Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sensei Strange on "Parting Wild Horses Mane"



Our buddy Sensei Strange produced this video in response to Tai Chi Chuan's "parting wild horses mane" a while back and is now re-introducing it to us.
I love the production quality he has, it makes my little videos look pretty crappy.
Here's a clarification on the difference in technique with the Aikido he demonstrates.
In Tai Chi Chuan, PWHM definitely rotates the waist throwing the opponent over your leg/thigh. The arm is typically under the opponent's arm. The rotation is the key, and you must be deep into the opponent's center. Strange does a great job at breaking the opponent's structure in his demo.
The curved arm position is called "Peng" or "Ward-off". He uses it correctly when his palm faces himself, with back of hand towards opponent.
When Strange uses his "Peng" arm to rotate or strike the opponent's head/face, it would be called "eyebrow mopping" in Chinese arts. It is particularly effective when used to turn the opponent's head/neck, where the head goes the body follows.
Likewise, if the projection is not over the leg in a rotating motion, and instead more linear, it would be more like "Slant Flying". In the previous Su Dong Chen video I posted he uses it more like that or with a shoulder strike..
It's fun to watch Strange flow through his motions, Aikido is beautiful to watch.

Here's some more of Su Dong Chen working the technique, note that he is using a linear projection, not rotating over the leg as in :parting wild horses mane".
Also note the hand strike set-up and the alternative take downs if things change:


And here's me and Zackey Chan doing a loop drill with this technique a few years ago:

3 comments:

Erik the Strange said...

In my view, whether the hand is on the head or the body, or the direction of throw it is all the same family of throws. The footwork and inter-body architecture dictate the connection and angles.

BTW I was doing everything super slow. I had a brand new student plus I wanted to show it so people could see what was going on.

Hope someone finds it useful.

Dojo Rat said...

Yeah, I know, my little demo from a few years back did not show exactly what I was trying to describe.
I loved your video and it is very informative-

Last thought;
If the arm is above or below the arm makes a big difference in technique. It's a matter of turning the body or turning the head.
Good stuff, thanks

Erik the Strange said...

See throw tomato, I throw Tomatoe.

Throws are 90 percent in the foot arrangements. All of the ideas presented are part of one family. I don't care head or body. I see the interaction from the relationship between centers. Everything else is fluff.