Odd Legs

Hard impact shin-on-shin on Monday at kickboxing. Didn't think too much about it after the initial swearing had stopped, busy looking after a couple of new people then working on bokken at kung fu (in a confined space with people swinging bokkens it pays to be focussed on where they all are or something worse than a bruised shin may result). Went through the stick set with T and N afterwards, I think my Sunday solo training in my garden has paid off.

Tuesday morning however I woke up noticing that my leg was hurting thanks to the weight of the covers, which seemed like a bad sign, and indeed on inspection the whole of my lower leg was quite badly swollen - although strangely there isn't much discolouration. Fortunately load bearing doesn't seem to be a problem so I was able to carry on pretty much as normal (to the extent that I went training at lunchtime again - stick, biu jeet, char chuan) but I think it will be a couple of weeks before I can wear anything but trousers or boots without getting odd looks.

Stick Together

More solo practice on Friday lunchtime, it was pretty warm and by the end of an hour I was regretting wearing all black - trouble is I don't really have anything else. Spent some good time on li pi, choy li fut and biu jeet. Then, since I had risked the wrath of the security guards by smuggling my sticks in to work, I tried to work on the stick set I'm learning, but realised fairly quickly that halfway through I was morphing into a straight-sword form I know, and that I wouldn't be able to go any further without checking with T - practicing it wrong would probably be worse than not practising it at all.

On Saturday the little ones kids class was completely manic and it seemed like one of those lessons where all we do is tell the kids off for various types of messing around. It got a little better right at the end when we got the beams out for some balancing/footwork practice though, so I think most of them went home happy - just me and T felt emotionally drained! The next class went a lot better, more work on the Baby Tiger set which I'm quite enjoying.

A pleasant change afterwards, instead of just me and T, A and J came along too, so we spent some quality time going over the higher grade stuff together - biu jeet again, and the 2-person stuff, along with some revision of the first part of the char chuan that A and J are starting to learn. Then T helped me with the stick I had forgotten and added a bit more, so that I now have the complete form. I must try to practice it later today just to check I have it in memory at least, if not in my muscles yet.

Poster Girl

Good Kung Fu class on Thursday night, first teaching some biu jeet, then the first char chui 2-person drill and then a short mantis 2-person thing I don't have a name for. Afterwards T, N and I went through the bokken versus pole a few times, then down to Tai Chi.

2-person pole work in tai chi, with D making me work really hard on technique (which is good, because I tend to coast a little bit when we do pole in tai chi because I know it pretty well). Plenty of focus on waist-turning and using technique and speed rather than arm strength.

Then a little pa kua, concentrating on the two new changes we've learnt (unfortunately I don't know what either of them are called, so they just have the stupid names I've made up for them in my head - "the swimming one" and "exploding monkey").

Then D called me and a couple of the others over to one side in order to take some photos of us for the poster and leaflet campaign in Derby for the new classes. So it looks like I might be the poster girl for kung fu, striking a very fetching pose with my pole - just call me the monkey king......

Strengthening Their Resolve

Monday night saw a host of newcomers, particularly in the kickboxing. I assume that it's a wave of people who have made themselves a new year's resolution to start getting fit. Let's just hope they keep it up....history tells me that the majority of them won't stick at it, but I hope to be proved wrong.

The decision to postpone starting the new class in Derby 'til late Feb/early March is partly to try to avoid just picking up the NYR people (and partly that we're so shockingly lackadaisical about organisational stuff that it would have been a struggle to get it sorted for a January start, anyway)

Mostly a wing chun night for me, with plenty of siu lim tao, biu jeet and 2 person work

The Fear

Last weeks training schedule suffered a serious setback when my youngest, "Danger Girl", broke her arm again - the second time in 4 months, same arm, somewhat more serious this time. Quite badly displaced fracture and they thought they might have to put in some metal work to stabilise it, but looks like we've got away without that - just weekly visits to x-ray to check it's not moving....she'll glow in the dark at this rate!

She managed to get this injury not at kung fu, or gymnastics, where you might expect an element of risk, but at her ballet dancing lesson. Obviously the sooner I get her signed up for free-running classes the safer she'll be...

Anyway, after I'd received a phone call telling me she'd hurt herself, and probably broken several speed limits to get to her, I was faced with dealing with her arm which looked very, very wrong and was making me want to vomit, without showing any of my fear and upset to her. It looked like she had an extra elbow in the middle of her forearm...I just hope I never have to see anything like that again - especially on my kids, I think it would have been easier if it were my own arm (in fact I know it would - when I did a similar thing to my lower leg/ankle so that my foot was on back-to-front I found looking at it quite fascinating rather than toe-curlingly awful).

Anyway after spending a day or two at the hospital, including a general anesthetic to reduce the fracture, she is back home now and seems quite well - in fact keeping her still is proving something of a trial, but she's under strict orders that she must do nothing but sit still for the next couple of weeks - she can't even go back to school til she's had it checked out at the end of the week.

I did manage to get out to kickboxing and kung fu last night, both quite busy lessons, T is teaching me a bit of the more advanced kickboxing syllabus and in kung fu I got to teach biu jeet, which is a good challenge. The only trouble was that throughout the lessons I was constantly dwelling on how fragile the human body really is - to the extent that I was being very careful all evening. Hope this fear wears off soon....

Crane Spreads Wings

More kids than ever on Thursday night, they're virtually outnumbering the adults now which gives a very different feel to the whole session. Trying to manage 2 groups doing siu lim tao and one doing chang chuan all at the same time was something of a challenge, but fortunately it didn't last too long and I then got to do the single person and two person choy li fut sets. After the class S, J and me went through biu jeet with T, then J and I went over it a couple more times. It's starting to feel quite powerful now for the main part, although there's still a couple of sections I need to work on some more.

