Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Aug 31 2008

Recently

I’ve been going to more classes recently, so it’s hard to document each one. I may just stop doing a post for each class and just write when I feel like it.

In any case, the more I study tai-chi and tuishou and the like, the more I realize how deep the rabbit hole goes, and how little I actually know. There are a million things about each little thing; you could spend a lifetime on just one move, let alone an entire form. While this is pretty cool when you think about it, it’s also not a little disconcerting.

Little Mountain Pig has kind of taken me under his wing, so to speak, lately, and is putting me through his kind of training, which sometimes gets pretty intense, for me, anyway. It’s good practice, though. He does a lot of moving-feet tuishou, as well as scimitar work. Though I have a scimitar at home, I’m not going to study that for a while yet.

“Push like you’re trying to hold a fish in the water,” Teacher X told us the other day. I think he meant gently, not with a sudden jerk, though. There’s a woman who practices with us at Sun Yat-sen Memorial during the week. She’s very violent and even left No-Lose Guy with a bruise on his chest (though that may be his fault; I imagine that he is the Really No Lose Guy when practicing with a woman). I practiced with her once and came away with a sore arm that she nearly yanked out of its socket. I don’t know what she feels she has to prove, but I wish she’d get it out of her system.

This last Saturday Teacher X told me about keeping my hands straight and positioned so that my energy is coming from my spine and stance rather than from my arms. I think this may be quite important and one reason I have such a hard time attacking effectively and efficiently. By twisting and holding your hands and fingers just so, you are connecting the energy in your body. I’m not bad at disconnecting, but I need to work on connecting and utilizing this energy.

posted by Poagao at 2:06 am  

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