Touch your right palm to your heart. Then take your heart and offer it to your training partner. Your hand is positioned higher than your elbow.

Your training partner offers you various responses such as :-

a) He pushes your offered right hand back to your chest

b) He pushes your right hand to your left side

c) He pushes your right hand to your right side

d) He pushes your right hand up to your face

e) He pushes your right hand down

How did you respond to this pressure test?

Did you stiffen on receiving the pressure exerted by your training partner’s push?

Or did you automatically and naturally bend like the willow branch with the pressure and then snaps back an appropriate response?

If you play the single hand exercises of 6-Blocks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS a lot your hand will respond like the willow branch.

Oh, did you notice anything about the pressure tests? It is basically mapping out the movement route of the 6-LH.

If your hand is still stiffening put yourself on the movement diet below :-

1) Use zigzag stepping.
2) Right foot step diagonal
3) Perform single right hand 6-Blks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS
4) Next left foot steps diagonally
5) Now perform the single left hand 6-Blks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS
6) Keep stepping forward, keep practicing
7) You can also take a step back and do the single hand exercises

Bored with the same old sequence? Try practicing with Version 2 of 6-Blks, 6-LH and 3-WS.

To train your hand to move even better, play Version 1 and Version 2 of 6-Blks, 6-LH and 3-WS one after another.

Or simply reorder the sequences. Try starting with 6-LH Version 1, then 6-Blks Version 2, etc.

With enough practice your hand will respond like the willow branch.

Next step, try playing single contact hands using 6-Blks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS.

So now you know 6-Blocks, right?

The sequence as it stands is (let’s call this Version 1) :-
6-Blks-1
6-Blks-2
6-Blks-3
6-Blks-4
6-Blks-5
6-Blks-6

Now try practicing it in an reordered sequence (Version 2) :-
6-Blks-1
6-Blks-6
6-Blks-5
6-Blks-3
6-Blks-2
6-Blks-4

If you are really familiar with Version 1 you should be able to pick up Version 2 within half an hour.

Go through it a few more times and in the next hour you should be able to do it easily.

By night you should be able to do Version 1 followed by Version 2 without hesitating.

By end of the week you should be able to move faster without missing a beat.

The whole point here is not to actually learn a new sequence but to teach your mind to break out of a fixed sequence.

For example, Version 2 could very well look like the sequence below (we will call this Version 3) :-
6-Blks-3
6-Blks-6
6-Blks-1
6-Blks-2
6-Blks-4
6-Blks-5

After a while you will find that during application of technique you can move to any of the other 5 blocks from whichever block you are in. At this point, you can say that you have gained competency in the 6-Blocks.

Later, when you add on the other hand to do a two-handed version of 6-Blocks this will become clearer.

The first step to competency begins with the first repetition.

Some folks like to keep count of the number of repetitions. I prefer to just practice whenever and wherever I find the opportunity.

The more you practice, the more familiar you are with the technique.

The more familiar you are with the technique, the easier it is for you to refine it.

Familiarity is not just a function of theoretical understanding, it is a function of the feel.

Certain things you can only feel with the passage of time. If you don’t begin today, you will never get anywhere, never feel much beyond the surface level.

Practice is simple. Just. Do. It.

One drawback of learning Chinese martial arts the traditional way is…. Wait, there is really no traditional way of learning it. How it is taught depends on the teacher.

I should say a common problem with learning CMA is that some teachers do not provide explanations on why they teach a certain way or what we are supposed to learn, to understand, to get from their way of teaching.

For example, I learned the Dong family version of the Yang style form as taught by my teacher, Master Yap, and then practiced it for a long time. He basically taught one key principle and its variation which is to be incorporated into the form. From there the principle is to be used in the techniques when we do push hands.

What Master Yap did not tell is that if we practice that same form over and over again over many years we get to a point where we can play the form in different ways i.e. moving from a fixed way of moving to a freer way of moving.

I term this way of playing R.I.M. as in Reorder, Insert, Mix. What this means is that you can play the form by reordering the sequences or throwing in a technique in between two techniques that were in the original arrangement.

If you want to, you can throw in techniques from other styles. If you play these other styles techniques with Tai Chi flavor a viewer might not be able to tell that it is not a Tai Chi technique.

This is not being different for its own sake. It is a check on your understanding and to see if you are a slave to the form or you have broken out of the constraints of the form.

As the Tai Chi form is a very long sequence of movements trying to learn to R.I.M. is challenging. However, I find that I could teach this idea easily in 6-Blks, 6-LH and 3-WS.

