tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-356288162012-01-29T09:00:20.530-08:00a journey into east asian martial arts, and the lessons on the wayjonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3501100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-29664074423528482642011-11-18T22:26:00.001-08:002011-11-18T22:50:58.423-08:00

concepts: applications lessons: hsing-yi chang quan (long fist) miao dao shuai jiao kyudo oh yeah, i know, i haven't posted in awhile. sue me. things have been busy. and there have been some career things that i've been having to deal with that's kept me preoccupied.  but i'll try to get everything caught up with this post--it will be a little curt to get everything to fit here. i should

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-74727834706676990062011-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:002011-10-22T09:23:46.896-07:00

concepts: basics alignment placement lessons: breathing hsing-yi ok, so i made some errors in the last post that i should correct. we went through the breathing exercises again, and i realized that i'd made some mistakes. i was grading midterms last week, and so was a little pressed for time and had to miss both the kyudo class and the Sunday kung fu class. breathing so here is what i

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-7358935313930083882011-10-14T20:30:00.000-07:002011-10-19T22:27:24.366-07:00

concepts: breathing: ratio, capacity, calm, sound snap quadrant balancing lessons: qi-gong hsing-yi kyudo i completely forgot to include a section on breathing from the last post. Sifu spent some time at the beginning of that Saturday teaching us breathing from qi-gong. i'm going to add it here, although it actually belongs with last week's post. qi-gong Sifu was apparently teaching some

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-15454799362334730892011-10-07T20:50:00.000-07:002011-10-07T20:50:56.084-07:00

concepts: structure kua dantian sword surface diffuse/central focus decreasing radius ting, hwa, na, fa jing dragon, tiger, snake gates far, middle, near gates lessons: miao dao we had a Sunday class last weekend. there are more people coming to the Sunday sessions, although most of them are beginners learning baji (i'm guessing they can't make the Saturday sessions). for the first part of

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-76217332197951838412011-10-07T20:16:00.000-07:002011-10-07T20:16:25.072-07:00

concepts: spiralling front wheel drive/rear wheel drive void structure lessons: hsing-yi kyudo this last Saturday was a straightforward day, continuing with applications of Shanxi. this past class spent was spent on applications out of Shanxi sparrow. hsing-yi Shanxi sparrow is one of the forms that is very subtle. from the perspective of a marginally experienced observer, it has an initial

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-67859125775348010192011-09-30T19:40:00.000-07:002011-09-30T19:44:19.848-07:00

concepts: 5-element theory lessons: hsing-yi kyudo ok, i'm going to have to issue a mea culpa. i haven't posted an entry for a number of weeks, even though i have been attending class. part of it is me being busy and too tired to post anything thoughtful. part of it was an unexpected Saturday run-in with a flat tire, broken apartment, plumbing, and a computer system crash. part of it,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-50364407030524522162011-09-10T08:50:00.000-07:002011-09-30T19:43:14.405-07:00

concepts: line 2 distance  speed lessons: miao dao it was a small Sunday today. i asked Sifu if we could spend more time reviewing the miao dao form, since i missed the last Sunday class, making it essentially a month since we'd worked on the miao dao. he said that it was a good idea, since we also had one of the new students trying the Sunday class out. we reviewed the lines, and then

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-89450521407243031622011-09-10T08:39:00.000-07:002011-09-30T19:42:50.779-07:00

concepts: hawk chicken alignment lessons: hsing-yi kyudo last Saturday was a much-needed review day. i think a lot of people are coming back from various vacations, trips, or absences, and so the timing worked out well. hsing-yi Sifu has us review the Shanxi 12 animals, and that helped everyone get back to speed. it turned out that there were apparently some differences in how people

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-17340907534198254102011-09-03T08:47:00.000-07:002011-09-03T08:48:16.545-07:00

concepts: applications point, line, curve lessons: hsing-yi miao dao kyudo yes, i know, it's been a few weeks since i've posted anything. things sort of went to hell recently in terms of workload, and i've been so preoccupied with work that i haven't had time to write anything, nor time to even reflect on what we've been learning. if it's any consolation, the gap is somewhat mitigated by the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-53832961903189377942011-08-05T19:56:00.000-07:002011-08-05T19:56:34.709-07:00

concepts:body & blade movementssmall movementstip locationborrowing energybouncing energybody movement & centerlessons:miao daowe went a lot farther on the miao dao in the last Sunday class. we spent the initial half going through the basics, but then Sifu said he wanted us to start working through the applications in the form, saying that we'd understand the basics a lot better if we saw how

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-47000397554191613142011-08-03T07:16:00.000-07:002011-08-03T10:38:34.362-07:00

concepts:ting jing, hwa jinggate control, gate entryproactive v. reactiveset-upvertical v. horizontallian fa, gong fa, da fafighting v. applications v. formsprinciples v. techniquesmaintenancelessons:hsing-yikyudothis post refers to Saturday, July 30. i missed class on August 6, and so this brings things up to date. we're heading into the dog days of summer, so it's been getting warmer

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-71469907986058216732011-07-22T22:44:00.000-07:002011-07-22T22:54:50.593-07:00

concepts:reviewreviewreviewprinciples v. techniqueslessons:hsing-yikyudothis will be another short post, since i can pretty much summarize what the focus of last Saturday was: review. lots of review.which was good. i really needed it.Sifu took some time to get everyone together for some discussion. we primarily dealt with 3 major topics:the Las Vegas tournament is coming up on August 12-14. we

