Gather Step/Ci Attack and Walking the Circle

We tried three new techniques in jian practice today that begin to open up our footwork and give us movement during the fight.

First, we practiced adding footwork by using the gather-step/Ci technique. When standing at the ready, roll your weight forward onto your front foot, bring your rear foot up to where your front foot is, then place your rear foot down and step forward into a lunge with your front foot while executing the double-handed Ci strike. This is basically the inverse-advance-lunge from fencing but with a more powerful thrust.

To counter this, we tried two techniques from the Yang form.

The first counter is to shuffle sideways and then execute the Little Dipper. When the opponent lunges at you as in the move above, going deeply enough so that a simple yield will not suffice, shuffle step left by steping first with your rear leg and then by bringing your right leg in to step down next to your left. While doing this, gather your sword arm to you by using Dai. When the opponent's attack has missed wide, step forward onto your right foot then your left while sweeping the blade back, down then up to cut into the opponent's extended arm, 45 degrees to his line of attack. This is equivalent to move six of the Yang form: Little Dipper.

The second counter starts the same way as the previous one with a quick shuffle to the left with a gathering of the stance and sword. Beginning with the right foot, walk a circle clockwise around your opponent while thrusting into your opponent's body with your blade, palm up, blade flat, and tip turned slightly to the right to dig into your opponent's body as you circle. This move is similar to walking the circle in Bagua, and is much like move 11 of the Yang Form: Wasp Enters the Hive.

When you've practiced, you can step left and instead of bringing your right foot to your left and stopping there, just swing the right foot in a crescent, in toward your left but then immediately forward to conduct either of the two counters listed here in one flowing movement.

Personal Note: I got to spar Stephen using his home-made basket hilt longswords(?). He fought using one handed German techniques while I tried to stay within my Jian techniques. I found the use of distance and height sensibilities quite workable in the duel, and discovered the circle walking to be extremely effective. There were a number of times I traded hits, where I scored a body hit while blocking a cut with my left arm. Without a shield device in a real match, I may have lost my hand, but if I had a battle scabbard... maybe not!