Training for Sparring
by Master Chen Zhao Kui

(translation by Liang Bai Ping, student of Yang Wen Jing, who in turn trained with Chen Zhao Kui for 20-plus years)

[borrowed from a thread on the www.EmptyFlower.net forum. December 4, 2007   I have heard my teacher, Master Alex Dong, speak of these things many times]

Train Hard, but not to Death; Train Cleverly, but not to Cheat

Fighting outcome is largely determined by courage. However, courage alone doesn't work. Top quality sparring skills are indispensable. A brave fighter with first-rate skills is a tiger with wings.

In training, we are supposed to be coordinated and flexible in every single move of the forms. we must be very familiar with the moves. We should be able to discharge energy like an automatic weapon. A strike should take the shortest path. It must be fast, powerful, fierce, and accurate. It takes such qualities to handle a strong opponent. Training hard is the only way to acquire those qualities. Emphasis is placed on moving fast and slowly, striking like steel and maneuvering like water, closing and opening, being relaxed and fluid and bouncing and shuddering.

Emphasis on slow moves only leads to slow strikes which an opponent can counter easily. But emphasis on fast moves alone makes it difficult to feel the path of your energy and makes it easy to strike along a longer path than necessary. Being fast refers to the speed which is built up through familiarity of the energy path. It is a speed without loss of quality.

Emphasis on water-like maneuvering alone results in weak strikes that present no threat to an opponent. Striking like steel means the steel-like quality reflected in your bouncing and shuddering which comes from total relaxation, which are also a sign of the water-like motions.

The above examples show that it is necessary to acquire a quality that readily shifts from top speed to slow speed, transforms from hardness to softness, from heaviness to lightness, and vice versa. This quality should be at your disposal at will without any loss or restrictions.

This quality doesn't come easily. It comes from years of hard training. However, hard training means clever training, otherwise you will train yourself to death. The goal of training must be clearly defined. We must not be like Beijing opera stars who present a spear dance. Flashy displays like that are for show, but are useless in function.


Your Advantage Against Their Disadvantage

After a reasonable mastery of sparring techniques, you should specialize in one or two techniques, the exact ones will be defined by your build, stamina, reflexes, and other factors. For example, a tall person should put emphasis on Tsai (Cai), or plucking, and Lieh (lie), which means splitting or perhaps "intercept and shudder." His strikes should be like cutting open a mountain, which means they must be very heavy.

A short person should mainly practice shoulder, elbow, and leg techniques in order to attack the lower part of the opponent. He must be fast and agile. The energy of his strikes must be integrated, fluid, and elastic. He should use the strategy of Shan Zhan (avoiding the brunt). In Taiji classics there is a saying, "Avoiding the brunt renders useless a power that can pull up a mountain." This strategy is most applicable to short people.

For the powerful, emphasis should be on Tsai (Cai), Lieh (Lie), and Chou (Zhou). Strikes should be so powerful that the first strike eliminates all possible attacks.

For the agile, emphasis should be on fake moves. The opponent should be tricked in any way possible. Then the opponent should be hit with fast moves.

For those with slow reflexes, emphasis should be on defense, i.e., when the opponent strikes, the strikes should be blocked and then countered.

Remember only specialization in one or two techniques ensures overcoming the opponent's disadvantage with your advantage.

But specialization alone doesn't mean victory. You must learn how to use it. You should be good at hiding your specialization and taking the opponent by surprise. It's a good idea to send a wrong message to the opponent by exposing your weak points through fake moves and then taking advantage of the opponent's miscalculation.

For example, let's assume that you are good at leg techniques and fast in your footwork. Your opponent is shorter. First make it easy for your opponent to attack your lower part, which is most probably what he has in mind. But the instant he is in the trap, you can use a leg technique which momentarily makes it impossible for him to escape. The rule of thumb is that the genuine and fake moves should complement each other so the opponent has no way to tell which blow is genuine and which kick is a fake. Naturally, you yourself should know.


Attack at the Softest Point

In sparring, try to be observant and quickly detect the opponent's weak points. Only by doing so can we boost our confidence and come up with a good idea to use our advantage against his disadvantage (this is the same as "getting to know your opponent"). But if you fail to achieve this, you will get nervous, lose confidence and attack without a plan, exposing your own weak points, and eventually losing the fight. The key to detecting the opponent's weak points is to find them in his build, stamina, and reflex at the first few contacts. After this you can decide on the appropriate strategy.


Avoid Being Passive

In war, the priority is to wipe out the enemy, to preserve oneself is only secondary. Only by defeating the enemy can one effectively preserve himself. For example, your opponent is taller and moves fast. To make things worse, you are not as good as he is. Obviously, you are at a disadvantage. If you decide to handle the opponent by putting up a defense, you will give him more initiative, letting him take full advantage of his strong points. The outcome cannot be anything but certain defeat. So from the very beginning you should attack first without a warning and from all directions. Every strike should be fast and powerful, leaving him no chance to counterattack and making it impossible for him to use his advantages. Then you may possibly turn the situation around and win a victory from a very likely defeat.


Make Noise in the East; Attack in the West

To assure a victory in sparring you must lure the opponent, confuse him by sending a wrong message and take him by surprise. This is an important method of turning a disadvantage into an advantage.

It means a fake to make a noise in the East...the real strike is in the west. To make the trick work, you should hide the genuine attack within a fake one to make the opponent believe it is a real threat. If your fake attack doesn't look real, your genuine one will fail, also. For example if your left strike is a fake and the right one is real, then you should do everything possible to attract the opponent's attention with your left strike, taking away his right defense, then delivering a fast strike from the right.

In order to mislead successfully, we have to practice fake attacks for certain parts f the opponent's body, to practice all strikes so that they travel along the shortest path and along the smallest circles. We are not supposed to give a telltale sign with our facial expression. These signs will warn the opponent and may result in a surprise attack by the opponent. On the other hand, we can use the signs to confuse the opponent. For example, the first time your look at the left but strike from the right, then the second time you can look at the right of the opponent but strike from the right. The opponent, after tasting the first fake strike, will think the potential strike will come from the left this time. But he may get a punch from the right. This is what we call, "attack where there is no defense."

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