day 265: pre-class and qi-gong review

concepts:

• fight fundamentals
• gi-gong: gathering, projection, moving
  

lessons:

• bagua

this will need to be another short post regarding Feb. 13, since i'm still trying to unbury myself from work. although, there's not that much to report, since i skipped kyudo class again and the kung fu class was largely a review of bagua qi-gong.

pre-class

Kieun led the pre-class session this time, and we focused on basic fight fundamentals. we met at 9:30. the bulk of time this morning was on fitness exercises and some basic punch/combination drills.

bagua qi-gong

Sifu had us review bagua qi-gong, saying it was a good time of year to start working on it (apparently, qi-gong is better during the winter and spring, and less so during summer and fall). he also said it's good to revisit it now that we've gone through more of the advanced bagua lessons, and reconsider it in light of what we've learned.

we went through level 1 qi-gong, which is largely focused on qi accumulation. Sifu led us through this, quizzing us on which animal, organ, and 5-element theory was related to each one. he reminded us as to the connection of all these to each other. he also showed us the breathing sequence for each. he noted that it's not necessary to have low stances on this, but rather to maintain a loose, albeit stable, structure through all the movements. he also stressed that we need to focus on our dantians throughout each of the qi-gong exercises.

Sifu had Phunsak and Art lead us through levels 2 & 3 qi-gong. level 2 is focused on qi projection, and ties each of the qi-gong exercises to the bagua stances, with each bagua stance serving as the projection of qi. level 3 is moving, and involves walking in a circle for each qi-gong exercise. Sifu noted that level 3 qi-gong is really just the 8 mother palms, except that each exercise is done on its own circle. Sifu pointed out that 8 mother palm is really just a moving form of qi-gong, teaching you how to move with a stable dantian while constantly gathering and projecting qi.

we spent the remainder of class going through this, working on the finer points of movement, breathing, and yi (intent) for each of the qi-gong exercises. we finished around 1 and went to lunch after.