Dan Djurdjevic goes into some excellent detail on one of the fundamental differences between karate and taiji (along with xingyi and bagua) and showcases some of his work in creating hybrid forms using principles from both external Japanese and internal Chinese arts. I love the analysis of movement in this piece. This is good work.
June 15, 2009
That’s Not How We Taught You To Walk
We spend a sizeable amount of time teaching footwork. It’s a big chunk of the curriculum for our novice students. Nevertheless, as soon as they strap on sparring gear, about half of them forget that footwork completely. The other half does the bounce demonstrated in this article.
“How do you build your endurance for sparring?” they ask. My answer is always the same. “Start by walking the way you learned on your first day here.”
May 26, 2009
Taiwanese Swordmaker Creates More Than Just Swords?
I have no doubt that Chen Shih-Tsung makes high-quality weapons, but I have some reservations about some of the details. I’m going to skip over the assertion that all ancient swords were forged from meteoric iron. Let’s assume that the journalist meant that some ancient swords were made from iron that somebody claimed was from a meteor. There are plenty of stories of meteor events in Chinese history, so that’s plausible.
Do I want to address the idea that using meteoric iron for swordmaking is impossible now because “not enough fall as thousands of years ago”? Is it more likely that claiming a hunk of iron ore as meteorite shards is possible to authenticate now? Nah, never mind, that’s not even the part that really has me wondering.
This is the part that stands out:
Grinding a piece of metal on a spinning stone makes it very hot, and heat causes steel to expand; if the bar expands too much it will deform and be useless.
Okay, that’s fine. But also:
Each day the swordsmith needs to rub the sword with a cloth. This generates heat, and the molecular structure of the steel changes when it becomes hot after wiping. Two to three years of wiping every day and the structure of the steel becomes stable. Blue rays start to deflect off the surface. At that time, the sword will never rust again, and further maintenance is no longer needed.
Wait, what? The heat from grinding the bar of steel into the shape of a sword causes it to heat up, so you have to ease off before it gets too hot and deforms. But rubbing the sword with a cloth each day heats it enough to change the molecular structure of the steel? How does that work?
The rubbing works due to a simple chemical principle. “Iron and steel materials rust when they come into contact with the air because the air contains moisture,” Chen explains. “The moisture in the air is absorbed by the metal though pores and then combined with metal crystal, resulting in a chemical change that causes oxidation and rust. To put it another way, iron and steel materials won’t rust if they don’t have pores.”
All I have to go on is Google and some 11th-grade chemistry classes, but I don’t think “pores” have anything to do with iron oxidation. Is the surface of the steel somehow different from the steel underneath, so the moisture has to find an entry point through the pores? This sounds crazy.
The only way to get rid of the pores is to rub the steel until it gets hot, forcing the slight amount of aluminum in it to melt. Since aluminum has a low melting point, it will come to the surface and melt, blocking the pores. It takes years to fully achieve this.
Okay, okay, now we’re on some familiar ground. Aluminum alloys do have a low melting point. Well, low for metals. As low as 620ºC. That’s about of 1150º Fahrenheit.
I don’t care how many years you spend hand-polishing a sword. I don’t care what sort of cloth you use. You aren’t melting aluminum, drawing it out of the steel, and using it to block oxidation. I don’t know what you’re doing, but that’s not it.
With all that said, I’m sure Mr. Chen makes beautiful, valuable weapons. I’m sure that the time and attention that he and his sons put into hand-crafting and polishing ensures that the end results are worth the incredibly high prices they command. I just think the “science” in the explanation is tissue-paper thin and immediately makes all the other claims suspect.
May 20, 2009
LoKF Seminar Registration Is Up
I’ll be hitting Raymond Fogg’s Praying Mantis, Sam Ng’s Choy Lay Fut, Florin Szondi’s Chen Taiji Broadsword, and Elaine Waters’ Push Hands. If you’re planning on attending and you’d like to meet up, drop me an email and we’ll work something out.
May 8, 2009
Finish Strong
Wayne Boozer on cross training and stamina:
I got into a discussion about this very subject with my instructor once. We were actually talking about a “secret” that he let me in on when I was testing for Dan; and I’ll share that same information with you. It’s more important to the testing board to see who finishes strong than who has the best kicks, the highest jumps, and the loudest yell. Pay close attention to the participants of a black belt promotional and recertification test. While everyone starts strong, remember the faces when you get to the end. Who has energy to spare? To me, that’s the sign of an experienced student.
Being able to control your breathing and relax properly is important to efficient use and conservation of your strength and energy, but that energy has to come from somewhere. Why do you think sport fighters do so much roadwork? Cardio isn’t just good for your heart and your waistline. How can you show that you’ve learned everything you’ve been taught if you’re gasping like a fish?
Deadliest Simulator: What We Already Kinda Suspected
I think anybody who’s ever spent any serious time training any sort of martial disciple knew that there was something questionable about a television show that claims to “scientifically” pit warriors from different cultures throughout history against each other. Martial Development breaks down exactly how the vaunted computer simulations really work.
May 6, 2009
One Step Forward
Just because you can’t see the value in a training method doesn’t mean there is no value in it. Wayne Boozer offers some excellent commentary on not just why one-steps are good training, but how you can use them as a launchpad to improve your whole game.
Warm Up Your Kicks
The first tournament of the 11th Annual International Chinese Martial Arts Championship starts in about two weeks in Orlando. In addition to the competition, there’s a nice little lineup of seminars and workshops, though no pricing information for those. Also no word on whether you have to fight the Mouse.
Would You Attempt Self-Surgery, Too?
There’s a good piece on the dangers of makiwara training over at The Uechi-Ryu Journal. Every kind of body-hardening or conditioning training carries some inherent risk. You’re subjecting yourself to practices that are specifically intended to change the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones that make it possible for you to walk across the street, pour a cup of coffee, or pick up your kid.
Are you sure that what you’re doing will be worth the desired effect, including the possible side effects? Is it worth the chance of inducing crippling joint pain down the road if all you get out of it the ability to do a kung fu parlor trick? How many skulls are you planning on cracking with those iron knucks, anyway?
May 4, 2009
Lab Rats
GrahamB over at wusource.org dug up some excellent thoughts on sparring from Tim Cartmell and, not content to just jibba jabba on the internet, put his training to the test, then reviewed the video to see what was working.
This is what we should all be doing, people. It’s not enough to just go to class, practice your forms, and call it a day. If you aren’t testing your training to see if you’re picking up what Sifu is laying down, you can’t be sure that you’ve learned anything at all.
If you can’t apply your stuff against a resisting opponent, it’s not a martial art anymore. You can bet that the men and women who created your forms weren’t just hoping those techniques and principles would work. They were out in the streets, experimenting.
Do your homework.