day 260: back from a vacation

concepts:

• rust
• timing
  

lessons:

• bagua inso
• kyudo
  

i'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 that i was in error. this year, there was no holiday break, and we continued to have classes over Christmas and New Year's while i was gone. my understanding was that a number of other students were also out, and so only a handful people stayed for the holidays. this was a bit of a shame, since it also happened that Master Su Yuchang, a disciple of Liu Yun Qiao and also instructor to my teacher, has been visiting in recent weeks and stopped by to contribute to class. given his experience and depth of knowledge (which is vast), i think anyone who was present received a special treat.

bagua inso

i was not the only one who missed a good chunk of time, and so this Saturday ended up being largely focused on reviewing the arm form we've done to date. we went beyond the point where'd i'd left, but didn't go any farther than the point covered by people who were here over the break. Sifu also went through and showed us some of the applications, which i suspect was also probably a review of what everyone had covered.

having said that, it was still a bit concentrated, with all the material of about 2-3 weeks (depending on when people had gone on vacation) being compressed into 1 class. there's going to be a little bit of adjustment getting back into the groove of things, and i think there's going to be some extra time necessary to get back to a comfort level with the movements.

kyudo

the situation was largely the same with kyudo. the weeks off had made me a little rusty--not so much in terms of remembering what to do, but rather when. my timing was off at various points, and there was a lack of comfort with the movements that came from inactivity. i think here as well there'll need to be some time to get back to the swing of things.

i should note that my dojo arrows arrived today. quite sexy. i actually tried them this evening for the first time. it's strange, but it actually made me feel better to be using arrows that i could call mine. i think part of it was that i was able to specify what i wanted in the arrows, and hence participated in their design. another part of it was that i felt i was using something that i could call my own. none of this, of course, makes any difference in terms of shooting, but it's a good morale boost. can't wait until next time!