ok, this is WAY late. i should have written this at the end of March, but i lost track of things and ended up with a mountain of things to do. but i'm catching up, so this is the next item on the list of things. you'll need to reference the last quarter (reference: quarterly summary - Q4, 2007).
original goals
citing the "objectives for the future" given in the previous quarterly summary, the objectives for this quarter were:
- continue attending class
- continue practicing during the week outside of class
- continue learning applications
- continue learning bagua and long fist
- learn tai chi
- learn kuen wu jian
- get this theory...GET THIS THEORY...GET. THIS. THEORY.
with respect to the curriculum, this is what has been covered this past quarter:
- pao quan (most of the way through)
- Yang tai chi (first half of the long form)
- Chen tai chi (most of the long form)
- kuen wu jian (most of the form)
- refinement & applications, 64 palms: palm changes 1-8, A & B
other things this quarter that were not in the curriculum:
- traditional Asian medicine--i've gotten more about bagua qi-gong, as well as awareness that there are other forms of qi-gong
- combat theory--we've continued with more discussion of theory in relation to applications to the kung fu styles we've been learning, as well as getting more about the principles and mindset, particularly in differentiation to other styles of fighting
i pretty much made the goals for this quarter:
- continue attending class: i missed 2 weekends while i was out doing Ironman New Zealand, but apart from that i've managed to make every class, including those at UCLA
- continue practicing during the week outside of class: this was a bit hit-and-miss. during the training peak leading into IMNZ, i had to curtail a lot of practice to focus on my triathlon-related workouts. i managed to fit in kung fu, but not in a way that covered everything that i was learning every week (i ended up having to prioritize the weakest areas and concentrate on those, and then get to everything else when i could). things became much easier after Ironman, and so i'm getting more time to practice kung fu.
- continue learning applications: this was probably the big part of this past quarter, with Sifu spending a lot of time discussing alternative combat applications for bagua, as well as applications for chen and yang tai chi. there was quite a bit, but it was very useful.
- continue learning bagua and long fist: this is definitely a yes. this quarter i came close to finishing pao quan, and started learning the bagua leg form.
- learn tai chi: also a definite yes. we're halfway through the yang long form, and close to finishing the chen long form.
- learn kuen wu jian: we're close to finishing kuen wu jian. although, as you can no doubt tell from my posts over the past few weeks, i'm still not feeling entirely comfortable with it.
- get this theory: the theory continued this quarter. but it started to make a lot more sense, particularly once we started getting more and more applications to test and exercise the theory.
my comments can be summarized as follows:
- application and theory: this continues the thoughts from last quarter--that applications may be the ingredients to be used to cook, but you still need the theory to give the recipes to actually create a coherent cooking style. what i'm sensing this quarter is that applications are only examples of thinking about theory, and that if you know the theory (particularly its concepts and principles), then you can generate your own applications. but to do this, you have to master 1) the theory, and 2) an existing base of applications (i.e., you have to have both, you cannot have one without the other), so that you can see how theory is expressed in applications, and how expression is held together in a coherent fashion by theory.
- differences from other styles: something that came out this quarter--and largely because we began to get enough theory and applications to develop a body or substance of the picture of the fighting styles within the Wutan curriculum--is the differences between what i'm learning versus other styles. i don't mean differences in terms of visual disjunctions (that's obvious), but i mean the differences that explain why there are visual disjunctions, as well as the reasons justifying such differences. i can now (sort of) see the differences in theory (in concepts & principles) between the fighting styles we're learning versus others, and thus get a better appreciation of 1) what the strengths and focus of our styles are, and 2) what the strengths and focus of other styles are.
- the future: the future is a little stormy. continuing to study with Sifu Tsou is predicated on me being in Southern California. however, that is not guaranteed. i'm graduating this May, and right now the job situation is very bleak. i only have one job offer, and it requires moving to Sacramento. it doesn't start until September, which gives me the months until then to try and find something in the LA area. i'm doing my best, but right now, things are very uncertain.
somewhat the same themes, but just some changes:
- continue attending class
- continue practicing during the week outside of class
- continue learning applications
- finish learning pao quan
- finish learning the bagua leg form
- finish yang & chen tai chi long forms
- finish kuen wu jian--and get better
- keep learning the nuances of theory to better understand its applications
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