Hottt!!!

Thanks to Easter for forwarding this hottt image. Mmmmm....Walker, Texas Ranger...Yee Haw!!!!

Swept Away!

Last night, since Shifu was away, I felt a little more at ease and adventurous with my kung fu-ing. The weather was not as grody as it was for Tuesday's class. Plus, it was energizing seeing a fuller class -- it reminded me of the old Temple feeling with so many on the carpet.

I did pubu chuanzhang lunbi zaquan from the other side without fear of being kicked to kung fu kindergarten. I wall stretched with Shi (Charlotte) and Shi (Jose) both of whom I hadn't seen in a while, and did a little bit of the straddle on my own. The night's best challenge came, however, when it was time for forms practice.

Hannah and I have been neck and neck for a while in terms of our progress through erluquan. For weeks we have been anticipating the sweep, so last night we egged each other on in attempting it. Well, I tried it, and the first time seemed okay (but who knows if it looked okay), but then a few times after that, I dragged my right foot funny and now it don't feel so good. So after class, all of the KF Dorks -- Me, Hannah, Mo, Sucheela and Quantou -- got together on the carpet after cleaning mediation and did a few spins. I landed on my ass, but boy, was it fun!

Totally dorkilicious!

How sweet the sweep!

Last night could not have been more different than Tuesday. Huge class (47!!!) cool air, and Xu taught, which was a nice throwback to when I first started and she taught my day classes. Long lines meant I wasn't so out of breath and I could go slower and focus on technique a little more. I did wall stretch for the first time in awhile and man is it hard to go back! Have to remember to keep mixing it up. Then during forms, Qbertplaya and I decided the time had come, the chi was high, we bit the bullet and added the sweep to our Erluquans.

We haven't been taught it officially, but we've been watching people and listening to Sifu's corrections and felt like it was time to swallow our pride and start getting a feel for it, no matter how awkward we might look. I think we both felt pretty silly, but it was a successful breakthrough nonetheless. Thanks everyone for cheering us on. Embrace the wobbliness! After class she, Sucheela, Quantou, Mo and I practiced sweeping, but I'm not sure I really progressed. I think "learning" the sweep is going to come down to endless repetition. Like so many moves, I understand it in my head, I just need to communicate it to my body. But I hope that I working on it now will help us move on to the next step faster. I will finish erluquan!!! I really wanted to get to five kicks before my mom visits is August. Probably won't happen, but at least I will be able to sweep for her!

'The Wall'

Last night was definitely the hottest day of the year. I don't know about you but my head felt like it was going to explode. One quick word from shifu "Don't wash your head down, only wash your neck and face. Your head is where you lose the heat." Yes shifu... but I feel so woozy and it wants to explode and the water feels sooooooo good!

I left class a little down-trodden. I was nearly pushed to my limit (due to 6 of us doing forms for an hour) but knew that I hadn't reached the proverbial ‘wall’. How close do you think you came to hitting 'the wall' yesterday?

At the end of class I got some special shifu love... "Train Harder". I knew it too… I hadn't taken full advantage of the day. Of course he was right.

Great job to everyone who trained yesterday!

A Love-Hate Relationship with Water

Yesterday was a scorcher. When I went to get lunch in the afternoon and felt the heat, I knew that training would be a doozy. I have to admit, the scaredy cat part of me briefly considered skipping because I knew training would be miserable in this humidity, but then the other part of me said, 'playa, you've missed too many classes recently due to work and whatnot, and tonight you have the time to train, and you're gonna voluntarily skip?! Stop this crazy talk! So I chomped down and went.

I entered Temple, and only a few of the lights were turned on, but it already felt oppressive. Grrreat. The changing room was sweltering and I could not get outta there soon enough. For the first time, I wore my uniform top with the right sleeve tucked in. I didn't give a crap if people could see my flabby arm. As I warmed up a little by the sink, Gombulla was slicing up a beautiful mango and he offered me a piece, but I declined, figuring I'd puke it right up. Instead, I swallowed a few quick gulps of water from the tap, thinking it'd do me some good to have water in my system. Boy, did that prove wrong!

