Holding To Routines: Journal Notes #104

Notes from my July 2012 Zhan Zhuang Training Journal. I train with The School of Cultivation and Practice which practices Wujifa zhan zhuang. (My current reflections are added in italics.)

* Question: Why do you teach with questions?

Answer: Because the "question and answer" format shows how students' brains work as they develop. It shows where your focus is. It shows your intention.

* Question: Can you check my stance to see if I'm doing correctly what I learned in last class?

Answer: Show me. (Reminder of what I was shown):

1. Arch your lower back to give you the "kua in" feeling. This is a faux "kua in" because you did not attain "kua in" with relax.
2. Relax the lower belly just above the pubic bone and feel the kua move in deeper.
3. Now relax the lower back and butt muscles, let the femur heads roll forward. Slide the knees forward with maybe bow slightly forward on the hip joint.
4. Check the belly again. Is it still relaxed? Is the kua still in?
5. Drop the chest.

The key is that the hips should always remain over the ankles. Your tendency is to roll back off-line as you roll your hips so you need to shift forward to keep the femur heads over the ankles.

* Question: As I walk around during the day, I feel like I'm letting go of the lower back as I step out. I feel this more with the right side and not so much with the left side. I used to call this feeling "pain" and avoid it but now I've slowly gotten comfortable with this feeling and now I'm calling it "stretch". What I used to avoid and hold against feeling, I am now aiming for. So the question I'm working with when I practice is, How can I get this feeling of stretch in stance because I've only felt it when walking?

Answer: Show me what you're doing. (I get into stance and demonstrate.) You're tucking. You're using tension in front to feel the stretch in back.

Me: I don't feel that I'm tucking. I only notice feeling a strong stretch in back.

Instructor: As you're standing with the stretch in the lower back feeling, use your fingers and push in just above the pubic bone. It should be soft even when you feel a relaxed stretch through the back. And the pubic bone should not rise when the lower back goes down.

If you simply let your flesh hang, this will give you a truer stretch than using tension.

Here's a guidepost: If the pubic bone rises when you relax the back, then you are tucking. That said, the pubic bone may move a fraction due to where the hinge point of the hip is between front and back.

Me: Darn! I thought I was making some progress re-framing the feeling from "don't let go, holding and painful" to "letting go, stretch".

Instructor: If you were just beginning, I'd say this is good but you're not a beginner. Can you notice without preconceived ideas? Your resulting data will be skewed when you approach a feeling with preconceived ideas. When you label a feeling, it's like you're putting it in a box; first, the "pain box", and now the "stretch box". What's next? What are you going to label it after "stretch"?

Instead of labeling feelings, how about simply feel? Simply notice what is there. Notice what you are doing and notice the result you get.

* Practice note: I went home and practiced stance in front of a mirror and recreated this feeling of stretch in the lower back. With my clothes on, I could not see what I was told. After undressing, I could easily see in the mirror how the front muscles are tightening. Not so much the surface abdominals as the muscles deeper inside the pelvis. When I jamb my fingers into the front sides of the pelvic crests, I can feel these muscles engage.

* Question: How do I find stillness in stance (referring to last month's class where you guys felt and noticed my back muscles twitching and not relaxed)?

Answer: What do you mean by stillness? There are stages of stillness developing. Beginners either move excessively or they are stiff like a dead post. Asking a student to relax, whatever form it takes, is a form of stillness for them. Calming the mind is a form of stillness.

* Question: Is it possible to practice point-to-point alone? For example, can I push against a wall or the top part of a door where the bottom is against the door stop (so there is a little play in the top part)?

Answer: Do not use a wall because there is no push back. The door has push back but you'll do it wrong. You could use a small tree because it is alive and connected to the ground but you've got to play real light like just barely touching.

* Question: Is point-to-point a necessary method for everyone to train?

Answer: It depends on your purpose. Point-to-point can be used to help discover where tension is in the body. It can be used to help refine connections. The problem arises when using it as a method to practice beyond your current capabilities.

* In the July 29 class, we learned a few new perturbation exercises with the wobble discs and theraband. These are adjunctive exercises which are not recommended until you can perform the basics and you've had your performance of the basics validated. If you cheat in the basics or do them wrong, then you will cheat in these adjunctive exercises or do them wrong as well.

* Question: What about the warm-up exercises like the Wujifa Hip Swivels? Are these adjunctive exercises too?

Answer: Yes. But you need something to do for warm-ups. Even though these appear simple, without a qualified Wujifa instructor, it is easy to do these wrong too.

* Comparing my performance of these new adjunctive exercises on the wobble discs to a school brother's, I tend to try to control my balance instead of allowing the perturbation to run through my body as he does.

