Nachi's Log

Discussion in 'Training Logs' started by Nachi, Apr 23, 2015.

  1. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Monday 29.3.

    Online Taiji - Practicing the forst 12 forms and learning the beginning of 13th.
     
  2. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wednesday 31.3.

    Online Taiji
    Lately I wasn't able to find time to practice by myself, so I was a bit worried and fidgety today, as I expected the teacher would know and would let me feel it as I wasn't confident in the last form we were going to learn more about today.. I was lucky, I didn't get too many corrections, but I still didn't feel very confident. We practiced this form with three steps sideways and learned to do it stepping to the left, then changing direction and stepping to the right and then turn around and the same. The teacher was just explaining the turn which starts from a stance with legs crossed - one knee just behind the other and turning 180°.
    The teacher wanted us to try it. I prepared in the stance at the very beginning of this whole form, when I heard from the TV behind me: "No, Nachi, just from the step before the turn!" Before I had the time to change the stances, though, when the teacher was about to help someone else get into the right stance, I heard: "Ok, ok, let's do it as Nachi says. Start from the beginning." (I wasn't even saying anything, I was hoping the teacher wouldn't look my way too much). :oops:
    It was only a while later when someone asked which direction do we turn in the turn. Well, honestly, as long as you get into the right stance, there is only one possible way to turn. You can't exactly double cross your legs... So I was surprised when the teacher said the other way than I was turning. I looked back surprised, thinking 'how come?'. It took a few seconds when the teacher tried to demonstrate and realised he said something misleading. But instead of just correcting what he said, he went: "Ah, I said it wrong. Nachi, is this correct?" Why would he ask me? :eek: I was fairly sure the teacher wouldn't notice my unconvinced expression in the small window on the screen (when he was talking to someone else)... or could he? I'll have to be more careful! :confused: Haha, made me even more nervous :D :oops:
     
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  3. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Oh, I neglected my log again! So briefly:

    Easter Friday 2.4.
    Sett and I went to visit his parents to help with garden work.Several trees and bushes needed cutting, I was picking up the branches. We spent the better part of day with this.

    Easter Saturday 3.4.
    Sett's parents' neighbor was having a platform that could be lifted to 18 m at home for the weekend and was offering to lend it for free. Sett's parents took the opportunity to cut the branches of a nearly a century old fir tree growing in their yard. The platform arrived sooner than us and in the end the neighbor took care of it. I was picking up and pulling the cut branches in one place. Slowly one by one other neighbors began to gather and when the fir tree was finished, the platform was only moved right to the next neighbor and Sett's mom only delivered a soup for a quick meal to the working person.
    I didn't do any other training today.
    We went for a walk in the afternoon.
     
  4. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Easted Sunday 4.4.
    Morning birdwatching
    (therefore no morning training)

    Online Taiji - instructors
    Yet again - only three of us - me and two seniors, the usual ones. We first went through the forms up to where I know them and stopped by a few. In the end we focused on 4-5 of them with the teachers giving several corrections, to me as well as the others. the plan was to give me a few things to work on and leave me practice while the seniors would be going through more advanced stuff. In the end, thugh, we spent the whole 90 minutes on these forms I knew and when the teacher at least asked the others if they had something they wanted to ask, perhaps about the forms they were learning now, they said they had just gotten more corrections of these forms and don't dare add anything more for now. I could totally understand.
     
  5. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Easter Monday 5.4.

    Morning birdwatching -
    5 km walk.
    Online Taiji - learning the 13th form.

    Tuesday 6.4.
    Again, no morning training today - we went to a car service instead.
    Online karate - sensei just recovered from Covid and took the training today after a couple of weeks. He was trying to take it a bit easy and didn't count aloud all the time as usual, and watched us more instead of exercising with us and demonstrating stuff full power. We did some kihon and then from those techniques practiced 4 combinations.
     
  6. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wednesday 7.4.
    Online Taiji - practicing the 26. form and learning a ways to practice this form chained a few times together.

    Thursday 8.4.
    I was bad with finishing my work today, skipped training.

    Friday 9.4.
    Morning birdwatching with some walking - again, no morning training. This week was really bad.

