3/5 tuishou
Whoo, it’s been a long time since I practiced. I was sick before the Chinese New Year break, and then I was in Japan for a couple of weeks, and then I was sick again. But tonight I finally went back. “We thought you’d disappeared,” Teacher Xu said when he arrived. Mr. You was also there, but just said hi before he had to leave to take care of his elderly mother, which is apparently why he hasn’t been practicing much lately.
Teacher Xu and I talked politics for a while, discussing the upcoming presidential election. He, like many pan-greens, was laboring under the illusion that US green cards have to be actively renounced with paperwork, and actually thought Ma Ying-jeou still has a valid green card, at least until I informed him about the true situation. But I’m not going to talk politics.
I started pushing with Mr. Hu, which was a good way to get back into practice because he’s generally pretty easy to practice with. I’m out of shape, though, I could tell as I got tired pretty quickly. I then started pushing with Mr. Guo, whose stance and attitude seemed peculiar to me. He was doing the whole “I’ll push you here with one hand and it’s obvious I could push you over if I wanted, but I’d like to see you get out of it” thing for some reason. I think while I was away he got the idea that he was really good at tuishou or something. But his technique still consisted of quick, sharp shoves with very little subtlety.
Next Teacher Xu told us some things. “Don’t push your opponent,” he said. “Sometimes one of your hands is pushing the other; other times you’re pushing the space behind your opponent.”
“So maybe I could visualize creating a vacuum behind my opponent?” I asked.
“Uh, maybe,” he said. I tried it a couple of time with Weeble, but didn’t get anywhere. Teacher Xu tells us a lot of things I have a hard time implementing; even if I intellectually understand the idea, often I can’t get it to sink in deep enough to work. I need to practice more, I suppose.
Next up Yang Qing-feng. I was doing alright with him; one time he did a grab on my wrist. “That’s like a police move,” I said, as he is a policeman.
“No,” he said. “This is a police move,” and before I knew it I was on my knees saying, “Ow ow ow ow” as he twisted my arm and wrist. He apologized afterwards.
After Teacher Xu left (his son’s gone to perform alternative service for a year), Qing-feng tried to get Mr. Guo and Weeble to tell him if his pushing was correct. I found this most bizarre, as Qing-feng’s not only been practicing far longer than they have, but he’s much better. But I suppose it’s a good attitude to keep learning from everyone, no matter their level. Mr. Guo really got into the teacher role a bit too much, however. Not that it makes any difference to me.
And thus my slow progress continues.
I’m loving your blog! From taiji-er to another… I want to invite you to my place sometime!
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Best regards.
Michael Joyce
ChenCenter Blog (CCB) blog.
Comment by Michael Joyce — March 29, 2008 @ 5:31 pm