* If you are trying to control, then you're going to work hard and be too slow - it takes time to implement a control plan. This occurs at the milli-second level. When you feel connection and you aim to maintain connection under perturbation, then where there are breaks or spaces, then you will automatically be able to connect. This occurs at the nano-second level.

* Remember, the micro-level is what shows up in the body. The macro-level is what shows up in daily life. From the micro, you can see the macro and vice versa. This kind of perturbation can show that if you are stuck in a routine, you may be disconnected from the flow. However, if you are connected to the flow, you may be able to vary your routine according to conditions.

* Do all your core and adjunctive exercises with weight in quads. Most people think their legs are getting stronger when they don't feel the weight in their legs but in reality, they are cheating and not progressing in relaxing to allow more and more weight to drop into their legs. Relaxing and dropping, and getting the burning feeling in your legs is not a one time goal but rather, is an ongoing process.

* Note: I went back for my sixth set of three Rolfing sessions during this month. Focused on really working the ankles. The last session "cured" my problem with the right foot arch collapsing as I step onto that foot. The arch doesn't collapse as it used to.

* I went for an Active Release Technique massage therapy session which seems like a blend of Physical Therapy manipulations and Swedish massage. (In my experience with Physical Therapy, the therapist does not do massage.) The therapist worked on the tight muscles in my hips and pelvis. He recommended particular stretches to target these muscles.

* My daily practice journal for July shows I'm standing 10-20 minutes every other day with some 30-40 minute sessions. I've been working on and noticing more distinction between the feeling of "kua in" and "kua out".


Further reading:
Introductory article explaining this "Journal Notes" series: Zhan Zhuang Training Journal
Previous article in this series: Learning From Myself: Journal Notes #103
Next article in this series: - Working the Lower Back: Journal Notes #105

Martial Arts and the Olympics

During this 2012 Olympic season, I learned about a side of the ancient Greek Olympics that might make some of today's martial arts fighters think twice before entering that kind of Olympic competition.

The August 2012 edition of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) magazine has an amazing article by Katherine Dawson titled: 'Victory or Death': Ancient Olympic Sports.

As I read this well referenced article, I was surprised by how violent some of the ancient Olympic games were especially when looking through the lens of today's Olympic sporting events!

Katherine writes, "Unlike the modern jock of today, ancient athletes had to harden their bodies for the brutality of potentially life-threatening contests... Some events reached a point where states found it necessary to immunize athletes from laws against committing homicide when opponents were accidentally killed." (pg 20)

According to this article, some of the ancient "games" could be mortal contests where contestants exercised and developed their military combat skills on the field of sport.

Contrast this with the current popular understanding of the Olympics as promoted at the official website of the Olympics which alludes to the ancient games as being a peaceful event associated with religious festivals and which "aimed to show the physical qualities and evolution of the performances accomplished by young people..."

Clearly there has been a shift in purpose over the centuries as well as what seems to be a whitewashing of that portion of Olympic history!

And yet, the summer Olympics do retain events that are both remnants of former combat arts as well as events of modern martial arts: archery, boxing, fencing, javelin throw, Judo, shooting, Taekwondo, and wrestling.

Here's the link to 'Victory or Death': Ancient Olympic Sports. See pages pages 18-24.

And here are the references cited in this article:
Ancient Olympics: A History by Nigel Spivey. Oxford University Press. 2012
Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence and Culture by Michael Poliakoff. Yale University. 1987
Sport and Society in Ancient Greece by Mark Golden. Cambridge University Press. 1998
The Olympic Games: The First Thousand Years by H.W. Pleket.. Chatto & Windrus Ltd. 1976
Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World by Donald Kyle. Wiley Blackwell. 2007
The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games by Tony Perrottet. Random House. 2004
The Ancient Olympic Games by Judith Swaddling. University of Texas Press. 2008
Athletics of the Ancient World by E. Norman Gardiner. Dover Publications. 2002
Sport in the Ancient World from A to Z by Mark Golden. Routledge. 2004
More Than Just a Game: The Military Nature of Greek Athletic Contests by Nancy Reed. Ares Publishers. 1998
Greek Athletes and Athletics by H.A. Harris. Greenwood Press. 1979

Learning From Myself: Journal Notes #103

Notes from my June 2012 Zhan Zhuang Training Journal. I train with The School of Cultivation and Practice which practices Wujifa zhan zhuang. (My current reflections are added in italics.)

* My journal entry of June 19 says: I haven't practiced zhan zhuang since April 3rd. I've only been doing some of the Wujifa adjunctive exercises and my Tai-chi form. However, I think I've hit a turning point with this intestinal problem recently. My body seems to be transitioning back to what was normal for me.

