aluminum weapons and geranium (?) weapons. They are light and flappy and snappy and meaningless (I’m gonna catch some crap for this post but you can imagine the couple words that spring to mind, the second being “it”).

Japan is a weird country. I can walk around for years with a shinken “live” sword which could actually cut people ridiculously easily. But hey, I am an iaido guy, so it is OK. But steel swords from China are completely banned here (I have had one or three confiscated in the airport and had them unconfiscated later). I have had my outdoor practice interrupted and my (Chinese) sword photographed by the police for no apparent reason. You could cut someone with it but it would take a lot more work effort and skill than cutting someone with a shinken blade.

I would pick a standard kitchen knife (yes, steel) over an unsharpened Chinese swords in many situations. Yuan yang yue are basically unknown to Japanese authorities but the word is out: no steel weapons in tournaments. Why steel weapons have been singled out, I have no idea.

I can’t complain – apparently there are many US states where I can’t use my nunchaku, tekko, or other weapons, the same weapons I train with regularly indoors and out over here. I’ll deal with that problem in the future. I have no plans, by the way, to own a handgun. I'm not sure about kama (sickle) here in Japan - the blades are steel, but they are commonly used in gardening. But I have been more careful about practicing outdoors with kama lately. Then there are the sai.....

Anyway I will search the fine print in tournament applications more carefully in the future.

Photo Explanation - my feeling as someone approached with a magnet....

And third place is not so bad, for doing a form with imaginary weapons against an imaginary opponent.

xing yi quan form of (last) month: horse

2010-05-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

My ideal is to know the forms I study well enough to be able to perform any of them if asked, no preparation and no hesitation. Yeah, that and being able to actually use the applications in appropriate circumstances.

I found out how far I was from that goal on Sunday. Very nice practice, four hours of nothing but Six Harmonies Praying Mantis Fist – review of the familiar and a plunge into a new form, shuang feng (双封). Good review, good consolidation.

Then somewhere near the end of the day, someone asked about a motion from the horse form, 马形, from xing yi quan. I started…and stopped, unsure of a couple motions. A bit earlier, I had whipped out the swallow form (燕形) on demand and was glad I had been reviewing that lately. But the horse…the horse…

So I got out my notes on paper, walked through the form once and got it. Satisfying in one sense, that it came back automatically. And very dissatisfying in another sense – it was obviously nowhere near second nature. Working on the new stuff is always fun, but it is time to go back and double-check everything.

xing yi quan form of the month: swallow (2)

2010-05-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

Following up on the previous post (and falling behind on this monthly focus thing). Astute observers will note that while it is, in fact May 1 over here in Japan, it is still April 30 over in my home country, so I can just sneak this one in.

Yan Xing, the swallow. The key point I get is rapid rising and falling combined with opening and closing – spreading the arms and the chest, then bringing them together again. This ties in with the expansion and contraction of the chest which popped up in other classes last week.

Liu Jing Ru Laoshi’s 2009 Tokyo visit brought a few more changes to the form but the core of course remains the same. The opening orientation has changed 90 degrees, now facing the front to begin, followed by a 180 turn, instead of the prior 90 degree turn. Small matters, really.

Each year when he visits Tokyo, Liu Laoshi tells us that the _____ form is his favorite, and it is of course a different one every year. In 2007, the swallow had to share that honor with the snake. I have to be honest – the swallow form didn’t appeal strongly to me when I first started working on it, but it has grown on me. It emphasizes principles of quick and effective motion rather than drilling directly obvious combative techniques.

Last winter I was practicing this form outdoors and the sun’s position (oops, that would be the earth’s position) had shifted enough to display my shadow on the opposite wall. For the first time I could actually “see” the wings opening and closing, the swallow swooping down across the water.

OK, the next time I single-handedly dispatch five ruffians who have surrounded me, I probably won’t be standing on one leg with my arms spread high and low, as in one motion in this form. But the quick upper-lower combination strikes that this form emphasizes might just come in handy.

Anyway, I will be putting some more polish on this one tonight, then start shifting into the next month’s main animal.

A horse is a horse, of course...

2010-04-22T00:06:00.001-07:00

…unless it is jumping over a river.

There is a move in the 32-motion tai ji jian (sword) form called 跳步平刺, or tiao bu ping ci. A rough word-for-word translation might be “jumping stance horizontal thrust”.

That describes the motion pretty well – after surging forward, you lift off one foot and take a small jump, land in a preparatory position, and thrust forward. With a horizontal blade.

Another, older name for the motion is 野马跳涧, or ye ma tiao jian: experienced tai ji people will recall our old friend, 野马分鬃, (ye ma fen zong), part the wild horse’s mane. Indeed, the motion in the jian form features a wild horse, this one jumping over / across a river in a valley.

Suddenly we get a much more powerful image of the horse leaping, making distance – and landing gracefully, blending into the next motion smoothly.