Reorder Example Using 6-LH

Normal sequence
6-LH-1
6-LH-2
6-LH-3
6-LH-4
6-LH-5
6-LH-6

Reordering sequence
6-LH-3
6-LH-4
6-LH-5
6-LH-2
6-LH-1
6-LH-6

Reorder Example Using 3-WS

Normal sequence
3-WS-1
3-WS-2
3-WS-3
3-WS-4
3-WS-5
3-WS-6

Reordering sequence
3-WS-4
3-WS-5
3-WS-1
3-WS-2
3-WS-3
3-WS-6

Mix Example Using 6-Blks, 6-LH, 3-WS
6-Blks-1
6-LH-3
6-Blks-6
3-WS-4
6-Blks-5
6-LH-1
6-LH-6

This practice is not cast in stone. It is a simple and fast method to teach your hands to move quickly and freely with minimal hesitation. It allows you to pick up a range of responses within a short time of practice.

This is only the beginning of the journey. Reflexes will still have to be trained, range and positioning understood, footwork mastered, power added in and developed training responses to a variety of attacks.

In GM Wei’s Tai Chi there is a practice which involves two contra spirals when mobilizing the arm to strike.

The principle of contra spirals can be likened to hand wringing water from a wet cloth. You wring the cloth by turning the cloth in a clockwise direction in one hand while the other hand twists in the opposite direction. This will produce two spirals turning in opposite directions.

We adopt this principle of two spirals to rotate the arm to boost its power. Since our arm is not a flexible as cloth we cannot emulate the wringing motion exactly.

However, rotating the straight punch by the example of cloth wringing can produce two contra spirals. Its just a matter of trial and error to work this out and put it into practice.

A common exhortation is to put one’s body weight behind the punch because of the formula F = mA.

Another popular advice is to rotate the fist when punching.

For a beginner learning to punch involves being familiar with how to move and then trying out the punch on a heavy bag.

Once familiar with the macro aspect of the movements he can next turn to the micro aspect to refine the movements further.

We can begin with how to rotate the fist. Rotating the fist sounds simple. Punch and rotate the fist just before impact. A simple experiment can show that adding a rotating can add power to the punch.

Try punching your left palm with your right fist without rotating the fist. Put some resistance into your left hand. While your right fist can punch hard it won’t move the left hand as much.

Next, try the same experiment with a rotation of the right fist when punching. What do you feel? Stronger impact? Or the same as without rotation?

Rotating the fist is an easy part of improving the punch. Once you get the hang of rotating the fist you can next work on the entire arm from the shoulder to the fist as the first part of the study on how to turn, twist, rotate and spiral the entire body to support the punch.

The five major strikes (5-MS) that we practice are :-

1) Straight Punch
2) Backfist
3) Hook
4) Sweeping Punch
5) Stabbing Punch

We practice (1) to (4) moving to the left or right while :-

1) Shifting laterally
2) Moving forward diagonally
3) Moving back diagonally

For this practice we use the bow-and-arrow stance.

For (5) we practice moving up and down in a side horse stance. The side horse stance can be high, mid or low.

To shift between the bow-and-arrow stance and side horse stance we use a transition method that we term the shifting body footwork.

To begin the practice we should spend some time to practice just the shifting from side to side, then diagonally forward and back. Pay attention to the turning of the body.

Once familiar with this we can turn to the practice of the Straight Punch. There are four variations of the Straight Punch but for beginners we focus on only the use of the 9 o’clock fist (commonly known as horizontal fist).

Practice the Straight Punch with big open movements to correctly bring forth the power by opening up the body. We can progress to being able to deliver a continuous barrage of straight punches once we are familiar with the movement. Speed will also come with familiarity.

The training can be enhanced with the use of iron locks to train power. Once you put down the iron locks your arms will feel light and you will be able to punch faster and harder. To be able to hit without injuring your hand some conditioning is necessary whether by hitting a heavy bag or doing iron palm conditioning. You can also condition your forearms and shins.

The next step is to train with a partner who can hold pads for you to strike, work on your range, reflexes and how to apply the Straight Punch.

Apply the above training to the rest of the four major strikes. Learn to string the 5-MS to form different sequences for entering, using the right technique for the right range, keeping up a barrage of attacks from different angles, defending and counterattacking.

In the old days when we learn an art, we don’t expect to become an expert unless we train regularly for up to 10 years.

Then Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the 10,000-hour rule to becoming an expert. Later I learned that there were more to it than just putting in 10,000 hours.

When I learned iKali Tuhon Apolo stressed that we need to practice for 10,000 repetitions to have a basic grasp.

Last year I read Rickson Gracie’s book “Comfort in Darkness” where he mentioned that he just practiced instead of counting the hours or repetitions.

Which approach is the best?

I don’t like to keep count of hours or repetitions because they tend to distract me. I only learned to count in iKali because I was intrigued by how I would keep losing count when trying to keep track of the techniques and repetition when doing the left and right sides. I could see why learning to count is important, especially when leading a class.

