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ironymaidenlast night makes seven kung fu classes.
first impressions of the school hold. i like sifu, who is firm but kind and infinitely patient. other students are still friendly and helpful. as of last night there are enough people who have started after me that i've moved into the second row. C missed a class due to illness, so i'm a little ahead of him for the moment.
i have basic punching and a couple blocks down well enough that now i'm working on matching them with footwork. i'm starting to learn how to ask sifu the right questions, and damn, after one query he seems to remember the kinds of things i need to know to get a move. or i just always make the same kind of mistakes. same result, i suppose. (checkpoint for later: up two back two, alternating blocks - so sau or long sau - and punches; first set was facing corners, newer set is longer strides that are more straight ahead.)
movement is interesting. Noh (which is eerily close to kendo kata, and my nearest touch point to martial arts) is always a smooth and even gliding, with sharp points to hit. it's beautiful and powerful, but it's not...human. ethereal sometimes, mechanical others. kung fu is nothing like that. the movement is fluid, but it's always like a cat coiling to spring. (tiger!) joints are bent, body riding low. i was talking with C last night about his impression that the punches don't take advantage of strength from the hip - and i pointed out that blocks happen in rock-solid horse, but the punch flies as you turn into bow and arrow. from watching forms, i'm not sure that you ever hit facing forward in horse like we do when we're warming up. (we'll see if this observation is astute or foolish in due time.)
the way class is structured, conditioning is the last thing we do. i understand it. but part of me is still saying "hey, i wouldn't be in terrible pain from holding my arms straight out and rotating my wrists until forever if i hadn't been punching and blocking for the last hour. and i did pushups fine when i was warming up before class! if only i wasn't all worn out by the time we get here i could stand here and hold my leg straight out all night! yeah!"
last night i got to finish the conditioning session with iron palm work for the first time. part of this is striking forearms with a partner (as advanced student CH says, it's like a waltz), followed by punching a bag with some give (filled with beans, i think) and then rubbing my sad arms and hands with dit da jow. classmate F says jow is the smell of kung fu schools everywhere. (the scent is pleasant. it looks a bit like apple cider vinegar - helped along by being stored in a bottle from an oil and vinegar set. comparing the smell on my arms to a muscle balm at home, i think the main note is arnica.)
i'm getting really tired of working in Converse. they're not hindering me per se, but they're not helping either. last night i started to do moves that require more twisting on the balls of my feet, and screeeech! i've done a bunch of research on shoes, and the Disciplines are on the way. (or at least they left NJ on the third - and then fell into a black hole, scheduled to emerge on the tenth. WTF, UPS?) i don't have too much pain from class, but i think better shoes are going to help solve the niggling soreness in the outside of my feet and ankles. it's too easy to sluice around inside my one-stars, no matter how much i tighten the laces.
when we started the class, the school was waiting on replenishing the stock of uniform pants and sashes. C asked sifu about it on Saturday, and "the woman who makes them for us has the fabric". whoa. that's much cooler than a box coming from a distributor. anyway, pants and sashes are supposed to be in on Wednesday. so by the end of the week i will have a whole uniform. sifu says that a properly tied sash helps with your qi flow and makes horse stance easier: from what i can tell a properly tied sash supports your low back in the same way as a properly tied obi. (i'm still warming to the idea of qi. i'm fine with woo, it's just new woo to learn.)
i'm retaining more from class to class. i feel like my arms are changing shape, even though it's only been two weeks and that's impossible. i'm just more aware of them somehow. i come out of almost every class more energized than tired. but it still means that muscle rub is the new bedtime ritual.
first impressions of the school hold. i like sifu, who is firm but kind and infinitely patient. other students are still friendly and helpful. as of last night there are enough people who have started after me that i've moved into the second row. C missed a class due to illness, so i'm a little ahead of him for the moment.
i have basic punching and a couple blocks down well enough that now i'm working on matching them with footwork. i'm starting to learn how to ask sifu the right questions, and damn, after one query he seems to remember the kinds of things i need to know to get a move. or i just always make the same kind of mistakes. same result, i suppose. (checkpoint for later: up two back two, alternating blocks - so sau or long sau - and punches; first set was facing corners, newer set is longer strides that are more straight ahead.)
movement is interesting. Noh (which is eerily close to kendo kata, and my nearest touch point to martial arts) is always a smooth and even gliding, with sharp points to hit. it's beautiful and powerful, but it's not...human. ethereal sometimes, mechanical others. kung fu is nothing like that. the movement is fluid, but it's always like a cat coiling to spring. (tiger!) joints are bent, body riding low. i was talking with C last night about his impression that the punches don't take advantage of strength from the hip - and i pointed out that blocks happen in rock-solid horse, but the punch flies as you turn into bow and arrow. from watching forms, i'm not sure that you ever hit facing forward in horse like we do when we're warming up. (we'll see if this observation is astute or foolish in due time.)
the way class is structured, conditioning is the last thing we do. i understand it. but part of me is still saying "hey, i wouldn't be in terrible pain from holding my arms straight out and rotating my wrists until forever if i hadn't been punching and blocking for the last hour. and i did pushups fine when i was warming up before class! if only i wasn't all worn out by the time we get here i could stand here and hold my leg straight out all night! yeah!"
last night i got to finish the conditioning session with iron palm work for the first time. part of this is striking forearms with a partner (as advanced student CH says, it's like a waltz), followed by punching a bag with some give (filled with beans, i think) and then rubbing my sad arms and hands with dit da jow. classmate F says jow is the smell of kung fu schools everywhere. (the scent is pleasant. it looks a bit like apple cider vinegar - helped along by being stored in a bottle from an oil and vinegar set. comparing the smell on my arms to a muscle balm at home, i think the main note is arnica.)
i'm getting really tired of working in Converse. they're not hindering me per se, but they're not helping either. last night i started to do moves that require more twisting on the balls of my feet, and screeeech! i've done a bunch of research on shoes, and the Disciplines are on the way. (or at least they left NJ on the third - and then fell into a black hole, scheduled to emerge on the tenth. WTF, UPS?) i don't have too much pain from class, but i think better shoes are going to help solve the niggling soreness in the outside of my feet and ankles. it's too easy to sluice around inside my one-stars, no matter how much i tighten the laces.
when we started the class, the school was waiting on replenishing the stock of uniform pants and sashes. C asked sifu about it on Saturday, and "the woman who makes them for us has the fabric". whoa. that's much cooler than a box coming from a distributor. anyway, pants and sashes are supposed to be in on Wednesday. so by the end of the week i will have a whole uniform. sifu says that a properly tied sash helps with your qi flow and makes horse stance easier: from what i can tell a properly tied sash supports your low back in the same way as a properly tied obi. (i'm still warming to the idea of qi. i'm fine with woo, it's just new woo to learn.)
i'm retaining more from class to class. i feel like my arms are changing shape, even though it's only been two weeks and that's impossible. i'm just more aware of them somehow. i come out of almost every class more energized than tired. but it still means that muscle rub is the new bedtime ritual.
