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SPARRING LIKE THE OLD DAYS

June 13th, 20111 comment »

I recently had the opportunity to spar with my original instructor, Tom, in Grandmaster William C. C. Chen’s school in New York City.  It was like the old days again and reminded me why Tai-chi-Chuan sparring is so different from other styles.  We flowed in between each other’s strikes, slipping each other’s strikes to the sides. 

I also sparred with a young man who was practicing for the tournaments.  He seemed hesitant to strike me with full force.  I had to just stand there and ask him to keep hitting me as hard as he could to convince him I would not break.  When you are used to sparring with full force, the little taps that some people give you can be annoying.  You need to know that the partner is at least trying to hit you with full force so you are sure that if you felt just a tap it was because you successfully neutralized his strike. 

One of the main features of Tai-chi-Chuan sparring is that your full focus of attention is inside the partner’s body.  His strikes are just brushed aside.  You don’t focus on them because you don’t block them.  Rather, you are fully aware of the spaces between you and him and slip your body into those spaces to evade the strikes.  From there you can deliver your own strikes.  Whoever is the master of the spaces controls the sparring.

The strikes emanate explosively, exponentially increasing in force as they move outward, like a cannonball being shot out of the cannon.  As quickly as they shoot out, they bounce back into place setting up the next punch.  Each strike has the full force of the body behind it and the power comes from the legs and hips.

Any strike has to have a solid base to shoot out from.  In Tai-chi-Chuan that base is the floor.  In most styles of martial arts the base is the body’s tension.  In those styles strikes emanate from the tense back and shoulders.  The strikes are not bouncy and explosive but are used like battering rams.  The body cannot slip into empty spaces because it is needed to serve as a “floor”, a base for the strikes. 

By using the real floor as the base you free up the entire body.  You can stay within the striking distance of the partner but remain “invisible” because you “exist” only within the spaces.  Once you leave the spaces, to block for example, you are exposed. 

The orientation of your sparring strategy is  tied to the partner’s tensions and force if you block, rather than to the empty spaces which allow you to move, and to the body of the partner, which you strike as is the case in Tai-chi-Chuan.

Another strategy of some styles is to hold the arms in front of the body and face at all times for protection.  In Tai-chi-Chuan we allow the arms to flow and be functional.  Although they remain close to the body and face, they are allowed to creatively interact with the partner.  If the arms are held rigidly, then you can just punch his hands into his own face.  You can also strike the sides or the top of his head.  I can tell you from much personal experience that full strikes to the sides and top of the head are very effective.  The striker must use a loose fist when striking the skull so he doesn’t hurt his fingers.  Since the strike is explosive, the force is not just felt at the surface but penetrates the head and body. 

If your partner holds his arms in front of his body you can feel free to strike his arms.  The arms can only take so much before tiring from the beating.  You can certainly add grappling and just pull the arms away so you can punch or kick.  Pulling the arms also destabilizes him so that you can more easily deliver a strike to the legs.  (We usually kick mostly to the legs and a bit to the midsection.  Kicks higher than that make the kicker too vulnerable). 

It is important to notice where the partner is focusing his attention.  If he if focused only on your torso, for example, you can punch his legs so that he will no longer be sure that your strikes will only be coming to his upper body.  The legs can only take so much striking.  Usually when you spar with kicking, the partner cannot focus only on the torso and head because his legs are constantly being kicked. 

Yet many styles kick mostly to the torso and head so the partner doesn’t need to divide his attention.  He can disregard the lower part of the body.  Tai-chi-Chuan uses this vulnerability by striking the legs, torso, head and arms so the partner must keep his attention on all these areas.  We train to develop our attention, as described in many of the other articles in this section, so we are comfortable with an expanded and sustained attention.

As we are aware of the pattern of the partner’s attention, we focus our strikes to areas of his weakest attention at that moment.  This requires us to develop the sense of attention so that we can perceive how strong his attention is at any point in the sparring area.  We keep our bodies in the areas of his weakest attention so it is difficult for him to hit us.  