    YouTube Yoga
    Sett found an instructional video of a Yoga class he did on Monday. I didn't have time to join, neither on Wednesday as I hoped, only today, finally. Sett enjoyed this video, it was somewhat hard for shoulders and balance etc. and he didn't mind ding the same thing again today, for the third time. I struggled with soe things a little, also pulled a muscle when my foot slipped and I was about to pull my bad hamstring that I could feel a bit since morning. Cool class, we may try again. Sett seems to be enjoying this kind of stuff, so I was thinking when the lockdown is over, we may go any try a real-life yoga class nearby :)
     
  7. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Saturday 10.4.
    Morning Taiji - finally!
    After cooking the lunch, I spent about 4 hours working in our garden as I didn't find the time for it last weekend. Nothing too difficult, but I weeded the garden beds, cut the berry bushes, added some soil to new garden bed and sowed a few veggies.

    Saturday 11.4.
    Morning Taiji - only short, though, not much time to spend today.
    I was cooking the whole morning so that we can take our bikes for a ride in the afternoon. With my dad and Sett. We are still under a lockdown, still unable to leave our district - in our case Prague. Therefore we planned a trip to a few ponds and do some bird watching there, too. In the end the trip was 50 km. Despite us avoided the most popular bike trails, I have never ever seen so many cyclists in one day, I sweat. It was streams of people biking. I knew everyone who could (including us) got themselves a bike as a means to do some sports at these times and I knew no one could leave Prague, but this was crazy! Truth be told, the weather was awesome, though, so it was to be expected.
    OUr last ride was at the beginning of February, so I expected today would be a warming up and the ride will be more difficult as I am not used to it, but... it was actually pretty easy. Somehow the bike seemed to move easily, my legs didn't hurt and I was able to ride faster than usual. Was it perhaps because of the nice weather? I was riding faster, it felt easier, my HR was generally lower and I didn't feel tired at any point, except maybe the final climb home. It is really a bit different compared to riding when it (nearly) freezes outside :) But I did feel generally tired after I sat at home.

    Time: 3:02 (breaks not included)
    Distance: 50,14 km
    Average speed: 16,5 km/h :oops:
    Ascent: 190 m
    Descent: 210 m
    Max speed: 39,9 km/h
    Max HR: 170
    Average HR: 138
    Training benefit: Steady State training+
    Kcal: 1567
    Fat burn: 40%
    Training load: Extreme, recovery: 3d 5h

    Since the weariness finally caught up with me, it wasn't that great that I only had time to shower and quickly eat some dinner before running to:
    Online Taiji - instructors
    I did't want to miss this class nor come late as lately there are not many people coming and at these classes I usually get the most corrections. The teacher always gives us stuff to practice at home. It was only three of us today. One of the senior instructors who usually comes wasn't there, instead there was a new instructor (like me), who's only a few forms ahead of me. We agian started with teh forms up till where I know them and stopped for a while at the last two. I got several corrections and was left to practice them while the rest moved onto the next few the others knew.
    Practicing by myself was ok, but it basically means I have to practice nonstop and by this point, my legs started to protest a bit. After all, I am still not used to the longer bike rides and I could feel it.

    When I went to grab a drink at least, the teacher suddenly asked me about how my karate was going, while the others were practicing. The teacher was curious if we have online classes and whether there are plans that we'd start meeting outside. To give some perspective to this, up till yesterday, we had a six week long complete lockdown - not being able to go anywhere, all schools, kindergardens and everything closed. We couldn't leave the districts, basically couldn't leave home without a reason and we definitely couldn't gather - in more than two people at a time. Starting today, the districts have opened, some more shops were open, some children can go to school, the curfew was lifted and up to 20 people can gather to do sports outside. However, the minister of health has changed yet againand the new minister had announced he'd be doing all he can to restrict people from gathering again, finding a way to do that legally as the state of emergency that allowed that previously, just ended.
    My Taiji teacher was planning to do at least a couple classes a week outside for anyone who'd like to come, but hearing the new minister's plans, he was having second thoguhts as it would be pointless to do those classes and having to close them a week later again.
    Well as for karate, our teacher is recovering for covid and I don't hope to see him at training till the next season in September, honestly. Out other sensei is from another city and they are sure to start in person classes asap, so we'll lose his online trainigs and our dojo will be left in Sett's and my hands, I suppose. With Sett's surgery in a few weeks, I am wondering how I'll cope. So I am really not sure how the trainings will be, yet.