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-56427636743287623192011-07-14T20:22:00.000-07:002011-07-14T20:29:31.162-07:00

concepts:basicslessons:hsing-yikyudomiao daoi'm back...sort of. at least, in body. perhaps not in much else. i was gone for 3 weeks on vacation, but took an extra week off to get over the jet lag. so this past Saturday and Sunday were my first days back. needless to say, i was a bit out of sorts. i'm not going into too much detail, since i think things were so rough that there's not much point

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-21953544156697259242011-06-14T09:38:00.000-07:002011-06-15T00:25:25.598-07:00

concepts:triangleborrowingpercussion pointlessons:miao daoi should note that i'm going on vacation for several weeks, and so i'm going to miss class for a little time. as a result, there won't be new posts for awhile. i'll be back in early July, so things will resume then. this post will be the last for now.miao daowe resumed the miao dao lessons. oddly enough, Viet wasn't here. but we had

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-60245532387108290452011-06-14T08:06:00.000-07:002011-06-14T08:40:28.526-07:00

concepts:timingsendinghandgriplessons:hsing-yikyudoso i missed last weekend, meaning i had to do a little make-up work this Saturday. it wasn't too hard, but it did mean a little extra work to make sure i caught up to everyone else.hsing-yithe morning was actually wet, with light rain, forcing us to meet in the picnic pavilion. it also shrank the practice space down, so things were a little

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-74323410617129589392011-06-09T15:51:00.001-07:002011-06-09T23:16:24.112-07:00

concepts:basicslong-rangelessons:miao daoso Viet is back in town from the east coast, but only for the summer before he starts med school. he's asked the Sunday classes be spent on miao diao, with the goal of learning the basics and the form before he leaves at the end of July. i should note that Andre showed up after a very long absence, and so it was fortuitous for Viet (Andre seems to focus

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-73274384518290210782011-06-09T13:46:00.000-07:002011-06-09T15:48:04.398-07:00

concepts:timingparametric calibrationlessons:hsing-yikyudough. so i should note that my attendance in both kung fu and kyudo has been a little spotty as of late. not entirely by choice, since i've had a conference paper i needed to prepare and present, and that took a number of weekends. as a result, i've missed couple of weekends.i should also state this is going to continue. i'm going on

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-49822011216984530242011-05-13T15:39:00.001-07:002011-05-21T14:34:09.792-07:00

concepts:reboundsoft/hardflickinglessons:hsing-yikyudothis is going to be a pretty straightforward write-up. i'd meant to post it earlier but Blogspot appears to have had some trouble in the past few days and access has been non-existent for much of it.today, Sifu announced a series of upcoming events for everyone to note. his May is going to be busy, with something happening every weekend.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-19104350364135478512011-05-06T16:59:00.000-07:002011-05-06T18:17:21.398-07:00

concepts:fingermetal/water v. fire/woodcenterbridge/spannerstructurelessons:hsing-yiSunday was a little sparse. it was just me and Phunsak, along with new student, Jonathan (this is a different Jonathan, now making a total of 4 Jonathans who have or are taking lessons with Sifu: me, Jonathan Shen, Jonathan Wong, and the new Jonathan, Jonathan Sevard). Phunsak had missed the Saturday class with

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-54542946877198821102011-05-05T19:21:00.000-07:002011-05-06T16:59:05.587-07:00

concepts:striking with the hipvertical v. horizontalyin v. yangrenmei v. dumeigashukulessons:hsing-yibaguakyudothis past Saturday went in a fair amount of depth, and so we didn't go into breadth. i have a relatively large amount of material, so i'll try to condense things as best i can. incidentally, Simon showed up today after a long absence (apparently his schedule opened up so that he was

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-56420271671137310202011-04-29T16:39:00.000-07:002011-04-29T16:42:29.280-07:00

this is a cross-posting from my other blog.i'm writing about the Chinese idiom "eat bitterness" (in traditional Chinese characters: 吃苦). it's a pretty common phrase in TCMA, so i figured it was appropriate to also post it here. you can read it at:http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2011/04/eating-bitterness.htmlcheers.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-82360483803310902222011-04-29T15:50:00.000-07:002011-04-29T16:19:14.512-07:00

concepts:loosesnapkiu xing (sp?)jin xing (sp?)spinelessons:hsing-yikyudoso i'm starting to get caught up, although i still suspect there's quite a bit of things that i've missed. it's hard to say. details that i think are important may not be thought the same by other people, and so whatever they relay to me may not be what i would have focused on. but i'll work with what i have.hsing-yii'm

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-27693130871625018282011-04-22T09:04:00.000-07:002011-04-22T10:33:51.941-07:00

concepts:hand, forearm, elbowxiao jieh, jong jieh, gong jiehhipsshanxi-hebei-henanlessons:hsing-yiwell, things are still shaky. i got sick (or i was still sick?), and it left me unable to attend Saturday classes, meaning it took out kung fu and kyudo. even though i still wasn't feeling much better by Sunday, i sucked it up enough to make it for about 2 hours before going hope to rest. as a

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-86923356471936256552011-04-14T14:02:00.000-07:002011-04-14T20:58:33.154-07:00

concepts:beareagleshanxi-hebeiextensionlessons:hsing-yikyudowell, i'll preface this by saying that i'm pretty much lost. i've had another extended break period that was somewhat involuntary. i got sick, recovered just in time to do the LA marathon, then go sick again, recovered once more, and then got sick again. it may be the same illness that just won't go away, or it may be that i've just

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-31087600069440245882011-02-18T21:38:00.000-08:002011-02-18T22:21:30.055-08:00

concepts:explosive powermoving with the centerexpanding from the groundlessons:hsing-yikyudoi'm going to merge the posts from 2 separate Saturdays into this (actually 1 Sunday and last Saturday, since we skipped 1 Saturday due to the San Diego tournament). for hsing-yi, there's not much to say, other than that we're following the progression through the 12 animals, keeping to 1 new animal