A similar motion appears in many tai ji sword forms. In the Sha family style 24-motion sword form, it is called 虎包头 (hu bao tou = tiger shakes its head??). Another similar motion appears in the Sha family’s 36-motion sword form, actually composed of two bits, 退步勒马 (tuibu lema, step back and tame the horse / control the bit in its mouth) and 灵猫扑鼠 (ling mao pu shu = swift cat grabbing a mouse, a reference to nimble footwork?).

Returning to more commonly seen sword forms, we have the 42-motion competition form – the same move also called tiao bu ping ci.

So what’s in a name? I am definitely not a fan of the kung fu flicks where fighters call out flowery names of overblown techniques before attacking. But hearing about the older, more descriptive name of the motion in question last night – and hearing my teacher lightly chastise a Japanese student for not contemplating the meaning to be found in the written characters – made me think of Liu Jing Ru Laoshi.

He put together some of the forms we practice in his line today. For both these and other, older forms, he attached names, usually descriptive in a suggestive way rather than mere descriptions of physical techniques. That is, “open the window and gaze at the moon” rather than “grab the guy’s arm and pull it across to the right with both hands, then unwind that energy to smack his ____”. They are both saying the same thing, just with different words.

Many of these old forms had no names for the motions in the old days. “Do this. No, like that. Faster. Then do that.”

I’ll take the newer, more suggestive names. Too poetic for some people, maybe, (what the hell? I punch him before he punches me. Who needs all these tigers and moon-gazing?). But we can find hints and suggestions in names like these, and I’ll take every hint I can get. “Jump stance horizontal thrust” doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination.

mantis fist

2010-04-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

“That doesn’t look like a mantis at all” went one of the comments on youtube video of Liu JingRu Laoshi demonstrating one of the forms of Six Harmonies Mantis Fist (六合螳螂拳).

I’d never thought about it that way before. Liu Laoshi told us it was a mantis form, we learned it, we do it, nothing more to it. True, he is most famous for his ba gua zhang, and secondly his xing yi quan, but Liu Laoshi’s third art is Six Harmonies Mantis. (See the cover of the Taiwan edition of his book, far more exciting than the cover of my mainland edition). So as far as I am concerned, he is the boss, at least in our particular line.

I am stilllllll working on an interview with him. It has been an endless project , with the actual interviews conducted once in Beijing and twice in Tokyo, then the endless translating and writing.

Somewhere in there I asked him about Liu He Tang Lang Quan, the particular branch he teaches. We were learning two of the eight forms that week in Tokyo. One of them (藏花 or cang hua) is much shorter and not, at first glance, obviously mantis-like. By that I mean no motions obviously trying to “look like” a mantis, as we often see in tournaments and exhibitions. (Then again, in application, it becomes very mantis-like, at least to my eyes.)

The other form we learned, 短捶 or duan chui, is much longer and has a few motions which more closely resemble those of a mantis. That, and the fact that it appears first in his book, led me to think it was a core form of the liu he tang lang quan syllabus.

Yet according to Liu, duan chui was not originally part of the liu he tang lang quan syllabus. It was originally called duan chui quan (短捶拳) and was a family art. Someone in that family (林世春) mastered both arts and passed them down together. We can only speculate how much each art may have influenced the forms of the other.

Anyway, these forms have come down to us and I am doing my best to see them with mantis eyes and to do them with a mantis body.

The things I wake up to...

2010-04-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Springtime in Japan. Work late, drink late, wake up early….and get a blast from the past in real time. Wake up, check email before breakfast...

My friend and one-time karate nemesis unearthed ancient video from our university karate days and transferred it to DVD. Being technological dinosaurs, neither of us uses Twitter or Tweeter or whatever. So he sent me live emails while viewing ---

“I just watched you NOT break some boards. I had a bunch of old video of us “back in the day” put onto DVD, it’s great! We were not bad. You could not break two boards and smashed T’s fingers but who was looking, oh yea, the camera was.”

“Now you just lost a match in Denver cuz you punched him in the face. That’s a no-no.”

Naturally I recall neither of these events and my brain is filled only with images of my elbow going (change that: smashing effortlessly) through 3 boards (maybe it was 4?) at a different testing.

Cue the Metallica song about memory.

xing yi quan form of the month: swallow

2010-03-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Another of the fierce bird series in xing yi quan...

dread

2010-03-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

Dread – there was a time (karate) when every new kata was learned with pure excitement, body shaking and tingling, adrenaline rush.

Now each new form is learned with a mixture of excitement and dread. For I have learned too much, and the burden is getting heavier…more time spent reviewing a new form or application means less time for reviewing the old.

Recently the demo / exhibition season has slowed down, finishing last week with the all-Tokyo tournament. My daughter joined the long fist / 长拳 group but I worked staff all day, so the pressure was off me.

