Just a little progress

Went on vacation this year to the usual place.  My left shoulder has been getting more frozen since before the cataract surgery (Aug 2014) and apparently moving it around, pushing the range and strength is the way to unfreeze it.  Every day for that week in May, I did 18-style.  Great start to getting movement back into that shoulder.  I haven't done it since, but I have been trying to push the movement range every day.  It's helping.  Still hurts, but it's helping. Unfortunately, I haven't done any exercises since.

2015 Resolution

This blog will be a year old in another month.  I started it while I was burning up vacation time to nurse mom back to health at the timeshare.  It was great progress at first and it got me back into my tai chi head while my side business slowed down.  Then I had cataract surgery, then another to correct the implant.  And after each eye surgery, there's a period where they tell you don't exercise and don't bend over.  I just never got back to exercising, then business picked up again.  There were other home issues that drained my bank account so the side business is helping my financial recovery. 

In 2015, I resolve to practice tai chi every day.  I WILL make time for it.

Short Forms

This started out as a digression in the "Single Whip" post after my thought that Second Section makes good demonstration.  It's now on it's own, LOL. 

In my opinion, the development of short forms like Cheng Man Ching’s 37-step Short Form and the all-style Beijing Short Form were originally an attempt to standardize tai chi competition and to market this martial art as “exercise.”  Teachers over the years would dumb down the form to increase retention of beginners and/or reduce the need for space.  When competition came about, there were too many different styles, so the head of "family" styles tried to standardize things.  LOL new style by committee!  Um, no. What better way to lose "style," not to mention the original intent and completeness.  Yeah, I'm a traditionalist.

I’ve never been to a Tai Chi forms competition, they didn’t exist until after I’d left the classes.  From what I’ve seen on YouTube, watching Tai Chi forms competition is as exciting as watching grass grow.  But in Open Competition (meaning you compete against all martial arts styles, not just like styles), Second Section makes good demonstration.  Even done fast, it almost never wins because it’s too different from what the hard styles are doing and also because the judges, who are typically Karate black belts, lack knowledge in soft styles/internal martial arts.  There is the additional need to inform the judges you will be going past the boundary of the ring (on purpose) and ask to let you know if/when you’ve reached your max time limit. 

So why do I keep searching "my" short form?  It's nothing but a personal thing about collecting complete sets. While I was learning short form, I wasn't actively trying to learn it.  I just followed along to let this one get absorbed by osmosis  rote.  I'm not kicking myself over it, at the time it was as much as I could absorb while I was actively learning other styles.  It is what it is.  I am hopeful that one day I'll be able to visit Texas & record the form.  At the very least, I have the rest of my life to figure it out.

Single Whip

To help memorize the long form, I was taught to use Single Whip to further divide the form into smaller learning sets.

 

First Section only has one Single Whip posture.  Easy, peasy.  First Section was meant to be easy.  It’s almost like warm up before you get hot and heavy into the form.  If you are short on time or just starting or with other issues (like balance or stamina), you were meant to work on First Section.  You do need “walking space.”  If the stances are done properly, you will end up several steps (maybe four?) to the left, and almost two steps forward, from where you started. 

 

In Second section, Diagonal Single Whip is not directed to 9:00.  Until the 2nd Single Whip posture, it’s almost the same as First Section.  The only new addition is the Repulse the Monkey series.  The Single Whips bookend the Cloud Hands series and continues to High Pat on Horse (aka Pat the Horse’s Head).  From there, start the kicks.  The second part of the Second Section is all about kicks and balance (on one leg.)  I’d say this is the start of “the next level,” and I think the meat of the form.  This is also where beginners tend to drop out. The end of second section is where we were at the end of the beginner class.

 

In my memory, Mr. Ho always said “there are 7 Single Whips.”  That’s the part that sticks with me, but I’m counting lots more in the form and only 6 that face 9:00 in Third Section.  In order to match his statement, that means I must include Diagonal Single Whip and restrict its application to Third Section.  This section is repetitive and just about doubles the length of First & Second Sections together.

·         Between #1 and #2 Single Whip, is Split Horse’s Main four times.

·         Between #2 and #3 Single Whip, is Four Corners (aka Fair Lady Weaves Shuttles)

·         Between #3 and #4 is Cloud Hands.

·         Between #4 and #5 is almost a repeat of Second Section after Repulse the Monkey until you reach the end of the third Cloud Hands set of the form. 

·         That puts you at #6 Single Whip, which is nearly the end of the form.  Until this point, a new movement was introduced, then repeated later.  From #6 to the end, it’s all unique.  This can be further divided into subsets to learn #6 to #7 Single Whips, and #7 to Closing.

