I had class with Master Zhou again last night, and I’m beginning to hurt again. We went over a couple of new moves in the form, some san shou and a lot of applications. When he attacks, he uses my shoulder as a substitute for my face, ie a blow that would in practice be an attack to the face is redirected to land on my shoulder. Given the way my shoulder is aching this morning, ow, I would not like to be subject to these applications for real. Oh no, not at all. Of course, my being able to remember these is a whole other matter…
I was sent flying once and landed flat on my back, but no damage hehehe. My ribs are now pretty much healed, which is good because they took a few punches. I managed to uproot him a few times, which was pretty satisfactory. Several times, he demonstrated the relentless nature of bagua attacks, with one strike turning into another: every time, it forced me into a crouch to protect my face… which just left my back exposed, and game over. One time, I did manage to deflect him by using white crane spreads wings from the taiji form, but probably only because he didn’t expect me to be dumb enough to try it 
(The second time I tried it, I got a knee to the chest!)
He’s still criticizing my stepping, and rightly so: I need to go back to basics, and spend some solo practice sessions solely working on the stepping, like I did last year. Kenny asked what mud-stepping is, so here’s a demo from Earle Montaigue:
Master Zhou really emphasizes the bagua principle of “Every step a kick”, ie that right up until the sole of the foot touches down, your weight is on your back foot, and the front foot is available to launch into a kick. A little bit more from Earle Montaigue about this:
As I’ve mentioned before, the form Master Zhou is teaching me uses short stepping; the forms I’ve studied with Madam Ge and Master Zhang use long stepping. I was reminded about that by something Master Zhou said last night: “We practice long, but we apply short” (or words to that effect). He was talking about one of the form moves (a chop and elbow strike) rather than stepping, but I think the principle must be the same – doing long mud stepping is tough, if you do it properly (which is why I’m rubbish at it!).
We had a chat after class; it turns out his family are still back in Shanghai. He has a small daughter; after I get back, I’m going to help him set up Skype for videoconferencing so they can see each other.
Oh yes, I haven’t mentioned, have I – next week, I’m going on holiday for two weeks, back to Wales. I haven’t been back to the UK for 3 1/2 years, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s changed!
After class, I went down to the other part of the park where I do my solo practice, but I didn’t stay long. The Hungry Ghost Festival is still going on, and someone had been burning a big pile of Hell Money. It was still smouldering, and giving off thick, acrid white smoke; when the wind blew it in my direction, it was pretty choking. More importantly, when I did one spinning move from Zhang Sheng Li’s form, I suddenly felt way too much friction under my toes: yes, my the sole on my right shoe had worn completely through from all the toe-gripping! The left shoe was close to going as well, so I gave up that point and went to chill with my Chin Woo friends. I need to buy a new pair of shoes before tonight’s class with Madam Ge…
I actually didn’t understood about the mud stepping…
But the “every step is a kick” thing I’ve learned also, so we train every step raising the foot above the other knee.
So, you’re going to visit your homeland after that long? How does it feels, anxious?
Mm – I don’t think that Master Zhou was talking about stepping for “practice long, apply short” – I think that having both the long and short stepping methods will be somewhat confusing in the long run. For example, spending, say, an hour a day for a week practicing the long version will only mess up the short version, and vice versa.
Good to hear that your ribs healed, though!
Thanks for the mud stepping vid, interesting stuff and has made me think of a point that I want to ask Joanna (my own teacher) to clear up about standing and the distribution of the weight as it fass through the feet, the video will be invaluable for explaining exactly what I mean.
Comming back to the UK after 3 1/2 years must feel pretty strange and exciting too I would think. Here’s hoping that you have a great holiday and that you might just catch the end of summer here.
I tend to think of mudstepping as a training way to move fast without accruing too much momentum, allowing you to turn or change directions without stopping, losing balance etc… But I tend not to like too much the method where you slide your front foot an extra few inches “forcefully” before stepping. I think it’s too artificial. In actual fight, I do not think you will do exact mud stepping. But hey, what do I know, I’ve rarely been in a fight.
By the way, if you’re going to Wales, you could look up Erle Montaigue, he’s living there. I took quite a few classes with him back in the day, at his summer camps, and thought they were well worth it.
I’ve actually already been in contact with Earle’s son, Eli; he runs classes within reach of where I’ll be staying. I probably won’t have time to attend a full session, but I hope I’ll get the chance to meet up and chat.
Nice blog here ^_^
No means of disrepect but i was just wondering that during the demos, and you could uproot your master so does that means that your master is careless or his skills are not that good? =P
Did your master show you any of the “fa jin” or does he even knows any “fa jin” ? This is important because if no “fa jin” then it’s just another karate or TKD lesson, not internal martial arts rite?