Timed nicely, we are in the middle of a series of seminars – two full days of the 42 sword / 剑 form from tomorrow, and last Sunday with another Sun Style tai ji quan seminar.

So it is a great period for consolidation and integration, but as usual the prospect of Just One More new thing is hovering in the background…and with it, the usual mix of dread and excitement.

Of balding heads and revolving planets

2010-03-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

It's that glorious time of the year in Japan - spring. The blossoms on the plum trees are blossoming and the beer companies are releasing yet another This Spring Only beer (same beer, different can).

Yes, people are taking to the outdoors, shedding clothes and ... putting on hats. Yep, us balding (excuse me, maturing) folks must don baseball caps once again to protect our valuable pates as we practice outdoors, since the sun is shining directly from a different angle.

Spring is not too bad - the sun strikes my practice spot for only a couple hours a day and it is still a bit chilly. But with the hot, humid Tokyo summer also comes more hours of direct sunlight as our planet tilts a bit.

No matter to me today, outside working on the Sun Style (no connection to the sun, just a name, 孙式太极拳) tai ji form, inspired by yesterday's all-Tokyo tournament. That and the prior week's all day Sun Style Tai Ji seminar.

Side note - there is a great series on Chinese Martial Arts from Guangzhong TV. One of the episodes is on Sun Style tai ji and they interviewed one of the top people, who also happens to own a car repair service (in Beijing? memory fails me at the moment). All the employees go through the Sun Style tai ji form before work, or face a reduction in salary. I loved that.

learning how to learn (3)

2010-03-09T05:45:00.001-08:00

Last post, I wrote about finally riding a bike with no hands, quite easy now that I am finally doing it.

Another thing I have been working on, also much too late in life, is the piano. I took lessons as a child but did not continue, much to my regret now. Frustrated at my utter lack of musical ability, I briefly took up the violin in university.

It was not long after I was thoroughly castigated by my then-girlfriend for a total lack of musical / lyrical / learning ability. We were taking a Shakespeare class at the time. She was a poet. I was a dabbler. The gulf between us soon became all too apparent. One of our assignments was to recite a section of Shakespeare.

She mastered hers in about two readings. I listened to “What a Piece of Work is Man” from the “Hair” soundtrack (purchased at The Antiquarium for one dollar, more stories there….) about 352 times and was still stuck on the final verses. After about ten listenings, she was reciting it, in its entirety, while I struggled on. After about 100 listenings, she began to heap scorn and derision upon me (much deserved, I must confess). By 150, she fled the apartment.

I somehow made it through that recital and the class but something was left burning inside me. Why was it that I, who could so quickly pick up martial arts motions, could not seem to get music / rhythm to enter my body??? Partly in answer to that question, I decided to take violin lessons.

I entertained no visions of studying for a long time or reaching any great level of accomplishment. I only wanted to give it a try, to see if there might be any musical ability lurking beneath my surface, or maybe to make up for past failures in trying to learn music, art, rhythm, all of it.

And try I did, week after week, in private lessons in a university professor’s office. It was a glorious time – I paid for a single credit of coursework, and could rent a violin for the grand sum of five dollars a semester. Work and family were still far in the future and I could pursue many whims.

The professor must be given credit for his patience, as I squeaked and squawked through each successive piece over three semesters, almost making it through the bumblebee piece. This was near the end of my 8-year college career. I finally graduated after 6 ½ years of coursework (and with a triple major), then couldn’t get away from the college environs, dawdling about for another 1 ½ years of scattered coursework, pursuing my own interests rather than a masters’ degree.

Friday mornings I joined a pair of back-to-back karate classes and then went directly to the violin lesson. I was completely “on” after practice and my senses were fully tuned…but it soon became apparent that while I could slog through some beginner violin pieces by dint of sheer will, there was simply no future there for me and those four strings.

In the past year, my daughter has been going to music class as a first-grader and has – in my mind – made fantastic progress. Maybe that’s where I went wrong – I skipped first grade, going directly from kindergarten to second grade, and may have missed those music classes that would have put me on the right path.

But my daughter has been enjoying first grade to the fullest, including her music classes. She zipped through 喜びの歌, the Ode to Joy, so one day I idly asked her to show my how to play it. She teaches by “do-re-mi” and I learn by “thumb here, middle finger there”, and six-year-olds are not known for their patience, so it has been a rocky road. But I have somehow managed to get through it.

I felt again the joy of making it through a kata or form for the first time, back when there was only one main art for me, and everything was so new and fresh. I felt also some vindication, for my failed attempt to learn piano a couple years earlier in my college career from a then-significant-other. And I felt a touch of the magic I had known 30-some years earlier in Ms. Valentine’s basement with its ancient Pepsi bottle vending machine in that part of Omaha so different from the area I knew.

