Critical Distance

Seeking critical distance can require some fancy footwork.

In Chinese martial arts, we sometimes refer to the range at which our opponent can reach us as critical distance.  At the surface, it's pretty simple - if you stay far enough away from your opponent, they will be unable to hit you.  But the idea becomes more complicated when your opponent closes in.  Your opponent may have critical distance with their leg, but not with their hands.  Or, if you are really close together, the legs may be unable to reach their targets, but the hands can.  As you become more experienced in sparring, you learn how to evaluate critical distance and where the potential threats can come from.

School Closings

In my last post, I noted that we would be closing OSW for the time being in order to help everyone maintain social distancing.  While this does seem to be the gold standard for the prevention of communicable disease, there is some mixed messaging out there.  Yesterday, I received an email from one of our kids' schools which included the following:

"The Chester County Health Department (CCHD) is not currently recommending that schools or organizations preemptively close as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The reason they are not recommending school closures at this time is because:

• Children have not been shown to be a high risk group for serious illness from this virus. As much as possible, children should be allowed to carry on with their education and normal activities. 
• Closing schools may not be effective because some children may congregate anyway at other locations therefore not reducing risk. 
• Closing schools may result in children staying home with alternative caregivers, such as elders, who are more vulnerable."

I want to address this point by point, while first acknowledging that the CCHD is trying to do its best at keeping people safe, and is doing so at a time of uncertainty about how COVID-19 spreads, its case fatality rate, and how bad it could be.

Kungfu Pandemic

In my other life, I write academic papers.  Usually, they have to do with clinical biomechanics; occasionally, the topic is growth curves; and once in a very long while, they might actually have something to do with martial arts.  I haven't written one of those martial arts papers in a while.  More and more often regardless of the topic, they involve the use of some pretty fancy statistical analyses. In this other life I tend to rub elbows with doctors of all sorts, and at times, I even have ventured into the area of public health.

In so doing, I've encountered all manners of models that describe how things work.  We've made mathematical models of how people grow, how gun violence propagates, and even how people walk.  So in a number of ways, I'm no stranger to how epidemiology works.  In fact, I often take an active professional interest in what people are doing to model data and better understand how the world around us works.  More on this below the fold.

Life after Hip Repair

This post has been a long time coming, not because I haven't been practicing or teaching, but because I've been out of time. When I'm not teaching martial arts, I am teaching physics, or doing research in clinical orthopedics, or spending time with my family, especially as the kids are getting older.

My surgery took place on November 21, 2013 at an outpatient center. My surgeon, Victor Kalman was fantastic. I went in with my wife, Meg, was prepped within 20 minutes, and within another 10-15 minutes was wheeled into the OR. I met the staff, climbed onto the table, and about an hour and a half later (my memory is fuzzy), woke up in recovery with two band aids on my hip. They had repaired the loose bit, and micro-abraided the articular surface of the acetabulum to help form a replacement layer of cartilage.

Meg drove me home shortly thereafter. The pain was not unbearable over the next week: I took a couple extra strength tylenol twice daily for about seven days. In fact the worst day of recovery was one week later during Thanksgiving dinner when well-meaning souls kept insisting that they could help me move my leg. I was back in at Penn State Brandywine teaching physics from crutches about 10 days after surgery (yes I drove), and directing kungfu and taijiquan classes the same week. I did PT three times a week for the next 8 weeks, and was back to very basic martial arts at the start of January. Bandwork and clamshells became my favorite exercises. I did a load of walking and cycling to normalize my gait. Were I to do it over again, I would have stayed on crutches a few more days until my gait was more normal.

In any event, from January, it took something like two or three months before I felt like I was 80%. In the next video (Yi Lu Mai Fu - July 30, 2014) you can see that I have most of my range of motion back. However, there's some hesitation in the movements.

By October 15, 2014, I'm feeling probably 97%, but there are still some hitches in my movement. Here's Lian Huan Tui from that time.

The last 3% came hard. Running felt better than before the surgery, but I couldn't do more than three miles without the left hip or right knee hurting. Something was still not right. Finally, over the last year, I started doing elliptical motion machines almost daily including on running days. Things seemed to gel, and everything seemed more aligned than previously. I could do distance again (which for me, these days is about 5-6 miles). Jumping seemed not just easier, but I felt like I didn't have to pay the piper the next day.

Here's Yi Lu Mai Fu again more recently (May 14, 2016). You can tell there is little hesitation, the motion is smoother and stronger.

My hip sometimes bothers me still. If I don't stretch the iliopsoas daily, I can feel it. But I would definitely go back and do the surgery again if given a choice.

