Nine Section Whip Part 11

It feels like it was a long break over winter, and the endless rain we’ve had in the UK has made it almost a necessary break as far as getting outside with the whip goes. At a pinch I can just about manage tassel sword inside, but spear forms and the whip really lose out. Either I have to shorten the whip to the point where some of the exercises are so different that I’m no longer training the correct thing, or I constantly hit walls, ceilings, and knock over everything in my flat! Sigong had a nice new training whip that Yun Ki had brought from Hong Kong, which seemed a good length and worked well in his space, but after listening to Sigong’s lecture I was itching to relocate outside with my tripod during the break, even if it was drizzling slightly.

For the lecture this time, Signong covered the habits we need to develop when training Chun Yuen, and the benefits that it will bring. Chun Yuen is quite demanding which is one of the reasons it can be so beneficial for our health. There’s no competition in the skill other than competing with yourself — can you do it better than you did before! In order to improve though, takes practice. Ideally twice a day, building it up over time. Start with three forms per session, but Chun Yuen forms are relatively quick to do, so increase from there — can you do 4, 5, 6 in a session — increasing to as many as ten forms every once in a while!

Sigong also stressed the structure we should follow when training. For Chun Yuen, it is important to warm up properly and stretch before starting. Then after practice, and something which I find often gets overlooked, is the Shou Gong for Chun Yuen — “horse stance” meditation, but we can actually hold any of the stances and postures from the forms to build our gong lik and settle after our movement.

If you train like this, weak and tired body energy will be replaced and increased, becoming full. Jing develops into Qi and eventually into Shen. Your mind will be clear, stress and worry will fade, and you will learn things easier and become wiser.

After the break, movement was fun to get into and we recapped what we have learnt of the form so far, with me coming back to struggling with the challenge of keeping the whip flowing throughout. In particular changing it to the reverse grip behind the back sill causes me trouble, and also keeping it flowing whilst changing its direction, from spinning horizontally around the front and back of the body, to circling vertically and landing on the foot. It’s great to have the challenge though and I look forward to being able to watch these tricky sections next time in more detail!

Another thing I have started to think about is the discipline we should be paying attention to when controlling the whip. For example, when I learned the staff, my Sifu told me one way to tell whether someone’s staff form is good is to look at how much distance they keep between the staff and the body, with closer being better. Near the beginning of the whip form when we alternate circles on the left and right of the body 6 times, I found myself wondering whether or not these circles should be as close to the body as we can as well.

Finally, I must say I am quite terrified to try the new part, controlling the whip with the neck, with the real whip! I have visions of minor concussions… I suppose first we need to have a good understanding of how to catch and redirect the momentum of the real whip over the arm near the beginning of the form, and then find a way to do it with the neck. I might have to try this one without my glasses though, and definitely without my headset which was knocked off several times with just the training whip!

Thanks Sigong for such a Stimulating challenge!

by Lee Baylis