Hey all. After a recommendation from this very site, I bought some training video CD's to teach me Chinese style stick technique. I've got the video and it's fairly good (although it's hard to tell what some of the techniques are for). My first question would be for anyone who's familiar with the Cudgel (the Chinese Staff). There is a movement in the video which is described as "Envelope the Cudgel". You get a brief explanation on how to do the movement in a "monkey see, monkey do" sort of way, but I can't see what you're trying to achieve by it, you know, what the movement is supposed to do. If anyone could tell me how I'd be using it then that would be great. Secondly, it's modern Shaolin Wushu. The form is supposed to be based on traditional Cudgel movements, but if it had been watered down (as Wushu supposedly is), in what way would it have been done so? The chances are that any dampening wouldn't really affect a form or be relevant this video, but I'd be interested to know what people can tell me on the subject. Thanksyou.
Hehe. I'm sure you all tried. Anysway, I've just gone and bought more videos. One of them's bound to work!
when looking at a video.. try not to imitate it like a monkey see monkey do. Seek to understand the fundamental principle and the reasoning behind each action. Clearly... you have already thought that far (as your question shows). In any case... not all moves done in martial arts actually serve a combative purpose. The move you are talking about is most likely simply a way to practice and engrain the feel and help you build upon your technique. If you could provide a description of what exactly this technique looks like or what you think it is to do.. we might be able to help you more.
Ok. First you drop your body weight by bending both knees. This next bit is hard to explain. Your hands start straight out, a shoulders width apart and make a movement as if they were turning bicycle pedals. This makes a circular-ish motion where the end of the stick on the right side sweeps upward, and sweeps down behind you while the left side if sweeping up, you know, both in vice versa... argh! It doesn't seem to have enough power in it to be of any use, but I've heard that staff parries are light. But I think it might be what you said, an exercise to get you used to using the stick. It does seem a might more natural now (I've practiced a bit since I posted the topic). Thanks for that. On another note, another VCD arrived and this one looks a lot better. There's no Enlgish so I've got to try and see what the guy is doing, but the techniques look a lot better. I think the first one was possibly the very basics, so it didn't seem that great, and they seemed to expect a monkey see monkey do approach rather than teaching you why. With the new one, there's no choice but monkey see, monkey do, but you can tell whether a technique is powerful or not, so I should be able to make something of it.
http://www.solosite.net/gwangungorientals/ Both the videos are available from there. The first one is called: Shaolin Qimei Cudgel 'staff' (english language) It's the basic one. It's got a simple kata which is explained in one language and then repeated, only dubbed over in English. It's got that "Envelope" move I was asking about. I wasn't really THAT enamoured with it, as some moves I found myself thinking "well that's pretty much obvious", and others thinking "why is he doing that? What's he doing?" It's also got a couple of western training video clichés thrown in: "Thankyou for your hardwork and I hope I'll see you in the next series" Watered down for the masses but it's fairly basic and all in English so it's nice to begin with. The other one I got was: Shaolin Thirty Six Movement Staff vcd/dvd This one is entirely in Chinese, but the technique is a lot more interesting. I can't understand a word he's saying but he demonstrates some of the more important techniques slowly, and combined with the "one frame at a time" feature of VCD/DVD, you can follow the movement and work out what he's doing. The first one was an abvious kata and the moves were pretty static and simple, but the second one was a lot more flowing and interesting and what I was looking for in the first place.
