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Thank you Sihing Hubert and Maxime for posting this high level teaching.
I read about "Hard and soft" at the same time in Wuxia kung fu novels but thought it was just a poetic idea. My mind's still blown open by the fact that its actually possible.
Thank you Sifu.
Hands clasped,
Ray
"Om"
I pay homage to all the great masters of the past and the present
Thank you for recording and sharing from the car ride with Sigung. I've really been enjoying the thread and would like to take a stab at the hard/soft question.
My first thought was to use hard force with a soft application or vice verse. I'll use Single Tiger against Black Tiger for an example. Hard force, soft application would be filling the forearm with hard internal or external force but using a soft circular application that gently brushes aside and leans on the Black Tiger. Soft force but hard application would be not filling the Single Tiger, but instead whipping it in a soft but fast circle that strikes the punching arm and channeling force only at the point of impact. I realized, though, that while the applications as a whole had both soft and hard aspects, the force being used in both cases was either soft or hard, but not both. As an aside, I certainly don't claim to be a master of these aspects as I tend to err on the side of hard force, hard application, but I'm working on softening it up.
Anyways, over the past couple days, I've been trying to figure out how the force itself can be both hard and soft, and during my practice this morning I think I got a small understanding of it. I'm going to use Golden Dragon Plays with Water as the example, because that's the technique I was experimenting with. I'm assuming with enough skill, it could be done with any technique. I realized that there's two primary ways that I do the Golden Dragon. One is to fill the bridge and use a comparatively hard internal force (and if I'm honest probably some external force, too). While this works for floating, it is more force than necessary for the float. I find it more effective for powering through your opponent's bridge to open him up for an attack. I also found out from direct experience, that if the opponent is moving in as you do this, it's a great way to poke them in the eye (sorry Chris). The other way I do Golden Dragon is much softer. I shoot it out quickly and softly and let the chi flow to and out the fingertips. What I realized while playing around with it this morning is that I could both fill the whole technique, and at the same time, let it flow to and out the fingertips, for both hard and soft force in one technique!
So, at my current level, that's the closest I can get to an example of both hard and soft force at the same time. I would like to thank Sisook Hubert for posing the question because it helped me come to a better understanding of how I use force. I welcome any comments and criticisms on my example, as I am sure there are much higher level manifestations of this principle and many on the forum have much more experience with this than me.
You are very welcome! Thank you for your kind words.
I also learned a lot when re-reading this thread. Although I remember the conversations with Sifu vividly, each time I read them I find things I feel I had never read before!
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