Shake Your Body

快而不亂，慢而不斷

Fast but not messy, slow but with no break

快則適時，慢在得位*

Quick then timely, slow for gaining position

凡一身之進退動靜，一心為主**

Forwards and backwards, movement or stillness of one's body are all decided by the heart

Speed is a more complex notion in training, and more especially when the organs, the vapours and the mind are combined with body motion. Hence, the opposition between what you do while fighting (the faster the better) and training does not apply for speed. Indeed, while training, normal, fast and slow speed are all applied, each having their own purpose, the skills obtained through each type of speed being all useful while fighting. 

From what used to be called the "Feminine Hands", moving in such a slow motion one move would take half an hour if executed correctly, to the "Frenzied Hits", done in an as fast as possible manner, there was quite a vast array of choices as far as speed was concerned in old practices trainings. And "still trainings", often called "holding the pillars", had to be also considered, as well as issues of making or not a stop (normally to symbolise the moment of contact). Writing about all the different trainings would be quite long, and since this blog is more about explaining the logic, describing the various tendencies and their objectives seems more appropriate. Since this blog is also about internal practices, it seems also necessary to separate the external, how to get the physical body quicker, from the internal, how to react quickly and how speed would influence the organs. This first post is about the body.

Needless to mention once again that training was about learning skills, one would use different speeds in his training for various goals. To make a complicated subject simpler, let us consider that, roughly and mainly, stillness was meant for balance and/or rooting while normal speed would allow to move the body in a relaxed way, those two being the basics. Slowness was meant to train the whole body force and fastness a way to learn to use of fascia elasticity at its best. Still, before even describing the different speeds, one has to explain the reasons behind making or not a stop at the supposed contact, hence the difference between what was before called the supple and the firm boxings, each a part of one's training in internal arts.

Supple and Firm

Training supple or firm was more about one's rhythm than his/her speed, eventhough at the extremes, extreme slowness belongs more to the supple moves and extreme fastness more to the firm ones. 

In the old days, what would be called supple boxing was to execute moves with no apparent stops while firm boxing would have very obvious ones. A simple comparison could be make with Street Dance, the difference between Popping, working more on suppleness, and The Robot, working more on firmness. Hence, supple forms know not apparent stop, insisting on a constant flow made of extension and retraction of the body while firm forms have a stop at the end of the extension and/or retraction.

Such difference aims at giving one's body different capacities. Suppleness forms train one to be in perpetual movement with no break, finding the point where extension automatically transforms into retraction, and vice-versa. Firm forms insist on the capacity to change automatically and swiftly from retraction to extension, and vice-versa. It also gives the opportunity to insist on one or the other state by staying still while trying to extend or retract further, while totally extended, straightened, or totally retracted, rounded.

Furthermore, suppleness and firmness are two different ways to improve the fascias elasticity. A strong similarity exists with a technique to stretch dough which consists in putting it between one's hands and and making circles with it, then suddenly, getting the hands closer and, in a brisk move, extending it straight. Indeed suppleness moves correspond to the first motion while firmness to the second, both working in different ways to improve fascia elasticity.

Finally, in supple forms, speed remains constant and equal between any part of the body while in firm ones, the stepping is paced while the arms or eventually the kicking leg are fast. Hence, supple forms tend to insist on fine skills, like trying to move as if pulling carefully out a thread of silk, while firm ones insist more on skills like 脆 (brittle, crisp, crunchy, neat) where one hits as fast as when a bended hard object suddenly breaks. Two complementary skills indeed, one to hide one's force and one to hide one's moves.

If a lot of styles often chose between supple or firm as a base of their training, mastering speed started for all by just being still, as the oxymoron method dictates.

Stillness First

One can wonder what stillness would have to do with speed. The answer is simple, it is a question of balance and knowing exactly where to go. 

Balance

If unbalanced, one has to correct his/her posture to recover it, which slows down everything. The ancients followed the old logic that one shall first learn to stand before walking, and walk before running, hence "holding the pillars". Being still, especially when standing only on one foot, one would have to take the correct body angles to remain properly balanced and be able to judge if his/her foot and ankle were really in the right position. People trained until they "fixed one's form", which meant they were able to stand in a posture perfectly balanced whenever they took it. Then, feet and ankles perfectly knowing how to place themselves to balance one's body, moves would flow, more unrestrained, hence swifter.

