The Thursday Wushu Report

[tylik]

Well, your really good days are just that more exquisite if you have bad days, right? I don't know if I believe that, but I'm trying.

Generally kind of an annoying and headachey day. But worse -- for wushu anyway, long term the headache has to do with my neck being upset which might be a bigger problem -- my hip was just slightly out today. Usually when this happens I stretch for a minute and *pop* all is fine, but it didn't do that, so it just got more and more irritable as the class wore on, and various related muscles across my lower back started getting in on the party.

To add insult to injury, I've been working my butt off on these sweeps, and I've made a lot of progress. But by the time we got to sweeps my hip was so sore that it just wasn't happening. I did one semi-decent one (which I'm certain no one saw) and the rest of the time it was pathetic. I could have just cried. If it's not one thing, it's another. Sometimes I just feel like I'm a walking disaster. Maybe I *am* too old for wushu. Or too broken. Or something.

It doesn't help that the two other older students who started with me last quarter have disappeared. In fact, most of the students who started with me last quarter have disappeared. I'm not sure if it's the new crowd of chipper hyper flexible teenagers (the class as a whole has grown) or the 90+ degree temps in the studio, or for that matter, just vacations, there have been a lot of those... but the last bit it's just been me and an incredibly talented 15 year old from our original group. So I feel really old and decrepit in comparison...

I always feel like having all my hard work appreciated has that "also ran" thing going for it of getting an A for effort. But I have earned my A, dammit. And I haven't missed a single class this quarter.

I so need a better place to practice sweeps at home.

Anyhow, the hip finally popped back in where it was supposed to be between classes, so in bagua I was just residually achey, and it was a pretty amusing class. *Finally* we work on palm changes. And the new felt soled shoes make bagua immensely more amusing.

Last night Shifu told me she thought I was really shaping up...