Stamina

There are different kinds of stamina. I’ve never had stamina of any kind, so who am I to talk? I have had times in my life when my fitness peaked and stamina was better, but I can’t say I ever had the mental ability to keep going past the physical pain and burning in the muscles. If I was going to continue for any length of time, that was always something I had to work up to. Then diabetes made my body stop automatically regulating energy & fuel, like a control system oscillating out of control. That went to “manual control.” When the blood sugar hits bottom, it’s like hitting “the wall” in marathon running, worse maybe because it’s not as easy as prepping with a carb load (which makes the blood sugar spike and consequent drop that much more steep.) Now the thyroid is losing its ability to regulate--whatever it regulates—it affects energy level, too. Getting old and gaining weight isn’t helping and a recent change in blood pressure meds make my heart race.  Iron deficiency & Yin deficiency on top of that...it’s anything but mental, I tell ya!

The first kind of stamina that comes to mind is like a marathon runner or long distance swimmer. I liken this to Judo stamina. OMG, these guys are like Energizer Bunnies. Even the fat, old experienced judoka keep going strong with all their muscles for the 2 to 6 hours they’re on the mat. Tae Kwon Do & kick boxing is more like sprinter, tennis or basketball stamina. They have bursts of intense exertion over the length of their workout. Whether upper body or lower body, it’s not like judo that works the whole body strength almost evenly at the same time. Oh, but to watch a skilled lightweight against someone tree times his weight & strength—the finesse is beautiful to watch.

Then there’s Tai Chi stamina. I don’t know what sport or style to compare this to, a long hike maybe? Sloth imitation? The tai chi practitioner is always in motion, albeit slow motion, never frozen in one position unless teacher is correcting their posture or they’ve chosen a position for mindful meditation. The stances, the stances, I tell ya! Just like karate or judo, the power is in the stances. The fact that my legs are always sore for two days after I attempt the form is a sign that I’m doing something right at this point in my practice. No pain, no gain.  Don't believe it!  But it was a popular saying in the 70’s from Jane Fonda aerobics videos. I say it depends on the pain. If I had sharp pain in my knee, that is bad pain and means I’m doing something wrong. Oddly my back doesn’t hurt right now, one of the reasons I returned to tai chi practice. It’s just in the leg muscles. That’s good pain.

Even in the 10-12 years I practiced at UTA, I don't think I ever actually finished the whole form with the low stances as Mr. Ho or Mr. Deng shows in video. Even at the peaks of my fitness, I could start out strong but I faded in the Third Section. I’d end with “old man” stances, narrow, almost standing upright, smaller gestures. I also used to have a problem with my arms falling down (strength failure) as I tired in Third Section. That’s not happening any more, so either I’m stronger in upper body or I’m not holding extra tension that I used to. I doubt it’s the former. It doesn’t take long to get benefit from Tai Chi just by being on the path, you don’t even have to “be there” yet.  You do have to practice somewhat regularly.

And again!

I got in another tai chi workout at the gym, that's two for the long weekend!   I wanted to go yesterday but my legs were so sore.  Felt good starting out today but I fatigued before I even got to the long form.  I had Mom do the 18-style with me.  She did as well as expected, I had a chair ready for her to sit but she almost finished. Then I barely got through 1st section, so I took 2nd section in bits.  I'm wondering if the new thyroid med isn't tiring me out quickly.

Finally

Finally got out to the gym and had to floor to myself.  I finally remembered my external speaker.  Egad, I was horrible.  I had mirrors on two sides to check my posture.  My legs were burning so my stance was very shallow.  At this point, I'm just happy to get through 18-style and the long form.  If I could just burn more of the form into my memory, I can work on posture later.

My attempts to the gym earlier this week, I learned I need to get started by 4:30p or it's too late.  The floor gets crowded and a class comes in before 5:30.  I worked legs earlier this week and I was surprisingly strong, this means I have strength but no stamina.

Ganked

Mom got sick and recovered. And now she's sick again but requiring less of my time now that she's on a slow mend.

I'd gotten frustrated trying to do tai chi in my bedroom. Chi Kung was okay, it's almost stationary and I have enough room to swing my arms and legs if I find just the right spot to stand. But I wasn't making progress with the long form by having to constantly stop and readjust. Haha, how will I swing my swords when I'm ready to do those forms? I was tied to my home Wi-Fi to access the videos.

As they say, there's an app for that. It took surprisingly little effort to figure out how to get past my latest excuse. I'm quite sure these videos are on a DVD somewhere (probably in Taiwan) and I’d love to own an original copy if I ever get the opportunity.

Now to find a time and place to practice daily...

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.