Thursday, February 4, 2010

Kicking at the Gym

[Path to Mastery 2/4/10 - Wk21 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.16.09)]


Sang World:

2/4/10
I was kicking in the gym today.
Today was a great day. I had a great Dead Lifting experience. I am going to go up in weight next week. I have been improving on my Dead Lifts. I was observing my friend Chris today, and saw that he would put the bar all the way down. It allowed for his posture to be stabilized. I tried it. The weight was much lighter. Victory to awareness!
Then I started kicking.
I just made the movements easy for my body. Low and easy kicks.
By making my movements easy, I felt comfortable doing the kicks. The comfort gave me confidence. And the confidence allowed me to have better coordination. The better coordination allowed for my body to create flow. The flow loosened up my body. The ease made my body feel light and relaxed. This relaxation allowed me to notice the distinction between my skeletal structure and my muscles.
This was when the explosions started happening.
The finer distinction allowed me to feel the weight of my skeletal structure better. This in return allowed me to swing my limbs more effectively. You can do that when you can clearly feel your humerus or femur. Without having to tighten my muscles or putting in any extra effort, I could start whipping my limbs. My range of motion started increasing as well and my movements became even more effortless. Effortless power.
This is why I love Tai-Chi. I can experience effortless power everyday.




Today's Lesson:

Continuing our Tai-Chi journey:

8 Type Pushing Hands:
1. Ting Tui-Shou (covered on 2/2)
2. Da-Lu Tui-Shou (covered on 2/3)

3. O-Nu Bu Tui-Shou

O-Nu Bu means snail walking. Strange name. No apparent correlation to the Pushing hand exercise. I am still looking for a correlation. Gabriel really didn’t have one either.
O-Nu Bu starts with person A punching, and person B doing a Lu while stepping forward. A then drops the elbow so B can’t get a good hold of it, and steps with the back foot to the left while pushing forward with the forearm. B is pushed backward across the weak line and thus lowers the waist and pushes the forearm up and over so the force returns to A. A yields to the returning force and at the same time grabs B’s right wrist with his left hand and twists it in a counter clockwise direction as is done in Phan-jang tui-shou. B returns the favor by stepping 90 degrees with his back foot to the line of force A is creating with the twisting motion on B's wrist. B makes a punching motion with his arm (right) that is being twisted by A. This creates a return force back to A. A yields to this force and places his elbow underneath B’s extended elbow and steps in. B yields to this elbow/shoulder movement while stepping back with his front foot and then steps straight back in with the other foot while elbowing with his left arm. The body is facing away from his opponent, so this is a backwards elbow. A takes a step back and the catches B’s elbow by neutralizing and returning the force created by the elbow using a lifting motion with his right palm. B yields his elbow and then steps between A’s legs with the other leg while elbowing. A again steps back while using the lifting palm to neutralize and return the force again. This repeats until A and B are satisfied and have had enough.
O-Nu Bu is the first exercise where both get to experience a variety of forces and how to deal with them by returning them with very little adjustment. O-Nu Bu is primarily a stepping exercise that teaches the person how to penetrate into a opponent’s defenses by stepping between their legs and slamming into their bodies.
It is an exercise that teaches to utilize the 4 corners, with an emphasis on elbowing and how to defend against it.

Feedback:

Nick,
I understand your concern. I would like you to submit it because it can be different this time. Martin Seligman talks about learned helplessness. One of the things we want to learn is keeping at it until we get it. I would like the focus to be on "getting it right". Currently it is on "not getting it wrong".
To confirm, your goal for Phase 3 will be:
1. Master 30
2. Master tracking Chart.

Joe,
Thanks for taking responsibility.
To confirm, your goal will be
1. to get the details of the San-Shou.
2. Learn 2nd section of 108.

2 comments:

  1. I confirm the goals
    1. to get the details of the San-Shou.

    2. Learn 2nd section of 108.

    I have been working on keeping the shoulders level. There is so much more relaxed power from that.

    Great description for snail walking. It helps me understand it better.

    One thing on your description of snail walking. I believe that when B counteracts with a punch it is with the right arm, not the left

    ReplyDelete
  2. I confirm those are my goals for this phase. The snail sounds interesting because both people are equal participants, granted they always are but you emphasized it here so it must especially true.

    ReplyDelete