Thoughts on martial arts injuries pre labral repair

For the last several years, I've had some on-again off-again low back pain variously diagnosed as sacral-iliac (SI) instability, or lumbo-sacral (LS) instability.  So every year I go into PT for a few weeks, straighten things out and go on with life.  This time, it was pretty clear there was a deeper root cause, and a couple of months ago, I was diagnosed with a labral tear of the left hip. By this point, everyone involved (PTs, doctors, etc) realized that the tear had been the cause of the other symptoms and that something more than physical therapy was needed to straighten things out.  An arthrogram MRI and orthopedic consult later, I was scheduled for surgery to repair the tear.

Figure 1: Looking up the leg.  The tear is the thin disconnected section on the lower left of the hip joint.

How common is this injury among athletes?  Fairly common, although it's difficult to get percentages.  Athletes who are involves in martial arts, running, dance, gymnastics, and yoga are often at risk for such injuries.  What's in common?  Either an extreme range of motion or a repetitive range of motion.  The thigh bone may then contact the outer portion of the acetabulum (hip joint socket) and create either a cam or pincer lesion which then saws through the labral cartilage.  This, in turn, destabilizes the hip and causes lower back issues.

Chinese Wushu and other martial arts are known to promote longevity due to the physical conditioning of the body, yet many participants often have to leave off practice as they get older because of injuries suffered during practice.  The two ideas are a bit hard to reconcile.  How is it that something that is so good for you can also be so bad?

An answer that we sometimes tell students is that you'll only get hurt if you're doing it wrong.  This should be rephrased to: "you'll only get hurt if you are doing it wrong for you."  In this age of large commercial schools, and competitions with compulsory type forms, we often try to bang students into a specific mold rather than finding the variation of our martial art that works for the student.  We also don't always recognize that at the extremes of competition, we place a great deal of stress on the body and it is very easy to get injured.  I remember an old wushu friend of mine, Bobby DeSario, telling me that when he visited Beijing, he noticed that many of the competitive athletes were favoring one leg or had a shin wrapped.  Even Jet Li has had a bad injury from wushu.  According to his official site (jetli.com), he tore his ACL during a split landing from a tornado kick. 

Figure 2: Not Jet Li, but the landing he should have had.  This position can exacerbate labral tears, if you've managed to get yourself one.

No doubt that some of the thrill of watching Chinese martial arts comes from the amazing things the players can do without being injured.  It's not so fascinating to watch punching when you can see someone do a butterfly twist into a split.  But you don't get something for nothing.  The more spectacular the move, the greater the risk, and the more chance you have for ending your career early.

So what is a coach to do?  Do you teach your students the fancy stuff but tell them to be really careful?  Or do you take the other extreme and tell students to stick with the traditional stuff: don't do particularly low stances, and limit jumping?  My thinking is that you take the middle road. 

1. Teach basics bilaterally including jumping.  This will keep the body more symmetrical and limit progressive instabilities in the musculature.  Knowing techniques on both sides might also be useful from a martial arts viewpoint...
2. Use the usual principals of progression in training.  If a student isn't strong enough or flexible enough, don't let them do the activity.
3. Teach students how to listen to their bodies.  Do reinforce the idea that they are not immortal, and a bit of down time now may save them a lot of down time later.
4. Log and limit high stress techniques (tornado kicks, splits, lotus kicks, twists, aerials...).
5. Despite your best efforts, a student may not be able to do a motion in a certain way due to physical limitations.  Some people (for example) have an acetabulum that will not allow for a split.  Present your students with sane alternatives to the flashier movement.

Point 4 is probably really controversial in wushu circles, partially because of the ("if you do it right you won't be hurt" mentality).  However, pitchers at the upper levels (high school, college, minor leagues, major leagues) all log the number of pitches they do.  In fact, they even do this logging in little league, and the results are pretty clear: "The risk factor with the strongest correlation to injury is pitching." (Fleisig & Andrews, Sports Health. 2012 Sep;4(5):419-24.)  This study does support the idea that there is a right way and a wrong way to pitch.

Considering the numbers of high kicks, and impact loading due to landings from jumps that occur in  our sport, not logging activities is asking for trouble.  Even when done correctly, repetitive loading on a joint or structure can cause problems. For my own part, I have not logged my own practice, although as I've gotten older, I've been better at listening to my own body.  I don't jump so much as I used to (and right now, not at all), and when I do jump, I do the bare minimum.  How then did my labral tear occur?  It's a good question.  I'm in a couple of the aforementioned risk groups.  It could be repetitive motion.  I also have had a number of groin injuries in the past.  These can temporarily (or permanently!) reset pelvic tilt and pre-dispose you to a labral tear.

In any event, I'm now looking forward to hip surgery in two days so that I can run, jump, and kick high again, just not in the near term.  Recovery will take 8 weeks to full return to activity, subject to not overdoing it after the break.  In the meantime, I'm looking forward to figuring out my crutches to determine the most efficient ways to move without stressing the hip (Crutch-fu).  And I'm looking forward to learning how to better coach from the sidelines while I'm recovering.  See you on the other side.