* My daily practice log shows 10-20 minutes zhan zhuang practice every other or every third day through June. Sometimes in the morning. Sometimes in the evening. Nothing consistent. Previously, I was trying to keep a practice log at the recommendation of my instructor but I didn't really have my heart into it. Something has changed recently. Now I want to write something in my personal practice log every day.

* Even though I went to Wujifa class as usual throughout June, I was not really interested in attending nor did I take any notes.

* I spent some time reviewing some of my old blog postings. I am amazed at what I've written! Re-reading my older postings has given me some insights. I feel like I've got a clearer understanding of what I want and need to do.

(Learning from myself in this way is new territory for me...)

* Questions that came up for me during one of my mini- practice sessions this month:

1. How can I shift my spirit? How can I get into a new "space" and not slip back into the mood I was in for the past few months?
2. How can I change my view to see the process instead of the points in the process; how to develop a process view instead of a thing view?

* When practicing the rubber band exercise one day, I noticed a kind of fullness feeling on the inhale which extends into my arms and then which recedes on the exhale.

* I went for a massage therapy session. When I asked the therapist to tell me what he was noticing and feeling, he said noticed that my spinus erectus is not abnormally tight but the underlying muscles are tight. As he worked my hips and thighs, he noticed that my psoas is tight which he says is likely pulling on L1-L2 which is accounts for the tightness of the underlying muscles of my spine: tightening against the tension of the psoas. He also noted the quads in my left leg are "bunched" near the top of the leg.

(From his reporting, I got a much clearer understanding of the kinetic chain. The issue it seems is not just that one muscle is tight, or that an emotional trauma may tense one or a group of muscles, though, this may be true. What I understand now is that the tension of one muscle can cause another muscle to tense in reaction, and another, etc.. in a chain-like fashion. This kind of pattern of chronic tension can lead to fascial adhesions which "glues" these muscle fibers in place reducing the plasticity or "sung" of the body.)

Further reading:
Introductory article explaining this "Journal Notes" series: Zhan Zhuang Training Journal
Previous article in this series: Not Practicing: Journal Notes #102
Next article in this series: - Holding To Routines: Journal Notes #104

Not Practicing: Journal Notes #102

Notes from my May 2012 Zhan Zhuang Training Journal. I train with The School of Cultivation and Practice which practices Wujifa zhan zhuang. (My current reflections are added in italics.)

I haven't been training since April 4. This intestinal problem and other daily life stressors continue to sap my energy and willpower to do anything.

* At the May 14th Wujifa class, while our instructor is standing in front of my school brother and adjusting his stance...

Me: Hey, I can see a break in the connection through the hips and kua.

Instructor: The break is due to the arch in his back.

Me: Do you know the front because of the back?

Instructor: I see the whole and you are seeing parts trying to discern the whole.

Me: So are there different levels of seeing? Do you begin by seeing parts first and then at higher levels you can see the whole?

Instructor: You tend to focus too narrowly. Don't focus so narrowly. Look globally. What do you see?

Me: Wow! It's as if I can see through him and I see how his tight back is affecting his front. It's like having some kind of three dimensional x-ray vision. I've never seen this way before!

* Regarding my stance. I still have tension above the pubic bone and in each kua. Less than before, but still some there. I need to continue releasing these.

* In class, we worked on my stance a little, showing me a different way to help me to feel how to get my kua more relaxed and "in":

1. Get into the standard Wujifa zhan zhuang stance. Then simultaneously, thrust your chest up and forward, hyper arch your back by leaning slightly forward and sticking your butt as far up and back as possible, and relax your belly.
   
   Put your hands in your pants pockets and feel the muscles under your pockets - the inguinal crease. Feel how the muscles are soft and in. This is the feeling you are aiming for.
   
2. While maintaining the chest up and butt back, pivot on the femur head and lean your entire torso slightly backward. Keep the inguinal crease soft. Stretch the lower abdominal to pubis so that it stays relaxed and soft. Get a positional release in front so you don't engage the front to tuck.
   
   In this second step, the softness of your inguinal crease is your bio-feedback device. If you feel the muscles under your fingers activating, then start over because you're doing it wrong.
   
   
3. Simultaneously, slide the knees forward as you slowly release the arch as if sitting down. Then bow forward slightly and maintain the softness in the inguinal crease. You should feel that the kua (inguinal crease) goes in more as your back straightens.
   
   In this third step, a typical problem is that the muscles under the fingers get taut which means you are engaging your abdominal muscles; you are "tucking". Notice that this level of tucking is much more subtle and deceptive than what most people practice. Finally, the soft/in feeling should feel like a kind of "sucking-in" feeling at the kua as you adjust from #1 to #3.
   
   (I found this method to be very helpful in terms of giving me a way to feel, albeit with my fingers, where I lack the ability to feel my internal kinesthetics, and in terms of calibrating where I'm losing the soft/in feeling in my kua.)

