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/

Reorganized

The videos which I like to work out to are in their respective Pages, so what's left in the Home/Posts area are what I keep for interest or for reference. I gave the spear form its own page and deleted the videos I don't care to see again.

I've finished rewriting Breathing Exercise from my 1988 version.  I don't think I have to get the sequence exactly perfect, I hope it is. It seemed kind of flexible in class. It was helpful to me to focus into tai chi mode.  It was done after warm-ups (which was physically tiring on its own for the first year), but being in my early 20's at the time, I tried to time my arrival toward the end of warm-ups so I could just step into Breathing Exercise.

Deng Shi Hai

Goldmine!   The YouTube versions are in their respective pages.  No wonder YouTube's the more popular video hosting site.  Looks like the same videos but the long form is in one piece, rather than separated between 2nd & 3rd sections.

Saber form -- left handed, the way I learned it.

Forme Taiji avec sabre par Me Deng Shi Hai by AAMYTF 

Sword Form

Forme Taiji avec épée par Me Deng Shi Hai by AAMYTF

Trying to follow the empty hand forms.  Titles are in French, so I keep getting lost on which ones I've already seen.  This is Section 1 & 2.

Forme Taiji à main nue par Me Deng Shi Hai... by AAMYTF

Part 2  (Section 3)

Forme Taiji à main nue par Me Deng Shi Hai... by AAMYTF

Wang Zhihe

Also spelled Wang Tyzz-Her (per the class handout)...depends on the dialect.  He was Master Tu's instructor.  He was Deng Shi Hai's instructor.

First Section starts around 2:11 doesn't finish the section though


First & Second Section It's the same video that starts at the form and finishes second section.


Third Section
Hmmm, dunno.  Not seeing any other section all the way through. Would be nice.

Broadsword / Saber / Dao (Tao)

Found it!!   Link The right sequence, not the greatest form, but it's all there :)




The search for short form continues....
Meanwhile, the embedded videos weren't showing on iPad, so, at first I put a link to each video.  Then I found a way.  All good now :)

Like Like Like Like

I must compare this form to my notes.  Ok, it's not the sequence I'm looking for.  I don't care, this kid is awesome.



 

Bravo!  Well done!  He was 10 years old in 2007.  Imagine the progress.

 Edit:  Okay, it's not the same form.  This one is.  Their postures are less than stellar but the sequence is what I'm looking for at this time.

Vacation really is over

I found my way to get my cassette into mp3 format.  I would buy the original vinyl if I could find it.  But now I have side work so I can't convert it just now.  Oh well, I could use the money to pay for the converter.   I really need to practice physically, not just think about tai chi.

 

I could work out to this long form.  I should.  I will.

Try to use the word 'gank'

The initial blog-building spurt is over.  I was on vacation and stuck in the room for a week.  It was like being in really nice jail cell, in a really nice prison (with swimming pool) and the only place to get away was inside my head.  I wish I could blame the weather, but no, mother was not well and was even more needy and whiney than usual.  I've had tai chi on the brain for a couple months while I've been working out my illustrations.  So I got home and uploaded my lineage handout & 18-style handout, which is my first non-text additions to the site.  They don't need copyright protection, they were flyers & handouts, openly given to me.  But the website text is my work, my compilation, my research, my memory...and eventually, my own illustrations.  I don't mind other people read them, that's why I intend to publish it to the web.  I just don't want them copied without credit.  I tried the html code to disable right click & highlighting. I accidentally got around it without even thinking--whoops!  So I thought I might watermark JPG or PDF pages.  That's more work to GANK the text but it can be done.  Come to think of it, that's the main reason my Geocities site was stuck at the form outlines for 10 years.  I never got around to resolving my issues with copyright or credit, intellectual property, or whatever this is.  I'm a little smarter now, I don't intend to stay stuck.