    So I just told the teacher we don't really have plans in place for this and it may be a little messy. The teacher decided not to do or announce the in-person outside trainings, yet, which was a good decisions as on Monday, indeed, that possibility was restricted by the government again. The teacher then started giving some corrections and tips to the others, about a kicking form. I was interested and watched them try for a bit, until the teacher went: "Hey, Nachi, your video froze!" Well, it might have frozen, not sure, or it was just that I wasn't moving and only watching. I went back to practicing then :oops: I was thoroughly tired, though. We trained for 75 mins and I burned 580 kcal. Which is like twice as mayn as usual.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2021
  8. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Monda 12.4.

    Online karate
    This is a training done by a different, small dojo. There were only the two instructors of that dojo, one of their students, Sett and I. We practiced the first half on Saifa kata.

    Online Taiji
    We worked on the 13th and started 14th form. Sett is putting down his earphones while sitting to the side. He is such a rascal, listening in on the fun stuff when the teacher would again give very bland critiques. Some of his corrections are really... not to laugh at. Especially when Sett is bursting with laughter just ourtside the camera. I am doing my best to hold my laughter in, which I can't do, or only results in me tearing up. Phew... I just hope the teacher doesn't see everything... :oops:

    As for covid restrictions, the state of emergency ended and we should have theoretically been able to meet in groups up to 20 outside, but the minister went against it and the government agreed that if we want to gather outside for sports, we can only do so in up to six groups of two people which will keep distance of 10 meters. Which, honestly, who's going to bother with this? Basically no in-person training yet. Some of the restrictions should be lifting in periods of 14 days, so I think sometime in May perhaps...
     
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  9. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wednesday 14.4.

    Online Taiji - practicing the 26th form still and learned the next one - we didn't spend that much time with the new one, but we were shown the whole form. It was a short one.

    Thursday 15.4.
    Online karate - Sett teaching. We did a couple of nice combinations.

    Friday 16.4.
    Only 2é mins of Taiji after lunch.
     
  10. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Saturday 17.4.

    Morning Taiji
    Busy on working on my personal project today, didn't do much else.

    Sunday 18.4.
    Short morning Taiji
    Busy with catching up with all the chores - spent most of the day on them.
    Online Taiji instructors
    Only three people plus the teacher today, one person without a camera, so me and a senior instructor had more or less a private class. Still don't understand why not more people are coming since this classes are generally more detailed and suited for us. Well, maybe that is for me and not so much for the seniors, though as the classes are taught usually with the forms I can do, too. But not always, so...
    Anyway the teacher was already expecting who would come since it doesn't change much, lately, so he could think of a class suited to us. We worked on the silk reeling in the forms. How to do it well, mostly in the hips, so we can flow form one form to another. It isn't easy, but I did make a progress, I think. We mostly worked on only the first three forms to get the idea and since these are easier compared to others. Well, I can tell there is a lot of work to be done! But having a detailed explanation on a few forms like that helped me understand much better. Most of the corrections today were aimed at the senior instructor, as the teacher said he wanted to motivate him (he seems motivated enough to me, but perhaps it was meant to give him something new to work on compared to me who keeps learning new forms). That didn't mean I didn't benefit from the corrections the other instructor was getting. I was pretty much struggling with the same things, so I definitely didn't mind not being under the teachers x-ray supervision all the time ^^
     
  11. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Monday 19.4.

    Online karate
    I only made it to the later half of the class, we worked on combinations.

    Online taiji
    Working on the 14th form. Although I learned this form more than half a year ago and I am pretty sure I learned a bit how to do the tricky turn in it smoothly, I just couldn't today, so I was a little frustrated.
     
  12. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Tuesday 20.4.

    Online karate - me teaching
    So the two general public classes on Tuesday and Thursday were originally taught by the two main teachers of our association - both Go dans. Our teacher, however, is recovering from covid and won't be back to training probably till new school year. So Sett took over his classes. The other teacher recovered from Covid fast and is back to training, but since some of the restrictions were lifted, he started trainig outside with his dojo - although there are quite some restrictions for that, still, so I am taking over the Tuesday classes.
    Since the Tuesday teacher's dojo is training outside, only people from our dojo would generally participate and there are not that many attending online classes and I suspect with the weather getting nicer, there will be even less. For that reason I made a joint training for both adults and kids. Even like that, there were only seven of us altogether. Worked on Renzoku kumite and basic strikes from that.
     
