Posture and Range

The hardest part about sticking to one theme a week is… sticking to it.  What a tangled web Kung Fu weaves!  Everything ties into everything else.  How can we possibly stick to one thing at a time?

We can’t.  No worries, the theme is a starting and ending point for the work we do that week but it does not hold exclusive rights to any meandering we may do inbetween.  There are many dots (themes) and they need to be connected to give students the bigger picture.

Today we wandered into the territory of posture.  We worked several drills that centered around the idea of having an aligned but slightly forward attitude.  Why?  Because having this forward attitude makes it easier (quicker) to throw a strike when you want to.  If you are leaning back, you’ve got to first lean your body forward before you strike, wasting valuable time.  If you’re already forward – BAM – there’s the strike.

So, drawing the line back to critical distance, if you have a forward attitude, your partner’s critical distance (same as your effective range) will be bigger – because you are ready to throw a strike.  If you are back on your heels, your partner need not be so concerned about a counter strike coming their way (from as great a distance).  If you’d like to go draw some more lines from these ideas, check out Sifu Kyle’s video on the system site.