Shake that tree...

[Andy_S]

Doc!

RE: Barking threats:
What did I just say to you about bad puns?!?

RE: Should I be shaking yet?
If you have any sense, yes - like a leaf. I don't care how rooted you are; how many branches your MA school has; or even if you have a heart of oak: This is the end, acorn-dick! I am coming to cut you down to size. So prepare to weep - like a willow. (Etc, etc, et-bloody-cetera)

[ors]

[roger hao]

Im gonna count to tree if you guys don't stop the BS.

[nianfong]

oak noesssss

[grzegorz]

It sound like Andy sees the leaves but not the forest.

[nianfong]

if andy fell in a forest and no one was around to hear, would he make a sound?

[grzegorz]

If Andy and Doc were in the same town I'd suggest Andy make like a tree and leave!

[Joe L.]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that is too many tree jokes. But then again I'm stumped and can't think of any myself..

[grzegorz]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that is too many tree jokes. But then again I'm stumped and can't think of any myself..

Perhaps it's time to turn over a new leaf...

[Joe L.]

This is getting unbeleafable.

[Wanderingdragon]

Jeez... how could you guys have trunkated such a relevent thread.

[Doc Stier]

OK...OK...my bad for introducing bad tree puns into the discussion.


Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
**************************************************
Getting back to the original topic, I'm thinking that the practice of striking a tree trunk to develop martial power, and the shaking affect this has on the leaves at the branch extremities of the tree, might be analogous to the similar expression of vibratory energy transmitted to and released from the upper body extremities...i.e. the human hand or fist. Any thoughts on this from anyone?

[Andy_S]

SNIP
Getting back to the original topic, I'm thinking that the practice of striking a tree trunk to develop martial power, and the shaking affect this has on the leaves at the branch extremities of the tree, might be analogous to the similar expression of vibratory energy transmitted to and released from the upper body extremities...i.e. the human hand or fist. Any thoughts on this from anyone?
SNIP

It is blatantly obvious that if you boot someone in the sack and his body jacknifes forward in reaction, his hair will, indeed, shake. However, this does not require a particularly hard kick, or, indeed, any vibratory skill. As noted before the pun war, bashing a tree and making the leaves shake does not indicate much in the way of power or skill (at least, I don't believe I have exception power or skill and I can do it): it's actually easy and I'd guess that anyone who has had more than a few months basic training can do it.

Trees are a convenient hitting target for those who visit and train in parks. As no particular skill is required to make the leaves shake, people are reading far, far more into this clip than they should do.

In a similar vein:
I had always been impressed by the Dan Docherty-style jump onto the belly clip, but as RobP's boys showed, you don't need secret qigong, just good conditioning. (Though I admit I have not tried it myself....coward and pouffe that I am).*

*Speaking of which...Rob! Is the belly jumpee still alive, or has he blood-shat himself to death...?

[Doc Stier]

It is blatantly obvious that if you boot someone in the sack and his body jacknifes forward in reaction, his hair will, indeed, shake. However, this does not require a particularly hard kick, or, indeed, any vibratory skill.

Trees are a convenient hitting target for those who visit and train in parks. As no particular skill is required to make the leaves shake, people are reading far, far more into this clip than they should do.

Agreed. Of course, your comments here are obviously true, but that's not what I was alluding to.

Instead, I'm looking at how an open hand or a closed fist naturally vibrates, like the reverberation of the leaves on tree branches, when a relaxed slap or a punch is performed with sudden fa-jin and breath projection, followed by a complete relaxation of the hand or fist again immediately thereafter. This can occur whether the strike is performed in a form set routine or on impact with a solid target in application.

Further thoughts anyone?

[grzegorz]

Trees are a convenient hitting target for those who visit and train in parks. As no particular skill is required to make the leaves shake, people are reading far, far more into this clip than they should do.

Hitting trees has nothing to do with shaking leaves. Hitting trees is a type of jibengong. The nice thing about hitting trees is they don't move. So you can work your short power without displacing it. I used to do a lot of brush knees and Buddha palms on trees. When I do it on a bag the bag moves and my structure had to be adjusted. On a tree it doesn't.

Once you've conditioned your hands for a tree and can go full power and it's really like nothing else, like a makiwara it's not going anywhere. If I go full power on a bag as good as it is it'll move so the feedback is a little different. When you get a good hit on a tree you know it, you get certain sound and in some cases you'll see the tree shake. But in general most of the hits aren't going to be full power, usually I'd do about 10 minutes and then go full bore a few times at the end.

But I'm not trying to sell anything here, if people are interested they should try it for themselves. I can say that after invested a few months on trees my strikes were a lot stronger. These days though I just use the heavy bag, speed bag and mitts. We don't have a lot of old trees where I live and I think once you've done tree hitting for awhile you can pretty much do the same things on a heavy bag, but you won't condition the bones in the hands and arms as well as you would on a tree but on the other hand you don't have to worry about joint damage from over doing it on a tree either.

These types of exercises are good too.