Synchronized 二路拳

Are the stars beginning to align? Or is there some magical chi mist that has descended upon our fellow brethren at the Shaolin Temple? For the past few level 1 classes, especially in the daytime, I've noticed that most of the regular level 1 folks are either done or almost done learning erluquan. This could mean that there will be a unprecedented (my exaggeration probably) number of people testing erluquan. By my count, there could be about 14 of us.

It's very fascinating and rewarding to go through a process with the same group of people. I know that Cheng, Mo, and Qbertplaya (edit. -- and Sucheela!) went through a similar experience last Fall when they were all preparing to test erluquan and were helping each other to ignite the chi. You form a very special bond. Like when we were all freshmen in high school walking into the cafeteria for the first time. We just naturally gravitate towards each other and cower sit at the same table.

By having a large group, it's also has been a wonderful way to polish our own techniques by watching others perform the same movements over and over again. For us daytime folks, we are even more lucky, because we get to have Shifu watch and teach us erluquan. In fact, it's not uncommon to see more than two people working on the form at the same time. And on those rarest of occasions, a 4-person synchronized erluquan.

It's All in the Hips

Before I left for the Christmas holidays I was doing battle with some pretty angry shenanigans in my hips/hip flexors. I've had trouble there before, but after a while it eventually passed. With the more rigorous training I've been engaging in since October the pain came back with a vengeance. It pretty well prevented me from being able to get up from a straddle stretch in less than three minutes, impaired my ability to transition stances (say: gongbu-mabu), and pretty much made sweeping a worse challenge than usual. After two weeks off at Christmas, I came back to a rested, un-sore body which included happy hips, hooray! But since we've been training in Austria the devil, crunchy, cracking pains are back. And now they even hurt during ceshoufans, and we know I didn't need anything making those worse. So now what?!?

I feel like my hip problems sound like most other people's knee problems. I'm never had a bit of pain in my knees (knock on wood) but my hip joints have been a concern nearly from day one. I am thinking maybe it's a genetic predisposition as my sister also had to quit running because her hips gave her so much trouble and the doctor told her they couldn't handle the impact. But then, I have done many other sports, one of which was volleyball and if that doesn't impact your joints I don't know what will. Either way, am I doomed to be locked in an eternal battle with this part of my body? Am I never going to be good at latin dancing? Should I pop a certain painkiller? Stretch a different way? Go get acupuncture? Or is it too late and I should just cut off my legs at the hip? That's going to make bringing back mad Austrian skills rather difficult.......

Takin' it back Old School

Austrian Update: Last night, Heng Xin, Heng Yi, and the entire performance team were out at a mini seminar so Level 2 was about half its usual size, and Heng De ended up being called upon to teach the class. It was fun to train USA style in the temple and I think the Austrian folks enjoyed mixing things up as well.

I felt called on to represent, and ended up leading the line. I loved starting off going straight into caijiaos- here they do lots of running and hopping first. And I felt more in my comfort zone in this more familiar routine. For some reason, though, about halfway through class my chi just wasn't there. I've been struggling lately with feeling weak and choking from lack of confidence, in my head I know that it's silly, but I've lost all faith in my arms to hold me up, feel totally pop-less in my kicks, and cannot maintain my balance on anything from long Level 2 movements to a gongbu or waibaitui. I hear Sifu in my brain telling me to relax, let it go, don't get upset, (Heng Yi says, "Stay happy!") and I want to, but it just has been difficult lately.

The last half of class helped cure me. I did kip ups: for forty minutes. I kipped and kipped and kipped, and while I never got UP, it felt a lot better by the end. Maybe pounding my back into the floor over and over and over again released all the tension, or maybe I just got really determined because everyone here can do the kip up and I want to get it too. But once class was over and I was kipped-out, I felt a lot less strained than I did at the beginning. The guy teaching me, whose name I didn't catch, told me, "It looks very close, you are just really tired now; you never know, the next time you do it might be the time you get it." And that is an inspiring thought.

Break-neck speed

Austrian Update: Yesterday In the evening Heng Xin took the three of us to go see the Shaolin tour performing in Vienna. As many of you may know Xin is a CR-azy driver, which was super fun (see Richu's blog for more), but having my head whipped back into my headrest repeatedly did nothing to help a neck injury I sustained in training and I woke up this morning with a vary sore/stiff neck.

Here in Vienna they have jumping class on saturdays right after training, then advanced tumbling at 5. We stayed for the first one, which was mostly basic rolls, then some head flips and liyu dating. Doesn't sound too hard right? Alas, for me it was.

One of the jumps is a diving roll. Some of the folks here jump super high, perpendicular to the floor, head down, then go into the roll. I definitely found this a little intimidating, my constant fear in things like that is breaking my neck. But I figured I used to swim, I used to play volleyball, I understand the mechanics of diving and rolling. Unfortunately, either I'm even more uncoordinated than I think or my arms were just too tired from training to adequately support a diving roll, but they totally gave out and I landed, hard, on my head/neck/shoulder. Yi and Richu were both watching and apparently it looked pretty bad. I shook it off ok but I was definitely leery of my jumping for the rest of the class, and my head flips were just somersaults.

I was talking about it afterwards, and I realized that my fear of getting injured is probably part of why I got injured, as it causes me to hesitate in my movement. But I don't know if having it happen has made my fear worse or helped me get over it because now I know I won't actually die.... Either way, I'm giving my neck a break today so it doesn't get actually broken.