My wife Jean also had the opportunity to spar with Tom and she enjoyed it.  We vowed to practice sparring more with each other.  We each have not sparred for many years.  This is because fewer and fewer people are interested in traditional training anymore and we ended our sparring classes. 

When they find out that they must first learn a Tai-chi form, the Zookinesis chi-gung exercises and push hands before sparring, prospective students lose interest.  They can go to a martial arts school down the block and start sparring after only a few months.  These schools also offer colored belts, while Tai-chi-Chuan, and my own fighting system, Phantom Kung-fu, do not offer any belts. 

The internal systems at my school require that you let go of tensions, inefficient behavior patterns and bad attitudes before beginning sparring.  Most people get involved in martial arts to reinforce their behavior patterns and attitudes, not to go through a transformation.

After the class, Tom and I talked about the “old days”, when there was much more excitement in the martial arts and when people were willing to experiment with alternative approaches and ideas.  The traditional schools used to be filled with students. 

Part of me is waiting for those days to return but I know that you can’t just wait for the times to be right because life will be over too soon.  And wasn’t the lesson of those more creative times that we each need to create our own lives no matter what is going on around us?  The “eternal flame” of the traditional training is fed by continued practice.  Jean and I continue to visit Grandmaster Chen’s classes whenever we can to remind us of that.

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TAI-CHI-CHUAN – THE “GRAND ULTIMATE MARTIAL ART”