My piano adventure is over for now, no need to pursue it any further. I hope my daughter will take it further than I ever did. And I will still be nagging her to pull her reverse fist back further on the hip with each punch when we do our gong fu practice in the morning. But I will also be careful to let her have her distance, to let other teachers do most of the teaching.

And I just might sneak into her room to buzz through the Ode to Joy on her keyboard now and then before stepping outside for some martial arts practice. I still learn most martial arts motions as quickly as ever, but the work of keeping everything up to date and integrated and separated grows harder and harder.

She is not bothered by such concerns – everything is so new and fresh for her. It enters her body and mind easily, and it stays there, and she welcomes more each day.

I would give much to know that feeling again.

learning how to learn (2)

2010-02-28T04:55:00.001-08:00

Spend some years with the same group of people and it is soon clear that some people are always getting it and some people are just not. Part of this might be because I mostly practice with somewhat older people. People who are already largely set in their ways, who nod their heads during class but don’t actually change how they move or think.

But there are plenty who do get it. When corrected one week, they come back the following week with different motions and changed ideas. They make progress, short-term and long-term. They seem more open and flexible in all areas. There is one woman who I immediately noticed is very good with children – she tries to enter their world, to see things from their perspective. And, a seasoned grandparent, she asks the parent about how to best interact with each child. This feeling really seems to cross into all areas of her life.

It is a softness of mind, an open welcoming of new ideas and adaptation to changing circumstances. These are the same people with whom it is easiest for me to communicate in Japanese – they actively listen to what I say and, if it comes out unnaturally, they softly rephrase with corrections, while keeping the conversation going. (Maybe it is that experience with children…)

They are also usually the ones who are listening and watching carefully when the teacher is demonstrating something, even if he is across the room at the time.

Then there are the others. Not listening to the teacher, or beginning to tell other people what the teacher just said when they think they understand it. These folks don’t make much progress. They have reached a certain level over the years and that is about as far as they are going to go. Maybe that is why they are driven to “instruct” others, to assure themselves of the progress they think they have made.

As for me, recently have begun some new activities which are challenging my sense of what it is to learn. At age 42, I have finally begun a heart-rattling challenge – to ride my bicycle without hands. (Do recall, I am the one who was reading books while standing out in right field during the baseball game. Old news for many people, this is a big step for me).

My neighborhood is filled with twirpy little kids effortlessly zooming around the block without hands. Meanwhile, I stretch it out a few extra meters each day before nearly careening to certain death by bouncing off a concrete wall. Laugh not at my middle-aged foibles, oh reader – my efforts have helped me realize how tough it is for my daughter, learning to ride her bike just these days.

She’ll be zooming around with no hands too before long, I suppose. I’m not a quick learner, but I don’t give up. And I’ll be watching her, trying to figure out how kids learn things so quickly.

xing yi quan form of the month: chicken

2010-02-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

xing yi quan form of the Month (2): chicken 鸡形

Why bother learning animal forms these days ?? They seem quaint and old-fashioned in the face of UFC, K-1, and other almost-full contact tournaments filled with brawlers and martial artists both (not many of whom I would like to face in the ring, mind you).

In xing yi quan (hsing I chuan) we have a set of 12 animal forms (10 in some systems). We are not meant to mimic the actual motions of animals, as in some other Chinese martial arts. Rather, we should find the essence of certain kinds of motions, and bring this essence into our fighting style.

Anyway, this month’s focus is the chicken in our class, so it will be so here in the blog as well.

Maybe the chicken not the first animal that comes to mind when thinking of awesome attacks and fierce fighting ability. But recent classes have helped me find many good principles in the motions of the chicken form. And hey, there is a tradition of having roosters fight each other, after all.

Movement names drawn from the chicken appear throughout the Chinese martial arts. Maybe the most common is Golden Cock Stands on One Leg, which seems to be obligatory in every tai ji quan form. Curiously, there are very few movements in which you stand one-legged in this xing yi quan form: a front heel kick, preceded by some rising knees (blocks?) as hands drive up the middle.

So what can we learn from the chicken? The upward wrist strikes in the opening sequence work nicely as blocks. What appears to be a punch under the left palm with the right fist is of course a block-counter combination. And the “chicken spreads its wings” move, about which I had doubts, works nicely as a strike to the opponent’s kua or inner hip/thigh/something joint, while blocking or grabbing and pulling across overhead. And so on. More than met my eye, anyhow.

Last month was the swallow (燕形), a bird even less known for its fighting abilities. Yet the form offered many insights into quick up/down changes and the like. This month the chicken. Next month? Who knows, there are several more birds in the xing yi quan flock.

more worn shoes

2010-02-15T05:28:00.000-08:00

yeah yeah yeah more mandatory worn shoes pictures. It helps that I work out on concrete more than dirt lately. 10:30 PM, back to work for me.