Deep and Meaningful

Some solo lunchtime practice on Tuesday, then two really enjoyable classes on Wednesday evening. A few of the guys that are coming along seem to really enjoy the training, and they are also very keen to get in to the more esoteric and "internal" side of martial arts, so we had some interesting conversations in the breaks. I hope that they come along to my class when it starts...which is looking fairly certain for September now. Master Wu had some interesting things to say about controlling one's thoughts whilst doing martial arts that caught my attention. Need to work more on emptying my mind

From the Sublime...

In stark contrast to the complexity and subtlety of yesterday's Chen seminar, tonight's Chinese Kickboxing training was pretty full on, and has once again resulted in a fresh set of bruises all across my forearms and shins. Not sure why I keep doing this to myself...the fact that part of me enjoys getting completely mashed up says something deep about my psyche I expect. I did learn however that our kickboxing syllabus is drawn from 3 different chinese martial arts, the main one being Tibetan White Crane style, also sometimes called Lion's Roar

Taught a bit of Siu Lim Tao and then the Kwok Sau Thay at kung fu, then afterwards went through the Chen with those who had come along to the seminar. Between the group of us we seem to have most of it fairly well recalled.

Chen Seminar

Fantastic seminar with Master Wu on Sunday. I think I get a bit more out of it every time I get to train with him - there's so much going on in the tiniest subtleties of the way that he moves that most of it passes you by at first. Need to work hard on the Chen that we learned - the Lifting Dragon move alone is complicated enough to keep me busy for a few months...

Baby Tiger Shows its Claws

Busy kids class today. With the older ones we did some more of the new 5 animals form we're learning, which I think is called Baby Tiger Shows Its Claws. The remarkable thing was that because we were all learning it together it was really quiet, you could hear a pin drop. A refreshing change for the Saturday lessons.

Afterwards T didn't stay for long so I went through some stuff by myself for a while, did some good work on the Li Pi, a bit of Baji and then dusted off the Char Chuan...unfortunately there's a bit in the middle I seem to have forgotten.

Resting up now ready for tomorrow's exertions at the Wu seminar.

Looking forward to some more time with Master Wu this weekend

Legwork

After the kids classes this Saturday went through the baji and li pi with T for an hour and a bit. Brutally hard on the legs. I need to just do the baji drills 'til I can hardly stand up every day for a couple of months I reckon. Luckily since it can be done in quite a small space and doesn't feature spectacular leg kicks I can practice it in normal clothes at any spare moment - like whilst brushing my teeth in the morning. So hopefully this is that bit in any martial arts movie where the hero goes off on his own for a bit for some serious practice (ideally whilst in solitary confinement in prison) and comes back transformed into a great fighter....

On the Horns

The Wednesday class is gaining a small core of dedicated keen attendees and is becoming quite a nice class to be part of - which helps because I'm still slightly missing the Thursday sessions. Some of them are even training in both kung fu and tai chi, which is very positive.

With the prospect of a Tuesday class looming I need to give some serious thought to which other class I'm going to give up. Don't want to drop Wednesdays because the class is still immature and I think it helps D having me there as an assistant...and also the longer term plan is that we will encourage the students in Derby to train more than once a week, so it will help if they know who I am.

On the other hand, I don't want to stop Mondays in Nottingham either - firstly I'm still learning new things at the kickboxing, which I enjoy, and also I don't want to lose touch with the Nottingham people I've been training with for ages, not to mention I think (hope?) T kind of depends on me as his assistant because the kung fu is a busy class with a wide range of abilities.

Obviously I'd love to carry on with all three nights but I would never see my kids (and my other half would be peeved) so something has to go. Hmmmmm - bit of a dilemma.