Journal of Aaradia's MA Journey

Thanks for the kind words of congratulations.

Monday, May 7, 2018 - I am feeling beat up today. Not sure why. Tournament isn't actually a big workout- One's actual time doing stuff isn't nearly as long as say a sparring class or a nights working out. AND I had yesterday to rest. But my ankle is sore, my shoulder is sore, as are several other spots. So I didn't push the pace today at all.

6:30 - Solo practice. TCC - Buddha Palm, Fajing form. Yay! I think I have this one almost down as far as re-memorization goes. Beginning of 48 combination- this one is going to take work to re-memorize. 54 Gim - just the first few moves as I am also working on remembering this one. Flute form. A bit of the small circle fast form.

I took a few minutes to talk to an instructor who was also the head judge for my TCC hand and weapon form. Got more detailed feedback from him. He was kind enough to look over his judging notes to be able to give me more input. Above and beyond- him doing that. I really appreciated it!

CLF - Wooden Dummy. Just once as my arms felt pretty sore where I hit the dummy. I decided I needed to rest them up and not push impact today. What I know of spear vs broadsword. Also Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern.

8:00 - Stick fighting class. Which turned out to be a Stick fighting private lesson. No one else showed up. Kept working on footwork, but it was really great as I got that one on one sort of discussion about MY footwork issues specifically. I felt like I made a leap in progress tonight.

Class was so empty for two reasons. One- a lot of people take a day or a few off the week after tournament. Two- several of the regulars are becoming instructors. They reached a point in instructor training where they can't come to student classes any longer. So, this is a bummer about my school's structure. They take people on as instructors, but the student classes become a lot emptier right after this happens for awhile. Until a newer group of students come in.

8:30 - Solo practice. CLF - Ng Lun Ma and Ng Lun Choi. TCC - 32 Gim.

8:56 - Went home. The instructors get the night off from their usual training/ seminars on Mondays. They put in ungodly long hours to set up, judge, and then break down the tournament space. They work hard to provide us with a great smooth running tournament experience. So, after a long Saturday, they get Monday night off. So, I left 4 minutes early from when they closed. I would not have been there as long as I usually am.

2 hours and 26 minutes

 

Tuesday, May 8, 2018 -

6:35ish - CLF - Wooden Dummy. TCC - Buddha Palm. Fajing Form.

7:06ish - Forms Practice with Ms. R. (Who, BTW is the person who beat me in the Gold/ Silver medal round at tournament. ) Formal Exercise, Siu Moi Fa, Golden Leopard Vs Tiger solo, Sup Ji Jit Fu, Small Five Animal, Stick and Staff forms.

Sup Ji Jit Fu went much better than last time we practiced it together- a couple of sticking points, but not a lot. Golden Leopard vs Tiger solo needs a lot of work on my part. Funny, I have it down with a partner, but kept getting confused solo.

We finished off with going over what I know of Shaolin Five Animal.

8:00 - Private CLF Lesson - Talked about tournament a bit. Then, reviewed what I know and learned more moves of Broadsword vs Spear. Worked on Cross Pattern vs Plum Blossom. Then, he reviewed and gave corrections on Ng Lun Ma and Ng Lun Choi.

So in those last two foms, we call out each move. Important tip I need to remember - Must clearly pronounce the "I" in Diu Ma (cat stance). Apparently not doing so is saying a pretty bad swear word! One I can't say on MAP! I sure don't want to mispronounce that whenever I test in front of Grandmaster! Because yeah, all my tests from now are going to be in front of Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong. I think my lesson ran a bit long.

8:35ish? - solo practice. Worked on getting the new part down for the Broadsword vs spear. Did the whole thing, but emphasized the new part.

9:05 - School closes


2 hours and 30 minutes


Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - Evening shift/ rest day

 

Thursday, May 10, 2018 -

6:30 - last half of TCC class. Tai Sifu is out of town, so another instructor was teaching this class. We were going over the Plum Blossom Fan form, which usually isn't taught in group class. Nicie refresher! Actually, TCC classes lately seem to be expanding on what they are teaching, which is pretty cool!

