Not Dancing

Missed kickboxing tonight as had birthday presents to open and cake to eat with my newly-six year old. I did manage to make it to kung fu though, through a spectacular thunder storm.

Went through Siu Lim Tao with the beginners, including showing them a couple of the applications of the moves from the set, then through the basic pak sau kick drill. Then I got to teach the first half of the stick set to the yellows, giving them the same advice as I was given when I was first taught it - remember that you're not Morris Dancing with your opponent, you're trying to kill them. I think it sunk in because the set was looking quite purposeful by the end.

A little bit of sparring, wearing my mitts rather than my big gloves for a change, which was

good as it gave me more chance to practice the mantis-type hooks and grabs, and throw in a few finger strikes. Like at the end of Dumbo when he drops the magic feather, I seem to have finally realised that I can spar reasonably well even without my "lucky" pink gloves.

Afterwards I went over the Char Chuan again and then the two-person butterfly knives, which was not too bad given that it's a couple of months since we last did it.