Taan sau

I picked up an important point about the taan sau when i was in the U.K.

the angle of your wrist makes a huge difference in terms of which muscles are being used.

Below is the Taan with the wrist straight, this is the "weak Taan"

Below is the Taan with the wrist angled, this is the best way...

This is the Taan- Dar idea of simultaneous attack and defense.

In the class we will have a chance to explain in more detail and to try them out.

England

I had a very Exciting and interesting trip back to the U.K.

Exciting because, i was able to catch up with almost all of my friends and family.

Interesting because, i was able to meet with my old class mates who are now all instructors.

I got a chance to meet with my first VT Instuctor and best of all got to Chi-sau with all of them.

It was really good to catch up and see how much everyone had grown and progressed over the years, if there is one thing i love, it`s progress.

So now back in Japan and ready to get things rolling again with our VT classes, can`t wait.

Last class of July, Last class of the Summer!

Well, you know how they say all good things come to those who wait...apparentley that is the case.

after 3 months with 1 disappointing turnout after another,
we were very blessed indeed to have 8 People enter into Wednesdays classroom.

We had 2 gentlemen from the USA and New Zealand respectivley.

a local gentleman from Kobe and a Local Lady all came to join our class as well as our 3 regular students.

It was a very enjoyable session indeed.

This was the last class until September the 4th.

I will be away in the U.K. until the end of August.

I will try to get at least one new video done for the blog whilst i am away.

Mind how you go

Mike.

Class of the 17th

Wednesdays class.

more of a private lesson for Yuji than anything else.

Slow days are always a bit of a downer but, we have to count our blessings and be thankful.

So we got into our pad drills,

we have added the "laan sau" to the pad drills recentley, you can see a video of it Here: http://youtu.be/6K0XvciJJTo
We spent 20 minutes drilling our "Pauk", Punch, "Tan" and "Bong" sau Positions in with our "Kim Yeung Ma".

We went through the First Form, the 小年頭 or "Siu Nim Tao".

Because we had the time, we did some basic Knife reaction drills.

(Not as scary as it sounds, we use a rubber knife , safety first ;))

As always, at the end of the class we covered " Chi Sau". We are still working on Single hand.

Next week

 we will Use a different location...

http://www.kcc.zaq.ne.jp/comista/

We will meet at the Lobby at 7pm, Class will begin around 7:15pm.

Hope to see you there :).

Mike

Blog RE, RE location.

If you are joining me from www.kobeeishunken.blog.com
then welcome.

For the rest of you Welcome back!

For a while the "Snakecranetiger" domain had lay dormant, but now i am back posting on here after being continually frustrated by Blog.com and it`s highly unpredictable behaviour and generally limited functions (not to mention, it looked kinda boring).

So here i am again "snakecranetiger" blogging away, please stay tuned for news and class updates and of course more insights into Wing Chun, Boxing, Hung gar, Arnis, Grappling and the world of self defense.

PEACE

Mike 118.

Collapsable stance

Collapsable stance.

Something that we have been playing around with recently, we created a very simple drill designed to teach you the correct combat stance position (without spending so much time looking at your feet.)
Also a good introduction to releasing or getting away from unnecessary pressure.

So very simple, if your partner stands in front of you and you take on the basic stance or Kim yeung ma (as we talked about in the previous post).

Your partner pushes on your hands until you can feel that there is too much pressure to cope with, at which point you collapse into your combat stance and change your hands to a combination of "wu" and another hand directed to your partners centre, weather it be, a punch , Palm strike, set of keys...whatever.

The result should be that you find your most comfortable and natural combat stance that can actually stop your partners forward momentum. (if your kim yeung ma cannot)

Of course this drill can be modified in many ways, one simple idea is to practise changing to a different line if your partners momentum is really too strong, this can be a bridge to practising Toi ma idea.

Of course you can practise it from "Chi sau". This is just one more idea that might give you the same technique from a different situation.

Happy training.

Yee gee kim yung ma.

Just a few points i picked up working with Blair and in my own time about the correct position for kim yung ma.

When i learnt in the beginning i was told to keep the the feet touching, i have noticed that this is not so important, in fact, when i begin with my feet so close i find i have to adjust slightly when i have finished opening my stance. ( will come back to this point)

When you bend the knees at first, keep the back straight.

look straight ahead.

Breath!

After turning the toes and heels out having opened the stance, take a few seconds to check the position.
a good method we found out was to let the arms hang loose by your sides. If your arms are natural falling onto your thighs , then you probably have the right position (for you). Also check where the fingers point down, there should be an imaginary line from your fingertips to the inside of your big toe.
This method should give you an indication that you have made the correct stance, for you.

Coming back to the earlier point, that i have to adjust to find MY stance. The stance will vary slightly from person to person, depending on hight, weight, mass, length of legs, length of body, flexibility etc. So take some time to check and make sure you are using the stance as it works best for you.

You can usually tell if you are doing it correctly because you should naturally sink into the stance, once you have a comfortable fit, next you should test your position after you have turned into the combat stance. Take time to find out what adjustments (if any) need to be made to make the combat stance as stable as the training stance.

Hope this helps, happy training.