gongfu

 One of the most ancient methods of Chinese gong fu, most basic to the craft itself, is the relaxed repatition of techniques. In other words, holding a horse stance, loosely, or “soft” and repeating one thousand vertical fist strikes in a medium pace very smoothly, with no interuption or jerking motions. It is important that the mind is really concentrated, and all of the ideal structural requirments are met.

 One of the things that you are training, perhaps the most important  is your speed. The reason of “how” is simple. First, relaxed muscles move faster. Second, relaxing the arm minimizes the amount of energy expent on unecessary muscle contractions and allows the muscles actually needed to get more attention. Third, if the mind is concentrating, it will see how simple the technique is. Therefore, there is no extra thought, just this one move, this simple idea, shortening the amount of time from decision to action. Fourth, it cuts out extranious movement, the technique is refined to meet the highest level of economy of motion. No pulling back, no unecessary lifting or turning, just “wack” in succesion. This same thinking is applied to all the rest of your gong fu, making you appear super fast.

 Really, it’s mostly how deep you understand economy of motion, how relaxed and flexible you are, as well as how clear your mind is. Your speed, also has amazing benefits. For one thing, the velocity of a strike is somewhat dependent upon on it’s speed. The faster you hit, in a sense, the harder the hit. Obviously it’s also difficult to defend against a really fast attack, who can catch a bullet? Maybe somebody, but who can catch them in rapid succesion?

 That’s the real the meaning of the old sayings. You should also practice combinations that same way, over and over, and keep changing what combinations your practicing. That way, not only is gong fu built into your gross motor skill, but complicated techniques are simplified. Which is how they should appear to you, really simple, since they are, once you realize that each complicated technique is built on the combination of simpler techniques.

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