Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The many faces of Dai

I'm frustrated and encouraged by the source material I find in my research. For instance, I have a book and DVD by Scott Rodell, and a book by Stuart Olsen. Both men were students of TT Liang, and both men are determined enough in their studies to have published multiple guides on Tai Chi Sword. Thing is, if you compare the descriptions of the 13 cuts in both book, many of the techniques are wildly different from eachother! It's possible that there's some subtle link between the techniques that I don't understand as a novice, but I think it's just more likely that there's little if any concensus on what the 13 cuts are and how they're used. Therefore I can march ahead with the (possibly naive) confidence that my interpretations are about as worthy as those that precede me.
 
Take Dai for instance. If you take it as simply a funny-shaped high parry, even if you combine it with Ge and Ya, you end up with a system that appears very limited in options. Even foil fencing, which is pretty simplified as martial arts go, has nine parries, semi-circular and circular variants of those parries, yielding and pressing variants, and transfers. That means there's explicitly much more than thirty expressions of defense without including footwork and voids.
 
If you take Dai as high left and high right, you find yourself in a strangely limited space. If you take Dai as the act of drawing out your opponent's blade, guiding it to fuller extension in order to maximize the space in which you can move as well as enlarging the areas you can attack, that presents a more reassuring and satisfying set of possibilities, doesn't it?

Monday, August 28, 2006

Beginning to Dai

We scrounged some time from the Wing Chun class we do Friday nights to work on a drill I'd been cooking up for the Dai parry. Begin in guard across from your partner, and have your partner Dian at the center of your chest. You should probably wear a protective mask and your partner should aim to stop short six inches from you for safety.
 
Begin by slapping the attack at 90 degrees to the blade from a variety of angles. Practice until you can parry without panicking, and block the blade just enough so that it would miss you only be a few inches instead of a few feet.
 
Once you are comfortable with this, try to match the entry speed of the attack and bring (Dai) the parry back toward you. Imagine that you are gently touching and guiding the tip of their blade into and empty and harmless space of your choosing, such as the space next to your ear above your shoulder. Practice until the motion is supple and gentle, and no longer a smashing of blades together but so gentle you could imagine yourself conducting the Dai with just a rolled up newspaper.
 
Finally, add a gentle step in with your Dai parry. 90 degrees away from the attack at first, and then smaller distances and more toward your opponent as you gain confidence.
 
If you become smooth at linking your Dai to a counterattack with smooth footwork, you will be able to move with harmony around your opponent, effortlessly evading their attack while maneuvering to attack.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Tuesday

I saw "Snakes on a Plane," and it's more of a social experience than a cinematic one. You go to be part of the audience and to take in the rush of mutual fandom rather than watch a story of quality. It's actually lower than a B grade movie and would probably be something you'd skip over if you came across it on cable. Going to see this movie was like trying to avoid the event horizon of a black hole. I was safe for a while, but as more and more of my friends added their mass to the opening night wave, eventually no amount of resistance could help me escape.

Learning martial arts can be like this too. People fall into a kind of group-think about how things work, and they march ahead confident that the dogma they subscribe to is the correct answer. Take the sword fingers in Gim for example. Text after text and teacher after teacher will tell you that the postures are for balancing out your chi. Since your sword hand is manifesting all of the chi when you fight, your empty hand needs something to do to even out the flow of chi. Maybe this is true, yet it seems few people seem to ask if this is just mumbo jumbo to explain something that never really existed?

[insert more sword stuff here :)]

Monday, August 21, 2006

Monday (Identity Crisis)

It's funny how something you have taken for granted as true all your life can suddenly turn out differently than you expected. Growing up, I used to think all Chinese in the world spoke Cantonese since every Chinese person I'd ever known spoke that. I was shocked to find out that most of the Chinese in the world speak the Mandarin dialect and that we Cantonese speakers were just the fringe emigrant community that had collected in communities in other countries.

I was also shocked to find out last week that my name isn't Charlie Wing Hing Wong. Not legally at least. Even though I have a drivers license, a US passport, and a mortgage in that name. Tighter national security rules recently triggered an audit at the RMV and they sent me a polite letter saying I had to get my Social Security card (Wing Hing Wong) to match my drivers license before they'd renew it when it expires this fall. I figured it'd be simple to do, but I soon found myself jumping through bureaucratic hoops only to be faced by a clerk at the Probate office determined to treat me like an illegal immigrant criminal for having mismatched identification. "This is the problem with You People..." he lectures me while looking over my birth certificate and name change form. "You think you can do whatever you want and it's okay..." he says. You People? I used that birth certificate to get my drivers license. I used that birth certificate to get my US passport. If there's some problem with having it not match my passport, why is it my fault? I showed ID, they gave me a passport. The war on terror claims strange casualties.

[more sword stuff later]

Monday, August 14, 2006

...

