by Andy_S on Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:42 am
Ken:
Thanks for posting and nice to see, but I am not desperately impressed: his rear leg seems to be awry in several movements. There are other clips on YouTube of these exercises performed with (to my eye) more orthodoxy to principle and with more authority.
And IME, low and SHORT stances are far more difficult to carry off than are low and LONG stances (as seen in this clip).
Certainly keeping the spine vertical requires awareness, concentration and strength in the lower back, lower abdomen and inner/upper thigh. (And for years I struggled with getting rid of a very slight forward bend at the hips in lower stances.)
But do you emphasize a vertical spine at ALL times? Do you not practice any kind of gather (mingmen back, upper spine bows) and release (mingmen flattens, upper spine unbows)?
Graham:
RE: Hips or dantien?
Very good question. I don't practice these particular exercises, but do a number of similar ones; perhaps someone else with knowledge of these will chime in.
But I would hazard a guess:
At a more intermediate-advanced stage, the idea is to move from the dantien, not the hips. This is where you start to see the pelvis tilt forward and back, sending a wave up the back (vertical); or you see a rotation around the spinal axis (horizontal) rather than a gross movement of the hips.
Hence in (say) the Chen punch, the hips don't rotate; the power comes up the spine after the dantien unrolls. (I know this forum has issues with Chen Xiaowang - as do I - but his fajing is, IMHO, excellent. Compare the mechanics of his "hidden hand punch" to, say, a boxing cross or a karate reverse punch. Plenty of examples of all of them on YouTube, and the slo-mo button is at your command.)
To me, the spinal work was more interesting to see in the clip than was the length/depth of stance that Ken focuses on in his comments.
IMHO and YMMV.
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