Daoist Stepping Patterns

Daoist Stepping Patterns

By Shifu Andrew Miles

Wudang  before heaven and post heaven stepping patterns.

In Sichuan I encountered many family systems of martial arts.  I met people who practiced bagua as well as other obscure systems no one has heard of before.  No matter what they were called, the systems are based on ancient theories.  Daoism in China is grey, drab, and down to Earth and contrasts starkly with the Daoism is the western imagination.  It is rooted in the soil.  Much of what is considered esoteric and meriting special meditation workshops in the west is common knowledge in China.  It is how people farm.  Many martial arts systems don't have names, but the concepts of the family systems are still guided by the Daoist theories.

Many martial artists in China will only show military san da on the surface, but if they come to trust you will reveal much deeper side to their art.  This is similar to the way Chinese families will claim to be be educated and not religious, yet will pray to their ancestors and burn money for them on select days determined by the ancient calendar.    In the west we have a multitude of techniques, and use comparatively few stepping patterns.  I found the opposite to be true in China.  People knew one or two movements from a form and yet had a variety of stepping patterns. 

Stationary
2 steps
3 steps
4 steps
5 steps
6 steps
7 steps
8 steps

Plum flower poles are so named because plum flowers have five petals.  This represents a stepping pattern.

 Posts are used to train stepping patterns, both by walking on top of them and by moving freely between them.  Plum flower posts are found in city parks where children and old people step on them for balance.

How many steps does it take to walk in a circle?  Take 360 and divide by the number of steps and you get a precise stepping angle.

The Chinese concept of numerology helps to balance systems.  These numbers and the theories they represent would help people to categorize techniques as being more or less yang or yin.

 

2 steps with 5 phase striking= Xing Yi
8 steps with 8 palms= baguazhang
5 steps with 8 postures= Taijiquan

Two step in Xing Yi Quan

Taoist two-step

Within the praying mantis systems you have:

plumflower mantis=5
six harmony mantis=6
seven star mantis=7
8 step mantis-8

The theories and stepping patterns serve as constructs to upload and download fighting skill, theory and training methods.  Animal systems have numbers and systems named after numbers have animals.  Many animals also represent numbers.  Are you confused yet?  Don't be.  Most of it is just code for the stepping angle.

Theory helps, but ultimately its about not getting stabbed.

Overcoming Fear: Interview with Tom Sumbera

Originally from the Czech Republic, Shifu Tom Sumbera's first experiences with martial arts involved shooting machine guns in his physical education classes.  He learned to be calm under pressure.  He later learned martial arts and has explored the fear response to a very deep level.  Working as a fire fighter and EMT, he has seen the most gruesome displays possible.  Working in Seattle, many of the people he is sent to help are dangerous or fight with the EMTs.  His martial art skills have repeatedly allowed him to remain safe and to save the lives of combative patients.


Andrew Miles:  How did you come to explore the nature of fear?

Tom Sumbera:  We all think we are brave, but fear is so powerful, it controls us more than we think.  When I had a kung fu School in Florida a man came in and attacked me.  I didn't expect it.  I was scared.  Instinct took over, I turned with him and when I opened my eyes I had knocked him out.  It looked like I was in control, but I wasn't.  I realized that I had no control of my fear.  I had learned to control it as a firefighter and EMT, but I realized that you must explore it to the core of your being.  For the next 10 years I looked deeply into myself to see where my fear was coming from and how to overcome it.


AM:  What do we fear?

TS:  We fear being hurt and we fear hurting others.

AM:  How does that affect us:

TS: When we are sparring or being good people in daily life we condition ourselves to not be hit.  We are told to avoid harming ourselves or others.  We don't want to hurt others.  Even with the skill to fold a heavy bag, it is nothing if you can't not eliminate your fear of hitting and being hit.  Many young guys look strong, but their fear disperses their own energy and prevents them from delivering a good strike.  They have just grown and have not fully integrated their body.  They prepare a scary shell with puffy muscles, tattoos and piercings, but they are just boys.  Once you break their shell they are like eggs which are soft on the inside.  They do not really know chaos or combat, they know video games and convenient food.  As a result they never come to face their fears and transcend them.

