Keys to Lesson Plan 2: 7th Chamber – Blocking

I’ve been busy editing my publications into eBooks for the Google eBook store. This is really my September Post, a little late but no less important for improving your enjoyment and progress in your Kung Fu training. The 7th Chamber speaks of some of the most important things you can learn to do with your arms. Your arms and hands are your most instinctively based tools of defense. The speed with which your arms and hands can move instinctively to swat a fly away from your face is really quite amazing. Of course, sometimes you move so fast you end up hitting yourself in the face or head. Catching a falling object, bracing yourself from a fall, or reaching out to save someone else from a fall – they are all pretty incredible moments of mindless speed and dexterity if you think about it. The 7th Chamber is about harnessing that natural speed and dexterity into a series of movements that are designed to create a self-directed force field around the vital parts of your body.

Our Strategy, in the 7 Circles System is to develop a fluid and powerful force field capable of opening and closing doors. The Doors are the pathways to the vital and vulnerable areas of your body – your opponent’s targets. When a block closes a door to stop your opponent’s attack, it should also open a door or pathway to some vital and vulnerable area of their body. When you close a door with one arm to stop your opponent’s attack you should also be opening a door for your other arm (or your blocking arm) to attack. The 7th Chamber introduces our Two Basic Blocking Styles, Moving Barrier Blocking and Target Specific Blocking. The specific Systems are called Plum Flower Fist/Palm Blocking and Mighty God 8 Fist/Palm Blocking.

Lets look at Target Specific Blocking first!

Our Mighty God 8 Fist/Palm Blocking System uses the Conventional & Black Tiger Fist or the various Palm Hands to attack the opponent’s attacking arm or leg from any of the four (4) primary and four (4) secondary directions. Making contact with the opponent as they commit to their attack can redirect the energy of their attack back into them compounded by your own release of Qi into the contact point. Target Specific Blocking (TSB) can completely disable a limb from further use as a weapon against you. Remember what is happening! You are drawing energy from the earth through push-back and moving that energy through your body and arms, reinforcing it with your breath, and delivering it to the point of contact – a small spot on your opponent’s arm, hand, leg, or foot. An effectively delivered TSB can end the confrontation. The downside is that your target, a moving arm or leg is a relatively small target. The block is too easy to miss (mainly to the lower arms and legs) in a fighting situation, especially with multiple opponents. If it emerges from no mind, in the moment, and connects, you will be glad you used it. If you miss the cost could be high so we always reinforce a TSB with a secondary force field, something you will learn in class.

Low to the ground, spinning like the tornado, pushing and pulling like the tide, empty as the air, solid like a wave, moving on the currents of unseen forces, opening and closing doors with a mystical dance. This is the inspiration behind Moving Barrier Blocking Style and the Plum Flower Fist/Palm Blocking System. Although described as a four (4) direction blocking system Plum Flower Fist/Palm Blocking is really the first step in building a fluid and powerful force field capable of opening and closing doors. You should approach the one hand, two hand, and alternating hands training methods with good posture and a relaxed state of body and mind. Moving Barrier Blocking is about using circular movements (centripetal – toward the center, and centrifugal forces – away from the center) to redirect linear and other circular movements. MBB is about making space for fullness of the opponent to enter a void that you have created for it, and then filling the emptiness that is created in the opponent when they enter into the void.

Thousands of hours of perfect practice over the years will help you to develop a fluid defense driven by instinctive speed. Your arms and hands will begin to act like tentacles trapping, deflecting, and intercepting the opponent’s attempts to reach your vital and vulnerable areas. You will be able to open and close doors with grace, precision, speed, power, and effectiveness.

Live Wu-Te

Seifu Sharif

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