Northern Chinese Staff and Jogo do Pau

One interesting theme that we find in martial arts is that martial arts applications converge to some extent when presented with the same problem.  For example, if you wish to do a shoulder throw from a given position, it is likely that the shuai-jiao guys, the judo guys, the aikido guys, (and everyone else) will agree on common elements of the throw.  Not everyone will agree as to the utility of the throw, or if it is the most effective technique for a given situation, but if the throw must be done, then there are only so many ways to do it well.

The same thing applies in staff.  Staff play seems to be divided into three general types: spear type (involving lots of tip work, small circles, and thrusting), cudgel type (involving large swinging motions with either one or two hands), and double ended wherein both sides are used equally at shorter ranges.  At one point Sifu Henry Gong told me that the latter two could be called Sun and Moon staff in Chinese martial arts thinking, but, sadly, I don't recall which was which, and I've not found references anywhere on the internet.

While it is not so astonishing to find similar staff play across Japan and Korea, or across all of China, it is more striking to find such similarities between Chinese and Portuguese staff.  Yup.  You read that correctly.  Traditional Portuguese staff play, also known as Jogo do Pau, exhibits all the techniques of Northern Chinese cudgel play.  

Fig 1: Common blocking in Northern Chinese Staff, and similar block, with application from Jogo do Pau.

The origins of Jogo do Pau are debated even within its community with some feeling that the art was home grown in Portugal and in Galicia, Spain, (there are only so many ways to accomplish a goal) while others feel that it has Indian origins coming from the voyages of Prince Henry the Navigator and his successors.  

My interest in the art is more than simply running down its origin.  To my mind whether it came from India, China, or Portugal is immaterial.  What is interesting to me is that there aren't simply a few techniques in common, but rather the vast majority of techniques.  They even practice form.  Even more so, the Jogo do Pau players are versed in technique from day one.  They learn the practical application of their art through drill (not two-person form as in China).  They even teach multi-person staff defense.  I often feel that while 2 person forms are valuable, the lack of practical weapons training in Chinese martial arts is to its detriment.  Instructors either don't teach applications (because they don't know them), rely only on 2 person form, or make up drills as they go.  Perhaps such drills exist in secret (!!!) and only the chosen few in Chinese martial arts get them.  I'm not sure.  

What is clear to me is that in the many Jogo do Pau drills there are examples of the usage of *our* techniques.  These guys are not shy about sharing their knowledge and have a plethora of drills that can benefit the aspiring Longfist staff practitioner who wishes to better understand his/her forms.

You can find earlier links in this blog to some of our drilling. (More to come!)  A very clear and not terribly fancy compilation of northern staff techniques can be found in the 32 staff form.  I've included a link to this video below so that you can get a sense of the technique. 

Fig 2: 32 Staff play done in contemporary Chinese longfist styles.  Note the general techniques.

 How about those Jogo do Pau videos?  Here is a brief collection to get you started. 

Fig 3: Demo of Jogo do Pau technique, form and free sparring.

Fig 4: Some quality father (?) son time.  Note the competence of this young kid.  Also watch what happens when his dad's/instructor's staff breaks.

Fig 5: From a documentary on Jogo do Pau.  This has English subtitles.

As a final note, in this last video, you will notice the practitioners wearing sashes.  I doubt this really has significance with respect to the origins, but it is similar to what many Chinese martial arts practitioners wear.  

Enjoy, and good luck in training.

Staff Flow Drills: Part 2 - Figure 8's for Fun and Profit

When you first learn northern staff, one of the first things you practice is the figure eight.  It's an essential movement, you are told: it's for blocking, they say.  And while you might agree that you would not approach someone wildly spinning a staff in this manner, you may not be certain of how to do much more than intimidate novices with the movement in your own practice. The drill, as introduced here, focuses on one half of the figure eight and provides both defensive and offensive interpretation of the movement.

I'll start by saying that there are two versions of the figure eight that one often sees.  One is a badly done (but fast) version that is sometimes seen in contemporary wushu wherein the staff is held at a distance from the body.  This version uses mainly the arms to effect the spin with minimal reinforcing body motion.  It works great for show on thin staffs, but is much more difficult to do using anything substantial.  Anh once had me using a lead pipe to practice, and I can't imagine controlling the staff at any distance from my body. 

Fig 1: The tuck in blocking an attack.

The second version, which I am also seeing some from some of the better contemporary wushu athletes, involves a body turn and tuck and keeps a portion of the staff against the body for a fair portion of the movement.  The tuck and body contact provide reinforcement against impact when one blocks (Fig 1).