Also, there's more complicated kicking. SD's forms are more like training sequences than artistic forms. It's why some of SD's claims as real shaolin are actually valid, at least in principle, if not truth. There's far more training method in the forms than my cranes. Mine you have to interpret. Yours you just have to break down and practice. Alas, that SD didn't have an extensive crane program. From what I've gathered, original shaolin, older shaolin, was much more like SD's forms than mine, but the training mehtods were more like mine, less like yours.
Then again, I dont think it would have had as much subtlety or qi gong in the cirriculum in SD.
Can't have your cake and eat it too.
It's like 2 different methods of learning the same thing, with different understanding of hte material because of the routes.
Personally, I like my current teacher's method much better. But not everyone learns the same way.
edit: Oh, also, now that I think of it. You know the "crane circles" in 1st crane? That's a foundational movment. It can be done large and small, standing or kneeling. I do iti all the time. When I started, it was almost all that I did for 3-4 weeks, seriously. Not emphasised in SD. It should be, though. It's cool to see a crane master in motion. His arms move like water, they're so loose and relaxed. Even more so than tai chi, I think. If you did SD's forms as slowly and fluidly as you liked, or were able, it would be more accurate, according to my teacherr. And there aren't really any "breaks". The arm-breaks are more like slap blocks for stepping in and past your opponent, or for shoulder control. Another crane technique to set up for qinna---and there's tons of qinna in crane.
It's also thefoundational blocking method in Okinawan karate.
To practice this, we do a blend of push hands and chi sao, whcih he calls push-arms. It's forearm contact push=hands. I think they do it in Chen tai chi. It's not techniqcally crane, I don't think, but my teacher's variation of it is fantastic. It applies to real-fighting. You use two hands and must keep them up, but not as close as chi sau. And it's not as slow or "sensitivity" oriented as push-hands. It's about fluidity and circularity, and moving to the outside ASAP or joint locking. If it's indeed Chen drill, I'd like to know. So if any of you know, tell me. My teacher doesn't know for sure where his father got that drill. We don't do tai chi. That's what our qi gong's for.
Our push-arms is very precise in it's purpose. You move to the outside ASAP and clear the hands. There aren't pushing and pulling tehcniques. It's just movign the arms aside with "break" type motions and such.
Rarely dod I feel useful in these internet converstations. I guess Ipicked the right time to show up here, lol.
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Originally Posted by ninthdrunk
looks much different than yours nowadays, but only because that's my focus, you know? You can't really be taught softness....you just have to practice. Think of a crane, and how it might imitate a human, rather than vice versa, lol.