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-76161953811570121342011-02-05T09:48:00.000-08:002011-02-05T10:11:14.946-08:00

concepts:dragontigermonkeylessons:hsing-yikyudothis post is for last Saturday. things got a little busy again this past week, and so i'm a little slow posting.hsing-yiwe followed the customary agenda for the class with a review of the 5 lines and the 12 animals we've done so far (dragon and tiger). Sifu had another pop quiz, with everyone doing the 12 animals individually in front of the class

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-11956386716347287392011-01-28T20:33:00.001-08:002011-01-28T20:39:14.848-08:00

concepts:5 lineslessons:hsing-yithere was no Saturday class because of the San Diego tournament, so this post is actually for Sunday.we didn't cover anything new Sunday. we decided to spend it going back through the materials that Cheng-Chieh and i had missed. for today, we spent it working through the details of the 5 lines. i've written about the 5 lines and the 5 element theory behind it

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-82981900797367060242011-01-22T15:22:00.000-08:002011-01-22T16:36:48.934-08:00

concepts:vertical v. horizontalfront wheel drive/rear wheel driveyin-yangting/hwa/na/fa jingrecalibrationlessons:hsing-yi 12 animalskyudotoday was largely straightforward with just a direct progression on the curriculum. one thing to note is that there is a tournament in San Diego on Saturday, January 22, meaning that there will be no class (and so no post). there will, however, be the usual

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-15446524338335558172011-01-14T22:00:00.000-08:002011-01-14T22:00:03.860-08:00

concepts:5 elementsyin-yanglessons:hsing-yi 5 lineshsing-yi lian huanhsing-yi 12 animalsthis Sunday class was devoted to review of hsing-yi. since 3 of us (Ching-Chieh, Jo-san, and i) had missed so much of it, we decided to just spend the morning reviewing everything we'd missed.we worked through the 5 lines, lian huan, and dragon from yesterday. i also took advantage of the time to ask Sifu

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-34078896931634357822011-01-14T08:46:00.000-08:002011-01-14T08:54:36.856-08:00

concepts:lian huan12 animalslessons:hsing-yioh okay. it's been about 2 months since my last post. that's because i missed 2 months of class, courtesy of a tsunami of work that took me out of commission altogether in terms of extra-curricular activities. i did manage to make 1 class, but i had to spend so much time catching up with everyone that i figured it was pointless to even discuss

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-73593793635187931972010-10-02T21:17:00.000-07:002010-10-02T22:43:03.111-07:00

concepts:footwork hsing-yiversions of hsing-yihsing-yi v tai chi v bagua5 lines5 elementslinking formtotou renshulessons:hsing-yikyudookay, so this is very late. things have been really busy as of late and i lost track of things. just to show how busy things are, i missed several saturday classes due to other priorities with respect to work. i'm posting this to fill in the 1 Saturday i made,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-31194746743933669622010-09-17T22:18:00.000-07:002010-09-17T22:32:47.816-07:00

concepts:lian huan/linkinglessons:hsing-yikyudothis was the first weekend back since the Las Vegas tournament, and so the first real day back to the regular schedule. as to be expected, there was all kinds of rust, and things didn't go so smoothly. but i wasn't the only one, since a lot of other people seem to have the same issues. this made for a slow day.hsing-yiwe spent the first half of

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-4543366329797260702010-09-09T19:34:00.000-07:002010-09-09T22:14:45.059-07:00

well, i'm back posting again. i was out of the country for an extended period of time, and so missed a good portion of classes for both kung fu and kyudo. this is the reason why nothing's been posted here for so long. i came back a little more than a week ago, but just in time to go to the Las Vegas tournament to help referee 2 events. as a result, there was no kung fu class and i missed the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-48710938048384355152010-07-24T09:25:00.000-07:002010-07-24T09:37:24.621-07:00

concepts:right hand releaselessons:kyudothis past Saturday was more kyudo-focused. Sifu was on a trip to give a seminar in Canada, and so kung fu was just an informal meeting for anyone who wanted to get some practice in. it was rather warm, so it made for a tiring afternoon. i won't go into details, since we largely just went through various permutations of the lines following what Sifu had

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-22619336399640823272010-07-15T22:17:00.000-07:002010-07-16T08:14:06.902-07:00

concepts:intensityspeedvariationsreleaselessons:hsing-yikyudothis past Saturday was Sifu's last before he went to give a seminar in Canada. he's missing this coming Saturday, but will return after then. hsing-yifor today's class, Sifu introduced variations into the 5 lines. he said that there are different ways to perform each line, with differing emphases in terms of intensity and speed in

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-74350972352785197542010-07-08T21:57:00.000-07:002010-07-09T08:39:35.462-07:00

concepts:qi-gong6 harmonies: external/internal harmonies5-element cyclespi, zhwan, bung, pao, hengfootworkhsing-yi v. tai chi v. bagualessons:hsing-yithis past Saturday roughly followed the same pattern as the previous Saturday (June 26). it was July 4 weekend, so turnout was a little ragged, but we still have a decent-sized group considering that it was a long holiday. i skipped kyudo again,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-73905587137327717662010-07-02T19:44:00.000-07:002010-07-02T21:25:48.892-07:00

concepts:movementcircleslessons:spear (chaang)chen tai chi pao quanthis Sunday i made a request to review pao quan (cannon fist), since i've been struggling to get through it. we ended up devoting a little time around the spear lesson, since Arnold (a student from Sifu's CSULB class who's been coming to Sunday class to learn spear) is not learning tai chi.spear (chaang)spear today was focused on