Basics started, and I was kinda near the front to start. After a while, I started feeling this sharp stabbing pain in my right side. My stomach did not like the water I drank just before class. It was cramping me up! I stood to the side and tried to massage the water through my system. I didn't want to set a bad example for the newer folks, so I pushed myself to get back in line, only to drop out again. My body was feeling exhausted from the heat, yet also combatting this stabbing pain. Oy!

I dunno how, but eventually, the stretching break came. The stabbing pain had subsided but I still felt woozy, so I downed so much water. I figured that since we were done with most of basics (especially the jumps and ceshoufan), I wouldn't have to worry about the water sloshing around in my belly and cramping me up again.

I noticed a curious thing -- the tip of my nose felt a little tingly, kinda numb, like it sometimes does after I've drunk a lot of alcohol and am hungover. I guess because my mind was blasted, I didn't put two and two together until later in the evening, when I realized it must have been because of dehydration that I was experiencing this symptom. When you're hungover, you're also dehydrated. Duh!!!

After class was over, I took my uniform off in the changing room and marvelled at how heavy my stuff felt in my plastic bag. Heavy with sweat! I was proud to have gone through with training, but also relieved.

Kung Fu Dork Profile #5

It's my Shaolin Anniversary today! (Ok, so it's kind of a stretch, and time is an illusion etc., but I like anything that even remotely resembles a holiday.) And what better way to celebrate than by training tonight? While I sit and anticipate that, I thought it would be a good day to publish my dork profile.

Name: Hannah R.
Temple Name: Don't have one yet, but need one if only so I know whether Shifu is talking to me or Hannah T. (ed. note. -- as of September 2007, Hannah R. is now Heng Cheng!)
Occupation: Posing as a competent Assistant to the Executive VP at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I mostly occupy myself there by drawing cartoons, looking up recipes and doing kung fu in empty rooms.
Borough: Brooklyn - Fort Greene to be precise.
Chinese Sign: Rat - Rats are characterized as being charismatic, pioneering, cunning, etc... Ok, so they also live in sewers. But hey, Splinter was a rat, and he still was able to learn ninjitsu and teach it to turtles.

When was the last time you trained? About ten minutes ago. I do mabus in the elevator. At temple: I last trained Sunday.

How is your commute to the temple? 15 minute ride on the Q train from work.

How did you learn about the temple? And what made you start training? Oddly enough, I found out about the temple randomly when I still lived in GA. About a month after I moved to NY I remembered, "Oh yeah, that place looked pretty cool." So I visited, thought it was really cool, and started training. The people and the chi kept me coming.

When did you start training? July 10, 2006 One year anniversary!

What is your favourite basic move? I changed this answer several times, but I gotta go with waibaitui. The explosion (both the noise and physically), the extension, getting to do it right after stretching, you can't beat it for chi.

What injuries have you had from training? Nothing too serious. I currently have nice bruise from where I fell on Saturday. Does hurt pride count? I hurt that a lot.

What's the most important lesson you learn from training? Patience; any way you want to interpret it.

Soup or no soup? Soup, but number 14 with the vegetarian broth. I'm vegetarian; like Shifu.
Shower or no shower? If I have somewhere to be before I go home. I try to be considerate of other people's noses.
Gatorade or water? Water. The sweet drinks just makes me thirstier, and I drink too much water already.
How many uniforms? 2 NTNL uniforms, and one blue cotton one. Oh and an extra pair of blue pants from my original uniform to which I lost the top. Oops.
Straddle or wall stretch? Both. Straddle lately because just for fun I decided to aim for a middle split by September. Psychological test. Conquer the fear of the straddle!

Looking forward to many more awesome years!

Distracted!

