Following your breath

Sigung did the cutest impression of Joe Cocker at t'ai ch'i this past Sunday. She was singing and writhing like he apparently does when onstage. It was all I could do not to guffaw even though I love it when she's like that. When I gush about how playful and cute Sigung is during t'ai ch'i, about how she jokes and kids instead of being stoic and, frankly, kind of frightening like she is during kung fu, my hubby responds, "She's cute, but she'll kick your ass."

This past Sunday, we did the form all the way through twice and then spent the rest of the hour working on phrases near the end of the form. We started with the last Part Wild Grass move and worked mainly on Cloud Hands. The subtleties still escape me when we transition into Cloud Hands from Fair Lady at Shuttles, but I at least now have a better idea of how to do it. Shift weight into left foot as the left arm drops. Then... right arm starts circling outward as you step right?

In retrospect, it seems that learning the last third of the form so quickly was more detrimental than anyone expected. I can do the first two thirds without even thinking about it. Follow your breath. That seemed like such a preposterous thing to do when we first started, but it's actually what I do now. However, the minute we step into iffy territory, I start breathing faster and scuttling through the form only with the aim of getting to the end without forgetting anything.

I'd like more classes where we break up the form. There's been talk of meeting only twice a month after May, but I really hope we continue with the once-weekly classes and really drill the phrases at the end. I want to be able to visualize the whole form the way I used to back when we would only build on it little piece by little piece. I believe that visualizing the form really does provide benefits, even if they aren't as great as actually doing the form. It's a great way to fall asleep at night, too. Counting sheep never did a thing for me.

T'ai Ch'i Outside Your Element

This coming week, I'll be practicing t'ai ch'i on the beach in Jamaica. It's very hard to do t'ai ch'i anywhere other than the classroom where I learn it. I think I very much associate each pose with the wall or mirror that I am looking at when I do it. Without that frame of reference, I get very confused. The last time I tried to practice t'ai ch'i while looking at the ocean (in Mexico earlier this year), I mixed up the order of every other phrase. This time, I'm bringing the cheat sheet.

Move #73 - Tai Chi Conclusion

This past Sunday, we flew through the final ten moves in our T'ai Ch'i form! I don't think this would have happened if a couple of us had not started practicing the form before Sigung arrived. She must have assumed we had warmed up beforehand because, after observing for a few minutes, she just stood up and started directing like she would in the middle of class.

Those last ten moves were much easier than I thought they would be. Recently, Sigung has taken to saying, "Just like the other side. Easy, right?" Sunday, I commented on how the moves that are duplicated on both sides of the body are harder than entirely new moves. I spoke without thinking. I realized later that I only feel this way about the Single Whip and Punch Under Elbow poses.

Ever since we started doing Single Whip on both sides, I've messed up almost every instance of Single Whip in the form. I can't remember anymore which hand forms the peacock and which hand does the circling. I choose on-the-fly and I almost always choose wrong.

In a small victory, though, Sigung watched me go through 59 - Cloud Hands, 60 - Single Whip (on the right), 61 - High Pat Horse (on the right), and 62 - Fair Lady at Shuttles (on the left) and I finally learned what I've been doing wrong with Single Whip all along. (What I learned doesn't solve the problem of figuring out which hand forms the peacock and which circles, but it does add some finesse to what I've been doing.) When I do Single Whip, the hand that circles starts palm out and ends palm out before I shift my weight forward and extend that hand in front of me. Well, I should have been finishing the circle with my palm facing me before I turn it outward and extend. A small thing, but it's always a small thing when it comes to doing t'ai ch'i properly.

I also found out that when you shift your weight onto the back leg for High Pat Horse, it's more of a sitting motion than the leaning or sliding back motion that I was doing before...

Aside from 63 - Punch Under Elbow, all the moves we learned on Sunday were surprisingly natural. Sigung even said towards the end of class, "You say the moves are harder on the opposite side, but you see how fast we went through them today? You should have seen how you looked the first time through!"

I never thought we'd finish the form before the end of the month. I do think it helps that most of the people in our class also practice kung fu, but even the one person who doesn't has done a great job. Sigung didn't think we'd finish so soon either. She said she had been planning to bring champagne to next Sunday's class to celebrate! I wonder if she still will! Maybe I will bring orange juice just in case.