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-80028547844961684572010-07-02T19:17:00.000-07:002010-07-02T19:42:37.708-07:00

concepts:ding, ko, yuen, bao, chwei, chu, ting, du5 elementscenter/dantianting, hwa, na, fa jinglessons:hsing-yii skipped kyudo this evening and will have to miss again next Saturday, due to various family reasons. as a result, this past Saturday and next Saturday's posts will both be limited to just kung fu.hsing-yii managed to get a better sense of the curriculum today. essentially, we're in

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-55810640410699713392010-06-25T16:52:00.001-07:002010-06-25T18:53:20.889-07:00

concepts:ding, ko, yuen, bao, chwei, chu, ting, dushingwuslowstructurelessons:hsing-yikyudothis post relates to Saturday, June 19. i'm also including the kyudo session from Sunday, June 20, since i'm not so sure as to how regular the Sunday kyudo is going to be.hsing-yithere's some revisions to make to last week's post regarding theory. Sifu went through the list of 8 principles from last time

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-11514982268299154612010-06-16T21:20:00.000-07:002010-06-16T22:12:59.179-07:00

concepts:ellipsespowerdrillslessons:spearjoy of kung futhis Sunday was a bit of a kung fu day. the morning was the Sunday morning class, but the evening was the Joy of Kung Fu, which is an annual event gathering the local kung fu community. with this morning class we returned to spear and skipped chen pao quan--which is good, since i'm still reviewing it and need some more time to work through

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-34594036020253633102010-06-16T21:12:00.000-07:002010-06-16T21:20:05.677-07:00

concepts:elbowleft v. rightposturelessons:kyudoi skipped kung fu this Saturday morning--it's final exam time again, and i've been grading. i did make it to kyudo, though, so i'll include comments here.kyudothis kyudo session was a disaster. the story with kyudo is 2 steps forward 1 step back--just when i think i'm going along and making progress, everything just falls apart. this evening i had

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-84046372413641674592010-06-10T10:30:00.000-07:002010-07-05T23:12:38.203-07:00

concepts:5 elements, 12 animalsnumbersharmonieslevelsding, ti, yuen, bao, chwei, ko, fan/zhwan, swun/hunhwuh yun gongwujistatic tai ji, dynamic tai jisan ti zuhkey, windows, doorhands and forearms as hookselbows horizontallessons:hsing-yikyudotoday was a busy day, with a fair amount of information to take in all around. before i get to this, however, i should issue a further correction on my

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-65154088777489736092010-06-06T18:08:00.000-07:002010-06-06T22:19:37.080-07:00

concepts:historylessons:ju quanthis post is for Sunday, May 30. since this was Ching-Chieh's last day before she left for Taiwan, we decided to focus on just ju quan, so we could finish it off and review everything one last time. it was more review for her, since today was the 1st time that i covered lines 7-8.i should make some clarifications to correct my previous posts on ju quan:it turns

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-6783707296365509302010-06-06T15:22:00.000-07:002010-06-06T15:45:29.674-07:00

concepts:memorybasicsstructurelessons:baguakyudothis post is for Saturday, May 29. it was the Memorial Day weekend so class turnout for kung fu was light (although, surprisingly large for kyudo). baguaSifu announced that next Saturday would be the start of xingyi lessons, and that he wanted us to spend the day on reviewing all the bagua forms we've learned. he also asked that we take some

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-55943704929643052802010-05-20T21:46:00.000-07:002010-05-20T21:52:41.440-07:00

concepts:lineslessons:chen pao quanju quani need to preface this post on the Sunday class by noting that my previous Sunday post (day 276: ba tang quan) was in error. we private lessons we have been getting were not in ba tang quan but in ju quan (so the comments from the post are preserved, but the name for what we are learning is different). i should also note that Ching-Chieh is leaving in

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-36435123900534604542010-05-20T21:29:00.000-07:002010-05-20T21:46:15.730-07:00

concepts:balanceopeninglessons:bagua leg form (tuei)kyudowell, okay, i had another break. this time i was out for 3 weeks. the 1st weekend due to grading, the 2nd weekend due to my brother's wedding (which was out of town), and the 3rd weekend because of grading again. i wasn't able to make it back until May 15. thankfully, i didn't miss as much as i thought i had--although it was still a

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-8757664722365549382010-04-29T18:06:00.000-07:002010-06-06T18:55:58.177-07:00

concepts:historylessons:ba tang quanthis post relates to Sunday, April 18. the schedule for the day was adjusted relative to other Sundays. Ching-Chieh is learning ba tang quan from Sifu as part of an ongoing project, and so we canceled the spear lesson for the day and truncated chen pao quan to a review of the form we've covered to date.ba tang quanba tang quan is not actually a style. it's

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-66315848363428512332010-04-25T21:24:00.000-07:002010-04-25T21:51:14.467-07:00

concepts:loose handselbowshikiwakedaisankaihanarezanshinlessons:kyudothis post relates to Saturday, April 17 (yes, i know, late...but this spring has been inordinately busy). i actually missed most of kung fu today, since i had a morning doctor's appointment and only made the last few minutes of class. as a result, i'm not going to post any comments regarding kung fu.kyudoi did manage to make

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-60075279687128190852010-04-11T23:45:00.000-07:002010-04-14T21:18:48.533-07:00

concepts:kami-no-michishyugorenshukeikoshizenten-o-uchilessonsbagua leg formkyudothis post relates to this past Saturday, April 10, and finishes off the series of posts (3 total) to catch up to the present. again, i'll have to keep this really short.bagua leg formwe continued on with the leg form. today was more applications, with us exploring variations in the leg form. this proved somewhat

