Friday, January 4, 2008

Be Strong My Aching Body

Just wanted to remind myself...

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

New Year, New Training

Happy New Year! Resolve to train harder! Wait - we do that every day...

Last night was my first training back since vacation; stamina-wise it was a bit more challenging than usual. But my body was so nice and healed that I was able to do everything without any aches or pains or nagging injuries. Still, I was definitely panting harder than usual, especially after doing erluquan all the way through during forms. Luckily, i got a break after when Sifu asked me to help teach Ricardo. I've never been asked to teach before so it was very exciting. But I was also a little nervous being asked to help him with his erluquan. I was hoping my first teaching assignment would be caijiaos... :P

This first teaching assignment was interesting because it was a learning process for me as well. Obviously when teaching someone a form and breaking down the pieces you have to think more specifically about each move and it makes you more aware of places you are weak on and places where you've gotten stronger. But also, having Sifu standing there much of the time watching and sometimes making comments, I realized I was being taught how to teach. It was an interesting perspective and I enjoyed the sort of irony of a teacher teaching a student who is a teacher also teaching a student... Everyone with me? It was fun but not as easy as you'd think, and I appreciate all the more everyone who has ever taught me.