The Flow

Bought a bo staff today- going to start working on the fluid movement and transfer of energies.

http://www.karatedepot.com/bo_staff.html

I have been working on Tai Chi Chuan with Bill Lengfelder and have begun to analyze all types of movement through the lens of animal style Wushu (Tiger, Monkey, Mantis, Crane & Dragon.)

So far I have established that the Tiger moves very directly, following the horizontal plane, and usually going for the shortest path between it and it's target. The Monkey drops his center down, bringing his target into his negative space and playing with him on the sagittal plane. The Mantis has the same idea as Monkey, but does compromise the sagittal plane- instead he works the transverse plane to a greater effect within his negative space.

The Crane, or at least the Fujian White Crane style, was developed by a woman named Fan Qiang Liang. The use of alternating up and down movement in the hips within the coronal and sagittal plane provide the leverage for the strikes.

"The point of the style is to make less use of physical strength, stressing evasion, and attacks to vulnerable areas instead." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian_White_Crane

Lastly, the Dragon plays on the diagonal with a tendency to lean and twist to gain power. The Dragon Dance I recently learned helps one discover the power of "uncoiling" onto your target. This style is one my body presently lives in the most, with a habit of going very low, or very long when the Sky form does not require that. Dragon's have the tendency to go past their limit; which I suppose could be a very good thing or a very bad thing.

Personally, the Tiger doesn't suit my shoulders well- I have injuries that make the directness of Tiger more ineffectual than fearsome. I find myself inhabiting Monkey when I face an target that is much bigger than I am (I am reminded of when I was young, and my older brother would come home and would practice his wrestling moves on me- thank goodness for Monkey, lol.) Mantis is unfamiliar to me, but my body took a shape like that when I had my nephrectomy. My body was slightly bent over for a couple months, and I remember having very little power over things outside of my reach, resulting in a hyper awareness of influence over things within the negative space I created.

Crane is very interesting for me- I enjoy the long up and down form of it (admittedly dipping into Dragon with arms slightly on the diagonal in the stance AND diagonally as well in the strike.) Because Dragon is so habitual in my body I feel Crane would be a reasonable choice of style to explore. I should be able to keep track of my tendencies easily, and it is helpful that I already can feel the power and flow akin to that of the Dragon within the Crane movements.

This feeling of power and flow is vital to my understanding of these movements. In terms of movement analysis, it makes a tremendous amount of sense that every human being, every character, that exists finds more power in one body position (animal style) than another. It should be said that we are not restricted- we pass through the animal styles freely, evolving through our lives with habit and necessity. We inhabit new styles and change because of injury, environment or some other form of nurture, but in any case the common language of animal style Wushu and Tai Chi Chuan is very useful in communicating these movements.

Time to train!