Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hard and Soft Together

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Hard and Soft Together

    Hi. What's up?

    Last Thursday Sifu taught us the penultimate portion of the White Crane Flaps Wings set in Wahnam Taijiquan, and there was a beautiful pattern named Fierce Dragon Across Stream (ironically the best pictures I could find of it are here) that really caught my attention. It's relatively technical, but then it provides an interesting application of soft and hard force together.

    What other techniques are there that make naturally use of hard and soft force in parallel or consequently? In particular I'm looking for same type of flavor as with this pattern, although other perspectives are very much welcome.

    If you have some interesting experiences with using hard and soft force together, please feel free to share.

    With sincere respect,
    Olli

  • #2
    Iron Wire, Taming Tiger, and Tiger-Crane 108 provide some interesting philosophy and examples for hard and soft force. Each and every pattern in Iron Wire can train Twelve Bridges or Expressions of Internal Force as seen in the following poem.

    Kong, Yow, Bik, Cheit, Fan, Ding, Chuin,
    Tai, Lau, Wan, Chai, Ting "thien khuen."
    Hard, Soft, Press, Straight, Separate, Stable, Inch,
    Lift, Keep, Circulate, Control, Match "the cosmos."

    Finger Fist Double Shine from Iron Wire can train both of these expressions of internal force: Hard Bridge(Kong Kiu) and Soft Bridge(Yow Kiu) together. The Fist Hand moving in consolidated straight movements, and the One Finger Hand moving in flowing and circular movements. Both hands move together as one.

    FingerFistDoubleShine.jpg

    One specific application is Simultaneous Attack and Defense. Wherein you Redirect incoming force (Soft) with one hand, while Striking (Hard) with the other hand. Using different force expressions with the right and the left hand is a difficult skill to train, luckily this is taught in our school.

    OldElephantDropsTusk.jpg

    Old Elephant Drops Tusk from Taming Tiger is a good technique which embodies this skill. The "tusk hand" can be used not only as a forceful deflecting or nullifying block, but as an expression of Soft Bridge. Sensing and Redirecting incoming force using Ting Kiu or Stable Bridge, while the strike moves in swiftly with Cheit Kiu, Straight Bridge, used here with Hard force.

    MatchBridge.jpg

    Match Bridge from Iron Wire can train another expression of simultaneous Kong Kiu and Yow Kiu. This application of Soft and Hard together could be absorbing a lot of incoming force with the stance while controlling and striking with the hands.

    BlackTigerChargesDoor.jpg

    Yet another alternative is one possible application of Black Tiger Charges Door from Tiger-Crane, controlling and taming one of your opponents arms with one tiger claw using with Straight Hard Force through an expression of Bik Kiu or Pressing Force while redirecting an opponents other hand coming in for a strike using an application of Fan Kiu, or Separating Force through an outwards circling tiger claw(before moving in with your own attack.)

    This expression of force can also be trained with Finger Fist Double Shine, Match Bridge, or any other pattern, but if all things are equal I find these two patterns in Iron Wire to be the best for this in my experience so far.

    So many possibilities, and all of them are very simple yet profound.

    With Shaolin Salute,
    Shaolin Wahnam USA

    "Every morning you are born again. What you do today is the most important thing".

    Comment


    • #3
      Hey there, Olli. Since you used a Baguazhang webpage, and as something of a resident Baguazhang enthusiast, I am compelled to respond to your post. David made an excellent contribution from the background of Hung Gar (and let me tell you, he definitely knows how to use Wong Fei Hung's specialty). I'll offer a few words from my understanding of the Baguazhang side of things.

      From one to the other
      As I'm sure you've experienced and chatted with other Wahnam family members, hard and soft force is a quick way to divide tons of different ways of using your force, be it internal or external. In Baguazhang, we particularly enjoy employing internal force because of its many benefits. There are many situations in our Baguazhang Swimming Dragon set where one uses soft force to lead into hard, such as Gold Dragon Spirals Around Pillar (using circular and spiraling footwork derived from our Circle Walking to get to someone's flanks or back), Wind Strikes Brain Gate (perhaps Baguazhang's most famous technique; getting to an opponent's back to strike their unprotected vitals), or the combination of Reading Spring-Autumn Annals by Night transitioning into Green Dragon Charges Face (the Baguazhang counterparts to Immortal Waves Sleeves and Lazily Rolling Up Sleeves in Taijiquan). Another perennial favorite, Green Dragon Shoots Pearl, is quite classic in using soft to dissipate or deflect an opponent's strike or guard before following up with a decisive strike.

      Sifu hits Fred with Green Dragon Returns Head.jpg
      It felt as though Sifu had teleported behind me.

      Returning Heads (and hitting them, too!)
      In these situations, one manifests their soft force and skills (often by dissipating an incoming force or being quite light to deceptively and adroitly get to an opponent's back) followed by a hard strike to injure that opponent. There are a few patterns that use different types of force together, however; in my interpretation of our Baguazhang, these are most easily seen in patterns that use multiple limbs simultaneously. One particular example is Knight Plays With Lion; one can use a threading or circular motion of the leg to deflect an attack against the lower body while simultaneously using piercing force to drive the fingertips into the opponent's eyes, nose, or throat). Cloud Dragon Returns Head is another pattern that synchronizes the palms and legs; one may use hard or soft force in delivering a kick in one direction (or merely using the leg as a balancing rod) while simultaneously thrusting one's fingers seemingly over one's own shoulder. Green Dragon Returns Head (a particularly favorite pattern of mine, I might add) requires an agile step as well as a nearly simultaneous palm strike to whatever may be exposed, be it the opponent's face, chest, ribs, or what-have-you.

