3/14 at the park
Thanks to the Chinese New Year break and a number of other factors, it had been over a month before I went to practice last Sunday at the park. The weather was very nice and the grounds pretty dry; I’d been worried they’d still be muddy after Saturday’s rains. The only people there besides Teacher X, however, were Mr. V and NL Guy, who were grappling as usual. I talked with Teacher X for a while before going through the empty-handed form just to get back into the swing of things. I was quite rusty, and Teacher X gave me a lot of pointers and reminders. He also added some things, including a little spin that I’d never learned before.
We practiced some tuishou, and while he said I’d improved, I suspect he was trying to make me feel better as I’ve been stuck on the form for quite a long time. I need to practice lower stances to make retreating more effective. It’s not a really technical problem, just a matter of doing it more.
Then I did some swordwork, which always makes me feel better. While I enjoy the empty-handed form, the sword form feels better.
Mr. V and NL Guy finished their epic grapple, and announced that they’d been at it for an hour and a half. It turns out that they’re trying to break a record or something; their longest time is three hours and 25 minutes without stopping for rest. I’m not sure what the point of all this is.
I guess it’s overkill but you can say that if you are tense while doing push hands then you’ll be tired quickly, on the contrary if you can do push hands non stop for several hours … that should mean that you are not tense.
Comment by Cyril — March 16, 2010 @ 10:48 am