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-3162994717557511462010-04-11T23:33:00.001-07:002010-04-14T21:04:51.345-07:00

concepts:moving footworkup-and-underlessons:spearchen pao quanthis follows from the previous post, and this will also be short. this refers to Sunday, April 4.spearspear work consisted of review of the moving spear basics. this time, however, Sifu added in combination patterns, with us mixing footwork as we moved with the spear.chen pao quan we went further into the chen pao quan form. we

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-48890170496237776622010-04-11T23:32:00.001-07:002010-04-14T20:56:46.503-07:00

concepts:centerslessons:bagua leg formkyudoonce again, i am very delinquent in posting. my apologies. this spring has been inordinately busy, and i am constantly struggling to stay up to speed. as a result, this post will be short. this post relates to Saturday, April 3.bagua leg formthis was a continuation of the leg form. however, i also took some time to experiment with some things Sifu

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-23485025231180895812010-03-31T18:38:00.000-07:002010-03-31T19:12:10.360-07:00

concepts:extensionborrowing energycentervector (force & magnitude)earth & skystructureopeninglessons:bagua leg formkyudoso i made it back to the regular class today for both kung fu and kyudo. i'd been swamped over the past few weeks with grading, prepping lecture, and training for Ironman Utah. but i got past the grading, managed to mostly finish prepping, and dropped out of Ironman Utah to

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-28091944780864565142010-03-25T18:09:00.000-07:002010-03-25T18:46:45.136-07:00

concepts:movementcenterlessons:spearchen tai chi pao quani skipped kung fu and kyudo for Saturday, March 20. i made it for Sunday morning, March 21, so this post applies to that. it was just me and Chieng-Chieh, since Phunsak was at a seminar.spearSifu had us spend time on spear moving basics. so far, the drills we've been doing have been from a stationary position, with the feet largely

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-87312164945159903192010-03-25T17:47:00.000-07:002010-03-25T18:01:26.973-07:00

concepts:pressurepost2-personlessons:xiao kai menkyudothis post covers March 13. things went off the deep end the past few weeks in terms of workload. so i've missed a few classes and missed a few posts. i'll try to catch up here. you'll have to forgive the terseness of the posts.xiao kai menwe continued with xiao kai men. today Sifu had us start with post training for the form. essentially, you

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-2157490197797707682010-03-25T17:30:00.000-07:002010-03-25T18:09:22.558-07:00

concepts:powerexplosionlessons:chen tai chi pao quani missed class Saturday, March 6 for both kung fu and kyudo, since i was grading. as a result, this post applies to Sunday, March 7, which i managed to make. this is going to be a very brief post, since i'm trying to catch up after several weeks of overwhelming work.chen tai chi pao quanit was just Ching-chieh, Phunsak, and me today. Sifu had

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-73682546111844369992010-03-06T06:15:00.000-08:002010-03-06T10:26:49.149-08:00

concepts:chan zieh jincenteryangqao/yinqaoyangwei/yinweirenmai/dumaiqongmaidaimailessons:bagua qi-gongbagua xiao kai menthis post is a little late, largely because i've been swamped with work. so again, things are going to be a little terse.i should also make an addendum to the last post (day 266). one of the things i forgot to mention that in discussing absorbing/projecting using the fingers

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-45739816831340491132010-02-22T14:14:00.000-08:002010-02-23T17:47:21.796-08:00

concepts:Eastern v. Western conceptsstatics, vectorsthermodynamicsenergygathering, projectingfingerschin nacenteringpulling along the pillarlifting the spinelessons:chen tai chi pao quankyudoi missed this past Saturday class. i had a tough week of training for Ironman (the race is in May, and so i'm entering the peak of the training cycle right now), and needed some extra sleep time for recovery.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-47282875121957604932010-02-21T20:31:00.001-08:002010-02-21T20:44:01.212-08:00

concepts:fight fundamentalsgi-gong: gathering, projection, movinglessons:baguathis will need to be another short post regarding Feb. 13, since i'm still trying to unbury myself from work. although, there's not that much to report, since i skipped kyudo class again and the kung fu class was largely a review of bagua qi-gong.pre-classKieun led the pre-class session this time, and we focused on

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-45740597551637648472010-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:002010-02-15T19:32:56.057-08:00

this post relates back to the previous weekend of Feb. 7. i didn't attend class Saturday morning, and so i have nothing to post for Feb. 6. Feb. 7 was the Sunday class, i managed to make that. thing is, nobody else did, and it ended up just being me and Phunsak with Sifu.we decided to not cover anything new, since we figured that even if we did, we'd have to go back and redo everything for

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-29483838574745783272010-02-06T09:12:00.000-08:002010-02-06T09:23:06.596-08:00

concepts:powerapplicationslessons:bagua arm formi'm going to keep this post really short. i'm inundated with an avalanche of grading that i need to do. so apologies to everyone who might be expecting more.regarding last weekend (and this Saturday as well), i skipped kyudo class to deal with the exams for my classes. i also had to skip the typical post-class lunch. it even appears i'm going to

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-34493510711491291272010-01-27T13:48:00.000-08:002010-01-27T14:27:49.799-08:00

concepts:directionreleaselight contacthanarilessons:bagua arm formkyudoi'm a little late posting this. this covers the Saturday before last--January 16--and not this past weekend. this past weekend we went to the San Diego tournament, and so skipped the usual Saturday session.bagua arm formthe lesson was largely straightforward, with the time spent going further into the form. we did, however,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-84629031415722068832010-01-14T21:01:00.000-08:002010-01-14T21:14:51.869-08:00

concepts:drills3-dlessons:spear and pao quani almost missed class this Sunday because 1) i overslept (jet lag is always worse going east than west), and 2) my car battery went out and i had to make an emergency stop at Pep Boys to replace the battery (easy enough to do yourself, but it still takes time). but i made it in time to join everyone else for spear and pao quan. similar to yesterday,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-33961761536717632010-01-11T19:15:00.000-08:002010-01-11T19:15:12.494-08:00

concepts:rusttiminglessons:bagua insokyudoi've been on vacation for a little while, which is why the blog posts have been absent. i took a family trip doing little other than hiking, sightseeing, and eating, and just came back this past weekend. in terms of kung fu, this means that i'm suddenly a little rusty, as i've forgotten some of the things we've been covering recently.i should also note