Thinking vs. Doing

Every time I go through the form, what I do well and what I need to work on changes. There are so many big things to keep track of (for example, keeping my breathing in alignment, my movements slow, and my shoulders relaxed) that the further along we get into the form, the more I tend to confuse or forget the nuances.

I've been doing the transition between Play Lute and Part Wild Horse's Mane all wrong. When you sink down in preparation to Part Wild Horse's Mane, the hand next to your face actually faces out. I had been doing it so that the hand was on the other side of my head, with the palm instead of the back of the hand at my face. I've been doing it this way for months.

Also, I noticed this past Sunday that my hands get confused after Part Wild Horse's Mane. The twist with the hanging elbow block is a very natural transition. But, as my body unwinds, I always want to follow up the back knuckle with a punch even though there's an additional step and "pat forward" before I take another step and the punch comes from the other side of my body.

Transitions between moves are always where I get lost most often. Back in January, we went to Mexico for a few days. We were, at that point, only about a quarter to a third of a way through the form. I took to practicing what I knew of the form on the rooftop deck of the house we rented. I'm sure the change in scenery contributed heavily to my feelings of distractedness, but I was still very disappointed that I could not do the form right two times in a row. I didn't bring the list of steps in front of me and no Sigung to coach me. The fact that I was "looking far" at the ocean instead of at the mirrors and walls in a kung fu studio really took me outside of my own head and it wasn't, as I had hoped, for the better.

I felt really confident about what I was doing within the context of each move, but I couldn't correlate my posture at the end of one move with what to do next. I'd have to say that, in Lee's Modified Yang Style, your hands and feet don't often end up in the same place within a large chunk of steps, so I have no idea how I kept managing to skip steps and not realize it until I ended the set each time thinking it had moved too quickly. Had I jumped from Needle at Sea Bottom right past Snake Creeps Down? Did I only remember to do one Play Lute in the first 15 steps?

I wish I could say that I'd surely remember all the steps if I stood up to do them right now, but I have such a hard time even picturing them as discrete moves that I would probably need someone to coach me with the names of moves as I went along. When I'm trying to fall asleep, I tend to step through the moves. Early on, Sigung said that stepping through the form in your head is at least more beneficial than not thinking about it or not practicing at all. I agree, but I so often hit roadblocks where I am literally paralyzed trying to snatch the next move out of thin air. It's one thing to think about the form, but so different to actually do it. I can't decide which offers more opportunity for making mistakes.

Lee's Modified Yang Style

Because I got this account, I figure I might as well use it. And because I named it after my favorite move thus far in my education in Lee's Modified Yang Style, why not write about t'ai ch'i?

This weekend, I looked at the "cheat sheet" of moves in this "intermediate"-length t'ai ch'i form I've been learning and realized I'm near the end. By the end of class this Sunday, we'll have completed move 53, Punch Under Elbow on the opposite side. Only twenty to go after that! So far, repeating moves on the opposite side has felt very strange, but Small Circle, Single Whip feels especially weird.

Every week, Sigung chooses least one thing I (or the class as a whole) need to work on and spends extra time getting the subtleties right. Recently, we were asked to focus on the hip and shoulder movements that propel Small Circle, Single Whip. It's not so much the hands or arms that move. Rather, it's how your torso moves while your hands more or less stay in one place. Not too unlike all the other t'ai ch'i moves, but still something I had certainly glossed over. It wasn't too hard to learn once Sigung pointed it. And yet, now that I'm trying to apply the same principles of movement to Small Circle, Single Whip on the opposite side, I feel like I must be doing it wrong because it just feels so much more...showy. I'd never thought of it as a showy move until now.

Of all the moves thus far, the Stomp move(s) have been easiest for me to get right off the bat. My body actually feels more centered when I thrust my leg and foot forward with my hands rising behind me. Interestingly, Sigung says she thinks it's the hardest move in the entire form. What about the slow crescent kicks of Separate Arms and Feet? What about Grasp Bird's Tail? It still takes a ton of concerted effort for me not to bob up and down when I'm moving from one Grasp Bird's Tail to the next.

Sometime this week, I'm going to time how long it takes to go through the form up to step 53. Up until recently, we used to spend the last ten minutes or so of class going through every move in the form. I suspect it'll take at least that long if I can manage to do the form without skipping any steps.