Thoughts Before Blogging 3: Elbow and Kua

In Fu Zhong Wen's book, he always says to move the elbows here or there or, he would say to draw in the kua. This is extremely important i think as in Lan Que Wei(Grasp the Sparrow's Tail), for the arms, it is important not to place too much emphasis on the eventual position of the palm as that tends to segregate the movement of the body from the arms and can easily lead to the shoulders being hung up and not sunk.

Thus by placing emphasis on the elbow instead,
1. You can always ensure that the elbows and the shoulders are sunk.
2. You will not use your arm muscles to resist an incoming attack.
3. It is easier to deflect someone else's energy away by pulling back or moving the elbow forward.
4. Your body will be in the correct position to transfer the power from the body into your arms and hands.

By placing emphasis on the kua, you train the kua to be strong. Thus, as in the lu of Lan Que Wei(Grasp the Sparrow's Tail), you do not use the forward leg's muscles to push yourself back to the sitting position as this would compromise your safety if someone trips your forward leg. Thus , you should draw in your kua to move yourself to the backward, sitting position, and the forward leg changes from a full stance(Shi) to an empty stance(Xu) in a split second.