And the moral of this story is....

...do not practise pole forms in your living room when it's raining out.

Dizzy

I read on the BBC earlier this week that the first week of February is the top week in the year for people to be off work ill - either genuinely or spuriously. And this Thursday's Kung Fu was certainly the smallest for a while. Not that that's a bad thing from my point of view, as I tend to get to work on the intermediate and advanced stuff a bit more when it's quiet - choy li fut and some bokken work.

We also worked on some more difficult kicks, particularly the jumping spinning inward crescent kick. I can actually do it reasonably well now, but when we have to do repeated ones down the length of the hall (about 5 or 6 kicks in a row, which amounts to a dozen high speed spins without pausing) I get so incredibly dizzy it's as if I've done that thing you see on "hilarious" home videos where people put their forehead on a broom and run round in circles, then stagger about a lot and fall over....I didn't actually fall down, but I was having distinct trouble walking in a straight line when going back to the other end of the hall.

Tai chi was yang style to the left, Hsing-I drills and living pole. D said we were nearly at the end of it but in my recollection we're less than a quarter of the way through it - so he must be planning on teaching it in discrete chunks. More photos at the end for the publicity - damn paparazzi!

Storyville - Cage Fighting Women

Got in from Kung Fu/Tai Chi on Thursday night to find that this was on the TV.

Really a bit too brutal for me, but an interesting watch - particularly the bit where the family of one of the women is trying to understand why she does it and persuade her to give it up. I think I can understand the urge to take part and "prove" your fighting skills - what I find less appealing is the motivations of the audience at a cage fight - I suspect it's slightly pervy, especially when it's women fighting, but also when it's men, too.

Sun style at Tai Chi for the first time in ages, it was nice to revisit it as I've always found the circling/shoulder rolling aspects of it very pleasing. Then we did quite a bit of pole, including start of the "living pole" set, which I seem to finally be able to do now without cracking myself in the ribs.