VKR 03: Snake and Parabolic Speed

As we discussed favourite forms yesterday, mine is undoubtedly Snake. In fact, the reasons why it is my favourite form is the same reason why I picked it as my IHC form: there is so much I can learn from it. I think Snake is one of the easiest forms for me to personalize and play around with, for a reason that I can now properly explain being a few posts into the VKR series. To recount, my nine existing core visualizations that I represent in my movements are the four elements and five animals of Kung Fu. So my visualization for Snake is, you guessed it, a snake. The fact that this form uses a single visualization so whole-heartedly makes developing the visualization very easy, as I do not have to worry about certain moves not flowing with my mindset. Its like going to paint a room and the colour you are using is blue. Not cerulean blue or baby blue or sky blue, just blue. It really simplifies things for me.

As such, I can put my brain effort into developing my understanding of a snake. Now, as funny as it may be, snakes actually happen to be one of my least favourite animals. I am absolutely terrified of them. I have a very good understanding of how things can move and work based on skeletal structures and ranges of motion, and that is why they terrify me. I cannot predict how a snake will move. It feels like they can move any way they feel like, and with enough speed I am unable to react in time. As far as I am concerned, it should be counted as a violation of nature. That said, it is this very concept I have been trying to emulate recently with my form.

Snake has several techniques which one could count as "unpredictable". Lots of twists and turns and suddenly bending backwards, etc. To highlight and develop this unpredictability, I have been trying to emulate the extreme change in speeds at which a snake moves. You know, when they reaaaaaalllllly slowly slither and coil up before moving at a speed too fast for the human eye? In my form, I have been working on dropping my speed during my transition moves and jacking it back up for my strikes. Slow, fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, much like a parabola. Since I have become cognisant of this development, I feel like the depth of my form has improved exponentially and I am ecstatic to see how far I can take it.