Help with becoming less rigid

[hawkryger]

Hello all. I have a long-time background in Taekwondo and am just now a few months into Northern Mantis Kung Fu. Obviously the two styles are very different. Both myself and my instructor have been noticing how rigid my forms seem. This is a byproduct of my years of TKD, and something that's hard to break. I am wondering if you kindly folks have any advice to help me make my KF forms more smooth and fluid? I have been doing Tai Chi as well, which helps, but I find with the faster KF forms I tend to fall into old habits of rigidity again. Thanks for any suggestions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Instructor]

booze?

 

[hawkryger]

Ok, when I said any suggestions I meant any that are actually thoughtful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Instructor]

Just kidding around. Sorry if it's not funny.
I deal with this kind of thing a lot. TKD folks come over to Hapkido and they bring that crisp, precise, linear movement with them. Whereas Hapkido favors relaxed circles and blending movement. You can usually see shades of their earlier training in their movement no matter how much of the new art they learn.
The only advice I'll offer is to try to relax and follow your teachers lead.

 

[hawkryger]

No worries Hard sometimes to get intent from text. Thanks for the follow up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Touch Of Death]

This may sound crazy, but put on soft some music, Go Slow, and pay attention to your reverse motion. Strikes are but a halfway point of a full swing, and that swing happens on a circle, so think circles, not strikes.

 

[Tez3]

Ok, when I said any suggestions I meant any that are actually thoughtful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tis April Fools day
]

 

[clfsean]

There's a whole laundry list of things you can do, but the thing is you don't have time to do them all right now. The biggest thing I'd offer is relax your body. All of it. No tension, no muscling things, just motion. When you can "move" without forcing it, then you're starting to relax. Then you connect your body (all of it) & then you're generating power & issuing force more akin to CMA methods. It took me a long to relate to this coming from a KMA/JMA background before hitting CMA.

And booze does help believe it or not.

 

[drop bear]

Do a squat with your feet flat to the floor untill you can sit on your heels almost.

 

[drop bear]

Sorry with your legs close together or at least shoulder with.

It should open your hips up eventually.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

make my KF forms more smooth and fluid?

1st step, you try to coordinate one arm with one leg such as:

- right arm and left leg move/stop at the same time, or
- right arm and right leg move/stop at the same time.

Of course "left" and "right" can be switched in any order as required.

For example,

- right hook punch and left back leg touch right leading leg at the same time (coordinate right arm with left leg).
- right forearm push and right leg advance at the same time (coordinate right arm with right leg).

2nd step, you try to coordinate your

- shoulder with your hip,
- elbow with your knee,
- hand with your foot,

your body coordinate starts to get into more detail. When you can do that, your movement will become smooth and fluid. In other words, if you can divide your "combo" in several steps, for each step of your move, you will need to figure out which leg should coordinate with which arm. You should never just thinking about arm movement without thinking about leg movement (or the other way around).

 

[K-man]

First thing to do is make sure you are not setting your feet. As soon as you set your feet, your whole structure locks up.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Hello all. I have a long-time background in Taekwondo and am just now a few months into Northern Mantis Kung Fu. Obviously the two styles are very different. Both myself and my instructor have been noticing how rigid my forms seem. This is a byproduct of my years of TKD, and something that's hard to break. I am wondering if you kindly folks have any advice to help me make my KF forms more smooth and fluid? I have been doing Tai Chi as well, which helps, but I find with the faster KF forms I tend to fall into old habits of rigidity again. Thanks for any suggestions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

time, patience, and practice.... that is all

 

[mograph]

time, patience, and practice.... that is all

Yes. In addition, here are some options:
1. Do Zhan Zhuang. Work up to at least 30 minutes per session. You have to learn to relax (and distribute the effort of standing through your body) in order to survive it.
2. Do a set "sloppy." Let your arms hang, but out slightly as if inflated. Just let them go along with your body as if they were mostly inflated, maybe with hands floating about a foot from the hips. YMMV.
3. Basically, "let" more things happen, and "make" fewer things happen.
4. Feel heavy below, and light above.
5. Feel the air on your hands as you move slowly. It's hard to do this while tense. Then try it using your face and so on.
6. It's how you feel, not how you look. Read the 10 essences and feel them as you go.

Hope that helps.

 

[hawkryger]

Wow, so many great responses. Thank you all so much! I have a lot to work on!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mograph]

I recommend Kenneth Cohen's book, The Way of Qigong, in particular the chapter "fang song gong," and the section "sensitivity," therein.

Being song is not about being tensed ... like some guy who snaps into a ready pose, all hard quivering muscle and bulging veins. That guy is frozen in that pose, and he has to relax in order to move and do anything.

No, to me, being song (sounds like "soong") is being in neutral, neither in forward gear nor in reverse, but with a full tank of gas. It's all relaxed, yet full of potential, neither committed to a nap nor to an angry locked state. You can go forward or you can go back. Left or right. You can make something happen or you can let something happen.

Make sense?

 

[blindsage]

Invest in more relaxed movement. Tension feels strong, but it is self-defeating. Your TKD will get better as well. Most really highly skilled MAists learn to relax because everything works better.

 

[dlcox]

Hello all. I have a long-time background in Taekwondo and am just now a few months into Northern Mantis Kung Fu. Obviously the two styles are very different. Both myself and my instructor have been noticing how rigid my forms seem. This is a byproduct of my years of TKD, and something that's hard to break. I am wondering if you kindly folks have any advice to help me make my KF forms more smooth and fluid? I have been doing Tai Chi as well, which helps, but I find with the faster KF forms I tend to fall into old habits of rigidity again. Thanks for any suggestions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Xue Sheng had good advice I would add simply walking through the movement without emphasis on intent. As clfsean stated just do the motions, once your body has been reprogrammed emphasis can be placed. This will take time. With the practice of so many styles (Tae Kwon Do, Mantis, Taiji) that are significantly different from one another you will face conflicts within the movements. Time, patience and practice are the only cure should you continue on with all three. Personally I would suggest dropping one of the new endeavors to focus on only one of them. Too hard to keep your cup empty with two wells filling it let alone three.

 

[hawkryger]

I recommend Kenneth Cohen's book, The Way of Qigong, in particular the chapter "fang song gong," and the section "sensitivity," therein.

Being song is not about being tensed ... like some guy who snaps into a ready pose, all hard quivering muscle and bulging veins. That guy is frozen in that pose, and he has to relax in order to move and do anything.

No, to me, being song (sounds like "soong") is being in neutral, neither in forward gear nor in reverse, but with a full tank of gas. It's all relaxed, yet full of potential, neither committed to a nap nor to an angry locked state. You can go forward or you can go back. Left or right. You can make something happen or you can let something happen.

Make sense?

Yes, excellent! I will definitely check out that book. Thanks!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hawkryger]

Xue Sheng had good advice I would add simply walking through the movement without emphasis on intent. As clfsean stated just do the motions, once your body has been reprogrammed emphasis can be placed. This will take time. With the practice of so many styles (Tae Kwon Do, Mantis, Taiji) that are significantly different from one another you will face conflicts within the movements. Time, patience and practice are the only cure should you continue on with all three. Personally I would suggest dropping one of the new endeavors to focus on only one of them. Too hard to keep your cup empty with two wells filling it let alone three.

Good advice for sure. I stopped TKD training to focus solely on KF and Tai Chi for now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk