Monk Spade and other thoughts
I had been struggling with a section of my monk spade form for a while, involving spinning the spade behind my back, spinning it again as I settle into a horse stance with the spade striking out towards my left. Some reps went better than others, but the problem was my spade was lagging well behind me being settled into my stance. Timing issue, not the first time, not the last time. I got a couple of the black belts to take a look at the section and see what they thought. Some suggestions were made, and I set out to try a couple of things.
Ultimately I made it work by keeping my feet stationary for a moment to let my arms catch up, before moving to settle into my horse stance. Voila, problem solved. I got Sihing Burke to take a look, and got the thumbs up. My worry was that my staying stationary it would look weird, but she assured me that there was enough going on up top that it still looked good. I knew this deep down. In some of our forms are feet are stationary as our upper half is going. I also recognize that it doesn't mean that they're not connected. My upper and lower half are still very much working together here, just in a different way.
This led to me thinking about flow, and then board breaking. Something a well timed one-on-one will hopefully help with tomorrow. I'm really in my head about flow, and what flow looks like between techniques. I want to switch up my board break this year, and still aim for breaking all four boards, but in a different way. Currently when I have tried I had a lot of rotations, which carried me in a forward direction. I have seen people set-up boards in a different way that isn't as linear. I know flow is dictated by my intent, but I also know there are techniques that do naturally flow together, hence my dilemma. I'm probably too in my head bout it, but those are my thoughts.
I'll give a number update tomorrow for the month of April.
The monk spade is a heavy weapon which creates its own momentum and, as such, will change how it harmonizes with your body and your stances. Being heavy, it is going to generate recoil forces both on initiation of the strike and recovery after the strike. These recoils will therefore change the timing and harmonization requirements of the weapon and hence you must change your expectations. The Kwan Dao is an extreme example because of its weight. When I am swinging my Kwan Dao, sometimes my stance leads the strike so I can control my recovery. Other times my stance reacts to the strike by quickly switching or advancing to aid in my recovery. While you may feel this means they are out of sync, in reality they are perfectly in sync.
ReplyDeleteSynchronize the energy of the weapon with the stability and support of your stance. Do not try to synchronize the motion of the weapon with your stance. Focus on the energy.