Little by little

So while circle-turning today I managed to hit the 30-minute mark for the first time. I feel very pleased with myself. Not too bad, considering I was still a bit sore from yesterday's workout.

Yang Rising

Today has been an excellent training day, by virtually every measure I have. I ascribe most of it to the break in the weather, which as afforded me some much-needed sunlight, which means more energy, more power, and more motivation. Training in the last month has been mostly hit-or-miss, owing initially to a nasty cold and some unwanted shoulder tension, followed by a long stretch of inexplicable depression. Despite all that, there has been training, however sporadic, which until now has not translated into an equal amount of blogging. Much has been learned, however.

First, I have had first-hand experience in why excess tension is undesirable in the internal martial arts, such as bagua. In bagua, at least in the lion system, power is generated through the waist and is expressed in the hands, as opposed to being generated solely by muscle power in the arm itself. When I was dealing with the large knot of tense muscle taking up residence in the vicinity of my scapula I noticed a severe degredation of that expression of power. By now I've gotten the whole "power generated by the waist" thing pretty much down, though not perfect, and the strikes I was executing with my right arm felt very solid, and I could clearly feel the wave of kinetic energy flowing in a mostly unbroken path from waist to palm. In the left arm, however, I noticed just as clearly that the power was not going any farther than my shoulder--just a dead stop. So, much of my focus earlier this month was getting rid of that knot of tension, through a combination of massage, hot showers and qigong (dissolving method). This is a problem that has come up before in my bagua practice, and hopefully I'll figure out how to nip it in the bud before the next time. This will likely involve periodic conscious relaxation (as I get tense easily if I'm not aware of what my body is doing) and taiji. I also really ought to look into the qigong massage materials I have.

So, back to today. As I said, it's been a good training day. I've been focusing at least half of my practice time on standing for development, and thus far today I've exceeded my previous record for total time spent standing. Turning was more difficult. I was very determined to go as long as I could, powering through the complaints of my arm muscles, and turned for what felt like an age, though as I discovered it ended up being only 15 minutes. The problem of my weak arms is becoming less problematic, thanks to the standing. Now, the main issue is my weak will, which is still easily distracted.

As far as striking drills, I didn't really set any records today. I can do a couple thousand in a day if I push myself, but I haven't really been focusing on strikes recently, being more in favor of the developmental exercises. Regardless, I did put in several hundred stationary reps of the rising sweeping strike, and moved on from there to test out some of the more advanced drills. I have to say, for some reason I really seem to enjoy the two-step or "box-stepping" drills. Maybe just because it's slightly new, or less tedious than the stationary drills, or perhaps just because it feels more like how bagua is supposed to feel, when you're striking and also moving. Whatever the case may be, there will be many more of those in the future.

Also spent some time feeling out the Lion's sweeping strike "Moving with the Force" form. I'd played around with this a little bit a couple years ago, but coming back to it with a fresh eye is making me see how awkward and ungainly I still am with it. This will take some time, but with this, at least, I am patient. I never really intended to seriously delve into the forms without first getting a solid grounding in the strikes and their various drilling methods.

One last observation I can make at this point is that even though I have done little training that could be considered strenuous, let alone "intensive," there has been some brief progress, I've noticed. It does seem to be the case that a little bit of practice done on a daily basis is more productive than one intense session every other week. But then again, most people probably already knew this.

As one final note, I did recently manage to procure two new Yin style bagua dvd's: the "seizing & grasping applications" dvd and the "kicking and footwork" dvd. Not sure I'm ready to get into most of this stuff, but any glimpse of Yin style bagua in action is well worth the viewing, and is sure to give my mind plenty of interesting new things to work through. Still need to get my hands on the full set of Lion system dvd's, as well as the new circle-turning dvd. I'm looking forward to the upcoming straight sword dvd as well, though I'm not in any position to be attempting that. Unfortunately, that's not likely to stop me.

Interruptions

Training in the past week has unfortunately been somewhat sparse, owing to a trifecta of physical ailments: first massive leg cramp in over a year (thanks to dehydration), tension in my left shoulder muscles that feels like it's pinching a nerve, and a nasty cold (which probably contributed to the dehydration). I've gotten in a token amount of standing, striking and turning, but nothing substantial. I don't really have much strength at the moment, as it all seems to be focused inward on recuperation. I'm doing taiji more often, and I think that's helping. It may take a couple more days to fully get this out of my system, but I intend not to let this little speed bump alter my forward momentum. After so many years of failing to keep to the training regimen, I feel confident in my ability to keep it up now. It's like they say, "fall down seven times..."