by Bhassler on Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:31 am
CZK was quite big on hitting the sandbags, and encouraged his students to do it as well. My teacher is an impressive striker-- having felt a bit of his power I know for certain that if he ever really let go and popped me one it would be game over for me that day, if not for quite a bit longer as well. When asked why strikes are not typically included in push hands, his response is generally that you can do it if you want to, but it usually means that someone gets caught and it makes for very short practice sessions.
Regarding loose joints, the idea is to tighten up just at the point of impact. If my teacher isn't hitting something, he doesn't tighten up-- that means if he's just imagining hitting something he stays loose the whole time. Also, the strikes are not necessarily where people look for them. There are a lot of strikes with elbows, the back of the wrist, etc, in Chen style. An example would be the famous punch (hidden hammer) being discussed here. The striking applications emphasized to me were (in order of importance) as strike with the back elbow, a strike with the front elbow, and lastly the strike with the front fist. Chen style being an up close and personal sort of affair combatively, elbows are quicker, more likely to land, and better suited to the range than full-on hand strikes.
What I'm after isn't flexible bodies, but flexible brains.
--Moshe Feldenkrais