Liu He Ba Fa

[DMK]

Would anyone care to give information on Liu He Ba Fa.
It training methods

[swmngdragn]

Perhaps I can help you. What in particular are you looking for? :o)

[Graychuan]

My question is...Is the concept of the 6 Harmonies in any way similar to what Wing Chun refers to as the 6 Points being the wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle?


Thanks in advance,

~Cg~

[swmngdragn]

1. Body and Joints Together. The three joints of the body are the spine, the back and the neck. Body and joints together means move from the spine to the back then to the neck.

2. Hands and Joints Together. The three hand joints move from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist.

3. Foot and Joints Together. The three foot joints move from the hip to the knee to the ankle.

4. Hand and Foot

5. Elbow and Knee

6. Shoulder and Hip

All the main joints must start together and stop together in harmony.

[Bob Ashmore]

Swmngdrgn,
This sounds very similar to how I understand internal movement principles in Tai Chi Chuan, which I guess isn't suprising.
Rooted in the feet, controlled by the waist, expressed in the fingers.
It took me forever and required the intervention of an outside discipline before I began to truly understand this type of thing.
In Tai Chi Chuan I am constantly told, "Move from your center", which I didn't really understand. It actually took a belly dancer to show me how to "move from the center" correctly.
OK, so no one has to say, "WTF?" I'll explain that.
One of the ladies in our Saturday morning Tai Chi class is a belly dancer. She had long been telling me that my "hips/kua/waist" were too tight, too rigid, to truly move fluidly.
I have to admit that I used to be quite stiff in that area. She cornered me one day after class (I later found out at my instructors request) and flat out showed me what she meant. She did "half moon" thrusts with her hips and asked me to try to do that.
I flat out could not do it. My hips and waist were too rigid to allow that kind of movement.
She then showed me a series of stretching exercises to work on, which I did because I'd had my eyes opened to how tense that part of my body was.
After several weeks (yep, weeks) I was finally able to start doing the half moon exercises she'd tried to get me to do. Not well, but some.
Shortly after that, and a whole new series of stretching exercises, I suddenly discovered what it really mean to open my kua instead of lifting my leg, to control whole body movement from my waist, to feel the combined energy of waist/kua/hip root in my feet and extend to my fingertips.
Previous to this I was going through the motions, pretty well they tell me, but I wasn't truly doing "internal" movement.
Since that time I've expanded this relaxation principle (who had ever told me to relax before?:p) to all of my body and now I can feel center driven and controlled movement articulate out from the internal movement of my waist and be threaded to my entire body.
I am finally moving "from the center" and not by using external actions. It's a weird and wonderful feeling actually.
All it took was a bit of belly dancing to understand the internals of Tai Chi Chuan.
Sometimes the journey takes an unexpected but productive turn... :D