Lunging to Bow and Arrow Stance

I just ran through some of my Hung Gar forms and discovered that In Sup Yin Kuen you shift to bow and arrow stance 60 times, in Fu Hok 55, in Gung Gee 68 and in Warrior Palm 42 times. Warrior Palm has 74 stance changes total, I hadn't thought ahead of time to count the total stance changes in the others.

This high incidence of shifting to that one particular stance shows the importance of that movement in the Hung Gar system. To create a powerful punch or strike, we use the full mass of our bodies, and the muscular strength of our arm, shoulder, latissimus muscles, and our quads and glutes.

Many styles rotate the back foot away from the punch, moving some of the body mass out of the punch, and disconnecting the power of the leg from the power of the strike. In Hung Gar, we root that back heel to the ground and drive forward.

It's obvious to me from the prevalence of that movement in the forms that it is something we are intended to master that one small movement, to do it until it is automatic. So when practicing your Hung Gar forms, root that heel in and drive forward.

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A Kung Fu Parable

The old master walks out onto the modern training floor and sees one of his students practicing one technique from one of his forms over and over again. The student asks the master, "Sifu, will you show me the applications of this technique again, I would like to perfect my understanding as well as my execution of this technique."

The master shows him how the technique should be performed and what its purpose is, then asks the student, "Why are you so intent on perfecting this one technique?"

The student replies, "If I perfect this one technique, I will move on to perfecting the next technique in the form, then the next. Eventually this will enable me to perfect the entire form."

"Why are you so intent on perfecting the entire form?"

"I want my performance on my upcoming black belt test to be flawless so that there will be no doubt in anyone's mind that I deserve the black belt. I want to earn my black belt."

The student repeats the technique a few more times, then asks the master, "Sifu, what was your black belt test like?"

The master smiles and says, "When I trained with my sifu, there were no belt tests, and no belts. I started using belts and tests after I moved to the United States."

The student asks, "Why did you decide to start using belts and tests?"

"I saw that when a student has a goal such as a black belt that he or she must earn at a test, he or she will work very hard to perfect the forms."

"Well, Sifu, why is it so important to perfect the forms."

"Because if one has perfected the form, one has perfected each movement within the form."

The moral of the story is, do not confuse the means with the end. The student saw learning the movements as a means to achieve the end of earning a black belt. The master saw the black belt as a means to achieve the end of motivating students to perfect their performance.

The end should be improvement of the self. The means may include perfection of physical performance of martial arts techniques, or education at a university, or meditation, but one should keep the end in mind.

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Perspective.

I was looking today at some pictures that made my struggles and problems seem so very small. It's all about perspective.

First, General Sherman, the world's largest tree.

Next,

General Sherman from a different perspective.

And finally, General Sherman's home planet, Earth, from a different perspective.

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