7:00 - Solo Practice. CLF - Wooden Dummy. What I know of spear vs broadsword. I was getting confused on several parts. Mixing up sections. Got it worked out at the end though. Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern. TCC- Buddha Palm

8:00 - TCC Private lesson., Relearned more Buddha Palm. Should have it re-memorized fully the next lesson or two. Of course went over what I knew and got some corrections, but not a lot. Also started re-learning the Wind Chasing Fan form.

Here is a clip of a former instructor doing it at an exhibition a few years ago at my school. I love this clip. I think she does a great and inspiring job!


8:30- practiced what I learned at my TCC private lesson to try to get it to stick in my brain.

9:08 - school closes

2 hours and 38 minutes

 

Friday, May 11, 2018 -

4:30 - Solo practice. TCC - 32 Gim - both left and right sides. First bit of 54 gim. It is going to take awhile to remember this one apparently. Flute and Sabre. Tried to to solo version of two person sabre, but I don't remember it. It is really short. Hopefully it will come back quickly if I watch an exhibition video of it. Tournament version of double gim, as I don't remember the full version. Tournament version of Small Circle Fast form as I haven't learned the full version yet and the parts I did just learn before tournament- I can't remember. I only practiced the tournament version so as not to mess it up and get confused during tournament. Buddha Palm and beginning of Wind Chasing Fan. Started Fajing form, but ran out of time.

CLF - What I know of spear vs broadsword. Wooden Dummy. Did I do the Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern? I can't remember if I did it or just thought about doing it.

6:00 - Weapon forms class. Went over the Throat locking spear. Got some great details! One being to remember it can also be used for slicing, so for some swinging moves to make sure the spear tip is angled in the proper position for slicing.

6:30 - Two person practice with Ms. M. All our two person stuff. Also, as of today, this includes starting to practice Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern! Yay! She didn't start to learn it until this week. Because she was focused on tournament materials she just learned at her new level (Black sash). She was braver than me, I went in to compete at Brown Sash 3rd degree. Also, she had a couple more months of being a black sash. But still, 3 months for me was not enough time to learn and compete with that level of materials. Because she did, she couldn't learn this form until now. So, we did the first 8 or so moves. It went well! I think we are going to get our new two person stuff down faster than previous forms. Maybe because we both have more experience with two person forms in general, we can pick up on new ones faster? We will know for sure as we move forward with this. Anyways, it was really fun to have new material to practice!

Also 9 star, which went well. Golden Leopard vs Tiger, which also went well. 2 person staff- still lightly. First side went well, second side had a lot of mental glitches. Eh, that happens sometimes. It will be fine next time we practice.

Spent some time chatting with each other and another student. A lot of time. It was MA related. But not exactly training talk. Watched a sash presentation.

Practiced all the stuff she needs for her next TCC test. We plan on doing that every week until the test. (Which isn't scheduled yet.)

8:40ish? Solo practice- Shaolin Five Animal. A bit of Fajing form, but ran out of time again. Just kept timing practicing that one wrong!

9:15ish? - School closes.

Also, I finally had my second appointment for physical therapy for my thumbs today. I am set up to go once a week for awhile now. I had the Paraffin wax heat treatment, a new exercise, and some massage therapy. Also there was this treatment where they put a mild steroid patch on my thumbs and then got it to go into my body with electrical stimulation for 10 minutes.

My thumbs felt noticeably better right afterwards. And still do now. I hope I am finally on the path to getting my thumb tendinitis healed!

With estimated time off for chatting.........

4 hours

Saturday May 12, 2018 - Work all day/ rest day

Sunday, May 13, 2018 - rest day.

Learned 7 moves for Shaolin Five Animal form this week. (week 4). So far, I have exceeded my goal of 5 new moves week. When the time comes, I am sure my instructor will have a LOT of details and corrections. This is a hard form, and it isn't CLF, so some details are different.


2018 Week 19 = 11 hours and 34 minutes
2018 Total Hours = 250 hours and 29 minutes

 

Monday, May 14, 2018 - Came down with a head cold! Sick! -missed work and working out today.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - Not 100% better, but better enough to get back at it. Fortunately, this wasn't the worst cold I have had.

6:30 - Two person staff with Ms. B. We didn't do other two person stuff because of me getting over a cold. No physical contact so that I didn't get her sick. She is up to around the halfway point on one side. We stopped a bit before the 7:00 mark, but I am not sure exactly where. I would estimate............

