day 203: 2 left feet, hands, and pretty much everything else

concepts:

• a bad day

lesson:

• bagua fist form
• kyudo
  

today was pretty much just a bad day from top to bottom. for some reason, i just had no sense of coordination or concentration, and was largely discombobulated the entire day. as a result, i can't say that there was much constructive accomplished, and i can only tell you that this post is going to be very short.

bagua fist form

we went further into the fist form and worked on applications. Sifu pointed out that a number of applications weren't what they appeared to be--that is, even though they use fists, they are not really punches, but instead actions leading to throws and locks.

i was able to keep up with the most part, but i was having severe memory lapses that caused me to get stuck at specific points in the form, with complete blanks in memory about what to do next. it was a struggle. i think i managed to iron most of these problems, but given just how clueless i was, who knows.

kyudo

kyudo wasn't much better. Sensei allowed me and Phunsak to shoot again (although, with the admonition that it be supervised). but try as i might, i couldn't do anything right.

i think i pretty much made every mistake there was to make today. my footsteps were wrong, my bows were wrong, i held the arrow in the wrong direction (with the notch and feathers facing the target!!!), i couldn't nock the arrow onto the string (it kept falling onto the floor...loudly), i couldn't raise the bow and arrow, i couldn't sight, i couldn't draw, and i couldn't shoot. and to emphasize the last point, i actually missed the makiwara (the hay bail)--meaning that i essentially missed a target at point-blank range.

how lovely.

yeah, it was a bad day.

i was actually relieved when class ended and i could just tuck my tail between my legs and crawl back home.

we all have these days, when nothing seems to go right. it just happens. it's the law of averages.

but i sure hope things will be better next time.