Analytic Martial Arts

Monday, July 30, 2012

Koo Yung Bōp

Actions

  • BS: Bow Stance
  • FP: Front Punch
  • IB: Inward Block
  • LHS: Leg-Hanging Stance
  • NS: Natural Stancer
  • OHMB: Outward Horizontal Mantis Block
  • PS: Palm Strike
  • RBS: Reverse Bow Stance
  • RPB: Rising Palm Block
  • TS: T Stance

Regions

  • A: Abdomen
  • F: Face
  • SP: Solar Plexus

English Translation: <something> Dragon Technique

A short, rank 0 form. Each motion/small group of motions has its own "step" which is used for instructional purposes. The form has a "right" and "left" section which are mirror images of each other.

SP
BS
PS
F
PS
3

Step 6
A
RPB
A
LHS
RPB
Step 5
TS
PS
2

Step 4
PSRBS
1
↺180
OHMB
LHS

Step 3
rotate hand 180°
fist becomes HMH
Step 2
IB
FP
Step 1

Right Side
NS
NS
F
PS
SP
BS
PS
3

Step 6
A
LHS
RPB
A
RPB
Step 5
PS
TS
2

Step 4
RBSPS
1
OHMB
↻180
LHS

Step 3
fist becomes HMH
rotate hand 180°
Step 2
FP
IB
Step 1

Left Side

1: Right arm/hand remain extended behind the body following mantis block.

2: Left hand comes to waist, open and palm up.

3: Twist torso 90° to the right and lean over while delivering palm strikes.

Step 1: Blocking hand is open, palm faces right. Implied blocking surface is inner forearm. Blocking arm and punching first should be aligned with center line.

Step 2: I'm relatively certain this step exists purely for pedagogical purposes. In full-speed performance Step 1 would blend seamlessly into Step 3.

Step 5: Hands aligned on center line, left in front of right, elbows in. Trying to present as small of a target as possible.

Updated Typesetting Scripts

Found a couple of bugs, fixt:

  • DocumentParser.pm: Expat was carping about unknown entities and automatically trying to expand them, behavior which has mostly been disabled. There doesn't seem to be any way to turn it off completely, so in some cases you may need to use the following workaround: encode entities as "&amp;<entity name/code>;", at which point Expat will expand the ampersand, leaving "&<entity name/code>;" in the resulting HTML markup. As a byproduct of the work to fix the entity problem it's no longer necessary to include the top level "<doc>...</doc>" tags.
  • HTMLFormatter.pm: Fixed two-column layout.
  • NotationParser.pm: The regexp for literals is now appropriately robust.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Studio Y First Impressions

Had my first class at the new studio a couple of days ago. The workout kicked my butt, I got to hit a heavy bag for the first time in forever, started learning a new short form... all good so far. This one is more formal than others I've attended and puts non-trivial emphasis on the hierarchy: different ranks bow in different ways, instructors are addressed using their full titles at the beginning and end of class, and lower ranks bow to higher ranks. The class itself is highly-structured as well which, given my complaints about the chief instructor putting up with too much at Studio X, is probably a good thing.

One interesting feature of system which the chief instructor pointed out to me is that they attempt to combine external (<something>-gong, I forget the exact phrase he used) and internal ("neigong") conditioning at the same time. I'll buy that provided that neigong is interpreted to refer primarily to cardiovascular conditioning. The first part of class consisted of, among other things, 50 high kicks with each leg, controlled breathing exercises, and 75 iterations each of 4 different blocks. All said and done we were moving more-or-less continuously for the first 25 or 30 minutes of class. Which, as I said, kicked my ass.

The first form I started working on, which I get the sense is beginner material for everyone, was also pretty challenging. I'm starting to notice a marked difference between systems synthesized in America (as represented by USSD) and those developed abroad (everything else I've done). The former has a very "crawl, walk, run" curriculum which focuses on basics first (how to punch, how to kick) while the latter throws the students into the deep end of the pool from the start ("Ok, now you pivot into twist stance while hook blocking and throwing a palm strike"). I wonder how representative my experience is? Do domestically-produced systems reflect a specifically American approach to pedagogy?

Also, apparently this new system uses a lot of herbs... y'all should know my feelings on that by now. I may have the opportunity to do some TCM debunking in the near future.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Studio X Post-Mortem

I've taken a new job, which means moving (yet again), which means I'll no longer be able to train at Studio X. This makes the third system I've studied, so I'm starting to get a feel for what I like/dislike in a studio. My history, briefly:

  • I started at USSD (many moons ago), which taught a contemporary synthesis of karate/kung-fu (heavy on the karate).
  • Later I studied Seven Start Praying Mantis at the Rochester Shaolin Academy.
  • Most recently I've been doing the pure kung-fu system (along with a little tai chi) they teach at Studio X.

So, things which I particularly liked about Studio X in comparison to other places where I've been a student:

  • Good warm-ups, based in part on the I Chin Ching. They've a basic routine for beginner's class and a more "invigorating" routine for advanced class (which regularly kicked my ass) which they stick to consistently. One of my big complaints about the other studios is that calisthenics tended to be "instructor's choice" and so often lacked any sort of rhyme or reason.
  • Padless sparring. Nothing teaches you to finally keep your hands closed quite like jamming your fingers for the gazillionth time. Not wearing gloves also allows you to practice a greater range of techniques. Compare with USSD, where sparring was done in full pads, or the Shaolin Academy, which didn't really do any sparring at all.