Down to tai chi to find them playing "guess the application" with a section of the yang short form. I was able to contribute the Crane Spreads Wings throw that we've learnt in kung fu. Led through the pole a couple of times, then we did a lot of rows of Hsing-I "pi" practice with P.

After the class I had a long talk with D about whether his "Tai Chi on Prescription" class would be suitable for my little brother - sounds quite promising....

Sick List

Monday morning started early being woken by the youngest arriving by my bedside to tell me she was about to be sick....so one very quick dash for the bathroom later it was obvious that one of us was going to have to stay at home with her as she wouldn't be going to school. And it was my turn. After a fairly long day of cleaning up (although to be fair she is pretty good at getting to the bucket in time!), I was happier than usual for the other half to arrive home after work to take over while I slopped off to kickboxing and kung fu.

Having done next to nothing except sit by a sick bed all day I had plenty of energy to burn off through both sessions and through the sparring at the end. Taught siu lim tao, biu jeet and stick, then the first mantis 2 person set that I can't remember the name of.

Afterwards went through char chuan and bokken vs pole, then had a long conversation with the hall caretaker about iceroad truckers, which although I've never seen it is probably going to get much more relevant to me when I get sent out to the frozen far north of Canada next winter for work....

Upper Class

Managed to get out at lunchtime and do some practice - quite an intense session with quite a bit of wing chun and a couple of more open forms.

Then Thursday night kung fu - I got to teach the senior students, first taking everyone through choy li fut, then splitting them up and rotating round the different groups. I think I handled it fairly well, the trickiest bit was teaching part of the biu jeet that's really hard to explain (although physically not the hardest part to do, strangely enough). Then afterwards more bokken vs pole with T, this time with me trying the pole part - quite tricky!

Down to tai chi, went through a small section of the sword in fine detail, then practised the

relevant applications. Went through the 2 person pa kua set too. D slipped in the promise of some revision of the tai chi fan in the near future which I'm looking forward to.

On The Rack

Lots of partner stretching on Monday night at both the kickboxing and kung fu. Still feeling it slightly this morning, so maybe I've actually been taken beyond my comfort zone for a change.

Taught some biu jeet for the first time too - another promotion!

Bokken vs Pole afterward, right the way through both parts, it seems to work but now I need to figure out the other side.....

..and home in time for vespers and bandages.

N'Sync

Best training session for ages on Thursday night. Nothing special, I just seemed to be in the groove (or "in the dao" as T might say). Although not completely better, my groin strain is on the mend and I've finally shaken off the last of my cold. We did plenty of bokken during the warm up, then chang chuan, biu jeet, char chuan and a bit of stick work with a beginner.

Then after the class four of us went through the char chuan together. I'd never done it as part of a group before, but we seemed to work well together in really good synchrony. Unfortunately I don't know all of it yet (in fact it looks like I know less than a third of it so far!), so I had to drop out before the end. I think because of its flashy nature, it would be a good form to do for a display. Once everyone else was gone I was still on a bit of a high, so went through li pi and some more biu jeet by myself.

Tai Chi was also good - I've made a conscious decision to try to enjoy it more instead of worrying about it, and it seems to be working. Went through more sword, there's just one section I'm still a bit vague on, then it's just a question of stitching it together. Then some more Hsing I, some Wu-style pushing hands and a bit of chi gung for the solstice. D seems taken with the notion of teaching a kung fu class with me, so it's just a question of deciding where and when now.

What's next?

Kickboxing and Kung Fu on Monday night. More hook kicks in kickboxing, they seemed to flow a little easier than they were doing, but to get them right I think I need to do about 4 hours practice every day - maybe I should give up work and become a shaolin monk?

In Kung Fu I got to teach chum ku to the blue belts, which is a bit of a promotion for me, at that level I'm usually only allowed to supervise stuff that they've already been taught by T. Later on we were even talking about me teaching stuff to brown belts when we've got a few new ones.

After the class we went through biu jeet again, think I've got the hang of the changes now. Then I started learning the final set on our syllabus, which I think is called char chuan. I like it so far....

Last Chance Thursday

Thursday was my last Kung Fu session before the grading at the weekend, so I was hoping to spend much of it revising the higher sashes stuff like choy li fut, wing chun pole and so on. That hope was quickly thwarted though by it turning out to be one of the biggest Thursday classes I can remember, with close to thirty there, including half a dozen from the kids class wanting one last practice before their grading on Saturday too. Also a couple of first-timers. So plenty to keep me busy. I did manage to briefly go through Biu Jeet and the knives after it was over though, along with the kids wushu pole set, which was very rusty!

Tai Chi was two-person sword, we got right to the end of it this week, with me actually making a useful contribution for a change, suggesting a small footwork subtlety to D when we were working together that he liked so much he taught it to everyone else. Then we did some Hsing I for the first time for an age, which was good. And a promise of more to come next week...

Blitzing It

Busy Monday, getting some of the kickboxers ready for their first grading this Saturday, then doing the same with the Kung Fu beginners, although they have a little longer to prepare. Then once they'd gone home went through lots of more advanced stuff with T, A and N to prepare for my own grading. In very rapid succession we went through two person Choy Li Fut, Ee Sen Tee, Biu Jeet and Li Pi. Having a bit of a crisis with Biu Jeet, the minor changes seem to make sense but I'm struggling with some of the bits that haven't changed! I'll need to go through it again on Thursday I think.

On Tuesday I came down with a really bad stomach bug, which made me worry I would be ill for the grading (and also made me slow in updating this blog) but now I think I'm on the mend, so should be OK for tomorrow's last chance to blitz stuff