Form vs Application
I've struggled with Da Mu Hsing for a while, and that's why I chose it for my form this year. The thing I struggle with is the choppiness of my form. I think I may have identified something that is contributing to this choppiness. I feel like I have good energy release in my techniques ( that includes neigong), but my intent is taking the form more into application territory. What I mean by this is that I'm releasing my energy in a way that in a real situation I'd take out my opponent in as few moves as possible. The problem with this is that I don't have a physical body in front of me, so it is not going to translate the same way. I won't have that natural rebound from hitting something tangible, so it translates as a very definitive finish to each of my techniques, instead of flowing from one to the next.
Sihing Csillag suggested breaking up the form into a few techniques at a time to create the phrasing and flow that way. I've already started playing around with this, while changing my intent from what it was before. After having read Sihing Burke's blog, I am still applying this opponent focused approach by phrasing my form in a way I would react to an actual opponent, but also being mindful of when and how I release my energy, if that makes sense. So for instance, the start of DMH, high rising to block an incoming attack, followed immediately by a punch, I'm releasing more energy, and adding neigong to the punch. Next is the downward block, followed immediately by a punch, the punch I release more of my energy. Cat stance I see as a wind up/ surveying my surroundings first.. Then into the high back stance, inside hooking block, and into the punch. This one I find harder because if the high back stance to move quickly into the punch. I'll skip the next couple of moves because I'm still working those out. Then the forearm block followed by the knife strike I see as two quick moves, and I don't have as much energy release with these two I find; etc..
Working at the form this way has opened up some new doors and ways of thinking and applying my techniques. I find it is beginning to help me with my phrasing and making it less choppy. There are for sure parts that are still very choppy.
Numbers:
Km's- 2674
AOK's- 867
PU/SU's- 34,674
DMH- 511
Monk Spade- 497
Sparring- 602
When I wrote my blog it’s because I usually never do my forms from a sparring context. Something that might help you is removing the sparring/application intent completely from your forms and focus on the flow of the techniques within the form as a pure entity, so focusing less on the release of power as the definition of when each move ends and focusing more on the flow between moves? Could be interesting to see what you feel if you remove application intent completely?
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