Precision

Precision brings decisiveness, which speeds things up. "Fixing one's form" through postures had not only the advantage to bring balance, but also to determine a fixed starting and ending position, the body used to find the correct angles automatically. Not having to think, the body just reacting purely by reflex, was another way to ultimately improve speed.

Once one knew how to stand, walking could be contemplated, which meant practicing at a normal speed.

Normal Speed, a Basic to Build Upon

Internal practices are all about relaxation and very progressive training. Therefore, the student shall be normally first put in the most relaxed environment, the pressure being added then gradually. Since very slow and very fast bring too much pressure when beginning, one would start to train at a normal pace, the one of a nice stroll, another application of Zhuangzi's 逍遙遊, "Enjoyment in untroubled ease".

Learning new moves, and even more with asymmetric movements, is hard to do without stress. That is why doing them first at one's normal pace allows to find relaxation while exercising.

It is interesting to notice that normal pace has often been confused with a slow pace as far as supple routines are concerned. For old practices slow means really very slowly as it will be described further on. Normal pace is not fast, but it can be a bit faster or slower according to the student needs, one can walk a bit faster or slower, but it is still a normal pace.

Normal speed for firm routines has to be clarified, since the arms or leg kicking have to go faster than the stepping leg(s). As far as stepping is concerned, one does it as if leisurely walking. The arms or the kicking leg move, indeed, faster, but one shan't try to go as fast as possible, it is not the point, relaxation has to remain the first aim all along the process.

Once the motion through normal speed is mastered, one can, then, search for the skills slow and fast motion can bring.

Slow and Fast, Refining Skills for Supple and Firm

It makes things simpler to consider that slow motion is tailored for supple routines, hence the confusion described earlier, while fast for the firm ones. Of course, one can practice supple forms very fast and firm ones very slow, but it is like almost changing the supple into the firm, and vice-versa, thus it is better to first stick to the most simple pattern for a better understanding.

Slow Motion

Once the moves mastered through normal speed, one could try the very slow motion. Normally, this concerns only one move, since it shall take up to half an hour to execute it. Old practices used to have a few special moves to be done this way, their sort of basis of the slow motion (remains of them can be found in some popular moves found in Qigong).

One of the most known skills slow motion can bring is to move as if very slowly and carefully pulling out a thread of silk, a continuous light but existing strength, too strong it breaks, not strong enough, nothing is pulled out. A similar training is sometimes called 藕斷絲連 "The lotus root may break, but its fiber remains joined", a idiom normally used for parting lovers but hijacked back by martists to insist on the internal part of whole body force, which can make one's body parts look disconnected from outside but actually remaining all linked, another hint at fascias.

Indeed, very slow motion is one of the methods given to train one's whole body force by having all and any part of the body move at the same exact speed with the same exact non-force, as light as a feather as it was already mentioned in the previous post. It is also a way to work on deeper tissues, so that a type of motion will be deeply imprinted in every part of the body. 

Lightning Speed

Working on fascias elasticity, one should be able to extend as fast as a released spring or retract as fast as a released elastic, lightning speed being the way to check if fascias or muscles are used. Muscles, indeed, breaks one's motion every time they contract while fascias only make a stop while maintaining their tension. Not too fast, the difference can be not that obvious, but as soon as one is trying to go as fast as possible it becomes clear. 

To describe such process, a few practices used the term 脆 (brittle, crisp, crunchy, neat), comparing the speed needed to something that suddenly breaks. Indeed, if you release a spring or an elastic, it just goes automatically, in an instant, to its relaxed position. Going very fast aims at studying such skill, going from a position to another as if suddenly released, which imposes to be very tense at the end of one's extension or retraction (see The Bow, Cornerstone of Elasticity and following posts to understand tension through relaxation).

As fast as one's body could be, it was just one side of the coin for the internalists, the tip of the iceberg. Indeed for them, a sharp mind and the notion of vitality played a great role in one's speed, greatly improving it, as this will be described in the following post.

*Boxing Method Six No Formula 拳法六不訣, 

**Discourse on Training Vapours 練氣論