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Further Along the Path
Today we continued along on the theme of the earlier post, regarding kung fu.
We recovered some of the books from the, erm, library staging area, including one on iai do. I've been wanting to get back into practice since we moved up here almost five years ago, but health issues and time constraints prevented that. The speed Sensei demonstrates (YouTube) in his second draw is the goal.
A couple of the Shioda (YouTube) aikido books (Total Aikido: The Master Course
& Dynamic Aikido
) - an art that really takes two to practice, and Justin should be able to do so with me. Aikido is fairly high on the list for arts I'd like to study in the traditional manner, although thus far it hasn't worked out for me to be able to do so. I love the circular style, as well as the way you use your attacker's force against them.
We also found one of the Jeet Kune Do books - and a really good Tommy Carruthers video (YouTube) demonstrating some of the more practical and powerful aspects to Bruce Lee's Way of the Intercepting Fist. When I trained on this back in MA, we worked on a lot of drills similar to those shown: it was always stressed that 1) we trained in street clothes; 2) we trained in common situations, such as sitting on chairs; and 3) simple, straightforward speed and power - no really showy kicks or other nonsense. Of course, we had fun with the esoteric stuff, but we didn't use it in earnest because the other could counter the high kicks or fancy spins, and all the cool looking stances really just prevent you from moving out of them or allow you to be pushed off balance far too easily.
In that spirit, we attempted to watch Longstreet: The Way of the Intercepting Fist (YouTube) - the entire pilot is in 17 separate videos, and the wait and disconnect between the different scenes drove Justin nuts. No worries, I have it on an old VHS tape, along with a couple of Bruce Lee flicks and a Green Hornet episode or two. Unfortunately, the VCR is uncooperative, so that didn't pan out. Cool thing about Longstreet is that it's the closest thing Bruce has to an instructional video - the lines he gives regarding training and fighting are straight out of his own book, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
.
We were able do the first section of 18 Buddha Hands Qigong
during our warm up. Unlike some of the more full-routine, flowing forms of Qigong, 18 Buddha Hands is composed of 18 sections, with one to three exercises in each section and a standing pose between sections. Each exercise is repeated 8 times, so, while they each have a flow to them, it is repeated, and fairly compartmentalized. We taught Rachel how to do the first section. Further work will be difficult - I didn't find the book in my searching today, and the video will be subject to the cantankerous VCR.
We worked a bit on Justin's Hung Gar Kung Fu
dvd - going through their warm up (partially; the deep stretches will need to be worked up to), the breathing exercises, some stances, a basic block, and a couple punches. We stopped the video to work with the arm shield and strengthen our punches. It took a few tries to get the feel of the standing stance, and it was pretty funny - once you hit it right, you felt glued to the floor. While this is one of the things Bruce Lee railed against with his theory on footwork, it demonstrated that this was exactly the right style to mine for Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender
show. Sifu Rafael has one of the better demonstrations of Hung Gar I was able to find on YouTube.
This evening Rachel and I watched the Jet Li film Hero
, just to wrap up the day.
And I just realized what time it is - or was, as I'll be changing the clocks - so I'm heading to bed. =)
We recovered some of the books from the, erm, library staging area, including one on iai do. I've been wanting to get back into practice since we moved up here almost five years ago, but health issues and time constraints prevented that. The speed Sensei demonstrates (YouTube) in his second draw is the goal.
A couple of the Shioda (YouTube) aikido books (Total Aikido: The Master Course
& Dynamic Aikido) - an art that really takes two to practice, and Justin should be able to do so with me. Aikido is fairly high on the list for arts I'd like to study in the traditional manner, although thus far it hasn't worked out for me to be able to do so. I love the circular style, as well as the way you use your attacker's force against them.We also found one of the Jeet Kune Do books - and a really good Tommy Carruthers video (YouTube) demonstrating some of the more practical and powerful aspects to Bruce Lee's Way of the Intercepting Fist. When I trained on this back in MA, we worked on a lot of drills similar to those shown: it was always stressed that 1) we trained in street clothes; 2) we trained in common situations, such as sitting on chairs; and 3) simple, straightforward speed and power - no really showy kicks or other nonsense. Of course, we had fun with the esoteric stuff, but we didn't use it in earnest because the other could counter the high kicks or fancy spins, and all the cool looking stances really just prevent you from moving out of them or allow you to be pushed off balance far too easily.
In that spirit, we attempted to watch Longstreet: The Way of the Intercepting Fist (YouTube) - the entire pilot is in 17 separate videos, and the wait and disconnect between the different scenes drove Justin nuts. No worries, I have it on an old VHS tape, along with a couple of Bruce Lee flicks and a Green Hornet episode or two. Unfortunately, the VCR is uncooperative, so that didn't pan out. Cool thing about Longstreet is that it's the closest thing Bruce has to an instructional video - the lines he gives regarding training and fighting are straight out of his own book, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
.We were able do the first section of 18 Buddha Hands Qigong
during our warm up. Unlike some of the more full-routine, flowing forms of Qigong, 18 Buddha Hands is composed of 18 sections, with one to three exercises in each section and a standing pose between sections. Each exercise is repeated 8 times, so, while they each have a flow to them, it is repeated, and fairly compartmentalized. We taught Rachel how to do the first section. Further work will be difficult - I didn't find the book in my searching today, and the video will be subject to the cantankerous VCR. We worked a bit on Justin's Hung Gar Kung Fu
dvd - going through their warm up (partially; the deep stretches will need to be worked up to), the breathing exercises, some stances, a basic block, and a couple punches. We stopped the video to work with the arm shield and strengthen our punches. It took a few tries to get the feel of the standing stance, and it was pretty funny - once you hit it right, you felt glued to the floor. While this is one of the things Bruce Lee railed against with his theory on footwork, it demonstrated that this was exactly the right style to mine for Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender show. Sifu Rafael has one of the better demonstrations of Hung Gar I was able to find on YouTube.This evening Rachel and I watched the Jet Li film Hero
, just to wrap up the day.And I just realized what time it is - or was, as I'll be changing the clocks - so I'm heading to bed. =)