More classes
I’ve been going to class three times a week lately, and practicing during my daily hikes up the hill behind my house as well. All of the practices seem to flow together, though; it’s hard to describe any one thing.
Basically, I’ve been working on connecting. I am able to disconnect during tuishou, but connecting everything together takes more work. Little Mountain Pig said that ones arms should not move of their own accord, rather every movement should derive from the torso’s movement. I find this quite helpful, actually. Teacher Xu said that, most of the time, ones elbows stay around the 90-degree angle, whereas more goes on with the shoulders than most people realize. He also told me to get more in the habit of spreading my hands flat instead of cupped, as is natural. Apparently this helps with the whole connecting thing.
The construction fumes at the opera hall at CKS Memorial were overpowering last Saturday, so we adjourned to the park under some trees, which was nice. I twisted my leg practicing with the UPS guy, though. I really need to protect myself better with some of the more violent students, and not get into it with them so much. On the other hand, I think I deal with them better than used to.