"MA stops you from saving yourself..."

[Andy_S]

...you know too much, you've got too many choices."

Some sage words here from Peter Consterdine on adrenal dump and its effect on brain blood-supply shutdown. Also, some advice on NLP for bag training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N1PX1lu ... re=channel

[Steve Rowe]

Pete's a good experienced guy. I think there is only a technical 'log jam' if you're not principle based. Techniques arise from principles and the more you apply the principles in various ways your natural skill in movement improves. Limit it to just a few techniques and you are still technique based and looking for a specific move instead of letting your skilled inner animal loose free of any restrictions.

[Andy_S]

SNIP
letting your skilled inner animal loose free of any restrictions
SNIP

Rather a dodgy strategy there.... you can be arrested for exposure in most jurisdictions, y'know.

One thing Consterdine neglects to mention is that the freeze may, in our very primal past have been a legitimate reaction: Predators eyes often catch movement, not stillness. Sadly, though, we were not so much in danger of being eaten these days, so this reactioin would be suicidal if faced with - say - an out of control vehicle.

The other great primal reaction - ie losing bowel control - also was not a bad move in Neanderthal days, as a hungry saber tooth might have been put off by that unexpected bouquet. Not sure whether a lumpy seat in one's trous will deter a violent chav, though.

[tsurugi]

I've had the privelige of training with Peter quite a few times (he's a good friend of my first instructor) and Highly recommend any UK people who haven't checked out one of his seminars / BCA sessions to do so. I've held one of those pads for him for his "powerstrikesTM" and he can hit phenominally hard, relaxed, from almost no distance.

Here's an interview with him that goes into detail on his background and methods - and has some pictures of what kind of shape he's in under that baggy sweatshirt - not bad for a sixty year old.

http://www.theshotokanway.com/peterconsterdineinterview.html

When I learned his double hip power delivery he told me Kimura developed it from xing yi and that's actually what led me to the IMA. He mentions Xingyi and Chinese MA mechanics in the interview.

[dtactics]

Peter's 110% correct. Very good stuff.

Is this http://www.ameibo.com/special-interest/ ... e-seminar/ the seminar?

[Andy_S]

Tsurugi:

Good interivew, thanks for that.

Consterdine's double hip strike comes from HsingI? That's odd:
My (very limited) understanding of HsingI is that it is a vertical power system: Power comes from the step and the articulation of the spine and ribs, I have never seen a lot of horizontal hip or waist rotation.

OTOH, Chen's hidden hand punch, is more horizontal power and, AFAIK, identical to Consterdine's shot - albeit the rear heel does not rise, and does not kick back against the floor. Instead:
(1)The rear foot twists, thereby spiralling the power up through the leg and into the hip:
(2) The weight shifts across to the weighted leg, then the axle (the spine) turns and the fist is propelled out.

Some call Taiji" "boxing on one leg" though Consterdine (or Kimura's?) analogy of moving from a central vertical pivot point (a la a revolving door) to achieve horizontal power, to a single vertical pivot point (a la a normal door hinge) by shifintg across to one leg to achieve same, is a better and clearer one.

....though FWIW, in the last year, we have been taught a different way to do the hidden hand punch:
(1) You shift weight from right to left (using the floor as the base to 'kick back,' or more correctly, spiral back against)
(2) Once the weight has fully shifted, the dantien rotates in a vertical/forward motion (rather than a horizontal roll as previously), sending a wave of ooomph up the spine.

This approach marries horizontal with vertical power, but is very complicated to get right, especially connecting the two forces into one movement, and getting that short "snap" in the dantien roll. At least, such is my experience.

[tsurugi]

Andy -

Yeah that last chen punch method you describe sounds more like Peter's method - he mentions in the interview that kicking the back foot against the floor as something Kimura specifically talked about.

The xingyi reference was just something he said once - it intrigued me as I'd never heard of xingyi at the time and it caused me to look into it further. When I had done, I took him to mean the shift into the front leg in the stepping beng chuan / the stepping strikes in chicken etc.
agree that this front leg pivot is only one aspect of what's going on in those techniques but that fits what he said "Kimura developed it from some ideas he got from xingyi".

it's just nice to see a respected reality based MAtist mention CIMA positively.

[mrtoes]

Cool. He goes into more detail about the hip movement here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smzVwgnhq3E

Andy, I can't comment in great detail about the mechanics, but the way I'm taught hsing i there is strong horizontal rotation of the hips, particularly with beng chuan, and even when it gets mixed with overt vertical movements such as those in snake and even pichuan. My teacher is pretty big on getting the hips driving the movement. My understanding is too shallow to really comment on how it correlates with Peter's training, but I will say that with a previous teacher I was taught to do a cross (beng chuan) by emptying the forward hip joint (left if doing a right cross), and closing into that hip as the right side comes forward. Which doesn't sound a million miles away from what Peter was talking about. As you probably know, the back leg usually follows up with beng chuan and that can add a bit of extra zing as well. Peter also mentions that, as opposed to leaving the back leg behind as he says is usual with traditional karate.

Cheers,

Matthew.