English 101: Kung Fu'ing

         Kung Fu and the English language seem like two separate concepts, and yet have a lot of similarities.  For instance, we hear our instructors talk about phrasing a lot when we do our forms.  Like our language, we learn words (movements)(well actually the alphabet first if we're getting technical), then we learn simple sentences (combinations like jab and reverse), then we can start to form paragraphs (a form).  Of course within these structures there is punctuation that helps with or break up the flow of things.  I'm not writing one long run on sentence mushing words together trying to make something cohesive when really it just turns into a bunch of gobbledygook that no one can follow or understand.  I'm. Also. Not. Punctuating. Every. Point.  I'm putting together a smooth structure, filled with gentle pauses, hard stops, and sometimes definition!

        Now, I find Kung Fu can be like the English language in other ways, full of exceptions to the rules.  It seems the higher in rank I become, the more the rules are flexible.  The reality is, is that that is not true.  I've learned my ABC's, I've learned about sentences, paragraphs, punctuation, and sentence structure; but I haven't been applying them in a higher degree.  Our instructors do their best to teach us in a way that ingrains in us the foundations we need to make our body's start to move in the most effective way to deliver power, whilst maintaining a sturdy foundation.  For instance, I throw a punch with my right hand, my left hand comes back to my hip to connect the two sides, which of course are supported by my feet.  Now I don't always want to bring that left hand back to my hip in all instances.  I can still have it "active" and involved in supporting my techniques, but that is not a hard and fast rule that it has to come back to my hip.

        I've been getting in my own way, sabotaging my progress, because I have these certain paradigms etched in my head that I'm fighting, when really I should be allowing my body to do what it needs to.  I have the foundational knowledge, I just need to apply it.  Easier said than done.  We've all been told at some point to bring that hand back to the hip, and in some instances, that is still the case.  Where it becomes an issue, is when we think, oh, that hand needs to come back to my hip, but now this feels off.  For me that is in a lot of places, but the recent one I'm working on is the end of Da Mu Hsing V, with the knife hands at the end.  Sure, a couple of the techniques require me to bring that hand back to my hip, but not all of them.  I've been sabotaging myself by cutting off my sensitivity to my core and the rest of the body.  I can still have connection, by allowing that hand to gently float.  I say gentle, because what I have been doing is having that hand glued to my hip with tense muscles that have been interfering with my sensitivity.