14 May
Old and New Versions of the 5 Basic Hand Form
Posted by thanquyen, no comments
Taking advantage of a very small class tonight after the huge rain over the weekend, I love the weather, hot or cold, and I just came back from Vietnam so I was inspired by the Asian humidity to teach like I teach my own students in Vietnam the past couple of weeks! Always in my life, when watching a handicapped person, on the street or in the hospital, the disadvantage of the body has brought me the interest of keeping our body intact and healthy using it as a tool or a weapon. Sitting down at the table, you can use the chop stick or the fork as a Westerner or as an Asian, depending on how the tool is suited to your skill. I myself, after having lived in the USA for almost 40 years, I now use the fork better than the chopstick. The martial art equivalence is that I use my body as a weapon, the main vehicle to extend my martial skill.
In the five basic hand forms of the early version, we have chop punch and backfist. In the new advanced version, it is modified by the way of using the hand as a spear or a hammer, depending on what angle and what usage you want to apply your hand to. The form includes itself all of the principles of qigong breathing, soft or hard, internal, but when it comes to martial form, it is a form of health and self defense purpose. Besides training the form, this special form can be applied into the two-partner or multiple-opponent sets, and applied in street and short-range combat situation.
I hope all of our students benefit from the long form tonight, it’s old, but it’s new because we refresh the course material! See you all this week, don’t be lazy!