Videos are roughly 2 - 4mbs
Phil and Alain
While I can bitch at allot of things
let's concern ourselves mainly with the roll motion. But prior
to me zooming up, you'll notice Phil's stance, his heel and spine
are in line with another, no way he can support any incoming force
if Alain moves in. Try to be mindful of your center when you
begin to roll, if your YGKYM is off you'll definitely end up using
muscle to do your roll. Let's start with Phil first #1) Right
side bong sau, or as I tell Phil, penthouse bong sau, is just to
high, its good that his elbow is up, but he's putting too much
height on the elbow, which will cause tension in the shoulder,
pinching it inward. Also, by having the bong sau to high,
you'll notice he then won't be able to drill the bong sau in the
proper downward and forward motion. His left hand bong sau is
to far extended, breaing the 135 degree angle you should try to stay
close to when doing the roll, notice also when he does the roll that
the wrist pushes forward and straight, instead of the proper forward
and downward angle. Examining fok sau on his left side,
on the low part, notice his wrist tension, forcing his fingers to
point straight ahead every time his fok sau is on the bottom, he is
however not doing it on the right side low fok sau. Also, the
low fok sau on both sides, seems to be going for a ride, instead of
having more forward. In order to fix this, he needs to follow
the motion when Alain goes to the tan, and then arc his fok sau back
towards the center to create a slight stretch. The good
thing about Phil's roll is the mistakes are minor and correctable,
and if you notice how his hands do in fact work in sync with each
other to aim at the opponents center.
Alain's
roll #1) I've told Alain to watch this, and probably his only main
problem, when rolling with tan and fok sau, notice his roll.
The 2 arms are doing motion, but both are not working with each
other to drill into the center. All roll motion, whether
inside, outside gate or regular roll should always be focused at the
opponents center line. #2) While his bong sau motion is now at
the proper height and moving well, its lacking a slight stretch
motion you need each time you roll. This is not only with bong
but with all the hand motions each time you touch. #3) This is
something I haven't gone into detail about, but the higher fok sau
motion on both sides, while it rides the motion upwards, the angle
of the blade needs to be just slightly adjusted compared to the
lower fok sau, since now your dealing with the cutting edge motion
of the bong sau. If you watch Alain's high fok sau, while it
is aiming straight into the opponents center, if Phil were to push
hard with the bong sau, instead of having a cutting edge to stop the
drill motion, Alain's high fok sau would end up following it.
Roland and Phil
Let's just talk about Roland, but my
above critique of Phil's can be seen better now with his other
side. #1) Bong sau, need to be very wary, when dealing with
people who are taller that your bong sau doesn't rise up and now you
have the wrist at the high point instead of the elbow. Keep in
mind chi sao is development, so you should never really see Roland
and Joe chi sao with each other, in a rolling motion, coz each one
would be developing a bad habit coz of the height differnce.
Instead, they wanted to work out with each other, they would start
from an asking hands position and then do sticky hands after the gap
is closed #2) Tan sau, notice the tan sau, while it is
not flat, which is better then before, there's no finish through
motion that allows for the stretch and the stick. Because of that
unfinished motion, its easier to sneak punches through since there's
no blade to prevent the attack from moving in. #3) High fok
sau, if you watch the fok sau, now it is very noticeable that the
fok sau is going for a ride, and is not aware of were to stop and
aim at Phil's center. And, there's also some slight wrist
tension as well. On the low fok sau, notice also, while his
motion is going forward, he's stretching his fok sau to far out,
making for muscle tension. The 135 degree angle you start with
high fok sau is the same as the low fok sau. In addition,
watch the wrist tension as the fingers start pointing straight
at the end of the low fok sau motion.
Oscar and Roland
Motion creates forward energy, and
you can see in Oscar's roll motion, the extra unnatural emphasis
he's trying to put forward to get that drilling motion.
Remember, if you look at your SLT form all the motions are perfectly
designed if done correctly to have that forward drilling motion, any
further deviation or emphasis placed by you will lead to
tension. So key rule and this applies to everyone, don't force
forward intent. Now by Oscar going further out, his arms are
to far stretched out which will lead to tightness. Let's look
at the fok sau first #1) You can see, from high to low his fok sau
has wrist tension, and you can see at the end of each roll motion
that by doing this he can't release the energy going forward and
compensates for that by pushing forward. This is a common
mistake and easily correctable. #2) Tan sau - remember
your reference point is your SLT form, and when you deal with
people you make slight adjustments to the original zero point.
His tan sau roll motion isn't that bad, but its to flat almost
breaking the 135 degree angle and looking close to 150 degree, just
remember the stretch motion is just a little one, don't over stretch
the skin pull that occurs when you roll. All in all, Oscar's
motion is just an indication of more practice time rolling with more
people. Goal #1 should be just the roll, don't worry about
drilling power towards the opponent center, I would suggest the
slightest touch and see if you can control you own motion first and
foremost. Once that's achieved, then get into heavy roll
motion, this will help then develop elbow power.
