March 21st: World Down Syndrome Day

Amituofo! Heng Er notified me that today is World Down Syndrome Day. She and Heng Wei have a beautiful young daughter, Luigia aka Heng Seng, who has Down Syndrome. Visit Er's blog and show your love here!

For more information on Down Syndrome, check out the Wikipedia Entry.

CHI!

(I know, not exactly a post about last night's class, during which I got prodded for not popping in fanyao and doing a "weird" xiebu during chuji quantao, but an important thing to blog about, nonetheless!)

Oy! My Cranky Body!

When I first started training, I was particularly concerned with the occasional sciatica I'd experience ever since the time I shoveled my parents' entire driveway by myself during a particularly bad snowfall. But because I've strengthened my back muscles and sit up straighter now than ever before, I believe the sciatica is hopefully a thing of the past.

I also have a bum right knee from basketball which one upon a time I thought would never allow me to do tenkong fanyao properly, but all the training seems to have paid off, and I don't get booted from the line for tenkong fanyao any more.

So last week I got sidetracked with work again and only managed to train on Saturday (even though I so desperately wanted to sleep in!). As I did mabu and torqued my fists out into a full extension, I felt a slight tingle in my right wrist/forearm, a feeling I associate with carpal tunnel syndrome, which was probably exacerbated by the extra long hours I spent in my office during the past week. The numbness/slight pain also gets me during ceshoufan as well sometimes.

Hopefully, all that sitting in front of my computer won't give rise to any permanent problems. Does anybody have any recommendations as to how to combat carpal tunnel syndrome? I bet it's something Shaolin monks haven't had to deal with much!

Train harder!

Can't Help It!

I trained behind Hannah in the line on Tuesday. She's got chi. She would yell out Beautiful! once in a while to cheer everybody up. I felt like I was supposed to respond her with something. At one point, I said Can't Help It back to her. She turned back and smile at me.

So lets do this.

"Beautiful!!!" - "Can't Help It!!!"

Thought Points

I don't have any kind of cohesive lesson or insight. Just a few thoughts:

1. It felt good to train last night, after missing a week of training.

2. I realized I like when visitors watch us train-- it makes me recall my first weeks at Temple, where I was utterly out of my comfort zone, but at the same time felt like I had finally found this place and these people that made sense to me. It makes me wonder what that person sitting there watching is thinking, and reminds me how far I/we have come.

3. I had to rush out last night to meet some friends for drinks back in Brooklyn. I'm pretty sure I left Temple too early though: As soon as I got to the bar, I started doing the Leg Sweep, like that's a completely normal thing to do. I felt kinda cool and kinda dorky, but mostly dorky. I am OK with that. But I'm not sure if the proprieters of the bar were.

4. My new strategy for healing my Shaolin Butt Sword is to make my butt stronger. It is my understanding that once a tendon is loose, you can't really tighten it again. The only thing you can do is strengthen the muscles around it. Any insight, anyone?

Love, Buns-of-Steel!!!

Shifu has a million eyes

I was so excited to train last Saturday because a grueling work week prevented me from attending class last Tuesday and Thursday. But I was dragging ass, especially during xiebu after chuji quantao. I was in the last row of people, and my knees felt like they were going to buckle as I slowly pivoted and crouched down.

All the way from the front of the carpet, I heard Shifu's voice -- "Ellen! You still don't get it!" -- and then this orange blur shot across the room and then towards me, ending up right next to me. I felt Shifu's eyes staring at me as I struggled through xiebu, so I dug into my dwindling reserve of chi and extended as though my life depended on it. And then Shifu left me alone.

Never assume that Shifu can't see you from across the floor. But mostly, be honest with yourself. There is no need for Shifu to push us into extending as fully as possible. We should do it all the time.

Twisting and Turning

My right knee has been hurting. I came up with all kinds of reasons for it:

• Doing Tenkong Fanyao only on one side


• Trying to lock my knees doing Gongbu


• High heel shoes


• Slippery winter sidewalk


• Old age


• etc...

I think I just figured the true reason out yesterday during the class. It's that move that you stand on the right leg - lifting your left leg - and strike up in the air twice while turning left with your right leg... [Illustration to come when I get home...]



I think I twisted my right knee trying to turn...

How should I correct this? Or do I just keep doing it and my knee will get stronger?

Leg Sweep!

I'm about to do the leg sweep, and I'm finding it intimidating. Must get over the mental block. Also, I find it frustrating being at the end of the line during the basic moves because people accumulate necessarily, and eliminate space available to train. That's a good lesson for paying attention when we start!

On another note, I gave the baby turtles a new toy-- it's a hollow floating log! They totally love it.
I also got them some plants, but I won't install them till I receive the big rocks for the bottom to anchor them in. Yay Beautiful New Temple!

How do you start Erluquan?

Last week Shifu corrected how I started Erluquan. You know - that move right at the beginning after you swing your right arm to the side and swing it back to the front as if you're hitting somebody's throat while doing kind of side Gongbu.

So I think Shifu told me to do this....



...because he told me to do the move like what we do at the end of Yiluqan where you hold your two palms up while doing the side Gongbu - he told me to do that and then chamber my left hand and flip my right hand. So the end result is the picture above.

But now I'm not sure that I understood him correctly because I looked at everybody else doing the form today. They all did this...



I think I'm going to keep doing the Fig. 1 and I'll be different... :) But how were you taught to do this particular move?

(I'm stealing Ellen's idea doing the stick figures. I'm too lazy to draw faces though so I'm drawing them from the back...)

Sarah and Jasmine

Learned two new names from two pretty ladies today.

Sarah is the very tall skinny girl with dark hair who has been training for a while and who can kick very very high. Esther and I stretched her today.

And Jasmine or Heng Zu (or something like that) is the dark skin, very pretty, level 2 student who has been training with us since after Shifu's birthday party. She always pulls her straight hair back while training.

*Correction*
Her name is spelled YASMIN.

Meet Ra!

After class on Saturday, Ji introduced me to Ra. He is of Persian descent, he has short dark hair and has interesting tattoos on his forearms and neck, and he painted the westernmost (golden) dragon column at the new temple. His name means "sun."

Also, on Saturday, I got to work on my little bit of erluquan with Tiao. It is good having her chi back at Temple!

Amituofo!