Precarious Martial Arts Training

Precarious Martial Arts Training

By Shifu Andrew Miles


Warning:  By reading the following, you agree that you are personally responsible for yourself. I'm not suggesting that this training is good for anyone. Please consult your doctor, religious leader, lawyer, mother and insurance company before doing anything..ever.

Much like the Daoist tradition of blindfolded balance training, Shidejian practices on precarious ledges to refine his kung fu and overcome his fear of death.  They key is in keeping the body soft and sinking the qi.  Inspired by his training I practiced an advanced 8 Step Mantis set several times on the rooftop of the nearest building. It wasn't as high as Shidejian's perch, but it was slick and high enough to do some damage. The lessons I learned made this training worthwhile. 

1. It's actually easier than it looks. If you have trained stances and postures, you should already be able to sink qi through you feet and maintain balance. Once you decide to go for it, the fear lessens. It seemed that  stepping onto the edge was more dangerous than actually being on it.   

2.Using climbing the mountain stance on a steep incline involves sinking the breath. I often tell students exactly how they should step, however gravity is a better teacher.  Using anything but perfect movement caused me to slide dangerously downward on the wet, moss covered tile.  I became afraid as the momentum of my descent sped up. I began to tighten up raising my qi and increasing speed. I relaxed and sunk my energy and suddenly stopped.  The idea of sinking qi, breath and intention is important. This gave deeper insight into this stance.

3. The rotation of the bottom foot on uneven terrain while kicking is scary. Jumping and turning kicks were most frightening. It reminded me of the times I practiced kicks on a frozen pond requiring poise rather than power.  Retreating footwork was also tricky. At first I tried to do a slow and stable version of it which was strange.  The way the feet were places was not as stable.  It was much better when I just did it as I have practiced a thousand times. When jumping and turning in the air I felt distinctly aware of uneven distributions in body weight. 

4.  Sinking down into movements felt good. Whenever one climbs a mountain they reach the heavens and hug the earth closely.  I remember climbing Mt. McLoughlin with my dad when I was 5 years old.  Terrified I moved over the rocks like I was an octopus keeping my body as low as possible. It seems a paradox that one can learn to conform to rocks so perfectly when at the level of heaven, yet when we normally walk on the Earth we are not so intimately acquainted.

5.  It required softer movements, better stances and overcoming fear. It put me right into fight mode as dangerous training does. Unless you train with a degree of danger, you can not realistically prepare to deal with it.

After effects: After training this way I feel more serene. My movements are more stable, relaxed and supple. 

Five Phase Hitting

 Five Phase Hitting

By Shifu Andrew Miles

In traditional Asian Martial Arts it is said that the hands must be tempered with the five phases of nature: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal.

 

Training dummies

For a martial artist it is important to have a variety of targets to practice on.  Standard heavy bag, focus mit and muay thai pads all have their merits, but it is better to leave solo training for home and make use of training partners for more complex drills.

Shaolin was said to have 108 wooden men some with springs and levers making them slightly robotic.  Here are some modern renditions of the shaolin dummies that are effective and of good value.

Body Opponent Bag- Bob's are great.  I've worked with these for years.  The bonus is that you can mark acupoints on it to practice targeted hitting.  You can also hit downward and around the neck.  This is also an excellent bag for uppercuts.

Arms: 

Hanging wood- A variation of this can be to put sand bags around the exterior.  They sell 500lb heavy bags, but I think these are of little use.  At this point the bag is mostly immobile, so it makes sense to simply pad a large rock or a tree.  The benefit of wood is that you can find pieces with limbs sticking out.  Cut them to size, pad them or duct take them.  If you can find an old tree, then its even better.

Tires:  Cheap, effective and resilient.  These should be used often for martial arts training.  You can lay them flaw and practice circular footwork.

 

Not a bad idea.

Choy Li Fut Dummy patterned after Shaolin dummies.

Bagua dummy:  I saw versions of this on plum flower posts for stepping patterns  A convenient DIY version of plum flower posts is to fill coffee cans with cement.

Sandbags

Collapse Press Hammer （Beng ya Chuei）

 Hammer Time:  Backfist

By Shifu Andrew Miles

The Chinese word for fist 锤 literally means "hammer".  Let that sink in for a moment.  Think about how a hammer strikes.  Does it resemble the striking we practice?

 Melon hammers.  When they say "fist" they mean this.

One of the eight hammers is 崩锤 beng chui or collapse press hammer.

 Beng chui is more than hitting with the back of the fist.  The purpose of backfist is to crush through the opponent's structure and bounce them off of the ground.  The fist strikes downward and the arm (handle of the hammer) presses against the opponent's body.  Mantis classics say that one should bear down with the weight of a mountain.  Think of the elbow and knee as jaws of life coming together in a pincer movement. 

 

That is also  the way mandibles work.

Li Kun Shan demonstrating beng chui at long distance.

Wei Xiao Tang demonstrating sitting belly posture which makes included beng chuei.  Master Wei was fond of backfist which is why he was called "Thunder fist."