Moving on, things I disliked:

  • Low-quality feedback. One of the things that I liked about USSD was that I felt like I had an accurate picture of how I was doing. It might just have been the instructors I got to work with, but it felt like the standards of the school were high and praise was genuinely earned. I didn't get that same sense at Studio X.
  • The chief instructor put up with a tremendous amount of chatter in class; sometimes it was hard for her to get people's attention. That's probably symptomatic of the studio's highly-informal atmosphere, but it could be annoying at times.
  • Woo... woo... woo woo woo woo. There was a tremendous proliferation of woo and credulous repetition of MA apocrypha. I mostly just tuned it out, but I really wish that people would just knock it off already. Repeating the unsubstantiated feats of some grandmaster really doesn't serve any purpose.
  • Rigid, lockstep schedule. Once you got to brown belt everything was taught on a calendar-based schedule. This month is form X, next month it's form Y, you'll be testing on the material at the end of the quarter. This is more of a personal preference than a generic criticism; some people might benefit from that sort of organization. Didn't work out so hot for me because I traveled a lot for work and was perpetually trying to catch up.
  • Form-based curriculum. There wasn't a big emphasis on practical punching/kicking; we hardly spent any time at all working with pads. Which means I'm probably going to end up breaking my toes at the next studio until I learn how to pull them back again.

That's about it for Studio X. I've already identified Studio X+1; stay tuned for further adventures

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Studio X: Rank 3 Short Forms Revisited

Source: short_forms_rank_3.xml


Short forms required for promotion from Rank 3 to Rank 4. Each of these forms starts from natural stance and has "left" and "right" halves which are mirror images of each other. The right half, which usually begins with a right-sided attack, is always performed first, followed immediately by the left half.

Actions

  • BB: Bird Break
  • BF: Backfist
  • BS: Bow Stance
  • CS: Cat Stance
  • CSw: Circle Sweep
  • DBB: Downward Backfist Block
  • DPB: Downward Palm Block
  • G: Guard
  • HP: Horizontal Punch
  • HS: Horse Stance
  • IB: Inward Block
  • IntB: Intercepting Block
  • NS: Natural Stance
  • OB: Outward Block
  • RP: Reverse Punch
  • RSH: Rising Sidehand
  • SK: Snap Kick
  • TH: Twist Hit
  • UB: Upward Block
  • XB: Cross Block

Regions

  • C: Chin
  • G: Groin
  • LOW: Left Outer Wrist
  • ROW: Right Outer Wrist
  • T: Temple

Short Form 16

IntB
HP
HP
BS
OB
HS<
HP
IntB

Right
NS
 
DBB
DBB
HP
IntB
BS
HP
OB
HP
HS>
IntB

Left
DBB
DBB

Short Form 17

IntB
HP
NS
OB
BSHP
IntB

Right
NS
 
HPBS
IntB
NS
HP
OB
HPBS
IntB

Left
BSHP

Short Form 18

CSw
DPB
C
RSH
LOW
BB
1
BSHP
IntB

Right
NS
 
SK
CSw
C
RSH
DPB
ROW
BB
HPBS
IntB

Left
SK
2

1: This bird break serves multiple purposes. The immediate effect is to counter a grab of the performer's right wrist, but proper application also has the effect of a) pulling the attacker off-balance and/or forcing em to commit eir weight to eir front foot and b) turning the defender's torso to the left and bringing eir right hand to eir left hip. The defender can then uncoil to deliver a particularly effective rising sidehand.

2: Hands remain in guard position from the delivery of the sidehand through the delivery of the snap kick.

Short Form 19

BS
RP
SK
CS
UB
NS
BF
DPB
HS<
HP
IntB

Right
NS
 
TH
T
SK
G
BS
SK
RP
CS
UB
UB
BF
NS
DPB
HP
HS>
IntB

Left
T
SK
G
TH

Short Form 20

HP
IntB
BF
BSHP
IntB

Right
NS
 
SKDBB
IntB
HP
BF
HPBS
IntB

Left
DBBSK

Short Form 21

UB
Bait
2
BS
<
BFG
XB
1
HS
IB
OB

Right
NS
 
CS
HP
UB
Bait
2
BS
GBF
>
XB
1
IB
HS
OB

Left
HP
CS

1: Maintain outward block through this point. Inward and outward blocks should meet and form a transient cross-block.

2: Lean forward, leading with chin. The idea here is for the defender to bait the attacker into launching a strike at the defender's face.

Short Form 22

UB
CS
IB
<
BFG
XB
1
HS
IB
OB

Right
NS
 
BS
RP
2
UB
CS
IB
>
GBF
XB
1
IB
HS
OB

Left
RP
BS
2

1: Same thing as short form 21; transitory cross-block here.

2: One of the few times where it's appropriate to throw a reverse punch from bow stance.