11/8
I had to work overtime on Wednesday, so I was late for practice. The class seems to be running later and later in any case. I remember when we started at 8 and went until 10. These days it’s more like 9 to 11, meaning I get home around midnight.
Some of the newer students were there, and I practiced with them for a while. One guy, who I always think of as being from Hong Kong for some reason, has a really aggressive approach to tuishou, using all of his force. “Ah ha! I know your weakness!” he told me.
“I have plenty,” I said. “Which one did you discover?”
“If I told you, you’d be on your guard and I wouldn’t win!”
Sigh. “Look, how can we learn anything with an attitude like that?” I asked him. “We’re here to learn from each other. You want to focus on winning each and every time, go to a tournament.”
It turned out he was talking about my poor resistance to modulating the up/down direction of his pushing. Fair enough. He did adopt a softer approach after that, but I’ve still got bruises on both arms to show from it.
I noticed Yang Qing-feng doing tuishou with an older guy in a white jacket who had been hanging around watching us earlier. He’d been asking questions, and it turned out he was from a judo background. Occasionally we get guys like him who want to show off their mad grappling skillz, but in my experience they always end up being pWND by Teacher Xu. This was no exception. The guy seemed friendly and took it very well, though. He might even end up as a student, who knows.
Teacher Xu’s instructions this time included not restricting your balance to your heels; you can move the focus of your stance even further back if you know what you’re doing (and with some practice). Also, engage your power in stages, e.g. upper body, handing off to feet, then handing off to lower body. All of your power should come from the same point; it’s just a matter of how and where you expend it.
All of these lessons are too much to keep in mind, of course. The idea is to make them an automatic part of your tuishou resume, as it were. I still have a long way to go.
