Speed!

"Work on your speed!"

Lately I feel like the sentence has been directed at me quite frequently during the basic drill. I thought I got it. It's not that I need to move from one end of the carpet to the other faster. It's that I need to do more kicks faster. And the key to kick faster is to relax. This might not sound sensible but it worked for me. A lot of the kicks that we do are for blocking. The power should be on the way down. With these kicks, there is only a split second that I activate my legs, butt and hip to propel my kicking leg down. Then it's back to being relax into the next kick.

I felt like I got pretty good at it. But of course, training never stops.

Today I was told to work on my speed again - this time with Xubu.

What? Xubu? The empty stance?

Hearing that, I made my steps between stances faster. I almost ran from one end to the other. But that, of course, wasn't what Shifu's speed meant. Speed is never moving from point A to B faster but putting more power into each stances.

Fortunately, I was shown how to do it. I was to snap my arms, body, legs and head from looking back to the front faster. Doing it this way, I felt my stance 10 times more powerful and also about 11 times more exhausting.

I thought I had Xubu in the bag. But no. I need to train harder.

The Wonder of Epsom Salt

I remember the first time I took an epsom salt bath.

Scratch that. The bath itself was unremarkable.

I remember the day after I took an epsom salt bath for the first time. My muscle soreness significantly and magically decreased as if I had spent 2 weeks recovering. I was hooked. Cartons of it later, I finally did my research (aka googling).


Image source: Warwick Salt

Turn out epsom salt is not salt salty?

English is so weird. It's like when I learned that there's no coffee in coffee cake...

Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulfate compound. Magnesium helps the function of muscles and nerves and reduce inflammation. Sulfate helps body absorb nutrients.

And best of all, our bodies can absorb both of them through soaking.

You can read all about it at Epsom Salt Council.

Apparently, there are more ways to use epsom salt than just soaking to reduce muscle pain and bruises. It can remove splinter, exfoliate skin, volumize hair, feed plants, reduce constipation, etc.

I have no idea a $3 carton of something can do this much. Now only if it would totally get rid of my all-over muscle sore not just reduce it, the world will be perfect.

A strapping young woman...

I've always been minimalist in my uniform. No socks, no straps, so sash. The less I have to fidget with the better. But after a long time of seeing other folks rocking the straps, and getting tired of catching my pants in zuopans, I decided to try them out. It was quite an improvement, though a little hot. I need to perfect my tying technique both in speed and effectiveness, but once that's done I think I'm going to be a straps-on kind of girl from now on. It's great not to trip on your pants (and my elastic is so stretched in the waist one good tug could pull them all the way off!) and also it gives you a new feeling in the way you kick, and allows you to see the line of your leg and body better when you are looking at a move in the mirror. We'll see if I feel the same when summer starts and it gets really hot. Till then, straps stay.

Last night, aside from trying to keep the straps up, I concentrated on two things: relax, and "kung fu is fun." It seems counterintuitive that repeating these phrases in your head would make said activity relaxing and/or fun, but I'm the personality type that needs those things spelled out sometimes or I forget. Combined with the fun of wearing the straps. I had a great class. Kung fu is fun. Meditation, workout and all that aside, it's simply fun to explode and tumble and train. And by relaxing and enjoying myself I do then also reach my goal of getting technically better. I have to remind myself that taking your time and relaxing is not the same as being lazy and not training hard. As Richu/Nike so succinctly put it, "Just do it." And have fun. And wear straps.

Frankie Says RELAX!

Since I finished erluquan, in preparation for testing, more than one person has warned me about the importance of learning to pace myself properly through the (very long) form. In fact, when I was still learning yiluquan, someone, I think Joshua, told me to relax because if I was that tense doing erluquan I'd collapse halfway through. It's hard to find the balance of doing every movement all-out with lots of chi, while making sure you aren't a sad sack of sloppiness by the end. What was pointed out to me, was that while of course everything should be sharp and clean, there are points built into the form for catching your breath to prepare for the next strike, kick, 5 kicks, whatever. And if you concentrate on being relaxed in those parts and not constantly tense (like I often am) you'll find your energy goes much further.