What is the most critical consideration when making your entry?
Not letting them hit you, of course.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Beng: Getting In

One of the problems with striking martial arts such as boxing or swordfighting is that it is easy to get results without a lot of skill. If I walk over and punch you in the face or hit you with a chair, you'll be hurt without my demonstrating any advanced fighting ability. What's more, if I'm just really strong and tough, I can probably blunder my way over to you, taking some hurtful hits along the way if you're a good martial artist, and then knock you out with one meaty punch. Take Bob Sapp for instance. He's beaten some really excellent mixed martial arts fighters simply because his opponents could not imagine how tough and strong he was, even though he's not that great a fighter. Ernesto Hoost lost to him because he thought he could go toe to toe with the monster. Hoost is a great fighter, but just just not built like Bob.

Given that, we must learn to fight in a way that takes advantage of physical superiority when we have it, but is ready to change the game when the opponent has it.

Therefore, since we're still on basic offense, let's talk about Beng. We've covered our two long range attacks, Pi and Dian, so now we want to get a little deeper into the hostile territory around our opposite. Beng is one way we can do that. Experiment with giving your opposite's blade a good slap with the flat of your blade from as many angles as you can think of, and learn how to launch an attack from wherever your sword is after you've executed the Beng. I propose that once you get good at it, your sword should move like you're skipping a stone or bouncing a ball at your target.

What is the first target you should consider?
Clearly the most devastating targets would be the heart or brain, but to get to those targets, you must pass your opposite's guard first. If they are sensible, their guard will be between you and their brain or heart, which means you must break through that defense and possibly survive an attack going in to reach your goal. Remember what I said about "To Live"? Your goal is not to slay your enemy. It is to survive the fight in as close to one piece as possible. What you've got going for you is that their guard isn't a spiky or electrified shield. It's a hand holding a weapon. If you can hit that hand, you can force them to drop their weapon. If you can even just knock the weapon out of the way, it might open the way for you to hit that brain or heart you had on your wish list. Therefore, I think hand is the first target you should consider.

Given 1000 hours of practice to perfect one attack and no other, what would be the deadliest attack of the eight attacks?
This was kind of a trick question. Clearly Ji and Ci are the most capable of lopping off or puncturing something vitally important to your opposite. However, what if they're at least pretty good at moving and parrying? Ji and Ci are bigger moves and therefore give your opposite more time to escape. If I saw someone cutting down trees with their Ji, I'd certainly opt to get outta Dodge rather than fight them. Chou also requires you to get in deep and risk getting hit. Jiao and Ti are kind of special purpose. Jie, is a fantastic move from the defensive side because it means you could hurt them as they attack. Pi and Dian are fast and allow you to attack from relative safety. Pi might be easier to apply since it sweeps a plane instead of attacking on a line. Therefore, if you're a defensive player, Jie might be the best move for you. If you're offensive, Pi might be the best since it would allow you to strike to disarm and immobilize, giving you a clear and easy way to finish your opposite.

There is also the versatility to consider. Pi is not great for finishing your opposite, but that might not be your first choice of results. You may be able to settle things just by winging them and giving them a stern glare afterwards.

Quiz:
What is the most critical consideration when making your entry?

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Fighting Dimensions: Adding Y and Z to X

Here's a little lingo from western swordsmanship that might be useful. True edge and false edge. The edge isn't something you have to think much about when you have a sabre or katana in your hand because there's only one to talk about. With the Gim, there are two edges, so one needs to be able to clearly describe in words which of the two we're writing or talking about so others can recreate the described moves. When holding the blade, think of the true edge as the edge that faces your opponent. With a katana, the true edge is obvious. The false edge is the edge that faces you. With a katana, that's the blunt backside of the sword. In the Gim though, it's sharp and should be thought of as another possibility during the fight.

Once you have grasped the Pi and Dian in basic practice, add another dimension to your training. Instead of using the Dian and Pi from directly in front of your opposite, try adding these variations: with the Dian, attempt hitting your opponent's hand from different angles. Try sidestepping and hitting the back of the hand or the inside of the wrist. Try squatting and hitting from below or jumping and hitting from above. (I don't recomment jumping in a fight, but try it out just to see it and feel it.) For Pi, try attacking from the sides and from above and below as with the Dian, but also try cutting with the false side of the blade.

What are desirable targets?
Pi and Dian are surface attacks, using speed and the accuracy of the tip of the sword to deal damage rather than massive kinetic energy. Therefore we must look at targets that would suffer greatly from a half-inch deep cut that might be no wider than two or three inches. While the whole body could be a target, a cut to the chest or even cutting off a nose or ear would be far from debilitating for our opposite, so we would prioritize for targets that would greatly reduce our opposite's effectiveness. Fingers are a good start. In fact, any small bones such as fingers, wrists and collar bones would impair them. Toes too. Arteries? The neck and the inner thigh contain massive, vulnerable arteries. Ligaments? The inner wrist and achilles tendon would be devestating. Organs? Possibly the eye or even around the eye.

What is the appropriate distance between you and your opponent?
There are two sides to consider. You want to be as close as you can be so as to deliver your attacks in the minimum amount of time, and far enough away so that your opposite cannot hit you without some kind of telling movement. Therefore, if you and your opposite have equivalent reach, start at a distance where you opposite could not hit you with a Dian or Pi without at least taking a step to reveal their intent. When you are faster, you can start closer. If you are slower or shoter, start farther away. We're talking life and death (theoretically) so don't give your opposite an free hits.

