Pi

This entry is not based upon my experience of kung-fu training, but as everything in this universe is interelated there is bound to be some relevance to my practice. I am reading the book 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel - a highly recommended read and there is some part of it that delighted me which I would like to share. The main character as an Indian boy begins to explore Christianity after being raised as a Hindu. He is confused as how weak and un-God-like Jesus was and how strange it was that he was allowed to suffer so much and die by crucifixian. The main character talks about Jesus:

"This Son, on the other hand, who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don't get it and opponents who don't respect Him - what kind of God is that?"

In contrast, here is a story of Krisha as a small boy accused of eating dirt by his friends:

"His foster mother, Yashoda, comes up to him with a wagging finger. "You shouldn't eat dirt, you naughty boy" she scolds him. "But I haven't" says the unchallenged Lord of all and everything, in sport disguised as a frightened human child. "Tut! Tut! Open your mouth" orders Yashoda. Krishna does what he is told. He opens his mouth. Yashoda gasps. She sees in Krishna's mouth the whole complete timeless universe, all the stars and planets of space and the distance between them, all the lands and seas of the earth and the life in them; she sees all the days of yesterday and all the days of tomorrow; she sees all ideas and all emotions, all pity and all hope, and the three strands of matter; not a pebble, candle, creature, village or galaxy is missing, including herself and every bit if dirt in its truthful place. "my Lord, close your mouth" she says reverantly.

This really amused me, like the scene in Crocodile Dundee - Call that a God? This is a God!

When questioned about why Jesus was so lame compared to Krisha, or Vishnu in his full cosmic stride covering the entire size of the planet in a single stride, the boys Christian mentor, Father Martin, just replies "Love". Despite the comparative weakness when compared to the imagination of the Hindu writers, he found himself inexplicably drawn to the Christianity.

I am making no commentary about religeon here, just sharing a thoroughly enjoyable piece of writing.

Happy Monday

Nick
Yellow stripe sash

Kung Fu forms

During the Saturday class we had the opportunity to experiment with using techniques from our forms within our sparring. It was challenging and made you spend more time thinking than you would normally do while fighting. The normal state is your body reacts through the training with whatever technique is most appropriate at the time based on your position, the location of the opponent, your weight distribution, momentum etc. When you have specific techniques in mind to use it throws your whole approach. So I guess that is the first lesson, you just can't enter combat hoping to use a certain technique as it restricts you so much.

Certain techniques lend themselves very easily to sparring, 'the tiger plays with the ball' move and 'cranes wing' movements where you are moving to one side and striking the flank worked very well and are great reminders to move fluidly around the opponent and attack exposed sides. Others were more questionable, mainly ones that move your body weight far forward and strike with both hands; for example the opening move of snake where the palms of both hands are together and you are in a very low stance. After attempting this you find yourself in a very vulnerable position with no hands available to defend yourself and no easy way to shift back into a defensible position.

So why is so much time devoted to learning forms? This is a big criticism I have encountered so far to the approach to kung fu training. My father-in-law observes my form practice with an amused expression and can't comprehend how that could possibly have been useful in the bar fights he grew up around in Reno. To look at people would see it as no different from learning a dance. Unfortunately many people practicing kung fu share this and treat it as no different from dancing - these people are easy to spot. There are 2 key elements I have found make a good form (there are likely to be more as increasing layers are exposed to me during my training).
1) You need to imagine that you are fighting an invisible opponent, each movement is performed as if you were to save your life. Every move has a purpose, it is important to understand what it is you are doing (intention).
2) You need to capture the spirit of the form, get in the mind set of the form. If you are performing tiger, move with the ferocity of a tiger. If you are doing a snake form, stay low and fluid and strike with a terrifying speed. You can tell when some when is going through the movement of a tiger strike compared to someone who is filled with the kung fu spirit of the tiger and striking forward as if to tear the opponents face off. The energy projected from the strike is enough to strike fear and uncertainty into the opponent.

So why are we practicing forms? I have found it serves many purposes. It teaches us how to move. Our muscles have proprioceptors that detect the movement and position of our muscles, bones and joints in space. These have memory. The movements train the memory to move in a certain way so that when it comes to combat we unconsciously move correctly and strike correctly.

Even the strangest looking moves have a purpose. Mantis hands for example make sense when applied in combat situations, just like we all learned in the Karate Kid - 'painting the fence' is useful when applied in the right situation.

Also I have found it enables us to grow internally as a kung fu student, to capture the spirit and energy of the movement. The kung fu masters have studied the movements of these animals and developed a system of fighting. It is through the understanding of these movements we can grow mentally and reach our fullest potential.

Nick
Yellow stripe sash

The Sash

I have a good friend back in England that is getting married in September and I plan to head over for a long weekend to attend. Unfortunately it coincides with my next Kung Fu sash ceremony and the rules are that you can only progress to your next sash if you can attend the ceremony. It actually made me think twice about going to the wedding until I gave it some thought. The sash is an indication of how good you are as a student but does not define your skill level. In Maurys Kung Fu is thought of as an indication of the length of dedication to the training - though this is not the case if you are unable to attend the ceremony. So why does it bother me so much? Well mainly due to this last point - an indication of length of dedication to your training, though it is stupid to think that I would need a 'reward' every 3 months. The other aspect is that there is a clear 'pecking order' in a martial arts school as everyone wears an indicator of their place around their waist. There are certain formalities existing between lower and higher ranks, and after being at the top of the pecking order for so many years it has been challenging to be at the bottom again.

There was a large group of people that started in the same semester as me, though I was the first as I joined right at the beginning. As a consequence everyone in the group will be a higher grade than me. This really bugs me and the worst part of all is that it is purely down to my own ego, knowing I will be a step behind everyone for the foreseeable future in the school. I know that there will not be any feeling of superiority among the group, they have great respect for my skills and I have been coaching them to help them improve technique and improve their forms. So really it is a lot about me and my own personal desire to reach black belt as fast as I can so the real training can begin. Also my frustration in seeing my yellow stripe sash group all wearing yellow sashes in September apart from me.

There is an interesting phenomenon that I observed during my years of training in TaeKwon-Do; when someone puts on a higher level belt they can automatically improve overnight. It is amazing seeing it in action, and I have observed it in myself as well. It can be like a kick up the arse - you have observed people of that belt and how good they are and now you need to be performing at that level. So this does seem to counter my previous statements to some extent, the type of belt you wear can impact your skill level.

So Kung Fu will be teaching me another important lesson over the next few months to train and be the best I can be physically and mentally despite the frustrations that will be boiling up straight from my ego.

Nick
Yellow stripe sash
(The title of this - The Sash - is a little bit of an in-joke, it is one of the many names we call our dog)