6:50 - Started to do a solo workout, but Ms. R showed up to work out with me! She was supposed to have a lesson, but that didn't get scheduled right, so it got moved to another day. So, we got to practice together. Yay! Well, I was planning on taking it easy, getting over being sick and all. But it didn't work out that way. It felt kind of good to sweat out the cold. Although I tired out more easily and had congestion/ breathing issues above my usual allergy stuff.

So, we did. Small Five animal, Sup Ji Jit Fu, Ng Lun Ma, Ng Lun Choi, Stick, Broadsword, Formal Exercise, what I know of Shaolin Five Animal, and staff. Most of it went well, except Sup Ji Jit Fu- the form that we both have had memory issues with the last few weeks. So we went over that one a few times. It was a lot better the second time. I suggested we start with that one first the next few weeks, until it is better for both of us.

8:00 - Private CLF lesson. Reviewed what I know and learned a few more moves of Broadsword vs spear. There is one move in particular, where I am jumping over a low sweep of the sword and I need to jump higher. But jumping higher has always been one of my weaknesses, so this correction did not surprise me. Now my new instructor is learning what my strengths and weaknesses are. Again, we did not review the Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern so that he did not have to have contact with my germy self. Went over wooden dummy. Well geez, I thought I had the sequence down ,but I was missing a move here and there. I need to review the video again regularly until I get that fixed. We had lesson time left over, so I was like "Let's start Ping Kuen?" So we did.

Yeah, so here comes the part where I repeat what I said on my FB page. Never loudly proclaim something right after an emotionally and physically draining experience. You never know when your mental state might change and then you just end up looking like an idiot. I so loudly proclaimed to everyone repeatedly that leading up to and after my last test I was in NO HURRY to learn quickly and push myself. I was going to go slow and that was that! And yet I am doing the opposite. I am pushing the absolute limits of my ability to learn quickly. Solely because I am in a mental state where it is fun to do so. I am in no hurry to test. I am just enjoying the heck out of learning new stuff right now. And I am absorbing learning new things at a faster rate than I ever have or even remotely thought possible.

8:30 - Solo practice of new stuff learned in my lesson. Then TCC solo practice. Buddha Palm and what I relearned of Wind Chasing Fan.

9:00 - left school even though I could have stayed longer. Tired because of still being a bit sick and my knee was twinging.


2 hours and 30 minutes


Wednesday, May 16, 2018 - Evening shift/ rest day.

 

Thursday, May 17, 2018 -

6:30 - Last half of TCC class. Still reviewing the Plum Blossom fan form. Then some push hands drills

7:00 - TCC Private Lesson. Finished re-learning the Buddha Palm form. Also reviewed and received corrections. I am so happy to have this form back in my memory and curriculum! I really like it! Then a bit of review of Wind Chasing fan, but that didn't get far as we ran out of time.

7:30 - Solo practice. Writing this two days later, so I can't remember exactly what. The last few days are running together in my mind. I am pretty sure spear vs broadsword was in there.

9:00 - School closes

2 hours and 30 minutes

Friday, May 18, 2018 -

6:35ish - Techniques Practice with Ms. B and Ms. M. I missed a couple of techniques because I had to tape up my thumbs. Didn't get my usual chance to do so at work. Again, not sure how long this practice went on.

7:00ish? - Two person practice with Ms. M. At the beginning, received some tips and details from an instructor on both Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern and my solo practice of the spear vs broadsword. He gave me some tips on a part I just learned that I am having difficulty with. Then we ran through all our other Two person sets - 9 star, Golden Leopard vs Tiger and a (light power) two person staff.

Then we ran through her format for her next TCC test. Part of that is the 8 Pieces of Brocade. And I am ashamed to admit that my saying/ knowing the names of the moves is is incomplete. So that is something we are working on- both of us getting the complete names down completely.

We also ran through what little I know of Ping Kuen. Ms. M told me about the different lineage way of doing the Poon Kiu in this form. I haven't learned it yet. I need to ask my instructor about it.

8:40 - Solo practice. Spear vs Broadsword. Again, can't remember exactly what besides that. The last few days is all running together in my brain.

9:00 - School closes.

