Pondering Caijiao

For the first time Shifu had me teach Caijiao today. I took it as a compliment and an ultimate validation of my training progress. Think about it. This was the awesomest Heng Li's job. And for one class, I got to do it.

Although I don't think I was as good a teacher as he had been, I'm still feeling giddy.

Watching my two brand new students kept trying, I was reminded of how my Caijiao must have looked like when I first started. And I found a new appreciation for my training progress.

.........

But now thinking about it while writing this post, I start to doubt myself. Why do I need any validation from Shifu to appreciate my own progress? Why couldn't I realize that for myself? I mean I train hard and I like training. Why can't that be enough?

OK. I guess it was enough. I am happy with my chi. Outside confirmation is good. But the only real confirmation is from myself.

This is difficult.

I guess I'll just train harder and stop thinking. For now.

Get your kicks....

Over the weekend some most excellent KF folks got me out of the city to destress and distract me. Not an awful lot of training occurred, but lots of playing did. At one point Richu told me to try and caijiao a tree branch that was hanging over our bench. From sitting it looked a little high, but once I stood up and gave it a try I realized it was not as high as it seemed, or my legs are even longer than I realized. It was an interesting sensation though, kicking at a target (occasional caijiao-ing of mosquitoes doesn't count). Mostly in class I just kick as hard as I can and hope for the best, and really have little concept of where my kicks are landing or how high they're going. Now I don't want to have to kick anyone in real life, and I'm staunchly opposed to tree-abuse in general, but I must say, it was pretty gratifying to caijaio that little leaf, however feebly. Can't wait for L2 and kicking pads and such.