day 164: refining the 64 palms

forms:

• 64 palms

i'm keeping this post short, since we generally followed the same pattern as last week's class, with everyone practicing 64 palms and then presenting it for Sifu's observation and judgment, with him providing feedback and directions for improvement. practice was good, with us getting a lot of time in to refine the palm changes. i'm starting to get a better feel for them, although i'm sure this is a function of just putting in the practice.

Phunsak and i spoke before class, and he largely confirmed my suspicions that Sifu wants to consolidate everyone on 64 palms before continuing onto the forest palm. this makes sense, since it's always good to perfect previous lessons to generate a base to build later lessons on, particularly when later lessons incorporate previous ones. the analogy is a football coach having a team stop to master a draw play--because if the team can't master something as fundamental as a draw play, then they're going to struggle with more advanced things like end-arounds or flea-flickers.