2 hours and 25 minutes

 

Saturday, May 19, 2018 -

As I mentioned before, the class make up is lower and different right now. A lot of students just moved to another level of instructor training and can't do student group classes any longer. So, the classes have to build up again. It is sort of a bummer

10:05 - Afraid I was a bit late for TCC class again. Only 4 students in this class. But we were all advanced students, so we got to focus on more advanced details. Started off with some instruction and practice of Fajing in some moves. The big thing for me today was how the instructor explained proper use of breath. He explained it in a way that helped me understand it better. He was talking about how the acceleration in the breath was like the acceleration in the moves- not just a heavy quick breath at the end.

Then we went through the 108. Then the 32 gim. It was a great class.

11:00 - sparring class. Again, only 4 students. Focus on leg kicks today. Which was great as we haven't done that in awhile. I made a point to partner with Ms. R as the two other students were teens. One is newer and I was unsure of his control. The other is known to have poor control and ability to do the drills as the instructor says. (And a poor attitude.) I didn't want to deal with that when leg kicks out of control could affect my knee issues.

We did some matches too. And we went against everyone rotating around.

12:00 - Advanced Push Hands/ Moving Step class. 5 students. Various drills and matches.

1:00 - Stretching class- Grueling - but great class as always. I think the timing of this class after two hours of combatives adds to the grueling nature of it for me.

1:30 - REST!!!!! Break!!!!!

1:55 - Solo practice. I was pretty tired. So not pushing things too hard. TCC - Buddha Palm, what I have relearned of 48 combination. Fajing form. I think I have this one re-memorized. I need to check the video and with my instructor to see if I am missing anything or have any sequences off. Tournament version of Small Circle Fast Form. CLF - Beginning of Ping Kuen and Shaolin Five Animal. Cross Pattern vs Plum Blossom.

Took a short break to call in food order for after practice. Great Mediterranean place right on my way home.

3:00 - Could have stayed later, but I was done. Tired and my food was ready.

4 hours and 30 minutes.

Sunday, May 20, 2018 - Rest day

Learned 8 new moves for Shaolin Five Animal form this week. (week 5).

2018 Week 20 = 11 hours and 55 minutes
2018 Total Hours = 262 hours and 24 minutes

 

Monday, May 21, 2018 -

6:30 - Solo practice. TCC Buddha Palm, first dozen moves or so of 48 combination. CLF spear vs broadsword, Wooden Dummy Ng Lun Ma. and Plum Blossom vs Cross Pattern. Worked on kicks in Wooden Dummy form on the bag. Talked to an instructor about, among other things, this difference in Poon Kiu's between different lineages. He showed me some details about it. He used the same term Ms. M and I used on Friday talking about it "Funky Poon Kiu." LOL! I am going to start a band called Funky Poon Kiu!

8:00 - Stick Fighting class. Lots and lots of footwork drills - mostly with a partner.

8:30 - Solo practice. TCC- Fajing Form, more of first part of 48 combination. Worked on the first half of the 108- spent a lot of time on this actually. 32 gim. Started 32 gim on left side, but ran out of time.

9:45ish? Didn't notice exact time- so this is an estimate. School closes

3 hours and 15 minutes

 

Tuesday, May 22, 2018 -

6:30 - Two person staff practice with Ms. B. Dang she is picking this form up quickly!

7:00 - Forms Practice with Ms. R. We decided to redo a few forms one or both of us were having trouble with a few times Rather than just go through and ignore the sticking points, try to work them out more.

She is just learning the Throat Locking Spear. The curriculum changed and she originally learned a different spear form. So, we went over what she knew. I am needing help with this one as it is a form I stopped doing for a few months because it seems to be a big one with aggravating my thumb tendinitis. I just started easing back into it. We had to get an instructor to help because I knew i was messing up a sequence. He helped us and it came back to me right away. We ran through it a few times. I would say about halfway through the form? It was bugging my thumbs at the end of the practice. I need to do certain moves slowly until healed up.

Sup Ji Jit Fu. Went through it medium speed, then full speed. We both felt our memory of it was much improved this week! So- yay! Then we did up to what I know so far of both Shaolin Five Animal and Ping Kuen. Staff, stick, Small Five Animal. Did Siu Moi Fa, but my knee did this twinge thing it does sometimes, started hurting bad. It just does this, lasts for a bit and gets better. It used to make me think I injured it badly, but I have been through this enough to know better and not stress out. It always gets better within a few minutes to a day or so. Anyways, I did have to take a break and didn't finish Siu Moi Fa. Ms. R finished it.

