Golden Leopard and GM Sin The', the "live" show...
Well, I had my first session with GM Sin The' as he taught Atlanta the Golden Leopard (1st road) last night.
Although I had mellowed out some since I opened my can of worms, I watched him intensively for various reasons (critically, IMO). My Longfist teacher had impressed upon me the importance of structure in weight transitions, and the paramount importance of footwork, etc....and it improved me by leagues and miles. It was something I'd never gotten much of in SD, and hadn't seen in some people. I suppose I wanted to verify that that part of training....so integral to good MA and stances, in my opinion....was there at teh source. So I spent the entire 2 hours looking at GM Sin The's footwork to see if it was, indeed, what I had seen in "authentic" Shaolin Chuan classes, whihc I had from a Chinese dude who was about GM The's age.
Well, it was. GM Sin The' has superb footwork. Better than my Longfist teacher, in point of fact. Although I had major ethical/philosophical disagreements with GM Sin The' on the issue of expanding human lifespans, and genetic engineering (something that the Demosthenian in me desperately prodded me to interrupt and say....well, think about this keemosabee:D, yet failed to do b/c it wasn't a forum for argument and debate ), his MA are excellent, even at his age (I have a grandfather, who at 70 looks like he's on the brink of death---and GM Sin looks like he's in his 50's:eek: .......so maybe there is something to what he's saying....):D . I think we'd have an interesting chat on the issue of genetics, western medicine, and writing. I'm diametrically opposed to his takes on every one of those issues.....:D .....but it would be fun. I love to argue with people, b/c it's actually conversation with a purpose, ya know?
Anyways, I don't remember much of the form (although it has much of the same motions as short forms, tigers, spinning clears of china hands, and WhiteMSTPeach...just 10X faster)...so it won't be hard to piece together later on.
The man is definately for real.
I think the coolest part of the weekend, however, was when one of the instructors of my instructors showed up to learn the form (from Phoenix) and helped teach our brown belt class. He gave me great pointers on tumbling.
And then.........he fought out of a broken leg stance. We've been talking about that stance lately on this forum. Well, this dude could fight out of it. If you kicked him, he'd pop the knee with a palm heel (really friggin hard) and stop the attack like a kneetrap. A roundhouse? Again, trapped at the knee, then a series of leg/ankle locks on a takedown (impressive groundfighting in CMA).....and it has mobility in the form of rolling. Flip that back ankle, so the bottom of hte foot pulls in, and you can roll around. It was really friggin' cool, and.....birdlike.
Then, it was his choice to practice chin-na. I've always thought my chin-na was good, and it prepped me for defense.
I found out I was wrong. He would wrench our joints and muscles to the point of pain where we normally tap out. Then he said: "Okay, now we can start. This is how the attack will be presented in reality." Well, I couldn't do the basics with that kind of pressure. Surprise....surprise....and I usually apply chin-na harder than others. The master of my school does chin-na this way, but few others do. Then he showed us the nuances of motion and body mechanics that make slipping out of holds so effortless and fluid. It was a real mind job.
Well, he showed our class how to do them properly when applied realistically (how I'll train them from now on, even with newbs)....and how to control for hte sake of retribution.....:D .....(ahhh....sweet retribution...one of the things I focus on in chin-na...keeping the holds intact for that sake).
Holy ****....I learned a lot this weekend that totally changed my view on practice, application, and movment.......and SD in general. And that strange broken leg stance......wow, you gotta love it.