Back at it

Life got busy again.  Then arthritis in my hand has been flaring for 2 weeks, which coincides with the 2 weeks I've not practiced.  I had been doing so well, I was at 2 weeks working out every day except for missing one day each week.  From my physical conditioning, even just the chi kung was tiring the legs. Lately #problemchild is more and more negative every day.  It affects me, I disagree with what she's doing and she won't leave me out of it because she's technology deficient.  So she was very loud today, spreading negativity via phone.  That's it, I had to get through the long form.  I don't have enough room in my bedroom so I make step adjustments and try to make each posture.  Damn if her phone call didn't last as long as the form.  I had to finish it.  I didn't do chi kung or warmups and my legs were already burning before 3rd section.  My knee popped out at the end (ouch.)  But I really needed this tonight, as both a mental distraction and as a physical release.

The short term goal is to have enough energy to do the chi kung, long form, then both sword forms.   The long term goal is to actually memorize the sequence so I'm not tethered to wifi to follow the videos and do the forms back-to-back.  Maybe one day I can figure out the short form, with or without a trip back to Texas.

Chi Kung routines

This is really good, but it takes over 45 minutes.  I would do this daily if I had that kind of time. But like in class, I think it really needs to be broken up. I actually have been through all these exercises before but never all at once.  I am now pleasantly surprised how much qigong we actually did in tai chi class.

 

 

I'd forgotten about tapping exercise.  I have selectively practiced this in the past 15 years, I even got a springy jade hammer in China for this purpose.  Our routine was a little different but the major points are here and this guy actually describes the points he's working on.

 

There was another set having to do with sounds.  The monk has much of it in his routine, though.

Are you serious?

After I just learned the long form, I got transferred to second shift at work. I could not continue the evening tai chi classes. I met Greg in the Sunday taiji meetup at UTA. He had studied with Deng Shihe when he worked in Taiwan for a year or two and would drop into these Sunday meetups. During the week, he lead morning classes in the same studio where several other martial arts were taught (not at the same time.) A bit early for my schedule, but I liked it. Typically just a handful of students, it was easy to ask questions and really work on my forms. Sometimes it was even a private lesson.

Whilst I can appreciate that businesses are in business to stay in business, tai chi seems to attract airheads like bugs to light. I tried to bring up this topic once. Greg was nice about it, I get the little chuckle he had at my snobbery. He was a dreamer. I think his dream was to be a full time martial artist, but at the time, his then-wife's businesses paid their bills while the multi-style school subsisted.

Other than that, I kept to myself about my issue with airheads in tai chi. They've got a flakey personality, seemingly unreliable or fickle. They're a bit spacey to me, kind of floating around in thought and in body. When it extends to their voice, I lose it. I cannot take them seriously. It's a waste of time. I mean, it's one thing to practice tai chi for the exercise versus practice for the martial aspect. I get that. I'm sure they don't know what they're getting into when they decide to take up tai chi. It may seem like a dance in space because a good taiji player is so smooth and flowing at their forms, it looks like they float. It's the strong legs from lots of practice, hehe. Fortunately for me, airheads don't last long in martial arts (or anything else, I reckon.) I think back now, Greg knew that. My karate instructor for sure knew that and he'd "strike while the iron's hot" until they floated off. Sooner rather than later, like smoke, they'd just fade into the ether.

I surprise myself that my attitude on tai chi airheads is still there.  Here's a couple of websites along the same way I'm thinking.

http://www.realtaichiuk.com

http://www.martialtaichi.co.uk/