Thursday, May 29, 2008

Who Let the Chi Out?

For the past few days since Monday night Level 2 class, I've been perplexed by something. When did my chi get so strong that I could do one-handed 側手翻 (ceshoufan) repeatedly like I've been doing them all my life?!! Up until Monday night, I haven't been able to do a one-handed 側手翻. Not even a close one. I tried it only 2 times, and each time, I fell like a poorly stacked house of cards crumbling to the ground. Carpet ? Meet face. Face? Meet Carpet. Fun times. I assure you. All of that changed Monday night. While everyone did 霸王摘魁 (baiwang zhaikui), I did 側手翻. Right before the end of the carpet on my first run, I didn't feel like putting my left hand down. (I guess that's the best way to describe it) I did a nice round off with one hand and went to the back of the line. In my mind, I was like, "Did I just do a one-handed ceshoufan? Nah! How can this be? When did I learn how to do that?!" On the next run, the same thing happened, except it happened twice in a row. I did TWO one-handed ceshoufan in a row!! I heard someone say, "Nice!" So I am assuming I wasn't dreaming it. This got me thinking. What changed from Friday to Monday? The only answer I can come up with is, of course, THE RETREAT!!

But what exactly at the Retreat did I learn that enabled me to do ceshoufan one-handed? The Retreat should have tired me out. Plus, Monday was my fifth day of training. My arms should have felt like jello. Then, the answer came to me. It was the Chi Kung.

The Chi Kung we learned at the Retreat totally focused my chi, especially in the arms. Right before Monday class, I got to Temple early and did my Chi Kung exercises. You wanna hear something crazy? I could have sworn I saw mist/steam/chi rise from body while I was doing the third movement. I was like, "Oh! I'm seeing things! Great! That's all I need! Class hasn't even started yet!" I did the third movement again and I saw the chi rising again. Now I was like, "COOL!!!!!!!" I forgot all about it until the inexplicable happened. Repeated one-handed ceshoufan's down the line.

One of my reasons for going on the Retreat was to learn Chi Kung. I've been dying to learn it. Now that I have, does it live up to the hype? You betcha!! Who let the Chi out? Whoop! Whoop!

2 comments:

  1. AMITUOFO LEO!

    I couldn't agree more, I went to class on tuesday night and could feel a drastic difference in the amount of chi. Not only did I feel stronger with some of the movements but I felt my chi endurance was greater... the tai chi helps balance it seems and its as though the chi kung really does unblock the flow! I felt like it was the first night I was really getting the full effect of all the movements.

    does anyone know what specific style of chi kung we were learning?

    ReplyDelete
  2. For anyone interested in learning more about the Chi Kung we learned at the Retreat, here is a link that has a lot of information and pictures.

    Yi Jin Jing

    ReplyDelete