Kung Fu Dork Profile

Name: Sucheela

Temple Name: Massaman (Zhou's the only one calling me that.)

Occupation: Pretending to be busy with web stuff
Borough: Brooklyn
Chinese Sign: Tiger

When was the last time you trained? Last night. It was awesome!

How is your commute to the temple? I used to be able to walk to the temple from my previous residence. No more. Now I take trains -- about 20 minutes from work. Don't know how long it takes from home yet. Haven't gone training from home since my last move...

How did you learn about the temple? And what made you start training? I worked with Jeremiah aka Neo. Whenever anybody had any complaints about anything, his only suggestion is -- You should try Shaolin Kung Fu!!! And then I became single, had too much free time, needed something to do. So I came to the trial class - didn't like it that much. But oh the pain - the pain that I got from the trial class was so addictive - I wanted more. So I started training.

What is your favourite basic move? Cetitui. Because I thought kicking on the side is a nice change from all other kicks. I have weird fondness for Cetitui. I don't know.

What injuries have you had from training? Lower back pain from several causes, the black thing on the back of my legs from over extension, left ankle from Erchijiao, right knee from unknown cause, right shoulder from Erchijiao.

What's the most important lesson you learn from training? I can do it! I can love myself. I can be strong. I can be happy. etc.

Soup or no soup? Soup! Hungry!
Shower or no shower? No shower! Waste of time.
Gatorade or water? Water! Cheaper.
How many uniforms? 3!
Straddle or wall stretch? Wall stretch! Feels more stretched.

Thursday Night -- More Chi TV?

I think tonight's attendance list only had one column's worth of names. Do Thursday classes generally feel smaller to anyone else? Is it cos it's the end of a long week, and people wanna rest up for the weekend? Are we dorks for preferring to train instead of caring what's happening on Grey's Anatomy/CSI/ER? Can't help it!

Anyway, tonight, I somehow managed to get through basics and chuji quantao and yiluquan without hearing Shifu call me out despite my general tiredness after a long day at work. I still find whipping through the forms and then xiebu and pubu together as a group extremely challenging, and I guess I need to train harder. But, by the time we get to practice forms individually, my legs become less rubbery and re-energize. It really helps me when we ignite the chi.

I was lucky during forms -- Shifu showed me some extra love and worked with my beginning of erluquan. Like when he worked with Sucheela recently, he corrected my stance by making me do the ending to yiluquan, then I had to chamber my left palm, and then bring my right arm almost straight up. He emphasized the importance of keeping my torso in the same position, so as to thrust my hip out. The right leg should be at a 45 degree angle. He made me practice it over and over again, even making me face the mirror so I could see myself.

I didn't learn any more to erluquan, but it was great to refine the beginning. Hopefully, I'll nail it down soon! I am utterly exhausted...but happy I got to work with da master.

The Art of Popping

I know... I know.... It's all about extension and popping. I've been training for over a year now and I heard those words for about 5 billion times. But I don't even know if I'm doing it the right way.

I've been told to imagine string pulling from my head to my tailbone. I've been told to open up my shoulder blades. Ummm.... it's a little difficult when my one of my legs is in the air. But I'm trying.

A few months ago I learned that I totally popped the wrong way. Jeremiah aka Neo saw me do the extension while drinking shots at a bar. And the conversation went like this:

(Reenactment)
J: That's not how you're supposed to pop.
Me: What did I do?
J: You looked up and thrusted your boobies out.
Me: I popped.
J: You're supposed to pop your hip.
Me: That's impossible.
J: You are crazy.
Me: You are a nerd...
...etc...

And then I tried it. For me, it's especially true with front kicks - Caijiao, Lihetui, Zhengtitui. When I was told to extend, I would pop my head up to the ceiling. And that's not right. It hurt not only my neck but also my back. O.K. I have to pop from the hip. I tried it. And it's more fun. :) And my back doesn't hurt as much anymore (still hurts though) and my neck stopped hurting completely!

March 21st: World Down Syndrome Day

Amituofo! Heng Er notified me that today is World Down Syndrome Day. She and Heng Wei have a beautiful young daughter, Luigia aka Heng Seng, who has Down Syndrome. Visit Er's blog and show your love here!

For more information on Down Syndrome, check out the Wikipedia Entry.

CHI!

(I know, not exactly a post about last night's class, during which I got prodded for not popping in fanyao and doing a "weird" xiebu during chuji quantao, but an important thing to blog about, nonetheless!)

Oy! My Cranky Body!

When I first started training, I was particularly concerned with the occasional sciatica I'd experience ever since the time I shoveled my parents' entire driveway by myself during a particularly bad snowfall. But because I've strengthened my back muscles and sit up straighter now than ever before, I believe the sciatica is hopefully a thing of the past.

I also have a bum right knee from basketball which one upon a time I thought would never allow me to do tenkong fanyao properly, but all the training seems to have paid off, and I don't get booted from the line for tenkong fanyao any more.

So last week I got sidetracked with work again and only managed to train on Saturday (even though I so desperately wanted to sleep in!). As I did mabu and torqued my fists out into a full extension, I felt a slight tingle in my right wrist/forearm, a feeling I associate with carpal tunnel syndrome, which was probably exacerbated by the extra long hours I spent in my office during the past week. The numbness/slight pain also gets me during ceshoufan as well sometimes.

Hopefully, all that sitting in front of my computer won't give rise to any permanent problems. Does anybody have any recommendations as to how to combat carpal tunnel syndrome? I bet it's something Shaolin monks haven't had to deal with much!

Train harder!