Here’s a little exercise you might like to try. It will give you a sense of what Kung Fu is really about and, at the same time, has the added bonus that you get to hit someone.
This exercise/technique derives from Sifu Adam Hsu. Hsu Sifu is, in some ways, the most optimistic Kung Fu instructor on the planet. You might not think this if you are working with him, because he is a completely honest teacher; and if you believe Kung Fu is an easily mastered activity, he will make you weep with its merciless requirements.
Nonetheless Hsu believes, bless him, that people can learn Kung Fu. No, not the Kung Fu everybody can pick up, but the real stuff. Bathed in the glow of this belief he once went so far as to write his “Three Mirrors” article (reprinted in our Lone Sword book). The theory behind this experiment was really simple: here are three little patterns. Practice them and see if you’ve got Kung Fu.
When, in the blush of fascination, I initially read this article I thought, “Oh, now you’ve done it.” I realized that few indeed would actually try the experiment but, among those who did, every one of them would ignore the fine technical points and consequently award themselves an “A”. This self-graded test would unleash yet another flood of Kung Fu players convinced that the spirit of Bruce Lee had found an earthly habitat. The fact that the patterns were beautifully revealing and sadistically truth-telling would escape almost everyone. I did have one of my own brave advanced students decide to attempt teaching the three patterns in our Saturday class. I think it took him three months to get through the first two, averaging about five moves apiece. This despite the fact that some of my students are pretty talented.
Formal Version
So, in the same spirit of giving, I offer just one exercise from the Praying Mantis Style here. It will be easy to explain and, if done just wrong enough, easy to perform.
Step 1: From a right foot forward casual stance, the right hand smothers inward and down.
Step 2: The left hand smothers inward and down.
Step 3: Both hands drive forward with double willow leaves (or flat palms) to, say, the height of the clavicles. Simultaneously step forward with the left foot into, preferably, a Tiger stance (wide kneel).
That’s it. Try it in the air a few times. That would be the formal practice pattern. Wait until you have to apply it—this alone a great lesson in the relation of form version to practical version.
This sequence has a wonderful clean syncopated quality to it and that—as you will see—just underscores the problem…
Two Person Version
It’s all really pretty easy if you have a modicum of skill. But, as I indicated earlier, I’m going to ask you to do it the Kung Fu way, not the intrinsically easy way. Otherwise you will do it just like that, parry once, parry twice and hit. 1. 2. 3.
1.Your partner throws a left right combination. Parry the first punch with your right inward smother.
2.He throws the right punch which you parry with the left smother.
3. After depressing both hands step forward and drive in with the double strike to his body.
Here’s The Trouble: the right hand must not wait for the left one at any time. Once the right hand starts to move it must transform from parry to strike without a moment’s hesitation. That means the left hand action is inserted between the two right hand actions. And then, just to add a little challenge, the left parry can only occur when your partner throws that right #2 punch. Nonetheless the right hand must continue uninterrupted despite any off-timing with punch #2.
In some ways it is actually easier with a partner: here’s a real punch, deal with it! Going back to Single Practice you must retain the timing even without a partner and not sink back into the 1-2-3 pattern where the attention alternates and the hands hesitate. True Kung Fu forms, which few indeed practice today, require capturing the feel of the partner and creating a generic method of practicing even when you are alone. You must play the move, single or partnered, with that authenticity of constantly and consciously controlling both hands with cascading rather than choppy timing.
I won’t go into why this is the correct way to practice a move, even if it would be a hundred times easier with just the old 1-2-3. If you attempt the application you will understand. If you find it very easy, regardless of your natural coordination, you probably haven’t done it yet.
But let me tell you this: Kung Fu is about management of the limbs, indeed the entire body. If you even feel this move you will note an interesting thing: correctly performed it is void of those locking and releasing actions to which so many martial artists addict themselves. There is a definite convergence here but it is more musical than physical. And just as a bonus the essence of Mantis as a style is also demonstrated in its essential concern with limb management even beyond most other Kung Fu methods.
Believe it or not, it could have been worse. If you’ve actually tried it, you may think not. But read Adam Hsu’s Three Mirrors for the graduate level course.
TWM
