the girly who shall end all girls

"The Chinese concept of qi presents a problem in English because it is neither matter nor energy but rather both. Several distinctions that are rooted in Western philosophy and Western languages, such as the distinction between matter and energy or between body and mind, are far less concrete in traditional Chinese thought and language. In a sense it is the same problem that faces modern scientists who must describe light as both particles and waves."

- Brian Kennedy, from Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals A Historical Survey

i spent the weekend taking pictures of Chinese New Year lion dances and events. and now i sort and cull and crop...and hope to be done before the next event this Sunday :)

here's a sampling from Saturday:
















i haven't even started sorting the Sunday ones yet. here's the full Saturday set on Flickr

i realized i hadn't written about kung fu for a while. due to traveling i've had a spotty attendance record. and i haven't done as much actual practicing on my own as i have thought about practicing on my own.

a part of me compares myself to people who started around the same time as me or after who now know a few more moves. but that voice is surprisingly quiet - i thought that i would hate self/be jealous and cranky/get crazy competitive. but that's not what happens. the atmosphere of the school doesn't stir that up. i don't mind staying in the second row until i get things right.

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i seem to be able to stick to thinking about my own journey rather than obsessive comparison, which in many ways is a new behavior for me. that may be even better for me than the exercise.

i had a little biomechanical breakthrough in class tonight, getting the hip turn/foot pivot/fist rotation together in the right way. i got praise for my power, more than once. and then i was called on to demo the move for C. and i didn't screw it up.

the pork shoulder i put in the crockpot before work was ready to shred with a fork when we got home. after shredding, the sauce. very simple, very tasty. and there is plenty left for lunches.

i licked my plate clean.

si hing J and si hing T ran class tonight.

sifu is not ever easy on us, but oh gods they are the bad cop. (i haven't asked yet, but i'm pretty sure by his bearing that si hing J *is* a cop, or ex-military.)







i don't think i'll be able to lift my arms tomorrow.

somewhere i lost count. but Saturday was definitely at least 21 kung fu classes.

i lost count because i'm having a great time. i commented to mimerki that i want to keep at it at least until i get to the butterfly knives. that's years away, and right now i'm fine with that.

i appreciate the way things have cascaded from the class. the lion dance pictures led me into learning more about photoshop and about my camera. to take care of my knees i'm going to the gym regularly, used a trainer. we're talking about going to a hip opening yoga workshop (that i've looked at for years) to make wide stances and kicks easier. i'm getting to know coworker F, who i never would have encountered in my daily routine. i'm reading more about China. i'm standing up straighter. i can run to catch the bus without getting winded.

currently i'm up to "one step" sparring, which is a very controlled contact exercise that teaches distance and timing. (punch-block-punch with step to right, return to center, punch-block-punch with step to left, return to center, repeat many times, change up the block type, change who punches first.) the first time i did it i needed frequent breaks to shake out my legs. most recently we lost track of time before we had to move on to the next part of class.

"fatty necrosis" is my Achilles' heel. (not actual fatty necrosis, thank goodness. that would mean that i had ruptured fat cells in my breasts from impact. classmate M, training-to-be-a-physical-therapist-with-an-interest-in-forensics, knows how to destroy me. if you were to say "fatty necrosis" while sparring with me, i would burst into laughter and fail to block you.)



my waist is two inches smaller than when i started. my hip is larger. hung gar kuen, bringing the Oakland Booty for 3000 years.

i finished reading Kung Fu Masters this morning.

Jose Fraguas interviews 21 masters of Chinese martial arts. the methodology was to ask mostly the same set of questions to each, and then edit to the interesting answers. i would have gladly heard more from many of them, and it's wonderful that he spoke with them while he could. (like Ark Y. Wong, who has since passed away. he started teaching classes in 1921. book was published in 2002.) my only real disappointment is that there's no interview with Lily Lau.

it's not an instruction manual, although it does have pages of serial photos attached to some of the interviews. i find that sort of thing to be useless at this point. maybe they will offer more information to me when i have more experience; right now stills of sparring are like dancing about architecture.

the personal stories are entertaining. the education opportunities are in nuggets of philosophy, and the comparisons one can do at the end of the book. (tidbit: i got a clearer understanding of why and how there's a karate dojo in every town in the US, and so much less kung fu even though it has been taught in the States for a good hundred years.) i found myself marking multiple pages and scribbling down quotes. i was surprised but pleased to discover blank pages marked "notes" at the end of the volume.

i don't know how much it has to offer to followers of other martial arts, but it was a useful read to me and i think it would be entertaining to a fan of martial arts films for the insights into real vs staged and the multiple discussions of the impact of Bruce Lee on the field. (tidbit: Jeet Kune Do was not quite meant to be passed on to students. supposedly Lee quickly figured out that designing a system to his strengths meant that only he could do it properly...)

"In martial arts, natural athletes rarely last. The martial arts are an acquired skill; they have to be learned. Some people learn things quickly and just burn out quickly. ...'No doubt, no attainment; little doubt, little attainment; big doubt, big attainment.'"
- Chu Sau Lei

which should be some lead-in to how i had a rough class tonight. i didn't, once i got past the warmup section. the first twenty minutes to half hour of class, spent mostly in horse stance, is brutal. but that's always the toughest part. the rest of the class is pleasure. exhausting pleasure, but without the feel of deathmarch that comes in that forever when we are holding sei ping ma for what i know should be the last time before the class breaks into sections.

i've been reading a collection of interviews with kung fu masters. the bit above from Chu spoke to me. i've never been able to get physical things without tremendous repetitive effort. i don't automatically think that something is impossible, but i also don't expect it to happen overnight.

i meant to carry a flag or something, but i was drafted into taking pictures. (for which i was completely unprepared. took pictures Friday, spent Saturday and Sunday cursing my lack of skills and prep for shooting inside in dim light, etc etc etc.)

anyway, the new hotel at the Tulalip Casino is all full of luck and stuff. Northern and Southern lions (eight total), the tea table, the kung fu bus, and more at flickr.

as a kidlet, i was prone to explosive bouts of temper that would evaporate as soon as i acted out. i was the kid in playschool that bit the bossy girl when she told us to clean up and i had just got the legos after waiting and waiting for them.

i think this was one of the reasons that my family trained me to make a fist with my thumb on the inside. i can only assume they were setting up thumb-damage punishment for me if i ever tried to slug someone.that wasn't an issue since i was more into kicking and hair-pulling.

don't hurt anyone. how many times have i heard it in my lifetime?

never ever point a loaded gun at a human being - only the ground or a target. you don't want to hurt someone.

and that's how those conversations go. NEVER do x, because you could hurt someone.

in kung fu class last night, the people who haven't started forms yet were working on kicking basics. sifu was talking about placement, that we start with aiming for the ribs, and from there with practice we will eventually develop the control to place the kick anywhere up and down the body as needed. in the course of this little overview, he mentions that kicking the neck is usually lethal, and continues on to the next topic. we move into working on setting distance and getting individual critique as we kick a freestanding bag. lots of meaty bits about the biomechanics of delivering the most force with the least effort. ie, if i use the proper technique, i will put less stress on my body. it was really helpful to see what people were doing wrong as well as what they were doing right. it was a good class. i'm still processing all the information.

falling asleep last night, i realized that i had been told that doing x would likely kill someone. and for probably the first time, it was not followed with "never do that." i have been given this bit of information, and i am allowed to make my own value judgment. interesting.