Combined Sparring Class

Jo Gao 助教 Erich Zink and Jo Gao 助教 Cassie Johnson spar.

Saturday we met up with our parent school New England Kung Fu in Oxford for another Combined Sparring Class.

The first hour is push hands 推手 (tuī shǒu). Push hands is Tai Chi sparring, a two-person test of reaction skills in which the student tries to use Tai Chi principles and techniques to disrupt their partner’s balance.

This month, my teacher Shifu 師父 Gary J. LaChapelle guided the class through push hands applications of Brush Knee Twist Step 搂膝拗步 (Lōu Xī Ào Bù) and Cloud Hands 云手 (Yún Shǒu), and then explained how the same concepts of controlling the partner’s body in push hands can be transferred over to sparring practice.

I love watching my students spar with their Kung Fu family from the parent school. It is a great opportunity for both groups of students not only to expand their skills by “touching hands” with new people, but to begin to get more comfortable with them. This increased level of comfort with new people while fighting leads to increased communication and understanding between partners while fighting, which in turn, helps both people push each other’s skills to higher levels, which is what reaction skills are all about.

I know sparring and push hands can be uncomfortable for some people. The thing is, Kung Fu (and yes, that includes Tai Chi), are fighting arts at the end of the day. It doesn’t mean that the student has to focus their attention on building skill in sparring, but if the student has no knowledge or skill in sparring, there’s nothing to set Kung Fu apart from other movement-based systems like dance or yoga. Not that there is anything wrong with dance or yoga - they’re wonderful - but we have to be honest with ourselves about what we’re doing.

I often tell my students, you can read all the books and watch all the videos you want about swimming, but at some point, you have to go in the water. It’s the same with fighting. Without sparring (or “pressure testing”) your understanding of the art is surface-level only.

I’m very grateful to Shifu Gary for taking his Saturday afternoon to help us all improve our skills, and I’m looking forward very much to the next one!

Photos are available on our Facebook and Smugmug pages.

— Shifu