Where's it coming from?

I was full of energy for Thursday night's classes, literally bouncing around all over the place, even though it was hot as an oven in the training hall. Lots of Tiger Claw Zi Chi in the warm up, including the wushu warm up we sometimes do with the kids. Went through chang chuan with the yellow belts, then bokken with the greens. I was trying to watch the choy li fut out of the corner of my eye because there's quite a lot of fine tuning I think I could do with. Then it was those flying kicks again, this time I was a bit more sensible and managed not to hurt myself. T had to leave straight after the class, but I stayed for quite a while going through choy li fut 5 or 6 times, then char chuan more times than I can remember, starting to get a proper flow to it, it's the type of form that just makes me feel really happy when I do it... a feeling that's hard to explain to someone who's never felt it.

Then just to top things off, down to Tai Chi, where we started doing some pole (I should call it "bo" I think, but it's pole or staff to me), we're going to learn the Wing Chun set that I once won a medal at back when I was more competitive. The pole has to be my favorite weapon, so things are looking up.

Keep Calm

Kung Fu tonight. Quite a big class, and at one point we were all doing Bokken together, which was a bit fraught, although I don't think anyone actually whacked anyone else.

The class was interrupted at one point by a really p*&sed-up guy who wandered around the hall challenging us to fight him and claiming he would kill us all. T eventually managed to persuade him to leave, staying calm and collected and reasonable sounding (but firm) throughout the 5 minute episode. I was really glad that I wasn't in charge of the class at that point because I'm not sure I'd have handled it quite so well. And just how out of it must you have to be to go in to a room full of 20-odd martial artists (some of whom were wielding swords and poles) and try to start a fight with them?

Anyway, after that interlude we got back to training, I went through Siu Lim Tao with the beginners and the first two person set, then went through the Mantis two person set with the purples. Plenty of kicking in today's lesson too, I decided to go for it during the Zi Chi drills and was doing them as fast and high as possible, so I was distinctly flagging by the end. Then after everyone else had left I ended up going through one of the kids wushu sets with a couple of people who come to the Saturdays too to help them catch up in time for the forth-coming grading.

Down to Tai Chi, today we did the long form and I managed to get to do what I've been meaning to for a while, which was sit and watch and write some notes. Who knows if they'll make sense when I look at them tomorrow, but it's a start. Then more sword form and a bit more of the two-person sword which if my favorite, finishing off with the two person pa kua.

At the end I was still so hyper that I managed to persuade P to fight with me and we did a bit of Mantis vs Pa Kua sparring. Inevitably enough he won, (next time I'll choose Wing Chun I think) but that's not the point. Hopefully I can persuade him and D to make it a habit and we'll have a scrap at the end every week....