Arte y espacios de militancia en México

he "Scooping the Moon from the Sea Bottom" (Hai Ti Lao Yue) exercise is one of the most physically demanding of the basic body conditioning exercises taught in Park's school. While this exercise will certainly help the practitioner develop a great amount of leg strength and flexibility, it is also designed to help the student learn how to rotate the body around its central axis on an inclined plane. While learning how to rotate the body around its center in an upright posture with the legs together was relatively simple in the fan chang exercises, it becomes much more difficult in this exercise because the body is in an extended "bow" stance. Rotating the hips correctly in this position requires a greater degree of hip flexibility and thus maintaining full body integration and coordination becomes more difficult. This exercise is executed as follows: 1) To begin the exercise the practitioner will assume the "guard" stance described in the previous chapter and as shown in photograph #1 on the next page.

2) Next the practitioner toes-out with the rear leg as the weight shifts back. The lower hand moves in towards the body's center with the palm up and the upper hand hooks in so the fingers are facing the body as shown in photo #2.

3) The upper (right) palm then turns over and circles to the right side of the body as shown in photo #3. The left hand remains in front of the chest with the palm facing up as shown in photo #3.

4) From here the body begins to drop down on the left leg as the right palm slides down the right side of the body. The palm is still facing up. The left

palm is still facing up and held close to the chest as shown in photo #4.

5) The body continues to drop down on the left leg and the right palm continues to slide along the right side of the body until is has extended out past the right foot as shown in photo #5. 6) From this position, the practitioner pushes off the left leg and the weight begins to transition to the right. As the weight transitions and the body begins to come up on the right side, the right palm turns over 360 degrees. Both palms are now still facing upwards and the right palm performs a scooping motion as if "scooping the moon from the sea bottom" as shown in photos #6 and #7. 7) The left leg continues to push until it has fully extended and the right palm has also extended out fully and is held up at eye level. Both palms are still facing up as shown in photo #8. Notice that the feet have pivoted on the heels and are now facing 45 degrees from the frontward orientation.

8) From this position the left palm pierces straight upward underneath the right arm and continues upward until it is fully extended as shown in photos #9 and #10.

9) Now the right palm pierces straight up and out underneath the left arm as shown in photos #11 and #12 and then again the left palm pierces straight up underneath the right palm as shown in photos #13 and #14. The palms remain facing up throughout these three consecutive piercing maneuvers.

When executing the three upward piercing movements with the palms, the practitioner concentrates on making this a full body movement.

Hai Ti Lao Yue

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Pa Kua Chang Body Training

Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4

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Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11 Photo 12

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The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang

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The "Scooping Moon From Sea Bottom" Exercise (continued)

The body rotates in its entirety around a line that is drawn from the back heel up through the crown of the head. The back leg rotates around its center from the ankle up to the hip. The hips rotate around the center of the pelvis and the shoulders move in unison with the hips. Beginners will typically move only the shoulders and arms when executing this movement. This is incorrect. The shoulders and hips remain aligned and thus to execute this movement correctly, the hip joints must be very loose and flexible.

10) After the left palm has pierced the second time, the left wrist bends and the fingers of the left palm point in towards the left armpit and the left palm descends down the left side of the body as

shown in photos #15 and #16. The movement is then repeated on the other side as shown in photo #16 through #27. The full exercise (both sides) is repeated for at least 10 to 20 repetitions.

Except for the 360 degree rotation of the palms when scooping up on one side or the other, the palms remain facing upwards throughout the exercise. Park recommends that students imagine that they are holding something in the palm during execution of the exercise as this imagery will help bring ch'i to the hands.

At first these movements are executed slowly. The student will want to concentrate on the correct body alignments and hip rotation. Later, the exercise can be performed at a greater speed

with the piercing movements of the palms being executed very rapidly.

"Scooping Moon From Sea Bottom" Variation

Another version of the "Scooping Moon From Sea Bottom" exercise can be practiced which is executed in the same manner, however, the practitioner does not bend down low when transitioning from one side to the other. This version is demonstrated in the photographs below and on the next page.

Instead of bending down into the low posture and then transitioning up into the extended bow stance as in the previous exercise, the practitioner performing this exercise will twist from one side to the other in the standard dragon posture stance. The footwork for this exercise is executed exactly as discussed in the footwork chapter when the "turnaround" footwork maneuver was presented. From the dragon posture (photo 1) the practitioner will begin to hook the lower hand

Pa Kua Chang Body Training

around the front of the body as in the previous exercise. However, instead of allowing the hand to turn under towards the armpit right away, the practitioner leads this movement with the elbow as shown in photo 3 below. One can imagine this movement blocking an attack to the ribs.

After the elbow comes back to the rib area, the hand then turns and curls under the armpit as shown in photo 4. From this position, the hand spears straight out as if to attack the opponent's armpit (see photo 5). The practitioner now executes the "turnaround" footwork while simultaneously allowing the palm to overturn as the feet change (see photo 6).

The practitioner will now execute the three piercing palm maneuvers as they were executed in the previous exercise (see photos 7 through 11). After executing three consecutive piercing palms, the practitioner transitions to the other side and repeats the exercise as shown in photos 12 through 21 on the next page.

Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4

Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8

The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang

Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11 Photo 12

Photo 13 Photo 14 Photo 15 Photo 16

Photo 17 Photo 18 Photo 19

Photo 20 Photo 21

The "Scooping Moon From Sea Bottom" Exercise Variation (continued)

Pa Kua Chang Body Training