This thread concerns training at any free period of time that you may have, be it often in seemingly insignificant ways that all add up to a large cumulative amount of time over the years. Last week my sifu suggested that I do the extreme basics of training whenever possible. By that I don’t mean the elaborate fighting form or sat but ng gen sao, but simple things like “gripping” and stances. Ok, let’s assume you’re at the office, with nothing to do. It would be beneficial to train in some way, but how in public and in an enclosed space? Well I find gripping to be quite a useful method in these scenarios as it gives you something to occupy your hands. Gripping is easy enough, but for the benefit of those not in the know, you just have to hold your hands flat out and slowly close them to make fists while using as much imagined resistance as you can resisting your efforts to close your fists. This should be done until you can’t do it anymore really and then left a while to recover. If you do it too much you can get RSI but that’s not usually a problem. A variation of that would be to close only one finger at a time starting with the first finger, which closes with the thumb. When doing it like that I am told to close to ginger fist, which is like the phoenix eye fist except that the pinky-knuckle is protruding instead of the forefinger-knuckle. This fist helps to develop the forearm during chy sao and other training chongs (jongs). Another scenario, standing on a bus or train when commuting. You can easily train your stance, though I would not suggest horse. My basic stance is front foot forward, back foot out 45 degrees, with the knees bent and energy sunk. In this stance you pull the feet together without moving them, the knees/hips/thighs pull in to the centre line. The hips rock forwards and the back bends to a more “C” like shape. In pulling the legs in you can seriously improve your grip and balance and it also helps to make you rooted like a tree. Even if you don’t want to/can’t run through these basic steps at work/on the bus/wherever, you can at least run through the forms in your head. Use your imagination to run through the movements of a form in different circumstances with your “enemy” doing different things or against multiple aggressors, just as you would when actually doing the form (or should anyway). On the subject, you might also want to broaden your horizons by imagining some “enemy” techniques that you are not overly familiar with and think about what defences you have at your disposal. I think that will do for now, this thread was produced at the request of Kinjiro Tsukassa (sorry about spelling, my memory sucks) Anyone else got thoughts or opinions? Rgds Ginger
Thanks for posting this, Ginger Fist; and I look forward to hearing other suggestions, too. (You just added an extra "s" to my name, no problem! )
We've got a set of rarely used (except by me) back stairs at work, and I like to practise techniques on air, go through kata or just do a couple of push ups every time I use them. Hope no-one ever catches me
My sifu says the same thing! I generally run through what I know of my form just before going to bed it's the only time when the house is nice and quiet - also the dog's asleep and for some reason he's afraid of seeing me doing form. But during the day I walk around with one arm in a f*k sao position or just run the praying thrice to the buddha sequence of siu lim tao (Palm Up Arm, Huen Sao, Wu Sau, F*k Sao etc...). I even once found myself doing what I knew of Siu Lim Tao on the dancefloor of a nightclub recently. Guess what, nobody seemed to notice or care. Never thought of Stance Work on public transport though.
Good training tip, I already do this at my work. I have a large empty room that I can close the doors, and no ones the wiser cept me...
