my kung fu brothers - may I hear you say....

Do people not utter the names of moves before performing them anymore?

I ventured to the side a couple of times today to skip jumping. It was so quiet. No chi. Silent. Tired. Slow. I tried cheering the line up and a few people just smiled at me. I yelled out names of moves to set example and our standard "more chi" from the top of my lung - all I heard back was cricket.

What happened?

I remember when I first started the back was as loud as the front - even more sometimes. It was fun to be in the back. And I trained hard.

Did we not set good example as older students? Did we not make the class fun for newer students?

Should I even worry about this?

Spin Cycle

On Sunday, Heng Xu taught our small class of 21. The line for basics was quickly whittled down due to the large number of newer folks, including this family who started a few weeks ago -- a dad, and his daughter and son. I spoke to the daughter, Alyssa (sp?), briefly in the changing room. She's 15 and her brother is 13, and they're from Staten Island. Her dad works across the street and saw our Temple and thought it would be a good idea for all three of them to try it out. Awesome!

So last Thursday, I decided to try doing the sweep kick on my own without instruction. My historically bad right knee has been a little tight since then, almost like a bunch of rubber bands were wrapped around it, so during a few of the basics, I had to lay off some of the jumps. And I avoided zuopan as well. During forms practice, I continued to skip zuopan when in chujiquantao so as not to aggravate the tightness. When it came time to do erluquan, I debated with myself -- do I practice my improvised version of the sweep kick thus potentially annoying my knee more, or avoid it as well?

I decided to go for it. I reasoned that some of the discomfort I was experiencing was due to building new muscles, and that based on most people's experience, I am bound to feel funny at first anyway. And how else am I gonna do it if I don't try? So I groaned my way a few times through what I've learned of erluquan, and was encouraged by others cheering me on. And being at the same spot in erluquan as my fellow dork, Hannah, was helpful, for the synchronized chi can bolster one's spirit.

Perhaps the best thing about stumbling and wobbling our way through the sweep? It caught the eye of Xu, who gave Hannah and me a mini-sweep clinic in the last 5 minutes before we did pushups. Seeing her sweep is amazing, as she demonstrated her agility by showing that you don't even have to plant your hand(s) down if you throw your hip hard enough. And apparently, I've been incorrectly sticking my butt out.

While my legs were too spent to really give her tips a go at that point, I am eager to try them next time, when my legs are hopefully fresh.

"Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in."

So sleepy on Sunday. It's not the first night out late that gets you; it's the second. The thing is, even when I go to bed at 3 or 4am, I still wake up at 7:30 out of habit from work. So by Sunday morning I was not at all well-rested. That, combined with this stupid pseudo-cold that I can't shake, meant that I spent most of basics seriously contemplating how I could get down the carpet with my eyes shut. Very bad chi.... By the end of class my legs were frozen. I was trying to work on the sweep but I could barely get myself into gongbu to begin it. I'm glad I went to class if only to teach myself about responsibility and the repercussions of not getting enough sleep. I am not so talented as Heng Ji whose forms seem to get better the less sleep she gets. I think she had a total of 5 hours of sleep from Friday to Sunday. What a champ. Unfortunately, instead of my sweep being better from my tiredness, I ended up catching myself on the last one with only my thumb, bending it all the way back to my hand. Swore like a sailor right in front of Heng Xu. My thumb is a little swollen and throbbing unpleasantly today. I am going to bed at 8 o clock tonight........

Sweep you off your feet!

Ok, so I won't actually... and I know this is the third post in two days about sweeping, but I officially learned the sweep yesterday. Huzzah! So sad Qbertplaya wasn't there to take part! Almost didn't come to class myself, as I was out till 3 with some other kf dorks to see an art show of a couple of former temple students. Good times, but I didn't anticipate waking up in the morning until about noon. Luckily I was up in plenty of time and got to go to a great class and learn something new. Has "learning" the sweep brought me to new levels of understanding of the move? Wellllll...... ok it's still murder trying to kick around, but I understand the mechanics better now. And at the end I did get around pretty well a couple times. Off to class again in hopes of learing even more!