Friday, October 12, 2007

quarterly summary - Q3, 2007

this is a 2 weeks late. but things are a little busy this semester, and i don't have the same amount of time i did before to post. honestly, i'm finding it a bit of a struggle to find time for anything right now. but consistent with the previous quarterly summaries, this gives a brief (especially this time) overview of what i've been doing for the months of July-September (inclusive), and follows the previous quarter (reference: quarterly summary - Q2, 2007).

original goals

following 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 2-person and multi-person drills and sparring (to improve combat application of techniques and concepts)
  • learn the more fundamental components of the curriculum
  • improve qi-gong
  • begin learning long fist (beginning by finishing tantui)
  • consider other styles to learn for the future
summary of events

with respect to the curriculum, this is what has been covered (in no particular order):
  • tantui (lines 1-10, opening & closing)
  • pao quan (beginning)
  • two-person drills (stationary & moving)
  • 64 palms: palm changes 1-8 (side A), 1-8 (side B)
  • 64 palms: A v B, palm changes 1-5
  • walking the circle: palm changes 1-8 (side A), 1-8 (side B)
  • bagua zhang qi-gong: level 3, qi projecting
  • Yang tai chi
  • reference materials (Chen Xin's book on Chen tai ji)
other things that have been covered that were not necessarily within the curriculum:
  • taoist and buddhist philosophy--particularly taoist and buddhist thought relating to martial arts practice
  • Chinese martial arts history--ancient, traditional, modern
  • Chinese martial arts styles--i'm learning more about Chinese martial arts styles and their relative distinctions from each other, such as the distinctions between Wudan and Shaolin, Northern versus Southern, external versus internal (although this appears to be under debate), ancient versus modern
  • traditional Asian medicine--i've gotten more about bagua qi-gong, as well as awareness that there are other forms of qi-gong
evaluation

i think i've managed to reach most of the goals for this quarter:
  1. continue attending class: no problems here
  2. continue practicing during the week outside of class: this was okay during the summer, but the start of the fall semester has made things difficult, since i am now 1) finishing my dissertation and aiming for a defense date at the end of November, 2) searching for postdocs, 3) looking for potential jobs, and 4) training for Ironman New Zealand. it's been difficult. i haven't been able to schedule practices with other people during the week, and have been following a pretty haphazard pattern of solo practice otherwise.
  3. continue 2-person and multi-person drills and sparring: after everyone came back from the tournament, we stopped doing sparring work. we did however, do more 2-person drills. particularly outside of class in practices with Kieun and John, both of whom live near to me.
  4. learn the more fundamental components of the curriculum: i've been making effort to do a lot more of this, particularly in terms of performing basic movements while moving with my feet. in addition, i've been trying to do "shadow boxing," moving and creating combinations against an imaginary opponent, particularly in terms of connecting entry moves (e.g., from mother palm) to follow-up ones (e.g., from xiao kai men and 64 palms). i've found this to be beneficial, since it's helped me integrate my upper and lower body, and to get a feel for applying techniques in a seamless (or more seamless) flow of movement. i've also found it's made me more conscious of the work required in holding proper form.
  5. improve qi-gong: this is...well...mixed...bagua qi-gong continues to be a bit of a perplexing situation. whatever the descriptions given by other people as to how chi feels, i'm not feeling it. i'm having a lot more success with yang tai chi. what this means, i don't know.
  6. begin learning long fist (beginning by finishing tantui): this is a work in progress. i've learned all the lines in tantui, so now it's a matter of tuning everything up and practicing. i also started with pao quan, although from what i hear it's a very long form and so the part that i've learned only represents a fraction of the total. and that doesn't even get to chao quan. so i've got a ways to go.
  7. consider other styles to learn for the future: the future is kind of now. i've started with yang tai chi, and i'm making progress with long fist. i'm definitely interested in chen tai chi as well. as for anything else, i'm going to have to play things by ear, since i have quite a lot on my plate right now in terms of school.

progress has been pretty extensive this quarter. it feels like a torrent of information. i'm kind of hoping i can keep it up.

observations

my comments can probably be summarized as follows:

  • cross-over: it's interesting to see the cross-over between kung fu and sports. i'm starting to both see and (more importantly) feel the cross-over between the 2, and it's pretty positive. i've posted extensively on this, and will continue to do so, so i won't go into detail here.
  • development: i'd been feeling stuck on a certain plateau for a number of months earlier this year, and to be honest i was actually starting to get a little concerned. but i seem to have managed to get past that, and i've been feeling much better about the progress i've been making--right now, i'm starting to get a much more intuitive grasp of perspectives and understanding as to what the various styles hold. whether or not this translates into technique, i don't know, but even there things are feeling a little more comfortable, which makes me more motivated to keep going with things.

objectives for the future

ditto from before:

  • continue attending class
  • continue practicing during the week outside of class
  • continue learning applications
  • continue learning bagua and long fist
  • learn tai chi
that's pretty much it. we'll see how things go.

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