More Virtual Volumes

This won't help you with your form, but it's kind of fun. The video is from a show that the Discovery Channel did on extreme martial arts in, I think, 2003. There are several clips on Youtube but I recommend watching this one from CastTV. Although it will come with pop-ups and ads, the quality is much better than the clips on Youtube which appear to have been filmed off someone's TV screen. The narration is pure hokum, but the computer imaging is worth it.


Watch xma jin vs katana in Educational  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

If for some reason (blogger?) this doesn't play, go to http://www.casttv.com/video/erg5q31/xma-fights-xma-jin-vs-katana-video

Otherwise, the Youtube version is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZtkwjboRDw&feature=related

A while back I blogged about what I called "Virtual Volumes": some still photographs I took with a held-open shutter of me doing the form in the dark wearing "rave gloves" which had flashing LEDs on the tips of the fingers and thumb. I was excited about what I learned about the form by creating this visualization of an external envelope, if you will, tracing the path my fingers made. I made me focus on what that path might look like while I practiced in a well lit room and so I became more aware of the arcs and the relaxed limbs that are so important to correct Tai Chi form.

 I stumbled across this video and liked the effect of the streaming path from the tip of the sword coupled with the full movement of the body. Why the skeletal overlay, I don;t know, but as today is Halloween, I suppose it's appropriate. If you do look at the Youtube version(s) you'll see a lot of inane comments (some should probably be censored) about whether the Japanese Katana could beat the Chinese Jian. Both cultures tried to conquer each other back in the day, so it is an interesting question.

The Katana is a saber and good for chopping and slashng while the Jian is a highly sharpened thrusting and piercing weapon, light and easy to manipulate. When the Jian is associated with Tai Chi forms the contest between it and the Katana is pretty much a contest between the internal martial arts and the external. As the narration suggests, it is brute force against athletic ability. I have to wish, however, that the video had gone a little further into the Tai Chi aspects of the sword. Fencing isn't just a bunch of dodging around and stabbing. The Tai Chi principle of "sticking" is paramount.

Watch this video of Chen Man Ching's sword class as he fences with a student. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwFTHa_TtlE&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLA64BD325DB2D825C You can readily see the how he follows the energy of his opponent and redirects it to move her into a vulnerable position. It is very akin to Push Hands.  Chen Man Ching moves effortlessly and applies no pressure against his opponent's sword.

Workshop With Grandmaster Chen

William C. C. Chen leading a session in the Long Form

On this spectacular autumn weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, the Tai Chi Center of Madison and resident teacher, Jody Curley, hosted a Tai Chi workshop with Grandmaster William C. C. Chen. I’ve written before about this amazing man. He’s now 78 and moves like a much younger man, due, of course, to 60 years of perfecting his art. He teaches and gives workshops worldwide but also writes and investigates the physical aspects of human existence which he calls “Body Mechanics.” He is always seeking to improve the communication of his ideas to others and is fascinating to listen to during these workshops.

I only attended a few of the sessions but I was rewarded with many insightful observations and demonstrations as he took us through the Short Form or the Sword Form. I’ve been working on my own --- no classes --- for over a year now and I try to apply things I’ve learned from Jody and Master Chen. I try to feel “winding up the heart” and “leading with the fingers” and “waking up.” It takes more discipline to work on your own, but there is a wealth of ideas that comes from a concentrated dose such as this special weekend was.

Grandmaster Chen and Jody Curley

Grandmaster Chen was kind enough to bring copies of a draft of an article he has written entitled, “Fingers is The Work of Art,’ soon to be published in one of the leading Martial Arts magazines. In it, he analyzes and describes in detail the role of the fingers in various physical activities from golf to bowling to boxing and Tai Chi. He separates the fingers into two groups: the thumb, index and middle finger into the “index fingers,” and the ring and pinky fingers into the “pinky fingers.” In fact, at the beginning of our workshop session on the Short Form, he distributed rubber bands to the group, placing them on our hands so that the rubber bands ringed the “index fingers,” making us aware of these two groups.

Nerves of the hand, showing Median and Ulnar groupings

The index finger group is controlled by the Median nerve while the pinky finger group is controlled by the Ulnar nerve. Each set of fingers can be thought of as having separate functions: the index fingers as action fingers and the pinky fingers as pre-action fingers. Now this all may seem pretty complicated, even obtuse, but consider a simple movement in which the hand rotates. The axis of that rotation is along the line of the index fingers. The pinky fingers turn around that axis and the index fingers spin or twist. To further complicate your contemplation of this example, realize that during this simple movement, the big toe presses down and the inner thigh muscles contract, thereby connecting the feet to the hands through the waist (winding up the heart before action, then energizing).

