Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Wudang Dragon Sword

3b. Green dragon turns it’s body and plays in the water

Philosophical point this morning: Paying attention to moving forward and letting go of things that interfere with what we are trying to do. What we are doing matters, and how we come to the arts, how we develop our own character and abilities though the art is what we learn from practice. Something interferes, we move it out of the way so we can center ourselves for practice.

Review of the movements.

1. Knowing where the blade is, how you are holding it, how the sword moves.

2. Where it’s going, what you intend to do with it.

Close ups of how the sword is held and how it is moving in my hand. How to find play within the grip and to extend through the tip. Using the tip of the blade to fillet.

3. 青龙返身戏水势（面东）

3.1 仰身戏水

体右转后仰、面东。右手剑左插、右扎、前横斩戏水，而后，右 手剑下切后，内旋、带提于左肩侧向前斜洌、反撩。剑尖与左肩同高；左手剑指 置于腹前。

3.2 并步下劈

右脚向左脚弓处横跨震地成右并步。右手剑外下劈；左手剑指 扶右腕。

3.3 弓步刺剑

体左转、面东。右手剑向前平刺；左手剑后摆手心向下。

3. Green dragon turns it’s body and plays in the water

3.1 Turn the body and play in the water. Turn right and lean back, facing east. The right hand sword inserts (cha) at the left, stabs right, slices across the front to play in the wanter, then, the rignt hand sword cuts downward and back, rotates to the inside, with the sword at the same hight as the left shoulder; the left hand sword fingers are placed in front of the abdomen.

3.2 Level step (bing bu) and split. The right foot slides across horizontally to join the left foot and stamps down hard and changing to a right level step. The right hand sword splits to the outside and down, the left hand sword fingers support the right wrist.

3.3 Lunge step, stab. The body turns left, facing east. The right hand sword stabs forward stabbing level; the left sword fingers point to the back with the palm down.

Each week, I’ll cover one one of the sets. On Mondays (a), we start working with the movement. Tuesdays, I’ll go into more details (b). On Wednesdays (c), I’ll put what we have back into the form to make the connections.