During February the structures I focussed on in January were worked on under higher levels of pressure and in more varied sets of circumstances. There was a greater emphasis on timing when applying a structure (or concept) and less on developing the integrity of any particular structure.
“Springy energy” was also a focus during this month with more emphasis on it being a natural by-product of how you approach your forms and training drills as opposed to something brought about by a forceful effort (this is a good definition of relaxed energy to keep in mind when working on being relaxed yet having the intention to hit).
As promised, this month I ran a workshop on Cham Kiu. I included a lot of drills and partner exercises and allowed plenty of time to experiment with the application of what was covered. I also covered how the actions in the form applied to the chi sau environment and how they could be applied in the “real world” outside of the training environment.
This meant that the workshop ended up taking two full training sessions to cover the entire form. The workshop covered various aspects of Cham Kiu:
- Body unity with an emphasis on developing a hip/elbow connection;
- How to use each of the different bong sau actions in the form;
- The form not being applied in a rigid, inflexible manner such as;
- The bong sau action can be applied in a manner that includes a combination of the yi bong and paau bong actions; and
- Pai Jaang (hacking elbow) can be applied in more than one plane i.e. vertical as well as horizontal.
- Long bridge power;
- Developing power from a position where you don’t have a stance; and
- All kicking actions in the form; including an introduction of how to perform the side kick (waang geuk) in the Wooden Dummy form and how to apply it against a person.
Everyone improved their understanding of the form and the connections between the first two empty hand forms. It was great to see the improvements that regular class participants were able to make in their ability to use WSLVT structures and concepts. Next month I will bring together everything I have covered so far this year and go through the wooden dummy form in detail up to the end of the fourth section.