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-80780673621275771712009-11-27T17:38:00.000-08:002009-11-27T17:47:21.498-08:00

concepts:stanceslessons:bagua arm formi skipped kyudo this evening, since i was prepping for a long bike ride on Sunday and had to meet up w my riding buddies Saturday night. to be honest, the bike ride was on my mind most of the day, since it was a distance that i haven't done in awhile (90 miles), and it affected my concentration a bit.Sifu gave us reminders about the seminar next weekend, and

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-64991719084326310832009-11-20T17:42:00.000-08:002009-11-20T17:56:37.015-08:00

concepts:stancescontroltiminglessons:chaang (spear)pao quanthis Sunday was largely straightforward in terms of the agenda, but definitely higher on the scale of rigor. by the time we finished today the muscular discomfiture had found new locations: the deltoids and trapezii. and just like the feelings in the abs, the soreness was within the deep muscle tissue in places i'm not familiar with.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-88659959054728469572009-11-19T21:45:00.000-08:002009-11-19T21:44:46.519-08:00

concepts:gatheringprojectingmovingextending uptanouchipush and pulllessons:bagua qi-gongkyudoi should note here that Sifu is hosting another seminar over Thanksgiving, this one going 2 days and covering shou bo (responsive hands). day 1 will be beginning shou bo, and day 2 will be advanced. the seminar is at the CSULA campus 9am-5pm on Sat. & Sun., Nov. 28 & 29. if anyone has questions or

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-71444244482789463142009-11-13T15:30:00.000-08:002009-11-13T15:53:43.279-08:00

concepts:stancesbasicsmother palmbagua qi-gonglessons:arm formgong li (seminar)i came into this weekend a little sore. i've started the training for my next Ironman race, and this past week was a build week (meaning an increase in training intensity and volume). i needed some more rest time, so i skipped kyudo this Saturday to get some sleep.i should also note that this Sunday was the gong li

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-89242993934809849722009-11-06T16:06:00.000-08:002009-11-06T17:41:52.097-08:00

concepts:followingcontrolyin/yanglessons:spear (chaang)push handswe had some new students today, with some of the CSULB students coming to check things out. they did have spears of their own, so we ended up playing musical chairs, letting people work through practicing with the full-length spears.spear (chaang)we continued on with the basics, with Sifu having us try the 2-person drills. the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-58660046681316972842009-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:002009-11-04T20:25:37.833-08:00

concepts:dragonbirdhawkunicornbearmonkeylionlessons:arm basicsthere was no kyudo this week, since Sensei canceled class to allow everyone to spend family time during the Halloween weekend. it was, however, a double day with kung fu, so there was still plenty to do.i should also note that this upcoming weekend on Sunday, November 8, at CSULA is a seminar, with Sifu giving a 1-day study of

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-29331824746455071042009-10-30T18:34:00.000-07:002009-10-30T18:42:39.393-07:00

concepts:distance (long, medium, short)hard/soft (yang/yin)top of hand/side of hand/palmanimalspower projectionmeridians (rinmei, dumei)weaponslessons:bagua insokyudotoday was about working on the basics, or at least sorting them out.bagua insowe started this Saturday with a general introduction into the arm basics curriculum. Sifu said there are many arm basics, with drills for each of the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-56833186232494603732009-10-23T15:18:00.000-07:002009-10-23T15:35:01.528-07:00

concepts:dantiankuareaction forcelessons:chaang (spear)chen pao quanthis Sunday was a continuation of learning the dantian. and funny enough, i think i'm starting to get a better feel of what's supposed to be going on. Ching-chieh returned today, making it effectively her first day of spear training. we also had a surprise visitor in Jay, who had shown up for some review work (he's learned

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-41654151551383805142009-10-21T21:17:00.000-07:002009-10-21T16:17:24.119-07:00

concepts:armssounds: i-ya, hon, han, heispine expansionlessons:bagua elbow formbagua arm form (inso)kyudowe're making a transition this week away from the elbow form to the arm form. so things were a little mashed in terms of what we covered.bagua elbow formwe spent the initial part of class working on the elbow form in mirror image and on a circle. we'd done this last week, but only cursorily

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-22229378507570365012009-10-16T16:09:00.000-07:002009-10-16T19:49:35.048-07:00

concepts:circlelessons:bagua elbow formkyudowe began class today with a discussion regarding seminars for the fall. Sifu wants to hold some seminars before the ones he's scheduled to give in January at the San Diego tournament. right now, his thinking is to have a 1-day seminar in early November dealing with training equipment--particularly those involving conditioning--and a 2-day seminar

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-4548767273612915962009-10-09T19:08:00.000-07:002009-10-13T14:23:37.859-07:00

concepts:dantiantwistinglessons:spear (chaang)chen tai chi pao quanwe had a smaller Sunday group today, with just me, Josan, and Phunsak. we spent most of the morning working on the spear, since that seemed to be the biggest problem area (at least it was for me), with a little time for chen tai chi pao quan.spear (chaang)spear is just hard. that's my take on it. at least for now. and i don't