  13. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wednesday 21.4.

    Online karate - classes of another smaller dojo. Basically only the two instructors of that dojo attend, Sett and I and usually one student of their dojo. These are the trainings of Monday and Wednesday. I arrived late today, for some combinations only.

    Online Taiji - My group today. We worked on the 27th form we learned last time. Last time, we learned the basics quite quickly, but today the teacher seemed to only want to briefly review. In the end, when he saw us, he had a lot to say and teach us about htis form, still. Even so he wanted to move on so we briefly went through the footwork on the next couple of forms (that are similar) - the first two kicks I'll be learning. I was looking forward to learning the kicks, but from what I saw today, I can already tell I will have trouble with them. I can kick, sure, I have an advantage in that, since I do karate, but these kicks, although the mechanics may be rather similar, seem quite a bit more gentle and flowing. And I am not sure if I can do that. I am used to doing them more explosively with a tiny kime at the end whether I want to or not. I can tell that if the teacher asks me to kick higher than hip level as we were just trying today, no way I can do them so gently. And on top of that,the kicks will have to be done while keeping the flow of the form and that I can tell will not be easy at all. We only spent maybe 7 minutes with these forms today, so I am looking forward to learning more about htem next time.
     
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  14. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Thursday 22.4.

    Online karate
    Sett teaching his last class for the time being. We worked on some footwork and bunkai.

    Sunday 25.4.

    Online Taiji
    Four people today, one friend finally recovered from an illness, so there should probably be 4 regulars from now on :) Today we didn't do too much exercising, but spent quite a bit of time talking. The teacher was introducing his new strategy in teaching the Lao Jia Yi Lu form. It was mostly for the two senior instructors who actually teach courses, not much for me who only helped with some warm-ups (silk reeling) so far, but it was interesting to hear nonetheless. We tried practicing the first five forms in the way the teacher was planning to teach the courses from now on and at the end we got a homework - an exercise how to practise silk reeliing in order to help improve our silk reeling in the form and in general. I wasn't able to do it well at that moment, will have to practice.

    Looks like starting next week, there are going to be a few Taiji classes outside. At the moment we are allowed to practice in groups of I think 16 people, provided that only a couple of people can aproach each other and each pair has to have a 6 m distance from the next. The teacher asked us at the instructor class if we come to these classes, it would be nice if we could help with the warm-up, but unfortunately, the classes are going to perfectly clash with my karate, so I won't be coming for now.

    Especially now since Sett is going to finally have his foot surgery next week and sensei still shouldn't exercise, looks like all the karate trainings are going to be left to me starting this week. I think I would like to do some in-person classes outside, too, but maybe not until we are ablet o gather in the groups of at least 10 without keeping 6 m distance. That just is too troublesome and not worth it, I think. Unfortunately, when the new plan for releasing the restrictions was introduced, sports allowed outside like this are only in the 4th wave, we are just going for the first. So the soonest the 4th can happen is in four weeks, but it is dependent on whether the number of infected people can decrease fast enough. So I am worried this won't come until June.
     
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  15. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Monday 26.4.

    Online Karate
    After basic stretching and Sanchin and Tensho kata we did a little bit of cardio and the last 30 mins spent working on the second half of Saifa kata.

    Online Taiji
    Today's class was about practising the first 14 forms and focusing on breath and rhytm.
     
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  16. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Tuesday 27.4.

    Online Karate - me teaching
    As per custom, every other week on Tuesday, we'd have a conditioning training.

    3 rounds of 3x4 exercises, each 30 s work, 30 sbreak, 90 s break between the 3 rounds. Then 4 round of 1x12 previous exercises, each 20s work, 10s rest. Altogether, this would take nearly an hour.
    This is my second time organizing this type of training. Last time I focused the exercises on the core muscles, so a lot of holding some positions and not that much cardio. I did feel sore the next day, but Sett mentioned something along the lines of how this wasn't particularly hard, especially cardio-wise. Well, he shouldn't have. I made a point of changing today's strategy to put push-up type exercise, abs one and usually a couple squat/lunge like exercise in each set. It was then mostly cardio and I thought would be up to the previously teaching sensei's standards. Though I was still trying not to overdo it and usually not put two jumping exercises one after another, etc.

