How are the two centre points connected? In the scenarios described in Part 1, the two points are aligned along a supposedly upright, straight spine. This is the most perceived picture. Indeed, this might have been the very important emphasis you have been receiving in your training so far! Nevertheless, let’s examine the last form of Biu Jee for an alternative perception.
The last form features the “bending” down of the upper body (hence the spine) followed by its “flipping” up, bringing along the two arms “swinging” to the fullest all the way to both sides then back to close up at your centre front. They alternate three times in a row.
As different from the previous scenarios, the spine is not kept upright straight – it curves downward then “reverse-curves” (the word explained later) upward. How can this be explained in connection with the emphasis of an upright straight spine serving as an axis? A plausible explanation based on centre points is proposed as below.
When associated with an axis, the spine’s “bending” and “flipping” don’t make sense because the expected axis can only give rotations in the horizontal plane. Decompose the axis into separate points that are free to move (rotate in varied directions), yet not bound by each other. The “bending” is then perceived as a forward “curving” movement composed by the many separate points rotating in an orchestrated way. The “flipping” can be similarly perceived, but as a “forward curving” rotating upward, not backward.
How is the above explanation linked to the upper and lower centres? To recap: the two centres are virtual points, not referring to any particular physical locations in the body (e.g. the solar plexus or the abdomen). Being “virtual”, they “represent” something, but are not really those something. Such representations belong to the operation of the mind (Idea), not that of the physical body. When there are many separate points to be “consciously” operated by the mind, the movement so resulted cannot be reflexive at all, not to say the hurdle of successfully executing the many “steps” pertaining to activate the varied points.
The two centres “represent” local parts of the body: the upper centre represents the rib cage up to the arms; the lower centre represents the pelvis down to the legs. Representation enables the mind to just move a representing centre in order to move the corresponding represented parts in the desired manner.
Refer to Diagram 1. When “curving” forward, the lower centre, representing the power base, supplies the power that curves the upper centre, which in turn curves the spine connecting the rib cage (and of course the arms) and the neck – power is being chanelled up to the arms and the head. That the mind just operates two virtual points makes the curving instant and smooth as willed.
Refer to Diagram 2. When “reverse-curving”, the two centres keep the forward curving, with the lower centre rotating the part of the curve (an arc) connecting to the upper centre upward, in the way that the upper centre is travelling upward, not backward. At the same time but separately, the upper centre is rotating the rest part of the curve gradually back to the upright position. The fact that the upper centre should be aimed upward instead of dragged backward is the critical success factor for this movement.
In the two diagrams, another centre point is indicated – the Neck centre point. This will be elaborated in Part 3 together with other questions arising from the above exposition. As for now, it serves to imply that “two” in Two-centre Operation is not a magic number nor a rigid rule for virtual-point conception. (To be continued…)
2015.12.29
IdeasWingChun 