A Gentle Hare

行礼文靜如處女，開拳一動如脫兔

As gentle and quiet as a virgin when one salutes, like a fleeing hare when opening the fists* as soon as one moves.

One shall never be seen as a threat outside fighting.

Overload

铁杵成针

To grind an iron bar down to a fine needle

集腋成裘

Many a little makes a mickle (many hairs make a fur coat)

The use of weights in old practices is often a misunderstood issue. Indeed, it is often considered as either good or bad. Old practices were all about method, which means most of the time neither a total inclusion, nor exclusion, of any exercise. It was a question of opportunity, so of when, how and why. The first question to be answered was why one would use weight in training, then would come the when was it opportune and how to train with them. Since training was primarily customised for children and teenagers, whose body would transform very quickly, the opportunity to use weights in training would come very fast. Hence, as far as teenagers were concerned, weights were almost from the beginning a part of their training. Unfortunately, going from children professionally trained to leisurely adult changes totally the equation. Therefore, it may be interesting to describe how adults shall face the weight issue.

Shape, Vapours and Spirit

布形候氣，與神俱往

Deploying the body and awaiting the arrival of vapours, entirely bound for the spirit

布 to spread, to deploy, to disseminate, to dispose, to arrange, cotton cloth

形 form, shape, body

候 to await, to attend, to wait upon, to inquire after, to serve (by extension, in 伺候)

氣 vapours

與 used to introduce 神 the recipient of the action, with, to follow, to assist

神 spirit

俱 all, entirely, without exception

往 in the direction of, towards, bound for, to go

From a basic understanding, such statement can be expanded or modified to decipher even more out of it.

Twists and Locks

無力優力

Without force is the better force

直而不直，曲而不曲

Straight but not straight, curved but not curved

三節九段，三弓九曲

The three parts and the nine sections, the three arches and the nine curves

Straightness with a body as lax as possible is just the first step of training. Indeed, as it has been described in the previous post, one has to change his/her body to make it supple enough to be able to work with fascia elasticity instead of muscle contraction. Once the body is transformed enough, one can go a step further and learn how to tense it. If intent and using the cross and the six directions principles has also been described before, the ultimate roundness through the locks is supposed to tense the body automatically. Still, one shall not put the cart before the horse, enough flexibility has to be achieved to be able to contemplate the locks trainings, otherwise not only it will not work, but it will also end up harming one's body. To achieve the locks, one has first to go from straightness to roundness, working on twist and the six directions. Then, when enough extra flexibility has been gained, locks will be about using it to tense up through particular angles.

Back to Square One

内外合一，形神兼备

Internal and external combine into one, having both shape and spirit

The body is the container, the spirit the content.

Suppleness is in the Details

二曰左偏臥，頭枕左足尖，左手搬左足跟，右換如之*

Second, on the left side, the head lying on the extremity of the left foot, the left hand pulling the left heel, then doing exactly the same on the right side

Most of the trainings to improve fascia elasticity were originally meant for teenagers, if not very young kids, quite violent and/or intense in order to take the advantage of their very flexible body and influence their growth. Since grown-ups and/or leisure practice cannot reach such intensity without surely harming the body, the issue is how to adapt old trainings and one's objectives in order to still be able to improve elasticity and connectivity.

A Question of Size, a Question of Time

筋道不舒長，欲伸而筋不能伸*

When the fascias channels are constrained and short, one cannot stretch at will

手屈而不伸者，其病在筋**

He whose hands are bent and not extending, its illness is in the fascias

To furthermore understand what is sought for in the search of straightness, and even elasticity more generally, it may be interesting to explain furthermore the first quote, from the Fascias Change Canons, more known as the YìJīn Jīng. Indeed, it contains a few keys to understand what is sought for when working with fascias. As it has been mentioned in a previous post, martial enigmas always hold more than one meaning (hence, the above translation of the first quote was meant to illustrate a former post). Then, from a basic understanding, one can try to expand certain characters.

Heavy and Penetrating

錘槊之勇不可敌

One cannot match the fierceness of the mace and the long spear

Training heavy, fighting light; training long, fighting short.

Acrobatic Die

未学功夫，先学跌打

Before studying skills one shall study acrobatics

One shall keep in mind, as it was reminded in Standing, that old schools used to be for professionals, their usual students were teenager, if not kids, whose body could be transformed very quickly. Hence, the extreme flexibility required of martists described in the quote was something so obvious that the reasons behind it and part of their training methods have been lost in our modern leisurely times.

Training acrobatics was a way to improve one's elasticity as well as reconnect all the fascia lines, allowing more freedom and smoothness in one's moves. It was also a means for the losing battle against ageing and gravity. Nowadays, students being most of the time adults and the heavy stretching exercises often demoted from their status of basics to useless acrobatics, it may be necessary to remind what were some of their former goals and how can we get back some key points in our trainings without having to aim for an acrobatic flexibility.