I am so achy right now. Just got back from 1.5 hours of tai ji. I'm pretty sure I did about 300 kicks - front kicks, cross kicks, crescent kicks, reverse-crescent kicks. All with my arms out to my sides, palms out. After about forty minutes of working on the first form, which had me sweating.
Whoever says that tai ji is for old people really really needs to realize that the tai chi of the west is only Yang style, which is not considered a part of tai ji quan, which is one of the three Chinese wushu arts. I watched Ziang (sp?) Lao Shi drop another master using his index finger and not even watching. Then he hurled that master a good 8 feet away by just moving that index finger vs another attack. I also tried to push over the master in white... and got hurled on my ass, but only after having been pushing against what felt like an unconcerned mountain for 15 seconds.
I hurt, but I got a lot of "OK"s and "Hallo"s from Ziang Lao Shi, and he kept teaching me new things. (He can and will only say "OK" and "Hallo", usually together, and that's all he wants to be able to say in English.) Then he shook his head, waved his hands at me and muttered something in Chinese about how he had showed me enough. So I have a lot of practicing to do: the form, the kicks, and the final hand-strike/kick 'windmill' combo. That's the only way I can describe it. It's block-chop-kick in this graceful windmill motion. Not that it's graceful when I do it...
Anyway, I will be a hurting unit tomorrow but no pain, no "Hallo".
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3 comments:
WOW! When this man gives the finger, HE GIVES THE FINGER!
Sounds awesome. Tiring, but awesome.
Things are definitely looking up!
And stop taking off your belt in front of ladies, you devil you!
PG
Yeah, it's amazing. I feel kind of bad, though... Tiang Lao Shi's daughter was there to help translate. I keep disrupting people. I don't want to be a bother, but I think I am. I can't wait til I can communicate better in Chinese, though I'm understanding "again" and "start here" and "block" and "kick".
Meh, it's all a process, and I'm happy so far with what I'm learning. I was afraid I'd be hopeless since the master-in-white had to show me the first basic quan (fist) form a number of times before it clicked. It's freakin' hard to align the non-stop smooth motions into one movement.
Patrick, sounds very cool (I read this and your previous post about going to the class with the scroll at the same time). Love to hear more sometime.
Andy
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