moving about. learning Chinese, practicing Tai Ji Quan, doing Qi Gong, or simply going out running. resisting the monkey impulses.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Swords!

James brought along a box of swords for the class tonight. That means we are now learning two things now: the old first form (Chen style) and Chen Man-Ching's (Yang) sword form.

These are the totally blunt retractable practice swords, that you are unlikely to get arrested for, but still I managed to cut myself.

The sword actions, just the simple ones such as cycling the blade, really start hitting little muscle parts that not only other exercises do not reach, but parts that clearly have never been reached at all before. We had already covered these basic moves in the Norfolk course, but then we moved to the opening parts of the Yang form. My main worry at the moment is tassel control – I keep getting tangled threads and am constantly biffed by the pom-poms.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Krystalline Apostate said...

Sword forms are tough. Putting the mind towards the tip, while trying to simulate some sort of dragon attribute is very frustrating.
Oh, and try to get a hold of something other than those extensible swords, even if it's 1 of those 'made by Mattel' aluminum crapola. Those extending swords'll come right apart.

5:22 AM

 

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