Technical Questions 3
Didn't realise quite how big the Technical Questions page 2 had become until I had to do a hard copy ! Here's page 3. Feel free to E-mail me if you need any more detail.
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Question : Stuart Mitchinson (Warrior Escrima) : 27/01/02
Dear Doug, 1171 on the site counter ?Gets better all the time!Anyway,two
more questions for you :-
1.Recently I attended the class and did some knife work with Steve who did
very well considering knife work is new to him.I did notice that his stance
became very deep and his feet stamped into the position whilst defending.This
is contrary to the 'natural movement'ways that you teach.How can this be
explained?
2. At a recent class a member passed out during Qi Gong exercises.The others
in the class, including yourself immediately rushed to their aid.At the
time of the incident we were (for want of a better term for a novice) controlling
energies so where did that energy go? <I will understand if you don't
wish to print this one Doug>
Background To Question :
Stuart was kind enough to come over to discuss various parts of his martial arts knowledge and worked with Steve on various items. Steve did do well within the knife work but did go "heavy" and so not quite as mobile as usual. The qigong work that we were doing was the 3 circle qigong as recommended by Erle Montaigue when the student passed out.
Answer
Dear Mitch, thanks for the E-mail and the 'phone call to check if I was OK. Thankfully the answer is yes but it's really nice of you to be concerned. Like I said when we spoke, there's been a few extra things to be done this last week that have taken me time to get sorted. I started these just after we spoke (Weds) as I thought they were fairly straight forward but have only just finished (Sunday) ! Maybe they weren't as easy as I thought !
1.Knife Work with Steve
Really glad you found that Steve did OK with defending against the knife work. He did well and must be happy that he didn't get stuck or slashed.
Very perceptive about the stance lengthening and deepening (which was what me and Ruth were discussing whilst we watched you both working). No, I don't see this as being the "natural" way but this "heaviness" is part of Steve and his "way" of doing the system at this time (the other one that he has is a slight reliance on strength rather than what might be called "pure" Peaceful Fight). We are all at different stages within the system and came to it from different backgrounds, so will all do it slightly differently. The lower stance might come a bit from his Escrima training but I know the foot movement would be quicker in that system. Most probably it was an unconscious response to how you were attacking. Steve is still working on not using his strength as his only winning strategy but I think reverted a bit during your training ! We are all still learning and we all do moves that can be improved. For the work that you were doing, Steve's decision (conscious or otherwise) was that this deepening strategy was the right one to use. The fact he didn't get cut backs him up that this was the right thing to do. There might be better strategies but at least his strategy worked ! Deepening / dropping the stance is not what I would have instructed but it is part of Steve's "way" at the moment (and so it was OK). Might seem illogical to have everyone "doing their own thing" during practise of a martial art but you have to look at how this system builds up. It's better that, at this time, Steve can defend himself by whatever means his body does rather than trying to shoehorn himself into emulating someone else (eg me). We might all look at the situation from the outside and see that there are ways to improve but it's not worth throwing the baby out with the bath water. Better to slowly modify your own personal system in those areas that need improvement. Once any student feels that they cannot improve themselves (or do not wish to put the time in to enable a valuable change) within the system then it is time for them to look elsewhere for inspiration. It'll be the same with yourself. With all your training / experience it would be ludicrous to throw that away just because you are training at Peaceful Fight. Your knowledge is part of you (and works extremely well I might add !). Hopefully during our training together you might find some "bits" of Peaceful Fight which add to your own arts and so, over time, you might see the value of change (or staying constant) in some areas. The same will happen with me with whatever ideas etc you bring to the party. We both get the option to change / transform or not. Either of these decisions (ie whether there is value in changing or not changing your art / ideas ) add to our own understanding of what makes us "tick". As such, both have value and are worth pursuing. Whatever you develop will still be you and you'll look nothing like me (a small mercy I'm sure you'll agree) but overall your art / life will be improved (even if you choose to change nothing). We will inevitably come to a point when you are no longer getting anything from the art / training / discussions but hopefully this will be a long time in the future. However when this does arrive (and it will come as part of the natural order) that will be the time for us to go our separate ways and to leave as friends.
Your question brought me onto another thing that I thought I'd write down to try to give more details of the system. The issue was that is it what is learned from any practise that is important. Sometimes this learning is seeing what not to do as much as what we should do ! (There's also the added one about how we would like to look like when we are doing it but that's just vanity talking !). Only by recognising within ourselves where we can be improved can we maximise our chances in a real situation (or in life in general). This comes down to why we are training in the first place.
For me, the reason we train every week is to learn and not just to win. Winning is a necessity in a "real" situation but we train so that when that "real" situation comes, we are as ready as we can be. Winning should be a consequence of the learning that week to week we achieve. By focussing solely on winning during training, most of the subconscious brain work (eg feedback, naturalness, qi control etc) which we work on is shut down and so any training we do to improve ourselves is stifled. In some ways, by Steve opting to train in fast time, continuous combat knife work, it's like trying to run before being able to walk. By this, I mean that it is not possible to check feedback or validity of a move (ie was it the "right one") etc at this speed until the brain has the links "in place" to comprehend what is going on. It was a test for Steve but did not really progress you (as a new student) nor Steve in self-understanding. Steve was not getting any feedback from his body that he was in a deep, rather slow stance and so failed to self-correct himself into an improved, more natural state. Wrong speed, wrong time.
