Due to editing deadlines, I wasn’t able to practice last week. Possibly due to lack of exercise and the pressure, I’ve been feeling sluggish lately, like my blood’s too thick. My qi isn’t flowing, and I can feel it lumping up inside me. Not good.

I was free on Tuesday night, though, so I went down to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial and, after a beef dumpling dinner at the Harbin place, I practiced the forms on the veranda. It’s always kind of awkward as there are so many other groups up there practicing dances or other martial arts or even, as was the case that night, honor guards practicing their rifle tossing. But I eventually found a space. I also found that I need to work on my stretching. I’ve never been very pliable; even when I was a kid I had trouble trying to touch my toes. Maybe yoga would be a good idea.

Wednesday found me back at the park. Teacher Xu didn’t arrive until much later, and before he came most of the students congregated on the square’s curb over under the street lamp. One guy even went to buy fried chicken. Chaos!

I started out with the Guy Who is Not from Hong Kong, and did reasonably well. At least it didn’t devolve into wrestling, as often happens. Then I pushed with one of the guys who is not from the mainland, which didn’t go so well. He didn’t seem to want to connect somehow, and kept himself out of reach until he was ready to make his Big Shove. The Big Shove came out of nowhere and was quick and powerful and hard to resist. We only did a few rounds before he begged out, saying he was tired. No wonder, I thought, though it’s possible he thought he was wasting his time practicing with me.

The guy from a few weeks back, the student of the other school who periodically comes to “test” us, showed up. He was wearing a white shirt so it was easy to keep track of his whereabouts. He apparently comes from the “Push as Hard as You Can” school, and after he left we all talked about the differences in our styles, with a heavy bias towards our own, of course. “TC wouldn’t have a problem with that guy!” Teacher Xu joked. Ha ha!

Teacher Xu showed us some examples of how relaxing at the right moment could result in the release of energy. He went at us one by one, showing us each what it felt like. It’s always difficult to get my head around a lot of these principals as they are mostly internal, but being shown does help. I need to add more softness and flexibility to my repertoire.

First to the park again. A couple was playing badminton when I arrived, badly because of the wind. I warmed up with the forms, expecting all the while to be hit with an errant birdie. Slowly the other students began to arrive. The V and the guy who is not from Hong Kong gave each other advice, while the little guy and another student wrestled violently under the protective gaze of the tree-root master.

First up was Mr. Hu, who is often away on business in China. His vulnerabilities seemed easy to find, and pushing with him was relatively easy. Then Mr. You arrived and, instead of warming up, beckoned to me for a bout. He was a man on a mission tonight, in full tree-root mode. No softness to be found, just fully intent on force. It was surprising, because he is not usually like that. Most of our bouts ended in draws, with both of us falling over at the same time.

Yang Qing-feng arrived and started doing jumping forms with his scimitar, a heavy, shiny weapon with his name and the year engraved on the blade. He seems really into it. Teacher Xu showed us a way to twist our opponents in a fashion to make them tense up and offer more vulnerabilities, but I didn’t quite get the hang of it.

I practiced with Mr. Yu, who started out softly and properly, but after a short while he resorted to hard shoving. I found I had to be careful as it seemed to me that he might not hesitate to break something. As I was practicing, I thought to myself, I should push, but then I realized that I can’t just push; I have to wait for an opportunity presents itself. Wait for an empty spot and fill it. This is something that often doesn’t occur to my conscious mind, but rather turns up as a mere feeling or inclination. Perhaps this phenomenon gets clearer with practice; I hope so, but I’d still like to understand it better.

All the yanking back and forth was a strain on my back, but nothing serious. All the more reason to be as soft as possibly. Resistance is futile, indeed. The Borg should be great at tuishou.