Letroy and Ryan
Let's start with Ryan, he's in the
next 3 other chi sao rolls, but I'll just give one review.
Look how Ryan doesn't roll right away and gets in sync with Letroy.
That's an awesome way to begin, and I guess he's actually listening
when I yell at him. Notice how he makes sure everything is in
place and when he's ready he begins and starts dictating the
roll. This is very helpful also to Letroy who can benefit from
Ryan's correct positioning and start his roll in the right
form. Overall the main problem is while the motion is good for
Ryan in his chi sao motion, he puts that last second wrist tension
at the end of all his moves, once he can figure out to keep the
wrist relaxed fully like he does when he punches, his chi sao roll
will improve big time.
Letroy,
when he begins his roll with Ryan, look at his high left fok sau,
and how tense his wrist is causing his fingers to be
straightened. Letroy does somewhat relax it further
along when he rolls, but this is something he should be aware
of. Actually for that matter its common to see most people do
this, so don't feel bad about this bad habit. Now examining
his low left fok sau, see how far out his elbow is from his
chest. Remember in order to push the fok sau forward you do
that by sinking it down, not pushing the elbow further out.
Doing that kind of motion stretches both your arms out to far,
making you tight and tense. Main thing I can see with
bong sau and tan sau motion, its actually not bad. I should've
shot video of you rolling with someone else, to see if that's you
knowing how to do the motion or ending the motion coz Ryan was
putting his stuff in place. Regardless, if your aware of it,
that's good. Key thing is you need to release the motion, I
believe concentrate on doing that with your punch first, once you
got it with the punch you can easily translate it to your other hand
motions.
Damien and Ryan
Damien, some observations with the roll motion. #1) Tan sau, watch your roll motion in the
video, while the placement of your elbow is correct, notice how your motion doesn't fully
come out. Almost causing you to look jammed in, because of this, if you watch the end motion
of your tan, instead of going forward it actually rises up. All of which causes tension. #2)
Bong sau motion isn't that bad, its actually pretty good. But watch it at the top and towards
the end, its almost 98% finished and then the motion just stops, you don't see the stretch and you
don't see the release. Now mind you until you can release the motion in the punch, it'll be hard to
do it in the roll. Normally from my experience, its punch first then everything else has a domino
effect afterwards. #3) Fok sau from high to low isn't that bad, but you've got the wrist tension
from both levels. Something just to be aware about, since almost everyone suffers this problem in the
beginning and it takes awhile to get this to click. But, overall the fok sau motion isn't that far off, it
could probably be a little bit closer to your body, the elbow placement. But I believe your on the right track.
Remember figure the riddle of the punch release then you can get everything else in a snap.
Joe and Ryan
Joe, watch the fok sau on the lower part. Remember focus on the elbow pushing to the point of power,
and not having both control and power at the wrist. #1) Right side bong sau, notice in the video instead of your
elbow leading the surge forward, it almost appears like its flopping after your drill motion completes the bong
sau. How does this occur, that means instead of your elbow from tan sau position, initiating a forward and upward movement,
you can see that its immediately pushing off to the side, which is a major no no. If I were to hold my low fok sau
with muscle tightly, you would not be able to move your tan to the bong sau position, since your initial movement is not
coming forward to me. #2) Watching all the hands work together, the motion is there, but the release isn't. Now I can give
further insight since I rolled with you on Saturday, that the motion is still sorta tight, if you can put A to B and relax it
further I believe you can take a bigger jump in your roll motion, and then start working more on sticky ability and equalizing and
neutralizing the force. Overall I believe the bong sau is your least under developed motion and this
happens because
all your partners are short like me. So you never get a chance to use the bong sau at your normal full height. So i suggest
that you try to practice the motion in the form or single man
technique by yourself. This is easily correctable, but the release is what you need to do on the roll.
Thomas
solo roll
One of the more difficult things to
do when your a taller person is practicing your bong sau, since most
of us in the school are much shorter, guys like Ron, Thomas, Joe,
just to name a few, have less opportunity when rolling with us
shorter people to practice and develop the proper height for bong
sau. So, doing the roll solo is key and using a mirror helps
in making sure you learn to know what the zero point is for your
bong sau. Now watch Thomas roll, notice when he goes to the
left side bong sau, his body slightly tilts to the side as
well. Just like the punch you want to maintain the arms
isolated from the body. This is occurring coz he's bringing
the left side bong sau just a pinch to high. As for his tan
sau, he needs to keep it slightly flatter and work more on the
drilling motion when he drops down to tan sau. Thus, it needs
a little more sink when he transitions from bong to tan.