[ben]

I try to see the circle and cross too, though frankly right now i'm trying to re-unify my body to the point of contact after a pretty significant structural change the sifu made for me at this workshop.

partner training: (may have missed some)

looping to pull in the three planes. - Sifu talked about the importance of the circle with center, and about the difference between "hardware" and "software". My understanding is that by hardware he means the circles inherent in the body at a certain shape, while software means the circle of movement which you propel at the point of contact.

2 variations of defending strikes - the first - take a shape that offers either your inside or outside for a strike, partner strikes, you cut to the elbow/shoulder (if punch is outside) or point to armpit (if punch is inside) - second - partner punches inside, you make contact and close to to the shoulder line, then to the horizontal plane in order to strike. We practiced this with only one hand, but Sifu demonstrated it with two hands/more freely. He also demonstrated why if you close all the way to the center instead of to the shoulder line you can't have constant attacking. (With all this work he encouraged us to start with far range, but showed us medium and close range. Something i didn't ask him about but observed was that at far and close range he used first section, at medium range he moved closer to second)

He also showed us how to use the circle with center to achieve an accurate point of application for fajin and we trained that a little. He also had us do sticky hands.

Sifu also showed us how to combine the throwing hands when a partner strikes in a more general way. for instance a punch comes in, i throw my left hand north outside-in to intercept/knock their structure, this clears the way for the right hand to throw inside out east/west to strike.

Will check my notes later and add any additional two person exercises I'm forgetting.