Tiny Dancer

練長使短

Training in length, using short

練高使低

Training high, using low

大動不如小動，小動不如不動，不動之動乃生生不息之動！*

Large motion does not match small gestures, small gestures do not match stillness, moving within stillness brings the never ending motion

磨轉千遭臍不動

The millstone turns a thousand times, its pivot remains still

Fighting with old weapons, i.e before firearms, was all about not giving anything away and using as little energy as possible in order to last as long as possible, hence short movements. One would think that, then, it is pure logic to also train short movements in order to prepare oneself for combat, programming the body to move as it will need to do so in battlefield. If training was only aiming at motion while fighting, it would be so, but it was also a means to improve one's body and its skills (see previous post), a different trend with different objectives and ruling principles**.
Indeed, while fighting was about sparing as much as possible, training was about improving endurance, which is done best by exhaustion and large moves. Fascia lines suppleness was also an issue in training, and flexibility can only be obtained while stretching and twisting the body in all directions, best done through stretched motions. Finally, to keep oneself in perfect balance at all times, ending up on the ground being a situation to avoid at all costs, being able to keep one's balance in the most extreme postures was also a good training. In short, while training, one would stress on long trainings with extreme long moves and high kicks, while fighting would have to be as short as possible, with tiny gestures and no kicks at all. Of course, sometimes, like for advanced whole body power, mental practice and breathing, training and fighting principles would meet.

Training Long and High

Endurance, strength and nimbleness through fascias elasticity and balance were the main aims of such trainings. 

Endurance

Because of the weight they had to carry around (weapons and armor), the time they had to stand still and the energy needed to last during long battles, the elite martist of those times had to be in more than a perfect shape, which is a principle remaining till nowadays in the elite troops of any modern army. Hence, long meant to spend hours training to develop a body extremely enduring. For teenagers, taking advantage of their capacity to quickly recover and in order to direct their growth, exhaustion trainings were the norm. They would be forced to exercise heavily before even starting training, or to train again once they start to fall asleep after an already long training, not be allowed to relax at any time, shelling rice hulls with their fingers to prepare food, having to hold a posture while eating... Even sleeping was done in a way, like sleeping on ropes, to keep them still active. This would put a great pressure on one's organs, which would become extremely resistant, giving the body an extra vitality and a long endurance for heavy duties.

Of course, such training can only be done by supervised teenagers, it would be absolutely not suitable for adults and/or as a hobby.

Strength and Nimbleness

Physical force in internal practices comes from the use of the connective tissues and their lines, and those tissues strength comes from their elasticity. Improving elasticity goes through stretching, hence long moves and high kicks. 

Apart from improving elasticity, long moves and high kicks, by forcing the body to move in all kind of overstretched positions was also a way to have it become nimbler and nimbler.

Kicks were also helpful in other ways. First, to compensate the mobility deficit between the arms and the legs that came once humans started to walk on two limbs instead of four. In other words, make our legs more agile. Furthermore, it was a way to reinforce the whole pelvic area, and especially the perinea. Finally, the pressure created by lifting a leg, both through the extra weight to be supported and the stretching, will fortify the organs, the source of one's vitality, improving general strength. To do so, the higher, the better.

Extreme Balance

Long moves and high kicks make it harder to keep one's balance. An old saying goes "it is already hard to stand on both feet...". Therefore, reversing the saying, if one can stand in perfect balance while kicking high and doing a long move, he/she will be even more perfectly balanced on two. So, lifting up the leg in routines was actually not meant as kicking, and the most important things in such moves were the toes, the ankle of the grounded feet and the pelvic area. In jumping-spinning kicks, the flexibility of waist and the stability while landing were the two main objectives. In some schools, practicing on one foot routines originally done on two is a reminder of the times were high kicks were an essential part of training.

Still, the fighting environment would dictate to reverse the training principles.

Fighting, Short and Low

As enduring, powerful and nimble one would be, it was still wise to keep it short and simple while fighting in order to last longer, expose oneself and endanger one's balance as little as possible.

Saving One's Energy

Quite simple, the less one moves, the less energy one spends. To last longer, one would try to step and hit only when necessary and preferably in a small range gesture. Able to last long while doing long moves and high kicks, one would naturally last even longer when doing short moves.

Reducing Exposure

Big moves and kicking expose more the body, which is not that great, and especially when fighting with blades. Keeping one's limbs close to one's body and moving as little as possible was also seen as a way to reveal as little as possible, moving giving away one's intentions. 

Protecting One's Balance

High kicks training main aim was not kicking, but just to allow the student to be in perfect balance every time he/she would have to step. Perfectly balanced on one leg with the other one up high, just stepping shouldn't be an issue. Jumping and spinning kicks in training were supposed, through the landing phase, to give ways to recover quickly one's balance if stepping on something (like a stone). The only time kicks may have been of use in fighting with weapons would have been at close range, mainly aiming at the shins or the knees.

If generally the way one moved in training and fighting were opposed, the more one's body would be transformed, the more training and fighting principles may have become alike, like for the whole body power. Furthermore, mental practice and breathing were strictly the same whether training or fighting.

Whole Body Power, Mental Practice and Breathing

While body power evolves from long to short motions, training long and high to improve one's spirit and breathing will create the basic process that one has to maintain while fighting.

Whole Body Power

Working on fascia lines, to reach the whole body power was a question of over-stretching the body to reach it, starting from full straightness to roundness (see The Bow, Cornerstone of Elasticity). Once roundness and the locks obtained, one would go to higher whole body force training where the upper arm would stick to the torso, leaving the forearm to do most of the motion. The idea was, the fascia lines connected, to create force by moving the body and/or extending the fascias, but with no arm extension. Such small range moves were quite identical to what was sought while fighting.

Mental

For internal practices, mind training was mainly done by mobilising the organs, starting with the spying thieve technique (as briefly described in Foggy Heart). Long and exhausting trainings were, then, made so that the student would become able to mobilise the organs until he/she would become like almost possessed, 瘋狂 (insane, frenzied, unbridled, frantic), "My skills know neither heart nor thoughts"*** . This state would have to be reproduced while fighting.

Breathing

Long and exhausting trainings and routines were made to improve one's breathing. The aim was to keep a long, deep and uninterrupted breath at all times, and long moves and high kicks were putting a lot of pressure on one's body, especially when trained till exhaustion. Furthermore, the student would be put under pressure while training. Exhausted and under pressure, it was believed that if one could maintain a long deep and uninterrupted breath, it would be able to do the same in the mist of the fight.

Training till almost exhaustion and under pressure is a principle that has been always used for elite troops and is still used nowadays for commandos. Some martial schools still keep it thought it shouldn't be advised for grown-ups too old to be able to recover quickly and/or when practicing as a hobby, an everyday extensive practice in a protected and secluded environment being necessary. Still, without going for exhaustion in a stressed environment, training long and high can remain an interesting method. 

*Skills, Chinese Martial Arts Culture, Wang Guangxi, 功夫, 中國武術文化, 王廣西

**An old logic that is often forgotten nowadays. That is why certain schools within the same style do have a never ending argument whether their moves should be long or short, kicks high or low, not knowing that each actually serve a particular purpose, are complementary opposites not to be classified as right or wrong. 

***無心無想我的功, to be reconciled with 無形無像我的功, "My skills know neither form nor appearance", mentioned in the previous post.