AM:  How do you use this in your daily life?

TS: When I approach people who need help, sometimes their minds are gone and they react with instinct.  Words will not affect them, so I speak through the fear to their nervous system.  One time a guy who was on drugs had a knife and everyone was afraid to come near him.  I approached him without hesitation took the knife and directed him to the police officers who took it from there.


AM: Were you afraid of his superhuman strength or unpredictability?

TS:  His intention was week and mine was stronger and more stable.  I was not angry or aggressive, it just happened.  He didn't react to me any more than he would react to the wind blowing, but if I slowed as I approached or changed my speed it would trigger fear in his body.

AM:  Why didn't you let the police take care of him?

TS:  They were afraid to approach and he was wounded.  He needed help and would have died.  Everyone was afraid.  It was all an illusion and everyone was frozen by a belief.  I couldn't let a man die because of an illusion.

AM:  What process do you use to eliminate fear?

TS:   " I do this through meditation and prayer.  Once my fear is gone I become empty and they do not see me as an approaching force.  If I grabbing the knife or syringe with intention, they will struggle and I will be hurt.  I follow the channels of the body smoothly and they feel comforted as I move them.  It is as though they wanted to move in this way.

AM: Where did you learn to do this? 

TS:  It mainly comes from my training and from nature.  If you go out into nature and see the way things change there  is a rhythm to the changes of the weather, a rhythm to the shifting Earth and a rhythm to changes of living things.  We are programed to react to the intentions of living things, but not to react when the clouds move overhead.  Some things we naturally fear and somethings we don't.  It is good to know the nature of a person and look at their basic motivations.  By nature we avoid fighting if there is another way to get what we need.  We all have the same basic fears.  Only by mastering your own fears, can you control the fears of other people.  This is a simple thing with applications in every aspect of life.

Shifu Sumbera teaches 8 Step Mantis to law enforcement and to select students.   He can be reached at sumberat@yahoo.com

Wuji as Formlessness

Wuji as Formlessness

By Andrew Miles
 

Emptiness is the most important attribute in martial arts.  Just as nothingness gives birth to something, formlessness must precede form.  Without emptiness all of the postures go from being flexible suits of armor to rusty cages that imprison a fighter.  Postures are a battle arrangement of the major striking surfaces.   

Consider every striking surface to be free floating.  Empty everything else. 

The seven stars and the dan tian fly like a formation of helicopters, each part is small, but the overall area of the whole formation is large and filled with emptiness.  If you shoot into this formation your chances of hitting something are smaller than if you have a single larger target such as a Zeppelin blimp.  A student must begin with emptiness of mind, free from fear of loss or desire to win.  Those who fear a fist, will eat a fist, those who flow fearlessly into the spaces between the firsts have nothing to fear.  Emotions eat away intention and divert energy.  Having no intentions, one may use true intention.  The student must learn to find the empty spaces of the attacker and flow into them.  When the student can enter into the safe empty spaces of an attacker, then formlessness can give birth to form and even the horse stance is enough to overcome a fierce opponent.  If you try to use horse stance out of context, you be destroyed.  Those who have lost this philosophy will begin at form and strive toward formlessness discarding technique in the process.  In the end, what they consider mastery is actually the first stage of training and their lives are over before they can truly begin to learn martial arts.  They curse the form that held them, ignorant that if was their own improper training which bound them to failure.  When one follows the way and trains in accordance with nature one thousand days are more than enough for foundation and ten thousand days are enough to achieve mastery.

In this video Chen Ziqiang demonstrates formlessness in Taji and only then applies the concept of horse stance.  The rules prohibit true combat, but he handles the situation well using these two concepts.  Note his facial expression during and after the bout.  No fear, no celebration.

Formlessness proceeding form in systema training.  Using comparatively few postures he accomplishes creative application by first being empty.

  Learning form before formlessness is like fighting helicopters with a Zeppelin.