by Wushuer » Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:16 pm
Psal,
The progression as stated by P is exactly what I did in my training. Oh, and yes I did volunteer to take the pounding.
Loved it, actually. Wish I still could!
Not that Polaris needs verification from me about anything related to the Wu style, far from it as I bow to him humbly as a Sifu, I just wanted to let you know that this is how I learned from them as well.
Simply some of the best martial arts training I've ever had from people who know their stuff and are not afraid to teach it in the traditional manner.
I've said it before, you get used to that "pounding" and learn to enjoy it, because with every new ache and pain you know you are learning things that you simply could not any other way.
Of course, since I trained with my brother, there was probably some "pounding" that I took that would go above and beyond what your average bear would go through. So did he. I think our Sifu enjoyed watching our sibling rivalries as much as we enjoyed taking them out on each other, but I digress...
P.,
I have to say that the "power generation" between the two styles appears quite different on the surface.
As one who has trained both, I can now say that the appearance is decieving, the power is generated in a similar way....
BUT..
Not exactly.
My limited TCC theory vocabulary, and neophyte status in Yang style, is keeping me from trying to relate exactly what those differences are at present.
I'm working on it and will wax poetic about these differences, later.
But first, I would need to ask your opinion on the role of the "kua" in WKY's square form in order to help me further understand what's going on.
Here's why.
Power cannot be generated without a proper "root", if I understand that concept correctly. You "root" with your feet and legs, your lower half. The differences in stance, in "rooting" techniques, appear at first blush to be quite different from each other. I'm beginning to see as many similarities as differences, but...
Still a lot of differnces.
With that in mind, I'll do my best to phrase this coherently, and would humbly appreciate your input on these aspects from the Wu family perspective.
If I'm missing the point about YCF leg work, please, please, please, someone correct me so I can move forward on this research with the correct ideas in mind.
As I see and understand it now....
In the YCF form I'm learning presently, there is an emphasys on opening the kua in stances, and keeping some tension between the legs like a pulled bow (in bow stance, which I'll start with), back foot at 45 degrees to front, 70/30 weight distributions and you're pushing back against the back leg with the front and the front with the back (very hard for me to adjust to).
In the Wu form as I learned it, I do not recall an emphasys on opening the kua region. Keeping your back foot straight on to the front as we do almost, almost precludes such a thing. I certainly do not recall any mention of making an effort to open the kua area as a conscious part of the form training, except in the 50/50 stances such as SW and even then I only did so because Sifu mentioned to us once when we were studying horse stances, and as often as I've reviewed Sifu's tape of the form I've heard no mention of the concept in his breakdowns at all.
In fact, I watched the entire tape last night (I thoroughly enjoyed practicing with Sifu again, I've been concentrating on my Yang forms since I started my last class), and opening the kua was not addressed at all.
I trained that style for eleven years, and was surprised when my YCF instructor mentioned opening the kua in my stances. First, because I'd never heard the word before and had no idea what he was talking about, second because I then tried to recall any point at which this was mentioned in Wu style training, and only later remembered being told this by Sifu Eddie during the horse stance training he gave us, which was at a Chi Kung seminar, not during form training.
Now. All that said. I may have missed this for some reason. Goodness knows I've missed other things, so I may only be suffering from my horrible memory capacity.
I have other questions that I'll need to ask, not too many though, before I can, hopefully, figure out what I'm doing wrong to make these styles seem so different when they're not.
[This message has been edited by Wushuer (edited 02-28-2004).]