While I was still living in Hong Kong, I have started with 300 a day. John Upshaw and I have been exchanging and we decided 3 months ago to increase it to 600 a day – 3oo per leg, and log our sets on Facebook. We promised to do this until July 24. This is when Master Chen will visit Iowa for their workshop. Since then, the likes of Kelvin Ho, Tinh Thai, and Winston Wang have joined. Even my student Simon Yau has jumped in on the action! Every day, I look forward to my brothers giving me the thumbs up next to my “done”.
Aside from some soreness, what has changed? Certainly, popping people with my (standard Cantonese) frame is easier. I still have trouble with heavier people. People have a lot more trouble upsetting me upon the touch, while I don’t feel much. I was able to put a move on my student much more swiftly. My take on it is that when you have the proper flexibility with your Kua, you have one less element to negotiate with. The stretch is engaged when you need it. You don’t need to check to see if you Kua is open before you put on the move, sort to speak. Secondly, you are able to aim with your Kua. At the very least, you can get in more with Kua and look for the elusive spot. I reckon is aiming the Kua at the opponent’s spine. Your Kua is on the opponent at all time no matter how they might evade. And when you are stuck with one, you can use the other.
What is most import gain from this project is that I have a better glimpse that the stretch is inside. Without the Yoga block, there is a high degree of tossing. And the resulting stretch is more like a modern, trendy Yoga (I believe true Yoga are ones practiced by Yogis, not an instructor. Yogis adhere to a very strict diet and a way of life) stretch, one that is more akin to the ability to touch your toes. Fetch Water, on the other hand, promotes the development of cables in your body. This cable stretches much like a tripod stretches: it elongates within a narrow shaft. Without the block, you simply are not creating this shaft. In the recent Hong Kong workshop, the question of turning the waist came up. My body finally has the knowledge to explain the waist and the Kua are treated as separate units. Without a stretched Kua, you can not figure out how to switch to the second Kua without a recoil. There is no recoil if the two cables, the front Kua cable, and the back Kua cable are stretching independently. This stretch is very elastic and non-linear in nature, much like the rubber cords, and can be oriented to the angles you are encountering a push. It engulfs the oncoming push.
With this epiphany, I increased the Fetch Waters to 1200 a day, hoping to further accelerate my progress. Join us here: https://m.facebook.com/groups/485487341567382?view=permalink&id=2075391755910258
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With doing 600 fetch waters per day with the yoga block I have noticed my ability to aim my kuas improve as well. Additionally, I notices my ability to transition, or rotate to the next position will less tossing. I think may be attributed to opening and rotating my kuas. With that my knees are more “on top” of my heels. When pushing with my student Gerry Hopkins, when he applied pressure on my last Sunday, when I aligned my knees on my kuas, I could position myself between his force and the floor underneath me. At times when I placed myself in the middle between him and floor, it pushed him out. Other times, it creates an opening in the middle where I could wedge myself in disconnecting him from the floor and disconnecting him from his lower body. I need to work on “hammering” that wedge and rotating once I have that position to have optimal effect. All of this can happen because of adjusting my kua that aligns my knee on top of the heel.