Kung Fu Quest

[-N-]

what exercises do you guys use to develop these?

We just train the body mechanics whether doing forms, drills, hitting the heavy bag, or sparring.

One that I like on the heavy bag is to do short range body strike. Drop-step sink, spiral, and shake to shock the bag. Make it fly 6 feet and keep bouncing it away when it comes back to hit you. This is good with the cheap 80lb Everlast bags - the ones that people don't like because the sand settles to the outside bottom and makes them too hard.

Adjust the bag to do hip strikes, torso strikes, pectoral strikes, and back strikes.

Kind of like the guy with the tree in this video. But with out the running step. And more sink and spiral.

These vids have been posted around here before, but since this is a Baji thread, I feel they must be included here...



Continued next post...

It's more about the sudden transition from full relaxed to tight and relaxed again than it is about just strength.

I do this on a steel lamp post. If you relax and hit right, the post will ring. I do that with palm strikes too. Relax and almost no arm movement, but sharp sink and spiral. More relaxed makes the hits harder and the post rings louder.

[-N-]

My Sihing and I are the only ones from our teacher to train the short range body striking.

He got sent to become a student of Jiang Hao Quan. A classmate there tried to clinch and throw him. My Sihing used short range body strike to knock the other guy on his ass even though he was outweighed 60lbs.

JHQ looked at my Sihing and quietly shook his head to tell him not to use that skill on his classmate.

[SevenStar]

One that I like on the heavy bag is to do short range body strike. Drop-step sink, spiral, and shake to shock the bag. Make it fly 6 feet and keep bouncing it away when it comes back to hit you. This is good with the cheap 80lb Everlast bags - the ones that people don't like because the sand settles to the outside bottom and makes them too hard.

Adjust the bag to do hip strikes, torso strikes, pectoral strikes, and back strikes.

Kind of like the guy with the tree in this video. But with out the running step. And more sink and spiral.



It's more about the sudden transition from full relaxed to tight and relaxed again than it is about just strength.

I do this on a steel lamp post. If you relax and hit right, the post will ring. I do that with palm strikes too. Relax and almost no arm movement, but sharp sink and spiral. More relaxed makes the hits harder and the post rings louder.

I like those! I've seen that guy before - he's a fighter. was he on the baji episode of kung fu quest? I know I've seen him before somewhere. coincidentally, right before I read this, I watched a bagua guy doing it:

https://youtu.be/naRzUXH0j_I?list=PL...pGrlMxlDHzArOu

[-N-]

I like those! I've seen that guy before - he's a fighter. was he on the baji episode of kung fu quest? I know I've seen him before somewhere. coincidentally, right before I read this, I watched a bagua guy doing it:

https://youtu.be/naRzUXH0j_I?list=PL...pGrlMxlDHzArOu

That's good to do with a partner too.

Sink, rotate, and make explosive impact. Be aware to not just crash straight in or lean off balance.

I've always appreciated Miyamoto Musashi's advice:

"The Body Strike means to approach the enemy through a gap in his guard. The spirit is to strike him with your body. Turn your face a little aside and strike the enemy's breast with your left shoulder thrust out. Approach with the spirit of bouncing the enemy away, striking as strongly as possible in time with your breathing. If you achieve this method of closing with the enemy, you will be able to knock him ten or twenty feet away. It is possible to strike the enemy until he is dead. Train well."

[SevenStar]

yeah, that book is a great read.

[SevenStar]

Lately I've been doing isolated fundamentals with 2 handed Dai Do and with spear to clean up my sinking, spiraling, and shaking.

what are the exercises?

[-N-]

For sword, just the basic cuts and parries.

The context is on the battlefield with multiple enemies trying to stab and cut you with bayonets(or spears). You have a high chance of dieing, so you're just going to take as many with you as you can.

Full body weight cuts. Straight down to the head. Angle down to the neck. Angle down to the body. Angle down to the leg. Any incoming attacks you deflect to the outside, get in, and full body sink and cut down. You have to be able to recover fast whether you connect or miss so you can turn to face any other enemy and cut him down.

The practice is in being aware of the body mechanics details. Sword can deflect on the raise, then cuts down. Arms have to be relaxed when raising and cutting or else you will be too slow. Because you are relaxed you can, and you have to, use waist spiral to generate power to focus into the deflections.

The hands have a 1-2 timing. Main force is the left hand. Right hand catches and controls. Extend the arms. Have a slight draw on the cut instead of just a blunt chop. Sink the body with the cuts. Whatever footwork you use, do it with that sharp drop step feel. If you use the relaxed shaking power, you can feel even the combat weight sword vibrate in your hands.

Don't over muscle the moves and go wide. Bayonet and spear is fast, and you will just cut stabbed while trying to recover.

---

For spear, do clockwise circles, counterclockwise circles, and thrusts.

But same for spear, the circles are generated with relaxed body spirals, and not isolated to the arms. Arms have an alternating 1-2 up down timing. Coordinated with waist turning, and thrust, the spear point moves in a spiral.

Small spirals to intercept any attack/riposte. Because you are relaxed, you can feel your opponent's force through your spear when you connect and can press in with a small motion to deflect or disarm his weapon. Sink, spiral, and step in when you press. Small spiral lets your point stay on target while you send his weapon wide and off the line, so you just continue in to cut his hands and stab him.

Bigger spirals can intercept for longer weapons or sweep out the legs. Same basic mechanics with step, sink, and turn to generate power. Practice while walking so you can generate power with footwork stepping in any direction.