For me a more important question is how to accelerate one’s learning? Is it just a question of number of hours put in, the number of repetitions, or just keeping doing until you make it?

If you are learning something for self-defence then obviously the need to train for 10,000 hours or 10,000 repetitions can be daunting unless you do not have to work or fanatical enough to put in the training.

Consider that you practice for 2 hours a day, the sum would work out to 10,000 hours / 2-hour per day = 5,000 days / 365-days in a year = 13.7 years.

What if you practice for 8 hours? 10,000 hours / 8-hour per day = 1,250 days / 365-days in a year = 3.42 years. That’s faster but how many of us can really put in these hours.

What about if we focus on repetitions instead? What if we just put in various repetitions per day? These look more attainable :-

10,000 / 100-rep per day = 100 days (about 3.3 months)
10,000 / 1000-rep per day = 10 days

This so much more better. I think anyone can easily put in 100 to 300 reps per day. I once completed 10,000 repetitions over a few days. I had planned to do it over a week but I knew that if I did not get it over quickly I could end up not completing the target. The exercise I did for this 10,000 repetitions comprise :-

2 basic knife thrusts
2 basic knife slashes
2 basic movement of the non-knife hand

That’s basically 6 movements. When you consider that the movement is basically just thrust, slash, non-knife hand movement for the left and right side it is basically just 3 movements. The difference is if one side the movement is with palm up then the other side is palm down.

So that’s my own data. Based on my experience it is possible to get a good grasp of 6 movements with 10,000 repetitions.

Now I want Paul to learn 6 new movements but he is daunted. With the work he has put into practicing the 6-Blocks these new movements which I dub the 6-LinkingHands would be a walk in the park. For the learning of 6-LH this is what I think :-

Do it 100 times look clumsy.

Do it 1,000 times look better.

Do it 10,000 times look like advanced student.

Do it 100,000 times look like expert.

What does this translate to in terms of learning? Making an educated guess Paul could actually learn and attain basic competency is doing the 6-LH in a day. How many repetitions to put in? My estimate :-

100 repetitions to remember the sequence.

1,000 repetitions to eliminate the hesitation when performing.

10,000 repetitions to have a feel for the movement.

This does not mean that he can apply the 6-LH. Its to bring him to a point where he can move towards the real work of refining, throwing out excess movement, imagining the application as if its real, adding the tempo, the power, the body movement, breaking and reordering the sequence, inserting the 6-Blocks, then the movement of the other hand.

Thereafter (or at the same time), if he has a partner he can go through the applications to help learn the 6-LH better.

In conclusion, what seems difficult to learn or takes forever to learn is really not so once you analyze how to learn efficiently and effectively.

There are a number of videos on NGK out there. Most of them shows the China or Taiwan versions.

By comparison, there are not as many videos of the Malaysia version out there.

Below are two videos showing the 1st public form of NGK. The name of this form is Kum Kong Bo (金剛步) in Cantonese. The name translates to Vajra (Kum Kong) Footwork (Bo).

This performance is like what my teachers’ performance looked like back in the day. I like this performance because there’s expression of purpose, control and power in the movements.

Here’s another performance. No comments necessary.

It should be remembered that Kung Fu is not just putting on a nice uniform and waving the hands about. There’s certain standards of performance to inform whether a practitioner has met the minimal standards that characterizes the unique flavor of the respective style.

While Paul is revising the 6-Blocks to bring his physical movements up to speed I have been giving thought to how to accelerate his learning of the 7-Points Dotting Hand.

A younger student can take the time to learn but there is no time to lose for a much older learner.

The 7-Points single hand sequence is the first step towards learning the 13-Points double hands sequence. This is because in the 13-Points one hand is basically performing the 7-Points plus a few more movements whereas the other hand is executing complementary movements.

And then of course there is the point about not being enslaved by a form but to learn the form to free oneself. This is where careful learning of the 7-Points is important. Once the point about replacement and insertion is understood then the basic framework of 7-points can be used in many ways, in sequence, out of sequence, rearranged sequence, etc.

Traditionally NGK learning begins with understanding what the body configuration and structure is like. In the structure lies the lesson of how to relax and suddenly tense to generate shocking power.

Learning how to do the static postures is the key to learning body structure. The entire sequence of static postures explores different positions in which one can generate power, mostly obvious but some hidden.

There is also a way one can enhance and possibly accelerate this learning by using an external aid. This aid can help you to feel how your body is to move in the phase between the relaxing and sudden tensing of the body to bring forth the power.

The next step is to learn to do the power generation when performing a technique. There are 15 core techniques that are to be learned but one can select a few representative techniques to study this.

Once the foundation is laid then one can begin the study of the 7-points.