8:00 - Private CLF Lesson. Started off with my instructor talking to both Ms. R and I about the lineage difference's of Poon Kiu's and why my school does not teach them until advanced levels. (My GM learned CLF from three different lineages, King Mui, Jiangmen/ Kong Chow/ Fut San. Each one apparently has a different version of Poon Kiu) Then, Ping Kuen. Went over the King Mui lineage of Poon Kiu in detail. Then practiced what I knew and added some new moves. Then spear vs Broadsword, review, corrections and learned some new moves. This lesson was good, but hard. My brain was overfull with the new details of both forms. Poon Kiu is going to be learned at a slower pace for me I think than the stuff I have learned at this level so far. Which is fine. I am in no hurry. I would rather learn it slower, but get the details down at the get go as much as possible. And that new style Poon Kiu is weird. Both Ms. M and an instructor and I all have dubbed it the "Funky Poon Kiu." Which I am stuck on right now! I think it would make a great band name! LOL!

Here is Ping Kuen. I have learned up until 47 seconds in so far.


I told my instructor about my knee acting up. I had to have higher stances and it hurt until a bit into the lesson. Then it started getting better. It's really weird when this happens. Feels like I injured it, but heals up like a spasm, even though it doesn't feel like one. Been having this for years. Been checked by a Dr. I have no idea what causes it. It's like 90% better now.

8:30 - tried to work on what I just learned. But I got all confused with both forms.

9:00 - School closes

2 hours and 30 minutes

When I got home, I studied my schools streaming service and some clips on You-Tube to remember the sequence. The YouTube clip has some details different, but helped with the basic sequence. I wrote some notes for when I practice next. No, you certainly can't teach yourself MA's from video, but they can be a great supplement!

 

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - Evening shift/ rest day

Thursday, May 24, 2018 -

6:30- Last half of TCC class. The instructor was having us go through the 24 form, but stopping and holding every move. He was coming around to everyone and testing the stability and structure of every stance. Then some drills based on the same idea- testing the stability and structure of stances. I was leaning forward too much. I gotta fix this.

7:00 - TCC Private lesson. Review and learning more of Wind Chasing Fan and Small Circle Fast form. Back to learning the whole form and not just the tournament version!

7:30 S0lo Practice. Focus tonight on new stuff I am learning- particularly parts learned this week. Some particularly hard moves this week with a lot of intricacy. CLF - Spear vs Broadsword and Ping Kuen. Particularly stuck on Ping Kuen, so I asked an instructor. He was great! Really helped me a lot! TCC - Wind Chasing Fan and Small Circle Fast form. wrote down notes on sequence of new part of form. My instructor is going on a major vacation in a couple of weeks. No other instructors (except Tai Sifu) know this form, so I am going to need notes to practice while he is gone. Buddha Palm.

9:05ish - School closes

2 hours and 35 minutes

Friday, May 25, 2018 - Well, I am done for the week. And I don't know how much longer. I have to go in to get a broken tooth pulled. And a bone graft for a future implant. I think it is infected. I have had the broken tooth for awhile and been putting it off. I know I won't be allowed impact or jumping for awhile. Not sure how long. I asked if I would be able to work out tonight and the assistant was like "no." I think my workout next week will be Tai Chi heavy and CLF light. Maybe slow Tai Chi speed CLF forms for details? Definitely no stick fighting until the graft gets to a certain point. Probably no sparring for a couple of weeks too. Anyone reading this, think good thoughts for me. I have bad TMJ, so this is going to be a hard procedure to deal with. Part of why I have been procrastinating.

Saturday, May 26, 2018 - Work day. Healing Day. Rest day.

Sunday, May 27, 2018 - Rest day. Healing day.

Learned 9 new moves for Shaolin Five Animal form this week. (week 6). With roughly 180 moves in it, I am now a little over 1/4 of the way through learning the basic moves.

2018 Week 21 = 8 hours and 20 minutes
2018 Total Hours = 270 hours and 44 minutes


Monday, May 28, 2018 - Rest day/ School closed due to Memorial Day Holiday/ Healing day

 

Thanks!