Finding this good advice, I've also tried to apply it to the entire class. When on line for basics, I've been trying to make sure that during those brief intervals of standing I'm totally relaxed, breathing controlled, and not tensed up waiting for the next trip down the line. I have spent a large portion of my time training trying to relax my shoulders during forms and basics, relax my muscles for stretching, relax relax relax. Most of my life I've maintained a constant state of tension and it's been a difficult adaptation. But I'm slowly getting there, and it has really helped me focus my chi into both explosive power and controlled execution. I hope I can keep it going for this weekend!

It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside.

Last night, for once, I didn't get to training 50 minutes early. (I'm such a bad judge of commute time, and I dread being late.) So yesterday I actually got there the same time as other people. Walking up the stairs with EZ he mentioned how he still gets butterflies before every class. I was so surprised! I thought it was just me! I don't know if I'm nervous, excited, or just full of chi, but my stomach is always doing back flips before training. It's nice to know I'm not alone with the jitters. But I wonder why I still get them; I'm about to hit the one year mark. I'm not nervous per se. At least I can't identify what I'm nervous about. I want to do well, but I'm not afraid of doing something wrong; I'm not afraid of getting yelled at. It happens. But there's definite tension in the ol' abdomen. Then I realized how many other unconscious manifestations of tension I have.

Like other people, I have the bad habit of holding my breath as I go down the line. (I used to do this when I played volleyball too. Strange.) It's amazing how much easier basics become when you remember to use the lungs god gave you. I also have an unholy amount of tension in my shoulders that I can't seem to escape. Sometimes I see myself in the mirror and I look like I have no neck. Even when I'm doing my best to extend my shoulders are tagging my earlobes. Relax those muscles! And of course the more I tried to think about this during class yesterday, the harder it was to breathe and relax. It seems if I'm not unconsciously tense then I'm over-thinking. My own mind and body conspire against me! But in the end, I'll keep the nervousness or whatever it is. At least it means I'm not bored. And adrenaline never hurts the chi!

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!!!"

Waibaitui + Badassness

Last night, during Waibaitui, I had this epiphany: Relax!

When I stretched my mind at that moment to accomodate that notion, suddenly my legs turned into vertical propellers, I was extending infinitely, my arms were the picture of Up, Straight, and Not Bouncing, and I wasn't about to pass out at the end of my turn!

Goes to show what overthinking can do...

PS: My pinky finger got thwacked today in Fan Yao. It's all black and blue now. Don't tell anyone, but I secretly like my Kung Fu war wounds. It is evidence that bad-assness has taken place.

The Personal is Political (This is Less Boring Than it Sounds!)

Maybe you can relate. You know when we're standing in line to do forms, to do basic moves, to do anything, and someone starts clapping, allowing a burst of exuberance to manifest? And then you start clapping, and suddenly you feel excited too, and then it spreads like a wild fire of clapping and shared expression and gladness that we are all here at this moment?

I'm going to confess that, on occasion, I don't clap. I close up and feel protective of my chi-- I don't want to share it for some reason. And then I notice that I am not receiving it or building it anymore either. I have blocked it from going out, and I have blocked it from coming in, and I can't grow. What is that? Is that ego? Is it a "bad day"? Because it feels really good to just relax, to just let it flow, to join in with the collective appreciation of the moments we create. Those moments wouldn't be what they are without each of us. And besides, whatever you give away comes back to you, multiplied.

Anyway, this is just a big shout out thank you to everyone who shares their chi, who gets us riled up and ignites the domino-chain of firey excitement that makes training in class so freaking awesome. More Chi!

Wait... I think I hear clapping, all the way in Brooklyn...