explaining some of the development in the videos
http://windycitywingchun.com/movies/prac8.mpg
Regarding prac 8… some of the things one can practice when chi saoing. This practice invovles several things. But before I discuss this, I suggest its better to train this way in the later stages. I’ve found from teaching, that its better to get the student to move the feet every opportunity he gets to help develop body unity. So, if you have problems moving around, its best not to practice blocking like this in the video yet.
Rooting the stance and blocking the techinque invovles many things. I’ll just go over basic concepts so everyone can follow along. If you watch the video, there’s a period where I just basically maintain my stance and just simply block. I don’t really make too many adjustments with my feet, but simply deal with everything from above.
First and foremost, this is done with a good stance. Without development of a proper YGKYM, one won’t be able to main that position and block anything that comes in regardless of the force. Remember, the legs support the body, which support the hands, which support the arms… all in that order, so in a sense the stance plays a significant role.
One must also have learned to develop the seperation of arms from the body. What exactly does this mean, when you practice SLT, you’ll notice there is no movement in the form, but simply arm movement. I understand there is also body movement invovled, but let’s keep this basic. So, when you do the form you isolate hand movments of the tan, bong, and fok family throughout the form. By isolating this, you’ll learn to develop the seperation from the body. Without being able to do this, you’ll notice incoming contact to your arms end up shooting into your center, and then disrupting the stance. If you can isolate the arms from the body, your stance regardless of the attack or the force isn’t disruptted by it, since its basically being delt with, from the arms only.
Notice also in the video, different ways to block the oncoming force. If you pay close attention everytime I block and then watch Phil’s body and footwork, you notice while the chi sao seems to be in constant flow, you’ll notice that each block does in fact jam his motion. You can say a rule of thumb in blocking is 3 things… 1 don’t get hit, 2 block with the body and not the hands (i’ll discuss that concept later), 3 a good block doesn’t only block, but regains the center so you can attack, 4 the block also jams the opponent from throwing another attack. Thus, watch the video and see how his attacks from one motion to another don’t really come out smoothly, since my blocks of his attack send the force back to him and offset his own center.
There’s basically 3 common mistakes when you practice rooting the stance like this. The first being to rigid when the force comes in, yes, its true you can hold the stance, but you have to know when to adjust and when your using muscle. The basic self check is, if you feel your self leaning back, but you still maintained your stance, that’s not really a good job in rooting, but a case of luck and muscle. In the beginning when developing this drill you may have to make minimal foot adjustments in order to avoid the rigidity and muscling of your own stance. 2nd, be cautious in your blocking. If you haven’t gottne the stance down yet, doing motions like bong sau with muscle will only result in injury. Blocking is based of structure not muscle… thus, if you hold your hand properly your opponent will stick to you, and if he pushes further he will send back the power to himself… If you force out your blocks, you’ll also end up doing muscle. 3rd Make sure you know the size of your house, or the area you hands should extend out, all to often people end up chasing attacks when they should be more patient for the attacks to come a certain distance. Its sorta like greeting someone when he’s coming to your house at the lawn or waiting till he rings teh door bell at your house, be cautious of chasing hands, since you’ll end up reaching and putting yourself in a bad position for blocking.
