by TenTigers » Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:26 am
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=bPmVhyHBRAM[/youtube]
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"Hard as Iron, Soft as thread"
"Hard contained within soft, soft contained within hard"
"Iron bar wrapped in cotton"
all these attempt to describe the fact that even what we consider hard, is not hard as one thinks-hard, firm, yet not brittle. If we look at what most feel is representative of hard in Hung Kuen, the element punches, and realise that Hop-Ga strikes are based on the prayer wheel-a central hub from which a ball on the end of a chain is attached, we can get a glimpse of the type of feeling we should be striving for.
If you throw sow choy, and your arm is hard and rigid, when it encounters a block, it is dead. But if you allow yourself to be hard, but with resiliancy, you can maintain the aliveness of your arm, and run the strike, or convert to a hook, grab, whatever. Instead of a rigid iron bar, think instead of a solid rubber bar, which is solid and heavy, and will crash through, but still has a certain "give."
'My Gung-Fu is MY Gung-Fu. It may not be YOUR Gung-Fu"
Gwok Si, Gwok Faht