I’m having trouble with XP so I can’t guarantee how frequent my posts will be. In addition, I’m on vacation next week. Anyhow, a quick update on chin na.
Last night at class we did a few new warm-ups. In addition, we had a air-grabbing contest with the loser having to do lots of finger-tip push-ups. Air grabbing is one of the speed drills we do. Essentially you fully extend your arm, grab, draw in, and repeat. Last night we did a series of two-person elimination matches that lasted 30 seconds. The person with the highest number of grabs in the alloted time went on to the next match. Sadly, I lost the very first time and had to do a lot of push-ups!
We also did 110 horse-ups which consist of dropping to horse stance, then jumping to standing, and dropping again. Let’s just say that my knees are sore!
As for the chin na; well, we reviewed White Crane Twists its Neck. Nods its Head and Twists are foundational chin na. Apparently there are at least a dozen techniques that range from basic to advanced that use a variation of the initial grip you see in Nods or Twists. Last night we polished that basic technique and naturally I’m having problems.
First, I’m not getting a good seal on the initial grip. One of the senior instructors (aka “Smiley”) advised that I do the same thing we do in one of our warm-up: The finger role. This drill is sort of like doing the wave you see at a football game except the crowd is your fingers. Extend your hand vertical, drop your pinky, then make the rest of your fingers follow until your fingers are undulating. So, when someone sticks their hand in my face I was advised by Smiley to grip their fingers with my pinky closing first and the rest of the fingers following. When I do this I could notice a big difference in how tight my seal was. Now I just need LOTS of practice to make this seamless and without thought!
On White Crane Twists its Neck Smiley told me to make two circles. The first part goes grab, seal, extend, and nod. Then make the first circle which rolls their wrist either right or left. The second circle comes from twisting their finger back at them while pressure is still on the wrist. Hard enough to write about and even harder to try and learn at first!
Bear in mind that me and other newbies are still learning the grip, lock, and basic positioning. We are missing speed, good footwork, technique, and a whole bunch of other stuff that’s almost depressing when you see guys who’ve been doing this stuff for 5+ years!
We then learned Embraces Guitar which is a nasty variation of this Nods chin na. You transition from Nods, to Twists, then step in. While you step you guide their elbow up with the non-cranking arm and stick their locked hand/wrist in their arm pit. From here we are taught to use “jerking Jing” that comes from the waist to snap the wrist and elbow. (I’ll try to explain Jing in a later post)
Naturally, at first I was trying muscle again which is wrong. Scary corrected me and showed me that once you have the lock with the person on their toes all you have to do is jerk your waist an inch to cause pain. A little more and SNAP!
I’ll try to post of video of this when I get more time and if I can find one.
Past that I’m jealous of the advanced class because they got to practice the throws that come with chin na. We stayed inside while they got to go out on the grass to do this. We could see some of what they were doing through the windows and I definately hope I get to try it some day!
I’m guessing these come after you test out of basic. I hope it’s not until advanced because if it is that’s three years out!
~BCP
