Metal, Water, Earth, Wood, Fire

Just a small group of us at kung fu on Thursday, and all fairly advanced, so we spent the evening going over some of the intermediate bits of the syllabus in great detail and practising the relevant applications. Having decided that this year I'm going to take training more seriously I was working really hard, and even managed to get a compliment out of T, which is rare indeed!

He and I went through the bokken vs pole at full throttle, in a kind of you'd-better-block-this-like-you're-supposed-to-or-I-will-hit-you kind of way that is really quite scary when weapons are involved - but focusses the mind very effectively. Both sides of the form are fairly well embedded for me now I'm pleased to say.

Then Tai Chi which was all Hsing-I, first the pi chuan (metal, splitting, lungs) and zu'an chuan (water, drilling, kidneys) drills and then the short two-person set we know. Good stuff, but I have very bruised forearms today. Looking forward to learning the other elements in due course.