Quiz:
What is the first target you should consider?
Given 1000 hours of practice to perfect one attack and no other, what would be the deadliest attack of the eight attacks?

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Fighting Tai Chi: On Distance

I used to teach this self-defense class I called "Fighting Concepts." I'd been asked to teach martial arts in a one-hour a week format, and I'd wondered how could someone possibly teach martial arts in only an hour a week? What I did was throw out the traditional training and drilling that I had learned with, and came up with a series of games that would teach students to appreciate different aspects of the fight and think creatively. I reasoned that if I couldn't give them discipline and skill (not enough time) that I would give them cleverness and adaptability.

The first thing I taught my students (after I showed them the basics of punching and kicking) was how to appreciate range. Know the limit of your reach and the limit of your opponent. How far can you punch? How can you contort your body to extend that reach? How can you streamline your movements to reduce "tells" that will alert your opponent to the oncoming attack? How can you add footwork to increase your range?

In Tai Chi Sword, I've broken down the 13 techniques into multiple sub groups. Of these, I consider two moves, Pi and Dian to be long-range attacks, so let's start with those. Take your fighting stance across from your opposite and slowly play tag using gentle Pi and Dian attacks. I recommend using wooden swords and wearing heavy, protective gloves like lacrosse or street hockey gloves--a Dian to the front of the hand can be painful and destructive even at fairly low speeds. Go back and forth attacking each other. As an attacker, aim and anything you like. As a defender, do not parry but simply try to move out of the way.

Quiz:
What are desirable targets?
What is the appropriate distance between you and your opponent?

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Xi: The Final Technique of 13

I think to understand a martial art you have to grasp what the secret sauce of that martial art is. What is the concept or technique that makes that martial art different from others, and what is the unique way that martial art exploits that difference to gain a fighting advantage? For example, many would say the strength of Wing Chun kung fu is in it's sticky hands techniques that allow the WC practitioner to fight almost completely by touch at close range. I like to think that the secret sauce of Hung Gar lies in it's 12 Bridges: techniques designed to give the HG practitioner a leverage advantage against a foe nearly instantaneously in almost any situation.

I think Xi, or Washing, is one of those special techniques of Tai Chi Sword. When researching how this move is done, I was flummoxed by how every source showed a different application of the move. How could they all be so divergent, I wondered. I've come to think that Xi is what in sport fencing would be called "taking the steel" and "transfers." The idea is fairly general: any time your blade contacts your opposite's blade, you may have an opportunity ti Xi. Keep contact with the opposite's blade and control it so that it cannot hit you while you hit them.

A simple example might be if your opposite is standing in guard, touch the right or outside of your blade to their blade (assuming you're both right handed). Now keep the point of your blade on the centerline, but push your sword at the guard toward your opposite's left shoulder. The wedge shape you make with your sword will brush their blade aside like you were a snowplow while your point moves unopposed toward your opposite's neck. The key is to control your opposite's blade even as you attack.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Beng: The Explosive Technique

A friend suggested over the weekend that there is a certain kind of strength and peace you receive from training within a group. He said it helps you realize part of your path and your place in the world by learning to work with, and having the support of others with similar goals. I empathize. I certainly miss the time when I attended a regular martial arts school, and much of my training and learning, this blog included, goes toward recreating and possibly even improving upon those nostalgic memories.
 
In particular, there are some things that are better learned in groups. Some techniques require the context of the dynamics of person to person interaction to understand adequately. You can see them, sure, but to properly learn and appreciate the move, you must feel them. The last two techniques we'll cover in our research fall into that category. They are so subtle, so structurally and mechanically complex and variable, that one must practice with a partner to learn them. It is also why we have saved them for last.
 
The first of the two is called Beng, or exploding. Very much like the Beat in fencing, it is simply when your sword snaps out with a burst of energy, often striking the opponent's blade and then bouncing or skipping onward to attack. If fencing, the Beat is usually only used to knock the opponent's blade aside to the left or right, but what if we could use that energy fully in three dimensions? Imagine if you could paralyze your opposite's blade with a sharp, forward Beng against their blade, collapsing their defense and preventing them from extending? What if you could pull your opposite's blade out straight by sharply hooking the back of their blade, causing them to become overextended and off balance? What about Beng up or down, or multiple Bengs in succession?
 
Begin practice by standing in guard against your opposite. With a quick squeeze of the hand or a flick of the wrist, bounce your blade off your opposite's blade. Your goal is to knock their guard off line while the bounce of your blade conveniently causes your blade to come to rest exactly where it started--on line, ready to attack, and now totally unobstructed! Once you've mastered this basic Beng, try variations with all the different directions: up, down, left, right, forward, and back. Then try multiple Beng combinations: forward-down, left-right, back-up, etc.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Posts delayed this week

I'll be at a trade show, so posting will be delayed until Friday. I'll try to retroactively catch up in my spare moments.