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4. Shuai jiao
(i) Different skills
Shuai jiao incorporates a wide range of different skills:
Applications
Dying ground
Everybody falls
Finishing-off
Floor work
Floor work (control)
Flowing shuai jiao applications
Freeform triangle
Shuai jiao against a knife
Shuai jiao: elbow & bump
Shuai jiao: footwork
Shuai jiao: throws
Shuai jiao: use of legs
Yielding/shuai jiao
Shuai jiao is immensely effective
and psychologically unsettling for the attacker. Hitting the floor is
tiring. Getting up off the floor is tiring.
(ii) Do we teach techniques?
No. A technique is a step-by-step formula for addressing a particular type
of attack. The purpose of shuai jiao applications is different.
Students discover how to manipulate and manoeuvre their opponents body in an
effective, comfortable, flowing, natural fashion. The principles used can be
applied to a variety of different attacks.
(iii) Spur of the moment
As a student advances through the our syllabus, their responses should
become spontaneous and easy. The appropriate application should emerge
without contrivance or conscious thought.
Eventually, the student switches very rapidly between shuai jiao, chin na
and striking. This enables fast counter-attacks; with the exponent changing
tactics unpredictably and effectively.
(iv) No effort required
Although shuai jiao is essentially about taking the opponent to the floor,
there are a multitude of options available.
Unlike conventional martial arts, there are no 'hip throws' or other
strenuous methods in the syllabus. Everything must be easy, fast and
flowing.
If I concentrate while he divides, I can use my
entire strength to attack a fraction of his.
(Sun Tzu)
5. Jing
(i) Whole-body power
The ability to employ whole-body strength and whole-body movement
effectively is called 'jing' and is part of what makes tai chi an
'internal' martial art.
Power generation and practical application are major areas of development.
(ii)
Reeling silk
A practitioner learns how to generate an undulation wave. This is passed
throughout your entire structure, storing and releasing kinetic energy.
We develop this wave by learning whole-body movement. Every strike involves
every body part moving as one. The skill cannot be attained by tensing the
muscles or trying hard.
Only when the body has augmented itself with neigong will fa jing emerge
without effort. You need to be soft and relaxed. You need to let go of your
tension.
(iii) Kinetic force
Positioning, frame, alignment and weight distribution are the means by which
you shape and express kinetic energy. Jing represents this new way
of moving.
Each quality can only be made manifest by a specific kind of physical
action. Form is a moving network of associated body parts, whose purpose is
to cultivate and release power.
(iv) Types of jing
It is necessary to differentiate clearly between the types of jing at your
disposal. Without such knowledge, how are you going to
fa jing? Energy release without focus is
random and clumsy.
There is a distinct difference between each jing. You must be conscious of
the quality/nature/essence of the jing you intend to utilise. Movement
begins with intention.
(v) A punch is not a punch
A tai chi 'standing fist' punch is not the same as a wing chun punch. The
punch itself is not the emphasis. It simply represents the means of contact,
the point of impact.
Our concern is with the jing utilised to produce the punch and how that
choice of jing will affect the opponent when delivered.
(vi) Fa li
Fa li is delivery that feeds kinetic energy through a fairly evident,
connected framework. It is structure-based.
Abrupt, sharp and penetrating, it is the first method of striking but
strictly speaking not tai chi.
(vii) Fa jing
Fa jing is vibration based. The body is looser, more natural. It is capable
of spontaneous movement in all directions and power generation is far less
reliant upon an evident structure.
This is the second striking method.
Preceding the strike there must be no anticipation, no
telegraphing, no movement at all. One moment you are standing still, the
next you have struck.
The spiralling kinetic energy wave passes through your body without fanfare,
and into the opponent. This is known as 'cold jing'. To achieve cold jing,
you must be completely in the moment, alert and physically relaxed.
(viii) 3 levels of skill
There are 3 levels of skill with jing:
Obvious power (ming jing)
Hidden power (an jing)
Refined power (hua jing)
'Ming jing' is harder and longer, more forceful.
'An jing' is softer, shorter and requires greater skill. 'Hua jing' is subtle; covert. It employs elastic strength, twisting, change
and gentleness.
All forms of jing should feel effortless to perform. If there is any
struggling or forcing, this is li.
(ix) Sensitivity jing
Listening jing is your ability to feel what your partner is doing through
touch. Understanding jing is how you interpret and respond to that
information.
In both cases, your awareness must be unconscious. If you are thinking,
there is no jing. You must practice until you no longer realise you are
using them.
(x)
Your attacker is teaching you how to defeat them
In terms of listening, your opponent is everything.
Without them, you would have nobody to evade. There would be no need for
combat.
You must become a shadow, echoing your attacker, exquisitely sensitive to
their every movement.
The aim is to move as one.
This takes you into the realm of meditation.
Unless you are
present, you will not see/feel what is happening right in front of you.
(xi) Stickiness
If you
are sticky, you have the ability to retain contact with ease.
Any form of stiffness or bodily
tension will impede your ability to feel.
Stickiness is a
sensitivity skill, it requires softness.
If you are tense or apply too much pressure, you will be unable to 'listen'
to their movements using your body.
The contact has to be maintained. They move, you move.
When you both
move as one, they cannot strike you. As soon as the contact is
broken, they are free to attack again.
A syllabus
As far as we know, there are no missing pieces in our
syllabus.
We follow a typical martial arts syllabus. Students are led through
the curriculum, accumulating insights and skills as they progress.
Periodically, their knowledge, competence and understanding is tested.
As they climb up the syllabus, more information is revealed and the student
makes connections and associations without the need for as much explicit
tuition.
The material feels more significant and the student eventually begins to
glimpse the true nature of the art. They cultivate a comprehension that no
new starter could share.
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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