Stretching with Shifu

(Amituofo! A guest entry from our class leader tonight, Shi Heng De.)

So tonight when I was about to call everyone back into lines after stretching, a bunch of people were doing cetitui stretch after Shifu had been doing it with Randy and Khalid. So I thought, "Hey, that looks good, let's all do it."

Luckily for me I was the odd one out, so I asked Shifu to stretch me. So I paid attention to his technique. I got as sideways as I could, straightened my leg, and just relaxed. It would be great if everyone knew how to stretch people like he does! So he raised my leg up to where there was pretty good resistance (not from me -- I was relaxed, but from my leg), but I wasn't dying. I was still able to flex my foot even more. That's not to say I wasn't getting a good stretch though. Believe me, I felt it!

Maybe I should not train for 5 days in a row more often: I hit the middle split tonight and was able to extend my back up off the floor too. I know I'm gonna feel it tomorrow though!

But, anyway, he held that for just a few seconds, then brought my leg down and told me to relax more. Then he shook the leg around a bit to help it relax. He said, "Now can go more." And when he brought it up a second time, it did go up more.

After the second round, he told me to relax again, and then, using his chest against my foot, pushed my knee to my shoulder, still on the sideways axis. This was to counterstretch, and we do the same thing when we do zhengtitui stretch, or the butterfly stretch after middle splits.

When he did my other side, the knee-to-shoulder stretch really pushed it for me (my left hip can't open up much) and my right (standing) leg started to bend without me even realizing it. Shifu noticed and gave a light kick to my shin to remind me.

Oh yea and I didn't even tell him when to stop or anything; he just stopped because he could feel it himself. After you stretch with other people a lot you start to be able to feel their bodies just from holding them and looking at them I think. So stretch together more! :)

So to me it was the same as how we do multiple rounds for straddle stretch or anything, or how I get in my stretching machine around 6 then go out a bit, then a few minutes later come back again and go more. First round relaxes and opens you up a bit, but subsequent rounds are where you really go further. And each time, Shifu didn't hold it for that long. Maybe it was because we were in the middle of class and it was a time thing, or maybe that's just a good way to do it.

Try different things and see what works for you! Be honest with yourself and push yourself! Train harder!

Smashing Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Another guest entry from Heng De. Amituofo!

So I've recently been playing a lot of a certain video game called Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Basically, it's every Nintendo character you can think of, and probably some you can't, fighting each other trying to knock the others off the screen. I first played the original version for N64 when I was just a wee lad back in 1999. In addition to moving around you basically have 4 other motions -- attack, special, shield/dodge, and grab. I never used the shield at all back in the N64 version, and rarely used the grab.

As I started playing Brawl, I was decent, but I realized (especially after playing a few matches online) that to get better, I would seriously have to start blocking and dodging. While trying to learn to incorporate these new things into my play, of course my level of play would go down a bit because I wouldn't know exactly what I was doing. But after practicing over and over I knew that my overall game would improve greatly.

So basically what this made me think of was how we go through a lot of the same things in kung fu. We get comfortable doing the movements a certain way, and then at some point maybe realize that the form isn't exactly correct, or the physics are a little different, or something. But it's hard to stop doing what we've become so used to to try to implement the new thing. Especially when it feels like we already are getting enough power/pop/looks good from what we're doing.

Some moves I can think of off the top of my head where I've had to do this are:

- bian tui and cechuatui -- the whole using the hip and not your leg to kick thing, especially because when you first start to use your hip more it feels like you don't have any power.
- tornado -- I noticed from a picture taken recently that I'm not tucking my leg at all, despite my tornado apparently looking purty; need to fix this.

- gongbu -- keeping your body straight forward, especially in forms like xiaohongquan.

- strumming both up and down instead of just down while playing Guitar Hero (for when it gets really fast).
- pubu chuanzhang -- using hips to power it instead of arms.
- Actually in basically every movement using your hips for power instead of whatever else.

I guess this whole thing can be extended to life in general too; to change and improve ourselves we have to step outside our comfort zones and be willing to try something new. Hmmm....and who says video games aren't good for you!

Kickin' It With Heng De

(Awesome Heng De has offered to share his recent thoughts via a guest entry. Amituofo!)

I was thinking last night about how jumps taking off of my right leg are much better than off of my left. Especially in danfeijiao, a kick where you jump off your right leg, tuck your left, slap your right like caijiao and land on your right. I do it great on my right - I feel like I can get some serious air, more than any other kick (which is another issue, why jumping off my right leg alone gets me higher usually than off both), like Shifu said to me when you jump higher, you have more time to express yourself.

So being the scientific and analytical type guy I am, I asked myself why I feel better with my right leg kicks and jumps than with my left. In the form I just finished, there's a tornado kick with the right leg, and two erqijiao or danfeijiao like kicks off the right leg. So I wondered in our forms, how many kicks on each leg are there? You'd think it should be even to develop both sides of the body. But my results are surprising and astounding!

Form	Right leg kicks	Left leg kicks
xiaohongquan	4	3
dahongquan	6	3
tongbeiquan	6	2
xiao luohanquan	5	2

and the most astounding result...erluquan...which we all do over and over again for like a year, has 11 kicks with the right leg and just 3 with the left!

