day 216: sorting things out

concepts:

• walking
• turning
• steps
  

lessons:

• bagua fist
• kyudo
  

this Saturday was a return to the usual Saturday pattern of morning kung fu and evening kyudo. i haven't done this in a few weeks because of the workload in my schedule, but i figured i needed to find some time today to at least maintain some semblance of rhythm (because, you see, life--at least in its best moments--is really about holding to a rhythm).

bagua fist

we slowed a bit on the bagua fist form today, taking more time to review and go over what we've done to date. referring to the form chart, Sifu noted that we were now about 75-80% of the way through the list of techniques. he led us a few moves farther, to a point on the list which he said began to have some repetition, making a good grouping to work on for the next few classes.

we took also took a little time to work on the English translations of the techniques, debating the nuances of some Chinese terms and their associated English equivalents. this, however, proved a little troublesome, as a number of terms involved concepts for which there is no literal or even direct translation, in the sense that they involved multiple meanings or different concepts, and so required some contemplation as to approximate English words or phrases.

kyudo

Sensei was absent this evening, and Masa Sensei was acting in his place. Masa Sensei ran things a bit differently, with a radically truncated meditation session--in fact, from what i could tell, there was almost no meditation, other than a couple of minutes of sitting. Masa Sensei asked that i sit with a new student, who was observing, while the others did 2 rounds of shooting. he then worked with us on our walking.

i've written on the walking involved with kyudo before, and i have to say it's very similar to bagua walking. the major issue is the difference in pacing and stride length, but it is almost the same in terms of breathing, focusing of weight into the ground, lowering the center, and alignment of the spine from tailbone through the head.

Masa Sensei halted the class after the 2 rounds, and said the entire class needed some work in terms of our form. he led us--and while this was new to me, i'm guessing it was meant as review for everyone else--on walking, turning while walking, lowering, rising, sitting in kisa and seiza, and turning while sitting. this took the bulk of the remaining class time, and we kept practicing the proper form, with the entire group doing them in unison, until Masa Sensei felt more comfortable with our unity and technique.

we finished a little bit before 10pm, which was also different. but i think this was because Masa Sensei felt it was a good break point in the lesson, and that people were starting to become tired.