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Jan. 19th, 2009 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSometimes it's sparring and neuroscience, other times sparring and math, and sometimes it's sparring and dharma talk. Huh. Actually it was all three this morning. We're in an interesting place - slower and softer after being very fast and hard for a while, except it's like slow and soft has become a stable equilibrium point. We'll occasionally try to ramp things up (for the cardio) which used to reliably lead to a nice escalation... but now one person can go fast and hard, and the other can counter effectively being slow and soft... and eventually the person going fast and hard decides that this really isn't efficient.
Oh, and if forms in 14"+ of snow is a lot of work, weapons work can be just silly. Though I'm starting to get one area nicely packed down, which makes it bearable. (And I'm getting practice picking up my knees.) It's still really unstead - the snow is too dry to pack well. Don't like what it does to my forms.
Not really related, but something I've been meaning to post - when I went to the Dean Learner workshop some months ago, one of the things he said was "Don't look down! If you have to look down, but eyes on your buttocks and look down with your butt!" And I thought "This is so Chen! I have to tell Shifu!" So the first day I was training with her, I explained this. And she laughed and agreed. And then a few minutes later, she said "That's very good." And then... well, these were definitely more internally focused lessons, which is to say that the majority of what she said were a very few things repeated over. And more than once she'd say "Descend! Descend!" and then say "You need to look at the ground with the eyes on your butt!" (About half the time she'd then giggle.) She likes what I've been doing with stance work what with the cross pollination with yoga. (And approproves of the yoga overall - "It's all qi training.") (And yoga gave me the language to take about spine position in Dragon with C, so all is really good.)
"All the way from your center!" (Apparently I move from my center. But not always enough. Hey, this is some serious improvement.) "Qi all the way to the end of your hand!" Only once did I get "No extra movements!" but she went on a bit of a rant about that. But then... yeah, if you do it really right, there isn't any space for extra movements. I mean, I knew that (it's kind of the same way that when people aren't rooted and aren't moving from their centers their arm movements often get huge) I just didn't take it far enough.
More theory in our discussions. "Not just down - pull towards your center!" she grabs my arms so I can feel just how much she's pulling. "Huh." say I. "So is lu as well as an?" "Yes! It's both, both together." I wonder sometimes if she would ever have said that. (Or, I guess, if she thought of it that way.)
Oh - and I should post this to the artspawnchen comm, she'll be starting a beginning Chen class next fall, Tuesdays at 7:30. And Master Chen Zhenglei will be in town (Seattle), probably the weekend after labor day. (I have to figure out if he'll be over here, too. I am coming back - Shifu wants me to come back, and well, priorities ;-) - but maybe I can see him twice to make up for the one I missed.)
Oh, and if forms in 14"+ of snow is a lot of work, weapons work can be just silly. Though I'm starting to get one area nicely packed down, which makes it bearable. (And I'm getting practice picking up my knees.) It's still really unstead - the snow is too dry to pack well. Don't like what it does to my forms.
Not really related, but something I've been meaning to post - when I went to the Dean Learner workshop some months ago, one of the things he said was "Don't look down! If you have to look down, but eyes on your buttocks and look down with your butt!" And I thought "This is so Chen! I have to tell Shifu!" So the first day I was training with her, I explained this. And she laughed and agreed. And then a few minutes later, she said "That's very good." And then... well, these were definitely more internally focused lessons, which is to say that the majority of what she said were a very few things repeated over. And more than once she'd say "Descend! Descend!" and then say "You need to look at the ground with the eyes on your butt!" (About half the time she'd then giggle.) She likes what I've been doing with stance work what with the cross pollination with yoga. (And approproves of the yoga overall - "It's all qi training.") (And yoga gave me the language to take about spine position in Dragon with C, so all is really good.)
"All the way from your center!" (Apparently I move from my center. But not always enough. Hey, this is some serious improvement.) "Qi all the way to the end of your hand!" Only once did I get "No extra movements!" but she went on a bit of a rant about that. But then... yeah, if you do it really right, there isn't any space for extra movements. I mean, I knew that (it's kind of the same way that when people aren't rooted and aren't moving from their centers their arm movements often get huge) I just didn't take it far enough.
More theory in our discussions. "Not just down - pull towards your center!" she grabs my arms so I can feel just how much she's pulling. "Huh." say I. "So is lu as well as an?" "Yes! It's both, both together." I wonder sometimes if she would ever have said that. (Or, I guess, if she thought of it that way.)
Oh - and I should post this to the artspawnchen comm, she'll be starting a beginning Chen class next fall, Tuesdays at 7:30. And Master Chen Zhenglei will be in town (Seattle), probably the weekend after labor day. (I have to figure out if he'll be over here, too. I am coming back - Shifu wants me to come back, and well, priorities ;-) - but maybe I can see him twice to make up for the one I missed.)