There was a session on applications which focused quite a bit on boxing techniques. We spent a lot of time hitting a pillow held against a pillar and learned how to hold the fist loosely, without clenching the fingers, and to match the power of the punch to the amount of resistance it encountered. One workshop attendee mentioned to me that she had never done any of the push hands or other more “combative’ activities before and hadn’t realized how much fun they were! There is something very invigorating about landing a punch, particularly when you can feel the winding up of the heart, the arching and rotating of the hand and the whole connection to the feet that is involved in the mechanics of a punch.

We also practiced the application of “Brush Knee,” learning how to uproot an opponent who was punching toward our groin. When my partner resisted my attempt to brush aside his arm, I could not move him. Once I learned to use the “waking up” technique, placing my “brushing” hand under his arm and straightening my body from the hips, I could move him easily and he could not resist. So much can be learned by working with another student of the art that it makes me question my lone wolf attitude these days. It is all the more important to seek out and attend these kinds of workshops and to experience the teachings of unique individuals like William Chen. It’s not for nothing that they call him “Grandmaster!”

My Karate Kid

This weekend my six year old grandson was visiting and I asked him to show me what he was learning in his Saturday Karate class. He waved away the idea of showing me the warm up exercises, went into what I would call a bow stance, and threw some straight forward punches, stepping with each. He then showed me a forehead block and a middle block and a couple of kicks. I have to say I was impressed. He can’t have had much more than two or three lessons and his form, at least to my eyes, looked pretty darn good. Of course he’s a boy genius, but, I thought, he must have a good teacher. He’d tried a Tae Kwan Do class last year and had not had a good experience. In the past I’ve had some doubts about the advisability of young kids learning martial arts. OK, it gives them self-confidence and teaches them discipline and good sportsmanship, and blah, blah, blah. But.

Kids get a steady diet of fighting in movies, TV, comics and video games. Now, the movie, “Kung Fu Panda” is one of my favorites. But I’ve been waiting for one called “Tai Chi Panda” to come out. My grandson has watched me doing the Yang form and from an early age he tried following me. Other grandkids that live across the country have shown us their Tai Chi and Yoga practices during visits. It all makes a great deal of sense when you compare it to my generation’s youth and our schooling in the arts of “gladiator sports” like football, baseball, hockey, and so forth. Exercise is always a good thing. Raising your physical skill levels is always a good thing. But pitting young people against each other in combat and competition only builds insecurity, anger and aggression. Think I’ll get email on this one?

The key to it, it seems to me, is the good teacher. If you’ve seen the classic first version of “The Karate Kid“, you remember the “bad guy” karate teacher that fostered aggression in his students. Of course, in real life, there aren’t any karate teachers that do that. Are there? But it seems there has always been an undercurrent of nastiness in the popular culture (I.e., USA culture) view of the martial arts. Ever since Bruce Lee was Kato in the Green Hornet, the romantic idea of kicking the crap out of somebody in a mysterious Eastern way has appealed to young people. If you were five or six or ten or twelve, which would you rather do, move slowly and gracefully in the park with a bunch of old people or punch and kick and jump and yell, “HEY-YAH”?

To sort of change the subject, I’ve noticed a lot of people getting certified to teach Tai Chi lately and a number of schools offering teaching classes. Do I think that this will  eventually lead to high school curriculums in Tai Chi or ESPN coverage of Push Hands competitions? I do not. It could lead to quite a number of not so great teachers who perpetuate not so good form. But that’s the glass half empty speaking. The more the merrier, I say.

Although I’ve been studying Tai Chi for nine or ten years now and I don’t feel confident enough to teach a whole class. In the classes I’ve taken in the past we often would pair off and the more advanced students would work with the newer ones. This forced you to think about your form: having to explain it to someone else and look for things that needed correction made you aware of your own short comings.

This weekend is another W. C. C. Chen workshop, this time in Madison, Wisconsin. I‘ve been working on my own now for maybe a year and I‘ve learned to look at my self critically so as not to get sloppy. However, I think I need a dose of humility and an expert hand at correction. I‘ll attend the Sword Form, Short Form and Applications sessions. As I've said before, the key to it is having a good teacher..