Yes, I knew I shouldn't be postponing it, but I did anyways. Lots of reasons. One is I have TMJ and it makes dental work of this type particularly difficult.

It broke eating X-mas breakfast. (Yes that is how long I procrastinated.) I had a root canal and crown on it 20+ years ago. There wasn't much tooth left to put the crown on and the dentist then said he didn't think it would last long. So, I really got more life out of it than I thought. Back then, you couldn't get implants either.

I did lots of "adulting" on Friday. Mammogram, this dental procedure, the hand x-ray for my thumbs...................

 

Sadly, I can be very good at procrastinating. It runs in my family.

TMJ is when your jaw clicks/ pops when you open it. It doesn't open quite right. It was made much worse by a dentist decades ago doing a procedure- maybe the root canal on that tooth? I don't mind dental visits in general, but the position of that tooth meant I knew it was going to be hard to have my mouth open that long, and that the dentist would put pressure on my jaw, which makes it worse and sore. That was the big reason I procrastinated. The smaller one for awhile was I knew I wouldn't have contact and it would mess with my tournament preparation. I know- not mature at all. But the big one was the TMJ issue.

Yes, I may have had a mild infection- took antibiotics and it didn't help. This dentist, the surgeon, not my regular one, said it was not necessarily infected but an irritant having it broken. Like how a splinter irritates the skin around it until taken out? Which then irritates me that the other dentist had me take antibiotics when I am not sure now I needed it. I finally hurt enough and I was worried enough that I acted like an adult and took care of it.

I am on Norco painkillers now. It is better than Friday, but still hurts. I missed work on Saturday. I am not supposed to be very active for 3 days afterwards.

Mammogram results were fine.

Thumb X-ray says mild arthritis. But I think the main thumb pain is still from that de quervain's tendinosis. The test I had before was very specific to that diagnosis, so I think that is the main issue. I will see my physical therapist on Friday and find out more.

Thanks for your asking and concern for my well being.

 

Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - Well, lots of restrictions on my workouts this week. It was a little harder to do this than I thought. I think I am going to largely have to stick to TCC forms practice the rest of the week. My tooth seems to be healing ok. Weaning myself off the pain meds.

Restrictions this week. No impact, no raising my heart rate much, no jumping. There is a blood clot in my tooth that needs to stay to heal properly. If it is dislodged from the things I am forbidden to do, then I would get something called dry socket -which is apparently really bad and painful.

6:30 - No impact, so no two person practice with Ms. B. Ended up chatting with her though as she checked in to see how I am doing.

6:50ish - tried slow solo practice of spear vs Broadsword. found out that this is going to be a no go this week as there is too much jumping.

7:00 - forms practice with Ms. R. We started off with some TCC - again due to my restrictions. 32 Gim, Plum Blossom Fan, and Sabre. Learned a correction in the 32 gim that I had been doing wrong. CLF- slowly. Went through her new form, the Throat Locking Spear. She is about 3.4 of the way through it. Good for me too as I had taken a few months off of this due to my thumbs. We went through it a few times. Then, staff. Had to take a break as I could feel my heart rate going up. Even going slower. Still, it felt good to move at all as I had been doing not much of anything for three days. Then, what I know of Shaolin Five animal. So, not nearly as much as we normally get done, but I was grateful she was willing to work with me even with my limitations.

We spent a bit of time chatting with another student about something about the school and training.

8:00 - Private CLF lesson. No spear vs broadsword due to the jumping thing. A bummer because I am only a couple of lessons away from finishing that side. Oh well. So, Ping Kuen. He started to review my Sheolin Five Animal too. Seems that the video I have been learning from is quite outdated, which isn't exactly surprising. Still, it is helpful to learn a lot of the basics. I just have to be open to lots of changes, which I am. Only got a few moves into it, but it was helpful.

The last few minutes we discussed the one legged squat, which is problematic with my bad knees. We discussed ways for me to build my strength and flexibility to be able to do this move. He did a test and it seems the issue is more strength than flexibility. He gave me a couple of exercises to work on.

8:30 - more light solo work. Worked on new part of Ping Kuen, a little small circle fast form. Some stretching.

9:00 - school closes

1 hour and 45 minutes - taking time off for lots of rest time and chatting and minding the Dentist's orders!


Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - Evening shift/ rest day.