* What I notice as a result when practicing this new method is that my left knees clicks and pops. Without having the sensitivity to know for sure what is causing these noises, my hunch is that muscles on one side of my knee are relaxing against tight muscles on the other side or muscles on both sides are going through a cycle of relaxing and tightening which is causing the joint to shift slightly; just enough to cause the clicking and popping noise. So while I'm elated to develop this further deeper relaxation, I'm also scared that I may in some way be hurting my bad knee which has not been a problem in my daily life living all these 35+ years.

(Note: I seriously injured my left knee during high school and within months of the injury, a torn miniscus was surgically removed. As I've learned in more recent years particularly with Rolfing, is that my body compensated for the injury. In fact, my right knee had become problematic, probably as a result of this compensation. As I untwist and relax my structure, I'm cautiously mindful of the effects on this knee.)

Further reading:
Introductory article explaining this "Journal Notes" series: Zhan Zhuang Training Journal
Previous article in this series: Training Submission:Journal Notes #101
Next article in this series: - Learning From Myself: Journal Notes #103

Wujifa Learning Through Questions

Learn Wujifa through asking questions. What questions should you ask? That is a very good first question!

In all the public martial arts classes and seminars that I've attended, students act primarily as empty vessels into which the teacher pours selected and measured amounts of information and skill sets. I believe this is an appropriate format for the purpose of acquiring information and mechanical skills.

However, in my experience, this kind of "mechanical skill acquisition mindset" is not the most suitable when it comes to developing internal, feeling, non-mechanical skills.

In Wujifa, we are encouraged to develop the mindset of a scientist where my body-mind is simultaneously the researcher, research subject, and development project. Given this orientation, students are expected to come to class prepared to present the questions they are working on.

Questions are the medium through which you convey where you are in your training.

For example, when I was interested in gathering data, my questions lacked feeling and were generally disassociated from the functional kinesthetics of my body. As I shifted from data to feeling, my questions became more grounded in my internal kinesthetic experience.

Over the years, I've learned how this orientation shows up in questions on a couple levels. Of course there is the lexical expression of the question itself. However, behind or underneath the lexical component is the feeling or intention driving the question. It is this aspect that may reveal more of the person asking the question and thus convey an entirely different issue than the question itself conveys!

For example, when I ask a question, in the course of answering that question, I may discover how that answer answered three other questions. How? The intention that inspired each question was essentially the same. Learning to recognize that in itself as well as learning how that same intention shows up in my body-mind patterning often provides huge training insights!

In terms of where I am now, I still have not fully developed the scientist mindset. Even though I've made progress transitioning from the "empty vessel" model on which I was raised, I'm still largely stuck in a "closed-loop" diagnosis mindset: What's the problem and what do I need to do to fix it? Unfortunately, this mindset is not suited for curiously exploring an "open-loop" development like internal strength.

Curious about what other people had to say about questions, I searched on-line "Quote" sites. Of the many quotes about questions that I found, here are 15 of my favorites that speak most directly to me about my experience in using questions to learn internal strength in the Wujifa system.

Disclaimer: The various sites from which I copied these quotes do not reference the original work or context in which the quote appeared. As such, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these quotes nor the attribution. For my purpose here, the meaning is of primary value.

If you're curious what kinds of questions are asked in Wujifa class, take a look through some of the entries at my Zhan Zhuang Journal page.

And if you have a great quote about questions that pertain to your internal martial arts training, feel free to share it here!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions. Claude Lévi-Strauss (French anthropologist and ethnologist, 1908-2009)
   
2. A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher, 1844-1900)
   
3. We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers. Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher, 1844-1900)
   
4. Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers. Voltaire (French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist, 1694-1778)
   
5. A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea. John Anthony Ciardi (American poet, 1916-1986)
   
6. We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself. Lloyd Alexander (American author, 1904-2007)
   
7. The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge. Adolf Augustus Berle Jr. (lawyer, educator, author, 1895-1971)
   
8. It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Eugene Ionesco (Romanian and French playwright. Decouvertes, 1909-1994)
   
9. Before you wonder, 'Am I doing things right,' ask, 'Am I doing the right things?' Stephen Covey (American educator, author, motivational speaker, 1932-2012)
   
10. Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. William S. Burroughs (American novelist, 1914-1997)
    
11. Questions focus our thinking. Charles Connolly (unknown)
    
12. Knowing the question is the first step to knowing the answer. Zen proverb (unknown)
    
13. The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions. Mandell Creighton (Bishop of the Church of England, 1843-1901)
    
14. I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along. Bertrand Russell (British philosoper, 1872-1970)
    
15. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein (German physicist, 1879-1955)