Opening Bow

With the Tiger Challenge coming up around the corner, now is an ideal time to focus on your forms and your sparring. When it comes to forms, there is some confusion concerning the opening bow.

To perform the opening bow properly, you must understand the purpose of(intent) of the opening bow. Our opening bow has two main purposes:

• Introduce yourself as a student of Silent River Kung Fu

• Trigger your flow by harmonizing your four quadrants (up, down, left, and right)

If you understand these two main intents of the opening bow, you will fully understand how to perform it.

In order for the opening bow to identify you as a student of Silent River Kung Fu, you need your opening bow to accurately represent the school. Therefore it must be performed consistently across the entire population of our school. Consistently means it should be done at the same speed - no matter what form you are performing. Therefore hard/soft and external/internal are irrelevant when it comes to the speed of your opening bow. Every form you perform should have an identical opening bow and that opening bow should consistently present you as a student of Silent River Kung Fu.

Jeff Brinker

Lu Ping An Chuan Fa

I had a student ask me in her one on one last week about the foundation of Lu Ping An Chuan Fa. She wanted to know the specifics of the style that define it as a style.  This is quite possibly the best question a student could ever ask. The answer to this question should provide the foundation to your training.

The foundation to any style is not a single answer. There are several ways to answer the question. In fact, you ask that question more than once, you probably will get more than one answer. In our case the most important answer lies in the name of the style. Lu Ping An literally translates as ‘Walking in peace and harmony.’

Walking in peace and harmony. Originally, the way the name of our style resonated with me had to do with the physical self defence components of the style. Being a Kempo style, Lu Ping An Chuan Fa requires a student to not only be able to perform but also put up. It is not a flamboyant style but it is an effective style. A person who can handle themselves in a sticky situation can spend their days confident in their ability to protect themselves. They can walk with little worry in peace and harmony.

As I evolve as a martial artist, the way the name of our style resonates with me also evolves. It is more than just the physical aspects. It is also about the internal aspects. Specifically, it is about the harmonization of my spirit with my intent - the root of the six harmonies.  Pursuing a direction or intent that is not harmonized with your spirit (who you are) is the equivalent of expecting to graduate from university (intent) but not having the discipline to attend classes or complete assignments (spirit). Until you change your approach to university (start attending classes), your intent to graduate is unreasonable.

As I learn more about myself (my spirit), my intent will harmonize with it and become realistic and attainable.

Jeff Brinker

Forms Training

Forms mastery is where the heart of traditional martial arts resides.  Mastering forms means mastering your style. When you earn your black belt you are being recognized for having mastered the basics of a specific style. Your forms training makes up the foundation upon which your black belt is earned.

In forms training we follow three specific phases, taught in a specific order,  to achieve forms mastery:

• Sequence

• Technique

• Flow

Flow is considered the pinnacle of forms mastery but the majority of students never get to that phase in their training. We all focus on sequence first because that gives us a base from which to practice. Once we get the sequence memorized we start focusing on perfecting each technique within the sequence. Once sequence and technique are sound, we are now ready to tackle flow.

Flow in forms is comprised of two major components. The first is the flow within the individual techniques of the form. A thrust punch has a distinctive flow. That flow is defined by the way the left and right quadrants balance with equal and opposite energy along with how the lower quadrant stabilizes and supports the upper quadrant.  This technique flow is usually as far as most students delve into the overall flow of forms.

To master your forms, and therefore your style, you must define flow beyond just each individual technique. Each individual technique’s flow is influenced by the technique that came before and the technique that comes after. Therefore flow training must encompass the transitions between the techniques as well.

For many of you this article will seem somewhat basic and obvious. It will not trigger an ‘aha’ moment. For the more advanced students there is an opportunity here to take this article and apply it to your understanding of intent and recognize its unmistakable link to flow.

Six Harmonies

Hands-Feet

Knees-Elbows

Hips-Shoulders

Spirit-Intent

Intent-Chi

Chi-Strength

What are the six harmonies? Listing them does not constitute as an understanding of them, nor does it explain them. It is easy to say you need to connect your hands with your feet, your elbows with your knees and your shoulders with your hips. But what is this connection? What kind of connection? Physical, physiological, internal, with timing, with chi?

That is a complicated question with an even more complicated answer that many people oversimplify when applying it to their forms or general training.

You can list all the ways to connect your shoulders and hips and not have the answer you seek. There must be a connection across and among, with and within. There is always an element of yin within the yang; it is never just yin and/or yang. If the technique is a push, there must be an aspect of pull to connect and balance. So too with your body. In order to facilitate a technique with your hips, your shoulders will have to fulfill their role. It may be a passive role, it may be an active role. It all depends on intent. And your body type. And your skill level. And your opponent. And, and, and.

Seems an impossible task, when written out and analyzed. But it really isn’t, so long as you listen to what your body is telling you and never limit yourself by believing you’ve achieved connection in totality.

So why? Why is this connection so important as to warrant so much attention and weight? 

Ultimately, it is the connection to our core and to the earth that we seek. If we are grounded, our core strong and our feet planted, we are stronger. We are more able to absorb and adapt, better able to predict our opponent or connect with a strike. All independent of our body type, our muscle strength or our mass. The better able we are to move with harmony throughout our body the more our body becomes irrelevant.

Our forms are the most significant tool we have to develop this sensitivity and ability to move with harmony in our bodies. They are built in such a way as to emphasize and magnify movements that support the six harmonies, so to give us a better understanding of them and ability to apply them. As I say in class, you first must learn the alphabet before you can write words, then sentences, then the novel. Our forms are our english class, right from preschool up through to our doctorate. The more we practice and learn, the deeper we can delve into the subtleties of each form. The more we delve, the deeper the water becomes beneath us.

Interestingly enough, I have only touched on the three external harmonies. If you are able to grasp the depth and breadth of what is needed to fully utilize the external harmonies, then you will appreciate the fact that I left the three internal harmonies for another day.

Khona Rybak