I was looking forward to Steve’s course on the 30 October 2011 which he’d given the tagline of “A million and one applications to form and kata”.  In this course he would be teaching how to breakdown and study form/kata as a practical method for studying the martial arts, using the Shi Kon 13 Hands form to explore the concepts and ideas locked away in side them.

We began with exercises from the Yang Family Qigong set that activated the deepest muscles of the core and taught us how to use and connect the spine in all planes of movement.  To help take our minds to the muscles around the spine Steve showed some resistance exercises that engaged these deep muscles in exactly the manner they are used in the Martial Arts.  Steve raised the interesting point that these deep muscles of the core are naturally incredible strong and that most core exercises are unnecessary and actually stiffen them.

After looking at the how the movements of form and Kata are connected and powered by to the deep muscles of the core we then discussed the Japanese concept of Bunkai.  Steve explained how the term Bunkai (literally meaning ‘analysis‘ or ‘disassembly‘) is often mistakenly translated as application.  To study the Bunkai of a form or Kata is the process of extracting the skills and concepts contained in the form that can power an infinite number of applications (Ohyo in Japanese).

“Okay lets do the form” said Sifu after we had completed the neigong and qigong exercises…

We were about to practice the ‘Yang Chen Fu 108’ form, probably the most popular Taiji form in the world today. 108 because it’s a magic number to the Chinese, there are really about 335 moves but then – who’s counting!

Taiji has names for techniques that are sometimes self-explanatory, like ‘Lift Hands’ or ‘Brush Knee’ but also have names that explain how the technique is done, often with cultural stories. Techniques are also often grouped by a name like ‘Grasp Sparrows Tail’ which alludes to a challenge match that Yang Lu Chan was faced with, he called a sparrow to his hand with some seed and every time it went to take off from his hand, it needed to push very lightly downwards with its feet and Yang Lu Chan softened his palm with such sensitivity that it was unable to do it, making the challenger change his mind about fighting him!

“Tsou lou hsih au pu!”  Sifu called the name of the technique known as ‘brush knee’ in English, it’s repeated several times in the Yang Chen Fu tai chi form, signifying it’s importance for training the basic ideas and principles of tai chi.

“Claire, you’re coming out of your legs and loosing your root as you step forwards,” Sifu advised.

“I can’t see how I can stop doing that,” Claire said with a look of confusion on her face.

“You need to soften down into your legs before you move and use your body skills to lift the leg without coming up,” Sifu said 

“Body skills?  What body skills?”  Claire asked.

“Precisely…” said Sifu with a humorous wink of the eye.  “The body skills are in the chi kung exercises, just about all of the 24 exercises are contained within the stepping movement, can’t you see that?”