Thread: Bowstring Power
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Old 02-18-2012, 08:15 AM   #14
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
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Re: Bowstring Power

Quote:
Jason Casteel wrote: View Post
I always enjoy reading how other people take this stuff and relate it in a way that works for them, very nice. I like what Lee added, because if left as is it might give the impression of one big build up into one big release, which is not how I've understood it. Releasing the bowstring simply results in a buildup in another direction. The bow and string should never go slack. Of course that's also a higher level and one I'm not sure you can get too without first feeling and grasping the buildup and release in a more singular manner. Being able to do that and still manage all of the other things that happen in contact with another person is such an interesting study, true budo indeed.
Yes. I sense that this power works in every direction. Think of the violin string vibrating powerfully as the bow pulls it, then pushes it. It's constantly relating to the constantly changing force put upon it with either push or pull and it negotiates the change from push to pull with perfect timing, exactly in relation to the moment when the bow stops moving in one direction and begins to move the other way.

The string receives the change without need to readjust itself in any way. But think of its actual movement.

If you took a magnifying glass and closely observed the actual movement of the string, I think it would be six-directional movement. I think you'd find a sine-wave undulation along the length of the string, which would be constantly regenerated as the bow continued to pull or push against the string. Away from the longitudinal axis of the string, the sine wave peaks and troughs are going to be expressing in the other four directions (into the face of the instrument, out from the face of the instrument, left across the face of the instrument and right across that face) as well as every degree of direction between those.

In the first post on this thread, I only wanted to bring out the very basic form of the idea of bowstring orientation and tuning and a very basic example (which strikes me as more advanced every time I think about it)--the roll-back sequence in tai chi.

I actually popped a guy back about five feet with that movement one time and it felt like I didn't do anything. I had the strong impression that it was something that "happened" between us. But I didn't know how to "make" it happen. I was not normally that effective. To me, at least, in martial arts training, I don't want methods that sometimes work but I don't know why. The IS/Aiki discussions have helped me get a look inside those invisible relationships that allow that kind of thing to happen.

So I sensed in the first post that the bowstring power doesn't only operate in a single direction and it's not directly dependent on up/down posture or an expendable "release" that must be replinished, but just to get the basic idea down where it can be examined, I made a simple illustration. Comments like yours are just what I hoped to draw.

Thanks.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

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