June 5th, 2011No comments »
Tai-chi-Chuan is a unique self defense system due to its basic principles. STICKING – You remain connected to your opponent, following every nuance of his movements with your own body.  To him, it seems that you are like wet clothes, clinging to him.  As he tries to move back, you move back with him.  As he moves forward to you, you move back to maintain the same relationship.  
He controls the movements and you follow the movements.  But you control the relationship. That relationship consists of mirroring his movements and then your strikes emane from the flow of movement. You do not block his strikes because that would mean that you are disconnected from him in the first place.  Rather, you remain connected even to his strikes, keeping a light connection between you.  He feels as if he were punching or kicking into the air.
REMAIN CENTERED – All your movements should revolve around your center. When you respond to your opponent, seek your own center first and then his.  This means that your response should emanate from your center (the tan-tien, an area about 1 ½ inches below the navel and in the center of the body). More generally, movements should originate from the hips and power originates from the legs and hips. You then direct your power to the opponent’s center of gravity to create the maximum effect.  By keeping the dynamics of power at the centers, you need the least strength and the least amount of movement for the maximum effect.
There is a tendency to expand your body and to bring your attention up to the top of the body. In this way you may feel more powerful but you are actually the least effective. Each of your strike’s power must pass through the center. There is a tendency, after the first strike, to keep striking without returning to the center. This is a mistake because a strike that does not come from the center is ineffective.
BOTTOM HEAVY, TOP LIGHT – This is called, “aligning heaven and earth”. The air is light. The ground is solid and heavy. We arrange our bodies in the same way. The legs are heavy and provide a solid support. The top of the body is light and fast. The hips are rubbery (in between light and heavy) to allow for the transfer of energy from bottom to top and vice versa. Yet, as shown in the Yin/Yang symbol, within Yang there is the “eye” of Yin. Within Yin there is the “eye” of Yang. Within the heavy legs there is a springy energy created by the compression of the body. This allows for fast leg movement. Within the light top of the body, the power of the legs and hips flows through, providing solid strikes. This is the meaning of the phrase that a Tai-chi fighter is like steel wrapped in cotton.
STRIKE THE INSIDE – We do not focus the strikes on the surface of the opponent’s body. Neither do we focus past the opponent’s body. If we are striking the torso, we focus on the inside surface of the opponent’s back. Thus our attention is already within the opponent’s body. When we strike, we are already past his defenses. Focusing our force on the inside of his back causes a reverberation of the force within his body cavity for maximum effect. The idea is to pass by his front muscle and bone layers and create the effect within his body. Many people have strong muscles and are used to taking strikes. Furthermore, they may have practiced types of chi-gung that toughen the surface of the torso. We penetrate that layer as cleanly as possible. When we do focus on the muscles themselves, we focus on the interior of the muscle.
THREAD THE STRIKES – We train to narrow the force as much as possible as it is being delivered. We are usually not trying to damage the surface but want to penetrate that surface. The more narrow the force can be made (while still maintaining the actual amount of force), the more easily it will penetrate the surface (either the surface of the torso or the surface of a muscle if you are trying to injure the muscle). It is like threading a needle. You can’t thread a needle if the thread is frayed.
YANG FORCE FLOWS THROUGH YIN PARTS OF THE BODY – The Yang parts of the body (back and the outside of the arms and legs) serve as the conduits of force, like a pipe serves as the conduit of water. The Yin parts of the body (front and the inside of legs and arms) should be kept “empty” (relaxed), so that force can flow through them. Force should never move through your back or the outside of your arms and legs. The Yin parts of the body are like the inside of the pipe, which is empty so the water can flow through it. The Yin parts of the body even stays empty at the moment of impact so that the force cleanly moves out of your body and into the opponent’s body. The force is thus contained so that it doesn’t dissipate. The result is that you (the striker) hardly feel the strike (but your opponent certainly does!).  All the force has left your body. If you tense up the whole body as you strike then much of your force goes into your own tension and you block your force from moving into the opponent.
STRIKE THE ORIGIN OF THE FORCE – If the opponent punches, we do not have to strike his arm but usually strike the origin of his force, which is usually the shoulder. The shoulder may be the origin of the force because many people bring their energy up to their shoulders and then strike using the strength of their arms. This is not effective, of course. But if the shoulder is the origin of the force, then we strike that shoulder, weaving our bodies away from the strike at the same time. If he kicks, we may gently re-direct his kick with our palm but at the same time, strike his hip. We look at the opponent in terms of how the force is being generated and directed. We strike to interfere with that force as much as possible, rendering the opponent’s actions ineffective.
In grappling, direct his force into your center. This brings the arena of action into your center where you have the most control. As he grabs you, notice each contact point and the direction of his force from each contact point. Re-arrange your body so that the force from each contact point goes to your tan-tien, and into your hips and legs. Direct the interaction from there. If he twists your arm to lock a joint, notice the direction of his forces. In this case, align his forces with both your own center and with his shoulder. Receive his force in a spiral manner towards your center and then back outward into his shoulder. This is an advanced training which is hard to contemplate without direct instruction from a teacher (as is the case, really, with all of Tai-chi-Chuan training).
MOVE AWAY FROM YANG AND INTO YIN – When the opponent strikes, we call that “Yang”. That is where he is concentrating his force. We move away from Yang and into the “Yin” areas of his body. We never move away from him (we stick with him), except in rare cases to create the element of surprise. We are always moving into his “Yin” and striking. If we were to move into his “Yang” (as in blocking his strike) then we would be placing our attention at the focal point of his power. This puts us into a vulnerable position. Blocking also wastes a move and if the opponent is big and strong, your arm may get hurt. Let him strike. It is your job not to be where he is striking, but not to move his arm or leg out of the way. Let him wear himself out.
STAY ROOTED – Each joint must sink into your root. The root is the weight of the body, sinking into the ground. Each joint individually connects with the ground so that every point in the body has an active connection to the ground. When you strike, your weighted leg presses into the ground as you strike. This creates a pressure within the body which then explodes into the punch or kick. The strength of a grappling opponent is drained through each of your joints into the root and provides you with even more compressed force. Furthermore, this draining of his force then provides you with a direct “route” back into the origins of his force.
These are some of the basic principles of Tai-chi-Chuan (and Phantom Kung-fu) sparring. There is an excellent movie showing Tai-chi sparring – “The Tai-chi Master”. While the plot and the editing of the film makes it a bit hard to follow, the sparring is genuine (though exaggerated) and is a rare opportunity to see how Tai-chi is truly the “Grand Ultimate Martial Art”.
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