    Today the rounds went:
    1. Plank + row
    2. Jumping squats
    3. Russian twists
    4. Lateral lunge to knee drive
    1. Press-ups
    2. Fall down on back, stand back up (ideally without hands helping)
    3. Raising legs lying down, not putting them down
    4. Lunges
    1. Mountain climber to single leg push-up
    2. Down-ups
    3. V-ups
    4. Lunge chops
    I felt thoroughly spent after the finish, and I believe I wasn't the only one. I did a thorough, especially leg stretching. Then we said goodbye to some non-karate people, but friends of karate people who just came to exercise and did 3 Sanchin katas and 1 Tensho.
    I was fairly tired after, the next day I expected to be sore all over, but surprisingly, only my butt is :D

    Time: 1:27
    Max HR: 178
    Average HR: 147
    Training benefit: Tempo training+
    Kcal: 824
    Fat burn: 22%

    I think even the Polar measured that we kept a nice tempo of the training. It felt good to exercise like that :)
     
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  17. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wednesday 28.4.

    So... as mugh as I thought I would be sore all over today, I wasn't. Really only my butt was hurting. That is, until I started today's traning. As soon as I started any bodyweight exercise, I could feel my whole legs and my sides.

    Online karate
    There were only three of us today, including the sensei. Luckily, the sensei also attended my training yesterday, so maybe also for that reason the class was rather relaxed. Except for some shiko-dachi and a few awful push-ups and similar exercises at the beginning. My arms were the one part of my body that wasn't sore, but I suck at push-ups in general.
    The rest of the class was basic techniques from teh first two kata and then practicing those kata. The plan was to go throgh their bunkai and then even work on Saifa, but I thought from the beginning that there was no chance to do all that today.
    I was originally hoping the karate class would get me nicely warmed-ups and stretched, so I would have an easier time at Taiji next. However, I only started feeling sore after the karate class, so I thought the next would be fun...

    Online Taiji
    I did the silk reeling in a slightly higher stance today. Honestly, my thighs didn't hurt much. The calves, hamstrings and inner thighs as well as my butt were the problem part. Unfortunately on the slippery floor we have, I have to hold the stance not using the main thigh muscles, but hamstrings - pulling my legs together. I adopted a slightly higher stance than usual.
    After that we went through all of our forms and then through the second half with the teacher watching. All was kind of doable until I got to the part where I have to cross my legs and step with myy right foot behind the left at more to the left. My inner thighs didn't like this at all and hurt sharply. So to relieve myself, as soon as I finished, I clutched my thighs and silently screamed, while the teacher was giving corrections to someone else and obviously wasn't watching. ...was what I thought. But instead I heard: "Ah, legs are hurting today, Nachi?"
    It didn't help that we repeated this form several times, but now when I knew where the problem lay, I was much more careful with that movement.
    Later we went onto learning the new form - the first one with a kick. Last time in the last few minutes the teacher quickly explained what the legs do, but we didn't do anything with the arms yet. I kind of suspect he forgot he didn'T explain those as today we started doing the complete form, luckily with the teacher, so we copied. There was really no explanation like usual. Not sure if it was from what the teacher saw, but he wasn't in a very cheerful mood today and I got to taste that. It was all: "Nachi, no, do it like this! No you do that wrong! This should be like that!" and like that, through what I did wrong (and others, too), he eventually explained the whole thing :D I tried to do my best to put the flow in the motions, but obviously, it wasn't that great. In the end we didn't learn the second kick as the teacher originally planned, saying we still have plenty of work on this. Ouch. Not that that wasn't true and I can definitely use more training (and I actually have some experience iwth kicking like that thanks to karate compared to others, I think), but somehow the teacher seemed a little dissapointed? Or was it my imagination? Well, I should do some solo practice properly. I have been skipping on it lately and that isn't good at all.
    Lol, maybe if I am right and I was really kind of bad, maybe we will return to this form on Sunday. If so, it would feel kind of bad, but I'd better practice till than anyway :D
     
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  18. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Thursday 29.4.

