In some places Sunday is the day of rest. Not here. Here Sunday morning is weapon time. The favorite time of the week for many people. Time to learn how to wield a sword, strike down your opponent and claim your place of eternal glory… Ok, slow down, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The techniques and movements are mostly practiced for routines and demonstrations called “forms”. Their use in real combat is limited. Then why do we practice them? Well, I’m glad you asked.
I’m teaching some new moves from the Chinese broadsword routine to the students. After a lot of spins, steps and slices, we end up with our sword in our right hand, slicing towards the right. One of the students is slicing in the wrong direction, towards the left. I make the movement again with an emphasis on the right hand. Nobody moves, so I clarify by telling the students. They all look my way, then at themselves, and apparently reach the conclusion that I must be talking about someone else because again nobody moves. I manage to make eye contact with the concerning student and tell him to slice towards the right. Instead, he makes some adjustments to his feet and his left hand, but doesn’t move the sword… at all. “Good” I tell him. “And try slicing the other way”. He does the movement again and ends up in the same position. So I suggest starting from the beginning. He tries again and this time he’s slicing in the right direction. Because his entire focus is on his arms, his feet are taking on a life of their own and start walking in all kinds of directions. He got the arm movements perfect, so I cheered, “That’s good!”.
I totally relate to this. I’ve had my fair share of mix up’s where the teacher was telling me to put my right foot forward, yet somehow that message got lost from my brain to my body. It’s part of the process for all of us. We try, make mistakes, try again and get better. Every misstep is a step toward improvement. There are so many details of the body to pay attention to while learning a new form. Every time you practice, your awareness grows.
This brings me to another benefit I find in Kung Fu: it helps me to connect my mind and body. Most of the time we live at a safe distance from our bodies. In our education, the emphasis is on developing the mind. We are pushed to achieve the highest education, which often defines how ‘successful’ we will become. At school we don’t really learn how to stretch or what good nutrition is, and gym is confined to a sad little two hours per week. When we think about our body, it’s often in a negative way (we have a headache, we’re tired or we wish we could lose that little pouch around our waist). In a society that’s resting on the premises ‘I think therefore I am’, we’re forgetting about our body. And that’s a shame because it is part of us and we can learn so much from it. You won’t learn how to swim by reading about it, just as you won’t learn Tai Chi by watching a video of someone else perform it.
Forms are like a dance choreography, with structured movements and a flow to it. For me it’s the best way to gain physical awareness. I’m learning to be aware of every detail:
Which foot is in front?
Are my shoulders relaxed?
Where do I feel my body gets stuck on this movement?
I’ve always had my left shoulder going up the moment I’m stressed or focussed on something, causing a lot of neck issues. Kung Fu has helped me tremendously to be more aware of this. During the forms it stops the energy and power from going through. So, my instructor is always telling me to relax my shoulder. Every time I work on my forms, I actively work on my shoulder.
With our busy lives, it’s good to get out of our heads every now and then. A great way to do this is to go into our body. For some, this might be climbing; for others, it’s yoga, dancing, or swinging around a sword. And it’s about more than just a workout to stay healthy—it’s about being interested in your body and feeling comfortable in it. Creating a body awareness that transcends to other parts of your life. Making you notice your breathing or how your muscles feel. I know it can be hard to make this a habit with our full schedule and many responsibilities. When work gets busy, I have to remind myself to get up, move, and do something active. But in the process, we’re building a better mind-body connection. After all, they’re both part of our journey, so why not embrace both?