 

Thursday, May 31, 2018 - Still on limited duty because of my dental surgery

6:30 - last half of TCC class. Drilling applications of some moves. Some push hands matches.

7:00 - TCC Private lesson. Reviewed what I know and learned more moves of Small circle fast form and (re) learned more of Wind Chasing Fan.

7:30 - solo practice. Went over what I just did in my private lesson. Wrote out moves in Small Circle Fast form. My instructor is going on vacation for almost a month in another week. And the thing is, no other instructors- to my knowledge- know the Small Circle Fast form except Tai Sifu. So I realized I need to write my own script for reference. I am finding it a good exercise. It is exposing that my terminology in TCC is not great. So that is a flaw I am going to be working on now.

Practiced other TCC forms. Sticking mostly to TCC this night due to my limitations of activity. 32 Gim and I think I did the Sabre? What I remember of 54 Gim, which isn't much. Same thing for the 48 combination form. Fajing form.

Very slow run through of CLF Ping Kuen. Shaoling 5 Animal I think.

9:00 - School closes

2 hours and 30 minutes



Friday, June 1, 2018 - Talked to my dentist office. I can start more activity after 7 days, but full clearance for most things is 10 days. So, I am revving things up a bit, but still not full on. I don't want any issues with this healing process. Also, no head contact for a month! So, that is going to limit my sparring and stick fighting and I am NOT happy about it.

6:30- could not do techniques practice, so solo practice. TCC - 32 and part of 54 Gim. Small Circle Fast form. 48 combination (what I remember). First bit of 48 combination. Buddha Palm.

CLF - What I know of Ping Kuen and spear vs broadsword. VERY LIGHT contact and slow run through of wooden dummy. Thing is, I am just learning a lot right now, and even a small break is affecting my memory as these are newly implanted.

8:00 - Two person practice with Ms. M. Again, very light contact today. Practiced our new forms. What we know of spear vs Broadsword (for the first time!) and Cross Pattern vs Plum Blossom.

9:10ish - school closes

2 hours and 40 minutes

 

Saturday, June 2, 2018 -

10:05ish- Sigh* A bit late for TCC group class. Went over Sabre form. Then push hands drills and matches. Drills focused around defense from people using bad TCC principles against you. Too much force, certain cheap, but legal moves. Also discussing and drilling the specific energies of TCC - focusing more on Peng, Lu, Ji and An. Eh, some Kao too. I write this like I am good with the terms, but I had to goodle them. I know the moves, but am terrible with the names of them. My terminology needs improvement. I am going to work on fixing that now.

11:00- Could not do sparring class. Due to dental work still healing. REALLY bummed about it. Solo practice. TCC - Small Circle Fast form, Buddha Palm. Possibly something else, but I am not sure about if I practiced it here or later in the afternoon.

12:00 - Advanced push hands/ moving step class. YAY! One combative class I can fully do! Continued to work on the energies from the previous class. In moving step, we really worked on defense against under-hooks and inside moves from your opponent. Some matches. My defense is decent, but I am not good with my offense and flow yet. I am seeing the openings, but not acting quickly enough on doing them.

1:00 - Stretching class. Regular instructor was sick, so this was a more typical stretching class. Not nearly as grueling. Got some good tips on stretches that are also good strength building for the lower back, which I need.

1:30 - spent about a half hour talking to a student. She was recently attacked by multiple opponents, and used her CLF to defend herself successfully. I hope to get her permission to discuss this more fully on MAP.

2:00 - Solo practice. CLF- again a light go through of the Wooden dummy. Not full on yet due to dental issue. Ping Kuen. Shaolin 5 Animal. TCC - Lots of time on the 108 Long form. Working on remembering 48 combination. Got a few more moves back, but only up to about 15 or so? Also, got a couple of more moves remembered for the 54 gim. Also partial double gim. Flute.

Was still a really light workout overall. But more than earlier in the week.

No (0) new moves for Shaolin Five Animal form this week. (week 7). First time I missed my goal of at least 5 new moves a week. But as I have exceeded that goal every time until now, and because it was a health thing, I am not going to be too down on myself about it.

3:30 - school closes

4 hours and 55 minutes.


Sunday, June 3, 2018 - Rest day


2018 Week 22 = 11 hours and 50 minutes
2018 Total Hours = 282 hours and 34 minutes