    Online karate
    Our dojo's two trainings a week are on me for now. However, sensei said he'd start taking the trainings starting next week, too, which is great. I just hope he doesn't overdo it.
    Since there aren't many people attending the online trainings, I only did one both for kids and adults. Two adults and four kids came, so I decided to continue with what I started last week - teaching Renzoku kumite. First we did the techniques on the spot, then we did the kata which the renzoku kumite is based on, then the steps without any techniques and then the whole thing step by step. We didn't finish completely, but considering it was an onlnie class and the kids tend to struggle with this, I was surprised how well they did, in fact. I tried to do it as little monotone as possible and threw in some bodyweight stuff, too. I can still feel my muscles fromt he past two days of exercising, but it was already much better and didn't prevent me from doing any exercise properly. Actually it felt good to do some work-out.
     
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  19. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Saturday 1.5.

    ONLINE SAIFA KATA SEMINAR by sensei Nakamura and sensei Torben

    The second seminar from the kata series organized by IOGKF's chief instructor, sensei Tetsuji Nakamura and also taught by sensei Torben Svendsen. The gasshuku took place in the afternoon Canadian time, so for me it was a little later than I usually train, but still manageable (8:30 pm to 11 pm). Some enthusiasts participated even in the middle of the night.
    There were 240 people participating from 25 or so countries. From the Czech Republic, when I checked, it was only me and a friend form out dojo. Sett didn't participate today as on Monday, he has a foot sergery scheduled and he doesn't want to strain it so close to the surgery.
    Sensei Nakamura prepared a presentation and demonstration videos where he explained all the details of Saifa kata. The presentation was at times hilarious, sensei Nakamura obviously likes a good laugh.
    We then practiced the kata with sensei Nakamura and in the second part, sensei Torben also prepared a whiteboard with diagrams of how power is generated for some specific movements in Saifa. A lot of circles and utilization of tanden, which again, reminded me of taiji. Sensei Torben also did bunkai with us. He always showed the basic, kihon bunkai, and several very interestin variations to each. Unfortunately, time passed quickly and when we had last ten mins, sensei was just about in the middle of the bunkai. He apparently realized that and quickly went throguh the rest. Obviously, we didn't have time to try all the variations, but I am glad sensei still managed to show them all.
    It was an awesome seminar, there were many things I should improve on.
     
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  20. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Sunday 2.5.

    Online taiji - instructors
    Again, our usul quartet present today. We started with the form the least advanced among us was just learning - the 14th. The teacher again explained many details and I tried to improve on everything as much as I could.
    I posted a few pictures from our yesterday karate seminar on my FB and the teacher mentioned he saw them and asked how I was managing both - karate and taiji. With the meaning being more towards no how I manage my time schedule, but how it is to practice two arts at the same time.
    When I started Taiji, honestly, I thought I wouldn't mention I was doing karate also. Not that I would keep it a secret, there was no reason for that, but wouldn't necessarily mention it unless asked. I was, however, discovered the very first day I went to a seminar where I really held some conversation with fellow students. Actually I was asked abotu it three separate times by different people and the teacher learned later as well. I am happy that he asked me to help with the warm-ups and teach me as a future instructor and doesn't mind I do karate as well. Actually he seems interested and asks like this from tome to time, which I am really happy about.
    We talked a while about it today. I find karate is at first sight quite different, but similar in some of the less obvious aspects. Like the power generation, working with tanden/tan tien, also some circular motions, etc. The teacher had a few ideas about it and explained a few of his ideas, that I found interesting. Overall when I thought about it and discussed like that, I think (and it may not be anything new) that Taiji baing the internal art, the internal aspects come first, while the external form is less important. As the teacher mentions, if you can learn silk reeling and become good in moving according to the taiji principles, it doesn't matter what form you are doing, it all is the same and if you know the principles, you can learn the rest quickly. In contrast, karate is first of all a self-defence art and works with the external techniques that need to be done well. The more details I learn, the more it is about the general mechanics, breathing, power generation and principles also. I think each of these styles comes from an opposite point, but the more I learn about them, the more similar thay become. It was a nice discussion with the teacher that made me really think about this and realise.
    Fort the rest of the class we stayed at the 14th form. I realised I had a question about the form I am currently learning, but only after the time to ask passed, but I think I will have plenty of opportunities to ask later. Very nice class today as well.
     

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