Add all of this with how many people don't do kicks like erqijiao or lunbicaijiao on both sides, and that's a lot more kicking with the right than the left. Over the years it really adds up.

I started doing staff form with the staff in my left arm because I could feel the strengthening in my right arm and it would be really sore. I didn't want to have all that extra power and coordination in my already dominant arm only. So far I can do the whole form, but it's not as smooth as my right side of course.

I'm thinking about starting to do forms on the opposite side now. At least tongbeiquan which is short and would be easier to figure out, and erluquan because there's so many more kicks on one side. So if you see me doing 5 kicks backwards, now you know why. And knowing is half the battle G.I. JOOOOOEEEEEEEE!

(In case you were wondering, the other half is sounding like you know what you're talking about, thanks Mo and Cheng.)

Oh yea speaking of 5 kicks my left side waibaitui sucks...my hip just doesn't open and my right shoulder hurts when i do it. Could it be all those times doing 5 kicks over the years was what made that side more open? Maybe I should do erluquan only on the left for the next four years...

Heng Ji's Post Shaolin Retreat Wrap-up

Amituofo! Heng Ji has so graciously decided to share her experiences this past weekend at the retreat with us via a guest entry!

I sit here smiling, trying to stretch out my left hip, my right shoulder blade, my shins, wrist and neck, all of which are aching in response to the first of what I hope will be many Shaolin weekend retreats. Already, I am happily mentally preparing my bags for the next one.

The ten t-shirts and three uniforms I felt would be more than plenty proved to be woefully insufficient by mid-day Sunday when I was already down to two t-shirts and had lunch, another kung fu class, a Buddhism class and a certificate ceremony to go. For lunch I ended up wearing my bikini top under my night shirt, and for the rest of the day, a tank top under my sweaty uniform top.

For the next trip, I will add sixteen tops, six pairs of socks and two different types of training shoes. I will require alcohol swabs, Aleve, band-aids and a flashlight. I will leave the alarm clock, books, iPod and cell phone at home.

As everyone experiences things differently and lessons are learned as they are needed, I will share some I have discovered/rediscovered this weekend:

Lessons Learned:

(1) Shaolin Time is not subject to 9,192,631,770 oscillations of cesium atom's resonant frequency (thank you, Shifu).

(2) Shaolin Time should not be limited to only Shaolin experiences.

(3) Honor the gifts which Shifu offers us by reviewing and living those daily (thank you, Shifu).

(4) Practicing five chi kung movements for five minutes in the morning is roughly equivalent to ten minutes of weight training.

(5) Stopping for cupcakes should be part of the outing (thank you, Heng De).

(6) Creating personal challenges while training helps you experience it in a different way (thank you, Heng Han)...

(7) ...as does focusing on keeping a foot grounded while holding stances during forms (thank you, Heng Wei).

(8) GPS systems rock (thank you, Richu).

(9) Talking to your friends are beautiful meditations and can guide you to answer questions you didn’t realize you had (thank you, Heng Jian, Heng Shang, Heng Li, Heng Fa and Janice).

Goals:

(1) To work on my strength by practicing five Chi kung movements twice a day.

(2) To be able to take a few steps on my hands by the end of year.

(3) To work toward getting at least 6 hours of sleep per night.

While stretching, how close do you sit to Shifu? Why?

(Another guest entry from Quantou aka Branden. Enjoy!)

I realized the other day that I was always doing my stretching on the opposite end of the floor from Shifu. We are always supposed to "stretch our bodies, stretch our minds" but sometimes I want to recuperate from the line drills. By being farther away from Shifu I feel like I am not being watched so closely. I still stretch but probably not as hard as I would if he were sitting right in front of me.

Lately, in order to get into the front of the line quickly for waibaitui, I have been doing the second half of my stretches right near Shifu. It has helped to continue the chi thoughout the stretch time. I believe stretching is one of most important aspects of our training, but also one of the most difficult. I just keep thinking...Come here beautiful toes -- I WANT TO KISS YOU!

End of the Carpet

(Amituofo! Occasionally, we will feature the thoughts of a guest contributor. Today, Branden aka Quantou asked to put up a post. Xie xie, Quantou! Chi!!)

In class Shifu always tells us to use the entire floor for the line forms. As class goes along and people get tired they end their trek across the floor earlier and earlier. We end up walking a few precious feet to get back in line, precious because they could be used to do another movement or two. After stretching, the walking to the end of line gets even worse…people doing waibaitui and zhengtitui only do 4 or 5 kicks and then walk the last 10 to 15 feet of the carpet!! Sometimes space is tight, but there is always a little more room.

At my new job over the past few months there have been a few financial projects that I had spent a significant amount of time putting together. Finally the projects were in what I would consider to be a finished form. I would then sit down with my director and we would review. Inevitably there were a few details that she could always find to modify. Her corrections were sometimes banal and sometimes a miss on my part. These misses were infuriating for both of us.

As of yesterday I understand the small misses on my part were because I was not making it to the 'end of the carpet'. No matter how much chi I had to propel myself to the end, once I saw the end was near, I relaxed and started walking. I can now see making it to the end everytime has so many benefits in the temple and out. One more chance to sharpen my form, get stronger and do it correctly the first time.