Kudos to Hannah for keeping the blog going. I've been horribly distracted lately with stuff in my personal life and with work. I have a report right now that I'm busting my ass to get out, so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

Kung fu keeps me sane and calm. Even though many of us admittedly experience pangs of nerves and anticipation right before a class, I love how in a way, we also know what to expect -- a tough two hour session during which we sweat loads, gather up the chi and challenge our hearts, bodies and minds. And it's that sense of constancy that I value.

Recently, times have been challenging. I've missed quite a few classes due to workload, and I've felt beat, so the few times I've made it to Temple recently, I haven't been there 100%. My brain shuts down and I feel like I'm going through the motions a little. I almost am satisfied enough with the mere fact that I've made it to training, and whether it's a good class for me or not is irrelevant. And that's spilled over into my kung fu blogging. I need to find the chi to write.

Maybe part of it is due to the recent flux of people who train each time (Quantuo alluded to it in his most recent post), which results in this slight feeling of disconnectedness. That is why even after a rough day at the office when I've missed training, instead of hopping in a car headed home, I'll still meet up with folks for dinner at Thai Son -- to maintain that minimum sense of community and continuity that keeps me coming. It is also why I was happy to organize folks to meet up on the Fourth of July. And why I dragged my family to listen to Billy and the Vipers play a little outdoors at a restaurant in Brooklyn last night since we were in the same neighborhood.

*Sigh!* My mind is hazy, not unlike the weather!

RE: Sweat

I trained yesterday! The first time after more than a month!

There were fright, tightness, sore, being out of breath, blah, blah... the whole deal. Oh, also a warm welcome back.

One thing new I noticed: my sweat was more smelly than usual!

How could this be?!!!?!

Have I become dirty and smelly? Was it because I just came back from a tropical weather? Did I get old and smelly in a period of one month?

I refuse the above thoughts and my genius mind came up with new answer...

I didn't exercise and sweat vigorously for a while. Dirt, hair, dead skin cells, food, etc. built up on my body (ewww). Although I soaped and bathed myself occasionally, my pores are not cleaned. Therefore, my sweat from my first training running through these pores became more smelly. QED.

One is the loneliest number....

Only dork at training today. Sigh..... Only, kidding, I know everyone else was legitimately busy. I just don't want the world to think that I did in fact perform a hostile takeover of the KFDU blog. And I missed my fellow dorks! But there were thirty people there today to help take their place. And I needed the support. I had my first major crash during ceshoufan today. Not major. But I've never fallen that hard before. My cartwheels are always a little wonky. Or a lot, depending on the day. Today I was rolling merrily along when I realized I was about to barrel into the innocent bystanders training in the back. Before I could stop myself, I succumbed to instinct and went limp in an effort to stop my momentum and keep from hurting someone. Moot point, I ended up hurting myself. I uttered a girly scream and then my head hit the floor,my elbow slammed my leg and I landed in a heap. Not too serious. Moderately dazed, I jumped up and got back in line. What definitely helped though was that, true to form, everyone in line was clapping and encouraging me as I got off the floor. I admit I was pretty embarrassed; but heving been on the other side, I know no one was judging me for falling. And the supportive cheers of my spastic-ness helped me get back in line with extra chi. This reminded me that, dork or not, we are always training together. No matter who is in class we all feel one another's successes and falls and are equally enthusiastic in supporting both. Sometimes falls get more applause than awesome moves! And it's genuinely encouraging, not good-natured-but-sarcastic jeering. It means a lot.



That just leaves me with my ceshoufan needing some serious work. I try to pretend I'm at a disadvantage with long legs. (That's a lot of leverage to overcome!) But I recognize that it's a pretty flimsy excuse. Even if I can't extend, it doesn't logically follow that I also can't go in a straight line and not run into the people training on the side. Funny, you would think that since we've all done cartwheels since our childhood it would be a move easier to master than something like pubus that we've never done before. So time to train harder on ceshoufan; then I'll train one armed, then no arms. Then I'll take over the world! Plus, I have a sneaking suspicion it will come in useful in Erluquan.....