Body Mechanics for power.

May 24, 2007 11:23

I've been noticing, with some help from my buddy Rant, that you can get significant gains in power by segmenting the body when you move it, letting the top coil and then the hips follow ( Read more... )

training, bagua, fighting, taiji

Leave a comment

Comments 17

qaexl May 24 2007, 17:38:43 UTC
I don't think that is missing -- I notice that in the circle walking and the changes. The change may be initiated from the legs, the middle, or the arms ... and some of the mother palms in Gao, I've noticed coiling initiated from the arms. (That is, the opponent moves, and those motions rides up through the point of contact in the arms and redirected in a change in footwork).

So far, I have found that letting the legs and hips coil first and expressing the wave outward to the hands more useful than the other way around, but then again I have not quite gotten any sort of skill in push hands, either.

-Q

Reply

qaexl May 24 2007, 17:39:29 UTC
Oh never mind, you were saying you were missing it from bagua, not that bagua was missing it. Oops.

-Q

Reply

sboydtaylor May 24 2007, 19:08:38 UTC
I've been coiling in the opposite order from that, too.

Maybe I am misremembering his instructions. That may be why I can't recreate it ;)

I'll talk to him some more, and I'll play around with it and see what I can learn.

Reply

sboydtaylor May 24 2007, 19:09:14 UTC
No problem. Thanks for the feedback. :)

Reply


nettle1981 May 25 2007, 03:17:40 UTC
Hey, I'm back online. Does Kendra still want more stories? If so, where do I send them?

Reply

sboydtaylor May 25 2007, 13:11:54 UTC
I'm sure she does want to see more. She loves to read. I don't know how you would get them to her. I'd talk to Janelly.

One option is that you could bring the stories over, or email them to Janelly -- If you're going to email, just make sure she knows first.

----------------
Also, I need some help on a story, if you'd be willing to look at it. How good are you at constructive criticism on stories? I can tell you're good at _destructive_ criticism ;) (joke) -- but I was wondering if you've done the other, too.

I've got a story that's in first draft that needs some fine-tuning -- and I need to know what's working as much as what isn't working. That way I won't kill the good stuff and/or tear the heart out when I rewrite.

Reply

nettle1981 May 26 2007, 06:47:09 UTC
Heheh. I only pick Darkangel. I like you. Your my buddy. :-)

Seriously, I'm not bad. At the very least, I'd love to read it and promise to point things that jump at me. Do you want me to edit as well? (As in, uhm. No. That's an ugly run-on sentance, and that needs a semi-colon, etc) Feel free to email it to me.

Reply

sboydtaylor May 30 2007, 19:02:11 UTC
I've been buried for the past few days. Maybe I will have a few seconds tomorrow to send you something. :) Sure, I'll review something for you too.

Edits rarely sound as friendly as they are. If we didn't care about stories, we wouldn't write them. But even if it doesn't sound friendly, my feedback will be constructive.

Reply


baguajing June 2 2007, 10:26:56 UTC
Yeah most average wing chung folks don't have ground power...or power from their root. Lots of them claim they do, but their concept of it is very mechanical and simple, as if in they shift legs left to right, whole body shifts with it, arm punches out.....no hidden coiling, no real internal power. Although the GOOD WC masters knew how, I saw a form of an OLD fat WC master doing his form, with amazing fajing. His power coming from the ground..I wonder why they learn it so late (if even at all), I have learned how to do this since sitting in a horse stance in my old days of punching ( ... )

Reply

sboydtaylor June 2 2007, 21:09:35 UTC
No matter which way they're coiling (I'm still not sure), they coil like this:

first on part moves
it stretches the body like a rubber band
then the rubber band snaps
and the following strike is hard

I think they lead with the hip and then follow through with the shoulders and arm (I had it backward at first, I think). It's a very slow strike. It probably gets a lot faster as you practice it.

In amtgard, we use it for knocking someone's shield down/out of the way -- and you still have enough power to hit them. We also use it for knocking swords out of the way and/or disarming people.

Reply

baguajing June 2 2007, 23:18:25 UTC
Yeah thats kind of how i hit..Thats more of Shaolin fajing. Kind of stuff you can find in white crane, or anyone who knows how to utilize the waist and upper body. What about coiling of the legs? From the way you describe it, it seems like they use the rooting of the legs...to coil the upper body and shoot it out like rubber band. Its effective, but not as effective as IMA in my opinion. The same thing happens in the internal arts, only the lower body is coiling, compressing, etc. and releasing along with the upper body as well. Kenpo does kind of steal most of its concepts from shaolin, and simplifies it...I would say its not as good as the real deal..its just that in CMA it is alot harder to develop ( ... )

Reply

sboydtaylor June 5 2007, 19:00:09 UTC
I've been doing weighted horse stances a lot recently. Other than a subtle feeling of extra flexibility and easier low stances, I've noticed a bad thing: ever since I've started doing them, by root has become more unstable. Jia keeps saying that even though I'm low, i'm not sinking my chi enough, so I'm easier to knock over.

I guess I'll have to do a lot of standing practice without weights to try to fix this.

Now where the heck am I gonna find the time? :)

Reply


Leave a comment

Up