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-17397551018123905742009-10-09T17:54:00.000-07:002009-10-09T18:25:24.736-07:00

concepts:splittingjoininglessons:bagua elbow formkyudothis past week has been a little busy with some research proposals that took up a fair amount of time, so i'm afraid i'm going to be posting some shorter entries this time.bagua elbowwe had some people back this week who had missed the prior sessions on the bagua elbow, so we backtracked a little bit to help everyone catch up, as well as to

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-84770905794620205642009-10-01T22:33:00.000-07:002009-10-01T22:34:03.655-07:00

concepts:refinementexpansioncenterposturelessons:bagua elbow formkyudoeverything today was about elbows. specifically, the use of elbows in relation to the body and the center.bagua elbow formwe spent today refining the form, with Sifu asking us to review the basics and the form we've done to date. this was useful, since we're still trying to get everyone caught up--a fair number of people have

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-78204419848499687122009-09-25T15:19:00.000-07:002009-10-13T14:24:30.133-07:00

concepts:kuadantiancenterbalanceposturelessons:spear (chaang)chen cannon fist (pao quan)this Sunday was focused primarily on the spear, since it was the first day learning spear. Sifu has talked about this in the past, and he says it's something he wants to promote since it's one of the other weapons competitions (other than jian) that he would like to see spread.i'd managed to acquire one, but

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-92100170250373661422009-09-23T12:43:00.000-07:002009-09-23T18:30:39.182-07:00

concepts:close-distance entriesrollingwife and husbandlooseness and tightnesslessons:bagua elbow formkyudowe were a little short-handed today, with a number of people (including Phunsak) out. it made for a slightly more intimate setting, with more time spent practicing the form and applications.bagua elbow formwe worked on the elbow form, with Sifu asking each of us to do the form to date

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-87172697457757487802009-09-18T19:22:00.000-07:002009-09-18T19:22:27.734-07:00

concepts:entriesjing (ting, hwa, na, fa)yin-yang and yang-yinclosing circlesstructureholescentersdantianorbitslessons:bagua elbow formthis past Saturday started a little slow. i got caught with morning errands and arrived to class a little late, but found that everyone else was running on the same time. i ended up catching up on news and events with Siwanndi and Art, who had made it to the park

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-40027250954748690412009-09-11T17:31:00.000-07:002009-09-11T18:14:15.401-07:00

concepts:energylessons:chen tai chi pao quanthis Sunday featured just me and Phunsak with Sifu. most of the usual Sunday group is on vacation, with both Jo-San and Martin on extended breaks, and Janette still away. as a result, things were less formal in terms of class agenda, and we ended up having a more free-flowing discussion on general principles we've touched on from the last few weeks.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-47540378897700342972009-09-10T20:09:00.000-07:002009-09-10T22:04:20.616-07:00

concepts:disruptionmisdirectionlessons:bagua elbow formkyudoi managed to make both kung fu and kyudo this week. oddly enough, both classes this Saturday were on the theme of elbows.bagua elbow formwe warmed up with the elbow basics, this time with stationary drills. Sifu had us devote some time to this, and then had us go through them again to see the applications.today, he showed us some

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-87563257948965483132009-09-04T19:24:00.000-07:002009-09-04T19:55:48.994-07:00

concepts:bu jislowing things downjing (ting, hwa, na, fa)bi chilessons:bagua elbow formit was brutally hot this weekend, with air quality made worse by the forest fire in La Canada-Pasadena-Altadena. temperatures were over 100 degrees F, and the smell of smoke and ash was everywhere. as a result, it made for a slightly toned-down class.we warmed up with the basics, working our way through the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-42108139469266716672009-08-28T18:32:00.000-07:002009-08-28T19:04:38.886-07:00

concepts:sinkingcenterstructurelessons:chen tai chi pao quanSunday turnout this time was a little light, but there was a new student--a former student of Sifu's from Cal State Long Beach, who showed up today to work on jian shu. Sifu ended up running parallel classes, with Martin and the new student working on jian shu and the rest of us (Jo-San, Ching-Chieh, Phunsak, and me) returning to chen

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-61223758732248006922009-08-27T20:26:00.000-07:002009-08-27T21:35:32.399-07:00

concepts:polishingmisdirectiondistractionlessons:bagua elbow formtoday marked the return of Ching-Chieh from her trip to Taiwan and China. she brought back some goodies for Phunsak and Sifu (copies of new book about Grandmaster Liu Yun Qiao's philosophy, apparently written by one of his students who died a few years ago). since she'd been gone for so long, she missed all the work we'd done on

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-63206461880106877072009-08-20T19:31:00.000-07:002009-08-21T08:38:34.765-07:00

concepts:structurelockslessons:bagua elbow formtoday was a mixture of perplexion, frustration, and observation. not necessarily in equal measure or in that order. we had a bit of a light turnout today, largely because i suspect there was a still a post-tournament hangover and a number of people elected to stay at home for the weekend.Sifu began by making an announcement regarding next year's

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-49057597086369988232009-08-14T19:20:00.000-07:002009-08-15T08:02:10.005-07:00

the Las Vegas kung fu tournament was held this past weekend, and have been recovering this past week since coming back from the trip.i didn't indulge in any of the typical activities associated with Las Vegas--those are just not my things, and in fact, i actually detest the city as a vacation spot or resort getaway, since it's just not my idea of a good time. i went primarily because of the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-34714665285609987102009-08-07T04:53:00.000-07:002009-08-07T05:12:14.755-07:00

concepts:chistructurelessons:miscellanousthis Sunday was more miscellany, since i think most people were more focused on going to the Las Vegas tournament (next weekend).we took a little time today to review the teaching device Sifu has used--the one involving looking down in order to generate force down into a person's hand. i've written about this before, and to a degree i thought i'd figured