How to practice:

Start swinging a sledgehammer and you will soon notice where your stance is weak and after an hour or so you will have learned a lot about power generation.  Start looking at the fastest ways to knock people to the ground with a large hammer while retaining balance.  Exploring this will give you realistic feel for stances and  empty hand application

The end result is something like this.

Complete Freedom: Forging a Daoist Warrior

 Complete Freedom: Forging a Daoist Warrior

By Shifu Andrew Miles

Emotions hold the body.  They create tension.  They are chemical processes designed to meet the needs of the human body.  We are not our bodies and we are not our emotions.  Emotions can be used to help direct and fuel the body, but past emotions can hold areas of tension in the body that keep us from operating smoothly in the present.  Think of the body as a vehicle.  If it is Summer and you still have chains on your tires, you will be doing damage to your car.  The brakes should be applied sometimes but driving with the emergency brake on will cause you to lose gas mileage.  In the same way our past emotions interfere with our intention and goal setting.

I have used the word intention but I am referring to yi 意。  This is a kind of relaxed intention associated with alpha brain waves.  She xiang 设想 is closer to the word intention.  It has to do with bringing dreams to fruition.  Yi leads qi.  Qi is directed through planning and the qi becomes manifest in the end result.

When we fall down, we feel hurt.  Is it the injury then caused by gravity or from fear?  The change has happened, but we lose the ability to adapt due to emotions.  The seven emotions pull the seven major joints out of alignment.  Over time the effects of emotions may limit my life causing one to suffer pain, injury, emotional frustration and cost a fortune over the course of one's life.

In a Chinese parable it is written that a man who is drunk can fall off of carriage and not get injured.  Wine, rather than fear flows through his veins.  How much safer are we if we rid our bodies of fear and store wisdom instead?

Wine can protect a man who falls from a carriage.  How much more can wisdom protect us?

How do we rid our bodies of the seven emotions to find true alignment with the seven stars (joints)? 

The struggle is between heaven and Earth.  When the body rules the spirit, the spirit is harmed, when the spirit rules the body, the body is well ordered.  Emotions are from the Earth and not eternal, when they interfere with our vision and spirit we must return them to their origin. 

 Inner Meditation:  1.  Imagine the floor as a grid of light.  The entire plane comes up through your feet bringing the emotions up and out of your body, your hands raise up and the emotions come out the lao gong point on the hands and out the bai hui point.  They continue upward and taken in a basket by two 金刚 (jin gang) or golden heavenly messengers who bring it to heaven, slice it with a sword of light and let the emotions fall to earth where they become spiders, worms and other creatures of the Earth. 

Jin Gang or Chinese angel depicted riding a tiger.  Armoured in gold, they serve the king of heaven as messengers.  The angel is represented as a general riding a tiger.  The general represents the liver and the eternal soul.  The tiger represents the animal nature.  The general must ride the tiger.

Inner Meditation: 2.  Imagine that sparkling coming is falling from heaven.  First it washes down the Shaoyang meridians, then after 5 minutes it washes down the yang ming and finally down the taiyang meridians.

After these purging meditations the body should be free of obstruction and begin the naturally warm up.

Ritual of Heaven:  The student is lead to mountain precipice and made to stand somewhere dangerous.  They relax and let their body lean and collapse in different ways trusting the seven stars of the body to naturally keep them from plummeting to their death.  In cities, the roof of a building works just as well.

Done properly, it should resemble the collapsing giraffe toy.

Just don't let anyone get the wrong idea.

Ritual of Earth:  The student is then brought into a cave to meditate.  The meridians should be open and filled with heavenly light.  The heavenly light is brought into the subconscious.  Spiders and worms will actually crawl on them, but they should remain aloof.  The body already belongs to worms.  It is dirt.  The spirit already belongs to heaven.  Life is a temporary meeting of the two. 

Sometimes even kung fu masters have to sit in time out.

Exercise 1.  Fall down while holding your breath.  It hurts

Exercise 2.  Fall down while exhaling.  It doesn't hurt.

After you get used to this so that is feels gentle and soft.

Exercise 3.  Fall onto a place that looks dangerous, such as onto stairs or into a corner.  Then do the same exercise blindfolded.

Exercise 4.  Get into your most uncomfortable position on stairs or in a corner and have your training partner choke you with their hands.  Using breath, allow your body to fluidly come out of the awkward position into a position of safety.  Gradually increase the intention of the attacker so that they can experience fear as an illusion which hinders them and train the body to not overreact.

If they are breathing, relaxed and moving is is nearly impossible to strangle someone this way, still countless people have died from this due to their own fear and tension.

Exercise 5.  Stand blindfolded and get beaten up using breathing and relaxation to absorb the strikes.  Flow around the attacker using breath.  The strikes are points of impact no different from falling onto the ground.

Ritual of Mankind:  The student is blindfolded and brought to what they think is the cliff and made to repeat the first ritual.  During that time the master should push them. They will think they are going to plunge to their death.  You can accurately assess their fear of death by seeing how hard or softly they hit the ground. Those who transcend death can become average human beings who can see through illusions and easily attain their goals.

Time to die!  Psych!  Lolz.