courtesy of

Ron Gatewood

I have tried many times to explain why pure power oriented students
do not grasp the value of flow, blending, etc, in other words the
higher levels of our Art. In fact, pure power is one of the lowest
forms of San Soo. I ran across this article that a Hung Gar Master
wrote that is right on point, you could take out the words Hung Gar
and substitute San Soo, his points are well grounded and the
principles fit almost 100%.
Please take the time to read it, some will be ready to understand
but
some may not.
RG

Much of what I've seen of Hung Gar supports the popular notion that
Hung Gar is an external martial art. This classification is a
misnomer and does not begin to characterize this traditional
multifaceted system. When my students exhibit Hung Gar, they are
often misunderstood and considered to be practicing a hybrid system.
Our use of natural strength is in conflict with what is perceived to
be strength in martial arts. However, taken to a higher level, Hung
Gar is both an internal as well as external martial art. In fact,
all
martial arts must be refined to the level of internal as well as
external to fully appreciate their practical application.

Just as hardness in the sense of stiffness is not what creates
external power, softness in the sense of flaccidity is not what
creates internal power. In fact, hard and soft are two extremes we
never want to reach. The external aspects of all martial arts must
be
guided by internal principles to develop explosive executions.
However, internal principles are not achieved simply by practicing
in
slow motion.

Too often, the hardness prevalent in Hung Gar comes from stiffness
resulting in brute force or dead strength. This is due to movements
being isolated. Isolation of movement is what we strive to overcome
at the higher levels. The internal aspect of all martial arts is
achieved when mind and body become integrated and movements become
totally connected with balance and strength and total body
coordination. It is not easy to see the soft side of Hung Gar at its
higher levels because the subtleties of the movements are
camouflaged
within their transitions. Softness comes from the ability to yield
to
movements through sequential coordination of body components. This
is
considered live strength, yielding and pliable. The body works
together as a connected unit, not as separate isolated movements.

All Hung Gar is noted for its bridges and low stances. There may be
slight variances in form sequence, but more often the difference is
in the execution of techniques. The strength and stiffness of
execution will vary in practitioners depending on their level of
understanding. Beginners view power as strength so they have
difficulty practicing a martial art without using strength. Because
beginners do not understand how to use their strength, their
movements are done with too much force and postures become stiff.
Their tendency to use excessive strength in the arm requires their
bodies to be rigid. This is reactive tension created to compensate
for the excessive force generated by the arm. In this rigid state,
the practitioner loses balance when stepping is incorporated. The
irony is that using excessive strength leads to stiffness which
becomes a hindrance rather than an asset in the execution of
technique.

Hung Gar has a history of hardness. The early martial artists were
vagabonds who traveled and learned from different teachers. They
tended to become attached to the hard side of the martial art
because
it was more easily attainable. Today's society is not much
different.
People want to learn things fast. By learning things fast, they
misinterpret strength and are misguided through their learning
experience. Hung Gar is not often practiced to the soft stage of
refinement because not everyone trains for a long period of time or
has the opportunity to study with the great masters. Taking martial
arts to more advanced, softer levels require time to develop muscle
memory and programming of the sequential events that underlie motor
skills. What most practitioners have attained is the hard or
external
level. The agility of footwork and the softness comes with years and
years of training and enough time to understand the principles of
Hung Gar.

The use of natural strength is contrary to our perception of power.
Power as brute force is more commonly accepted. However, once this
concept of hard execution is adopted, it is very difficult to change
until the methods change. And the methods can't change until the
understanding of the movement changes. At that point, the teacher
has
to offer guidance to soften the movements. Hardness can also be
learned through assimilation. If a teacher exhibits dynamic power,
then the students will pick up the hardness through mimicry without
understanding the true execution. This lack of understanding can
manifest itself into stiff execution and over time it becomes habit.
Breaking that habit is a process that takes even more time.

It's the training approach that makes the difference. The goal is to
attain a naturalness in the postures that is inherent in the
geometry
of one's skeletal makeup. Levers and fulcrums play an important role
in body mechanics helping to maximize the efficiency of the strength
used to create a force. Using natural strength, students develop
soft
movement without the stiffness that is apparent in many styles and
learn to create the same force without excessive strength. Once this
concept is understood, then the student is ready to evolve to the
next stage of development which follows the same process.

In traditional systems like Hung Gar, characteristics and principles
are built into the forms. The guidelines that control the
characteristics of the system are further governed by the principles
in martial arts theory enabling a practitioner to achieve a high
level of martial skill. Until the principles are absorbed into the
body and mind and become natural, the movements will be forced. The
founders of these styles had the insight and depth to create the
forms as a mapping of footwork and strategies and as a means of
preserving their systems. They are the textbooks of traditional kung
fu systems and equivalent to the precepts of the tai chi classics.

Many people practice form without knowing its true purpose. Built
into the form are imagery, fundamental principles and martial
guidelines and through the stages of refining the form, a student
evolves into the higher levels. The twelve bridges of Hung Gar
categorize the methods of the hand maneuvers. They are guided by
other principles in what is termed as the five coordinates: hand,
eye, body, waist and stance. These coordinates must work in unison
to
achieve a higher skill level. The summation of components, the five
coordinates results into total body movement, a concept that is more
evident in the internal systems, but is inherent in all martial arts
in their advanced stages.

The hard and the soft theories should be prevalent in all systems of
martial arts. At the higher levels where hard and soft meet the
distinction between external and internal cannot be detected.
Hardness and softness are not what appear on the surface. However,
hardness works even when it is not generated from natural strength.
But softness is ineffective without a deeper understanding of the
mechanics of the movement and the body's understanding of the
principles that guide it.

Principles are subjective through interpretation. If the
practitioner
is not at a level where the principle can be interpreted as a
concept
of integration and the unification of body components, the movement
remains stiff. When the principles are in place, the sequence of
postures in a form should be fluid. Fluidity comes from the linkage
of postures through the transitions. The postures may be similar,
but
the transitions are varied, all of which are guided by martial arts
principles. Any practitioner who wants to seek the soft level has to
analyze and relearn many of the movements. Taking a single form to
its highest level is how a student achieves in martial arts.

Within hardness there is softness and within softness there is
hardness. Ultimately there should be a balance of hard and soft.
Soft
controls the hard, never the other way around. In order to execute a
movement effectively, the practitioner has to be relaxed. A movement
has to be balanced with relaxation and contraction of opposing
groups
of muscles. When the movement is rigid there is tension that creates
imbalance and the movement is stiff. When the movement is soft you
can direct the movement better and focus on developing the hard.
Hard
not as being rigid, but being strong and explosive. Softness does
not
mean that movements are done slowly or completely flaccid. In our
Hung Gar training, we try to eliminate that conflict with the use of
hard and soft executions. The soft should become more apparent and
the focus should not be purely on developing dynamic power.
Developing good transition with sound principle and creating correct
body alignment allows the practitioner to use innate strength and to
use it efficiently. It is more difficult to make the transition from
hard to soft, but once you have developed softness, you can never be
rigid.

There is no secret formula in finding the softness in Hung Gar. The
soft stage evolves over time through the understanding of the
guidelines and principles of a traditional system. Fundamental
guidelines and principles are the true differences between what is
traditional and what is eclectic. Hybrid systems are created when
complex concepts and theories are extrapolated from traditional
systems and simplified. In their fragmented and eclectic state, they
do not contain the depth of information found in whole traditional
systems. The knowledge gained in a traditional system taught by a
qualified teacher is boundless because evolution is endless. You
constantly discover and reinforce your understanding of what is
attainable in martial arts.