New notes about Bak Siu Lum & Ed's form

Bak Siu Lum

I guess I haven't talked about it much before. It means "Northern Shao Lin" and is in the Northern kung fu style ("longness" feeling everywhere). The things I learned today:

1. ready-set as usual, but forgo usual bow
   
2. right diu ma, dragon claws to NE (slide left foot forward, then right foot circles towards NE as claws come out)
3. left diu ma, look at palms to NW
4. move into that Northern-style standing up, palms-to-floor position to N (shift weight forward, then right foot should be able to slide in a crescent shape first Northwards then arcing out Eastwards; circly-arms as weight shifts to the east; finish by stomping with left foot)
5. fists up in what looks like double uppercuts (no footwork)
6. both fists crossing at abdomen level (no footwork)
7. Gold-like, both fists swing out (left low, right high, again no footwork)
8. shadow side fist to E (right hand obviously)
9. Tam Toi-like, long left ding ji ma & left hand side punch to W (press down into sei ping ma with left elbow/forearm, then block the attacker at W with same hand then punch out)
10. rise up to hanging stance as left arm clears raised leg (left arm raises up high first then hits down; right arm comes high curving over the head)
    
11. sei ping ma, double forearms to S (left hand scoops up then wrist snaps over, then make fist as right forearm presses S, stance transition is rather similar to loi ji ma)
12. similar to 10, raise up to hanging stance and clear low again (but with opposite legs & arms, and I'm not sure the clearing arm goes high before coming down)
    
13. left ding ji ma with left high block and right side fist to W (right qua towards N with hop to switch hips, then left arcing descending palm down to cover right fist concurrent with rest of transition to sei ping ma with hips facing N; finish with the left hand pressing up to block high as right fist punches out; this took me half the night to understand and I'm still not doing it quite right).

That's as far as I got tonight. I happen to know the rest of Bak Siu Lum but I'm picking up so many interesting subtleties and inner meanings that I really have to write them down lest I forget them before I get the chance to practice them.

Ed's Form

For Ed's form (I can't for the life of me remember the Cantonese name), Ben told me about a few new actions at the end, right after the interesting Gold-like horizontal swinging arm into the funny sei ping ma towards South:

1. left ding ji ma, side palm to South
2. Lau Gar-like dual down-pressing palms towards West (loi ji ma as usual)
   
3. Buddhist palm with high hand same as bent leg towards SW
4. same as 2 but towards East
5. same as 3 but towards SE
6. weird thing where the hands are waved around yet finishes in same position as end of 6, but facing towards S and with high hand opposite bent leg (that is, right ding ji ma but left hand is high for the hadouken-like shove we do at the end of Buddhist Palm).

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that we basically do the hadouken from Street Fighter, but without the fireball part.

In fact, one of my earliest lessons in hung gar was watching someone being corrected for rotating the positions of the hands during the press. The instructor said, "Don't do it like on Dragon Ball Z. They do it wrong."

What can I say? Truth is stranger than fiction.