      Sifu hits Fred with Dark Dragon Draws Water.jpg
      Just when you think you've got him, Sifu reminds you that he's a grandmaster.

      Looking past the obvious
      Some patterns may not particularly be obvious with their simultaneous use of hard and soft, or whichever division of opposites you choose. Even a pattern from the basic Taijiquan or Shaolin syllabus, such as Black Bear Sinks Hips and Fell Tree With Roots (also seen in our Baguazhang) manifests this by needing a solid, rooted stance (which some folks may call hard force) in addition to subtle positioning and destabilizing the opponent with a simple sinking motion (which some folks would call soft force).

      So what does it look like?

      Unfortunately, I do not have any videos of myself demonstrating Baguazhang techniques, as I don't have any partners with whom to train that art where I currently live. You can see some glimpses of the 2012 Baguazhang Summer Camp, which is a real treasure trove of material. You can even see me get hit in the head a few times (I don't remember if the footage of Jamie body-slamming me into the wooden floor is one of the public videos, haha). Hopefully later this year or next year I can put something together once I conquer difficulties such as living literally a thousand miles away from the nearest Shaolin Wahnam family member and being in medical school where vacation is a long-forgotten dream. Otherwise, I can offer you my performance of the Swimming Dragon set from about a year ago:


      The "kung" of Kung Fu
      It's all well and good to talk about techniques, though no discussion of kung fu is complete without talking about the force that backs up our techniques. Baguazhang force training is very well known: we walk in circles forever and ever. :P Sifu was kind enough to teach us various methods of Baguazhang force training by practicing Circle Walking in various modes and verbally describing others. The modes range from continuously walking in a circle holding the Green Dragon Tests Claw posture (the most well-known mode), walking in an extremely slow fashion ala the Black Tortoise Method (very popular in some branches of Cheng Baguazhang), holding a posture for a period of time before moving on to another posture while walking along a circle (which Sifu mentions exists in other styles, including some branches of Northern Praying Mantis), and walking in a circle while holding a series of different postures (which is very prevalent in Yin Fu, Cheng, and Gao Baguazhang). The various modes of walking and holding the different postures build internal force with the ratio of hard vs soft, flowing vs consolidated, localized vs generalized, and so forth. I was lucky enough to learn both Sifu's method of Baguazhang force training as well as a series of eight postures from my first Baguazhang sifu to develop force. I don't have any video of that, though you can find many examples of people on Youtube walking in circles while holding different postures. I recommend that you stick with the force training exercises you've been directly taught, however, as you'll be safer and derive a better result anyways.

      Always go back to the basics
      Baguazhang force training is a specialized art in Shaolin Wahnam. However, you don't need to look at the specializations to find hard and soft in the same exercise. One Finger Shooting Zen seems to "have it all" in one short set. The triple stretch and exploding force of One Finger Zen itself can be soft and flowing, yet very powerful. The Single Tiger Claw immediately thereafter, in my experience, yields a hard, powerful grip. The fourth section makes for an interesting converse; beginning with a hard, consolidated Big Boss Offers Wine followed by a softer coiling motion of the arm when transitioning to Rolling Thunder Overturns Sky.

      Hope this gives you a little insight into the hard-and-soft, hard-into-soft, soft-into-hard, and other wonders of kung fu!
      I like making silly videos (including kung fu ones!) every so often on YouTube and taking pictures of weird things on Instagram.

      Comment


      • #4
        Very nice replies, folks.

        I would postulate: there is always soft in hard and hard in soft, internal in external and external in internal. As such, any pattern can be hard or soft or both at the same time.
        Sifu Andrew Barnett
        Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

        Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
        Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
        Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

        Comment


        • #5
          Dear David Siheng, Frederick Sisook, and Andrew Sipak,

          Thank you so much for your contributions. I was very delighted to provoke so thoughtful and scholarly initial responses. Really great work guys!

          I only wish I could lure the best out people more often.

          I will get back to this topic once I feel more accomplished and firmly rooted in Kungfu. In the meanwhile, I would like to ask the following classic question in terms of this topic:

          What happens when an unstoppable force (soft) meets an immovable object (hard)?

          Apparently there is an ancient Chinese philosophical parable illuminating the very same concept:

          An example of this paradox in non-western thought can be found in the origin of the Chinese word for contradiction (Chinese: 矛盾; pinyin: máodùn; literally: "Spear-Shield"). This term originates from a story in the 3rd century BC philosophical book Han Feizi. In the story, a man was trying to sell a spear and a shield. When asked how good his spear was, he said that his spear could pierce any shield. Then, when asked how good his shield was, he said that it could defend from all spear attacks. Then one person asked him what would happen if he were to take his spear to strike his shield; the seller could not answer. This led to the idiom of "zìxīang máodùn" (自相矛盾), or "self-contradictory".
          With sincere gratitude,
          Olli

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by understanding View Post
            What happens when an unstoppable force (soft) meets an immovable object (hard)?
            They probably go and drink tea together
            Sifu Andrew Barnett
            Shaolin Wahnam Switzerland - www.shaolin-wahnam.ch

            Flowing Health GmbH www.flowing-health.ch (Facebook: www.facebook.com/sifuandrew)
            Healing Sessions with Sifu Andrew Barnett - in Switzerland and internationally
            Heilbehandlungen mit Sifu Andrew Barnett - in der Schweiz und International

            Comment

            Working...
            X