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-87878370011214027832009-08-05T19:59:00.000-07:002009-08-05T20:06:31.255-07:00

concepts:logistics and schedulinglessons:bagua elbow basicstoday was largely a tune-up for people going to the Las Vegas tournament (next weekend). as a result, a fair chunk of time today was spent discussing logistics and scheduling issues in terms of rides and hotel rooms to and from Vegas. we also found out that Viet is going away for a year for a post-baccalaureate program, so we had some

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-13362099981714801722009-07-29T15:14:00.000-07:002009-07-29T20:10:08.931-07:00

concepts:movementweightlessons:bagua elbow basicsxia kai menkyudowe spent a little time on applications this past Saturday, reviewing elements of xiao kai men as well as the elbow basics.bagua elbow basicswe continued with the moving elbow basics. Sifu asked Eric to lead this time, since Phunsak was out. before we began, Ari (who is with us for the month) asked that we go through all the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-30154230584937282412009-07-25T07:14:00.000-07:002009-07-25T07:14:31.622-07:00

concepts:eyescallslessons:jian shu tournament judgingchen pao quanthis Sunday was focused primarily on preparing for the tournament, with time spent on running through mock jian shu tournament rounds to practice making calls and reviewing rules. we took a little time to go a little bit further into the chen pao quan form.jian shu tournament judgingthis wasn't really a lesson per se--it was a

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-50309541199406461712009-07-21T19:50:00.000-07:002009-07-21T20:31:57.037-07:00

concepts:elbowsreviewexpansion v pullingfollowing the arrowlessons:bagua elbow basicskyudotoday was rather warm, and made for a rather strenuous day. we had a visitor today: Aurelius, who used to be a regular student with Sifu before going to teach English in Taiwan. he's apparently returned for a month, and so will be attending class during this time.i took a little time during class this

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-3481202223555468272009-07-14T20:20:00.000-07:002009-07-14T20:20:04.723-07:00

concepts:shootinglessons:kyudothere was no formal kung fu class this week, since sifu was in Canada to give a seminar. but i went to the park anyway, and joined up with a few other students for practice. we spent a few hours reviewing all the bagua forms we've done to date, with the exception of xiao kai men: 64 palms (sides A & B), the leg form, forest palm, and the fist form. this was good,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-7718028571692480652009-07-08T20:15:00.000-07:002009-07-08T20:29:09.896-07:00

concepts:judginglessons:trial jian shu roundschen pao quanthe plan today was to start training judges for the jian shu competition at the Las Vegas tournament. sifu decided to also provide some additional teaching, with bagua basics for some of the new students and the very start of the chen pao quan form for me and Jo-san.trial jian shu roundsthis was an imperative, since it is possible we are

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-13057545078788060512009-07-08T20:09:00.000-07:002009-07-08T20:15:41.822-07:00

concepts:elbow basics while movinglessons:bagua elbow basicsthis is a bit of a short post. we had a slightly abbreviated class, since the morning was spent helping sifu move into a house--yes, that's right moving.sifu decided some time ago that he wasn't quite ready to retire, and certainly not enough to warrant finalizing his original plan to reside in Hawaii. he and his wife are returning to

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-72585102149309513702009-07-02T12:26:00.000-07:002009-07-02T12:32:53.052-07:00

well, as i said on my other blog, i've been on a bit of a break and a vacation.  it was not entirely voluntary, but it was necessary.  i won't go into detail, but what info i'm willing to give i've posted at my Ironman blog:http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2009/06/vacation-and-return.htmli'm resuming the postings regarding my martial arts lessons here, although i have to be honest and

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-18749534147638792322009-05-01T11:37:00.002-07:002009-05-01T14:17:43.497-07:00

concepts:stompingwhippingfootworklessons:chen tai chijian shuthis Sunday covered both tai chi and jian shu, with the bulk of time on chen tai chi.chen tai chiSifu continued with the lesson plan he mentioned last time, having us work on some basic movements he considered preconditions before learning chen pao quan. today, he has us work on stomping, except that we were stomping while moving our

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-1767162184650461552009-05-01T11:37:00.001-07:002009-05-01T13:42:07.533-07:00

concepts:transitionslessons:bagua fist formthe form is not the form. the way is not the way. or something like that. i've been juggling school/work (for me the same thing), recovering from the flu (no longer contagious!), and coming back on the conditioning trail. i had to miss kyudo again this week to deal with the start of some on-line classes i'm teaching--this is getting on a little longer

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-43174909693751601372009-04-21T08:22:00.000-07:002009-04-21T08:23:34.257-07:00

i didn't go to kung fu or kyudo this past weekend.i was sick.a bad case of the flu.bleah.

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-34196396447740982002009-04-18T08:30:00.000-07:002009-04-18T08:39:08.780-07:00

concepts:gai butuei bubei bulessons:chen tai chii'm so sick right now i can't even remember what we did last week. i have some vague recollections about last Sunday, but it's a fog.chen tai chiwe spent the class dealing with chen tai chi. Sifu had us work on moving cloud hands--basically cloud hands, but integrating more footwork, and in pairs. he had us do drills in pairs, involving footwork,

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35628816.post-54271172415937008932009-04-18T08:23:00.000-07:002009-04-18T08:30:26.149-07:00

concepts:ruleslessons:baguajian shuthis Saturday was a bit rushed and hurried. Sifu wanted to film material for a DVD on jian shu, and so the morning class had to be abbreviated to allow enough time to get over the UCLA, where we were shooting the video for the afternoon. of course, this meant that between driving to UCLA and dealing with carpooling issues and equipment logistics, i missed the

jonathan starlightnoreply@blogger.com0