However, this does give me a chance to explain why the slow speed work is so important. This slow work builds the links so the whole body system works together to, amongst other things, be totally within the conflict, with mind / body / spirit undivided and so having single purpose. Although on the surface a very simple system (only one move!) building these links is a very complex process. It has to be done slowly and with contemplation (neither of which are possible during fast, continuous knife (or hand) work). Slow movement "stretches" the difficulty in getting the links in place ie by needing to maintain them for longer and so they are stronger. This strength means that they can deal with the rigours / shock of having to be speeded up. If the links are soft / weak (ie are not trained properly) they just dissipate when they are speeded up (and so all the training is for nothing and you have not improved your chances of "winning" in a real situation). Bit like doing the wrong kind of weight training. Training to increase bulk does not necessarily mean that you will have strength and vice versa.
Once the links are in place and are strong, then that it is time to speed
things up and to make training more like a "real" fight. Students
(including Steve) generally want to speed things up to see if they have
"got it yet" but in doing so lose the internal links. They might
think that their training has worked because maybe they "won"
during the "play" confrontation of sparring. However, during the
melee they might have missed their personal "Eureka" moment when
all the connections clicked into place (and then rapidly clicked back out
of place as it was passed without contemplation). Every student (including
myself) should have these eureka moments intermittently as things fall into
place and the World becomes clearer and its workings more obvious. This
is a bit of looking down on the Tao and seeing the river. I think the exercises
we do get us to these moments quicker by initially being slower !
Oh, another point is that when students are seeing whether they have "got
it" or not, miss the point that if they have truly "got it"
it's too dangerous to use anyway (especially just to prove a point during
sparing / training).
Overall, Steve's come a long way during his training and improves every week. If he is any form of confrontation, I'm sure he will walk away from it. However, the system is bigger than just being able to fight. To progress into the healing realm and truly be able to consider the Tao, the internal links need to be strengthened and understood. Don't think the knife helped you to "learn stuff" nor strengthen Steve's links. All students (again, me included) are there to both learn and teach each other. Maybe the continuous work ended up as a bit of "dead time" in the lesson but at least it's given me a chance to explain more about how the training works. That said though, I could have gone for the one line answer which was " As such, I wouldn't teach it this way as I think there are better ways of moving which are less restrictive whilst still dealing with the knife" ! Hopefully the extra bits were worthwhile !
So, to the second question.
Thanks for the offer of not printing the question and considering that I might be embarrassed about it. However, it's important that this type of thing is more widely publicised. It's also important that if a person asks me a question, that it is on the site for all to see without being excessively vetted. I've got nothing to hide so will answer any question as honestly as I can (although never in less than a page of text !).
Of all the things that I was concerned about relating to student safety within Peaceful Fight, qigong was the lowest on the list ! However, this "passing out" shows how powerful the forces are which are used within these exercises and why they have to be respected. Obviously, a student passing out is not something that I'm hoping to repeat ! The source of the problem was most likely dropping of the Kidney 1 point hard onto the floor before the qi flow was ready. This dropping the foot blocks the flow of qi that is then "dammed" behind the foot. Eventually it breaks through, rapidly surges up to the head and causes fainting / fits (just like a yang knockout). The incident was worrying for me when it happened as we have done this exercise a number of times with no problems. However, this probably reflects improvements in the student performing the exercise. The good news is that, since the incident, the student has said that they feel more alive than ever before ! There was always a bit of yang deficiency / blockage the student so it might be that the surge has equilibrated the system. However, even if this is true, its not a balancing system which I will be advocating ! This type of problem is potentially dangerous and I'm glad I read those sections of Erle Montague's work about getting this cleared (using GB21) and energy rebalancing ! Without being able to apply the knowledge of these remedies, the longer-term outcome could have potentially been less good. Erle has a number of very good articles on his Q+A pages that describe the problem / remedy in much greater detail than my experience so it might be worth looking at his site for more details. I'm indebted to him (again) for being prepared to put this type of information on the site for novices like me to access (and so ultimately allowing me to sort out a problem which could have been more serious without his instruction).
The mind state which is used within Qigong is very important (along with the psychophysical Song state) in feeling the flow / development of the body energies. Without these states being present, the body just gets on with moving the qi around as it sees fit. Thankfully, when the incident happened, we were in the process of closing the gates (ie laogong point on dantien) so the energy was "almost home" anyway. As a consequence, it just went back into its natural cycle without us noticing too much. Our concern for the student changed our mind state and the energy we had just sort of went "OK, leave me to it". It would have been more of a problem if we had come out of our qigong earlier (eg during the building / moving phase). This does happen sometimes, for example, if you have been doing the qigong for some minutes and then someone startles you by walking in unexpectedly. This is an awful feeling (especially when your day to day state is a long way from this qigong state). Difficult to explain the feeling but it's a really ragged and unpleasant feeling, bit like a fight or flight feeling when you are intensely afraid. Hope it never happens to you. Think the feeling comes because you've been brought back to your normal self too quickly and there's a moment of confusion / panic as the qi races about trying to find where to go / flow. Totally ruins any practise and you'll feel agitated for a while afterwards until you get everything flowing correctly again. Trouble is, even if you go back to the qigong, you know it's not quite the same and so it takes a while for your system to settle down (bit like being interrupted during sex when things are going well. You can start again but the moment has gone!). All the best Doug