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Yesterday's taiji session was one of those extremely rare sessions, in which the demands of everyday life resulted in there being only four students in attendance—two advanced students and two relative beginners (of which I am one).
When sifu asked if we had any questions, I ventured to ask if this might be an appropriate time to introduce J (the other relative beginner) and myself to a push-hands circle that I had only seen advanced students perform.
But first, a diversion, if I may...
Sifu once made the interesting analogy between taiji and language, likening the learning of The Form to learning to write the alphabet. Engaging in push-hands is like using the alphabet. Doing drills is like engaging in simple questions and responses. Doing "freestyle" is like engaging in more complex conversations. Advanced students of approximately equal skill may engage in quite long conversations. Students at my level often never get past the first utterance.
Another similarity between language taiji (at least, of the classical kind, as taught by sifu) is that just as there are a number of languages in the world in danger of extinction because, quite literally, the people who speak the language are dying out, there are a number of martial arts (taiji among them) in danger of disappearing because people willing to devote large amounts of time (indeed, their lives) to mastering the skills of these arts are pretty few and far between.
In any event, sifu gave a little laugh (the reason for which I learned later) and set J and me up with the two advanced students. The circle (tentatively named "the third circle," because J and I have been introduced to two other circles to date) is quite mesmerizing when you watch two skilled practitioners do it, but it took me a while to get to a point where I could complete one or two "circles."
It was not easy.
But if it were easy, I might not be as keen to learn it, dig?
The good news of the evening, by the way, was that I pretty much lasted through the entire session without fatiguing myself, which tells me that my body is recovering from the chemo.
Now, I just have to sit down and try to reconstruct the motions and write them down in a notebook. It will help.
Cheers...
When sifu asked if we had any questions, I ventured to ask if this might be an appropriate time to introduce J (the other relative beginner) and myself to a push-hands circle that I had only seen advanced students perform.
But first, a diversion, if I may...
Sifu once made the interesting analogy between taiji and language, likening the learning of The Form to learning to write the alphabet. Engaging in push-hands is like using the alphabet. Doing drills is like engaging in simple questions and responses. Doing "freestyle" is like engaging in more complex conversations. Advanced students of approximately equal skill may engage in quite long conversations. Students at my level often never get past the first utterance.
Another similarity between language taiji (at least, of the classical kind, as taught by sifu) is that just as there are a number of languages in the world in danger of extinction because, quite literally, the people who speak the language are dying out, there are a number of martial arts (taiji among them) in danger of disappearing because people willing to devote large amounts of time (indeed, their lives) to mastering the skills of these arts are pretty few and far between.
In any event, sifu gave a little laugh (the reason for which I learned later) and set J and me up with the two advanced students. The circle (tentatively named "the third circle," because J and I have been introduced to two other circles to date) is quite mesmerizing when you watch two skilled practitioners do it, but it took me a while to get to a point where I could complete one or two "circles."
It was not easy.
But if it were easy, I might not be as keen to learn it, dig?
The good news of the evening, by the way, was that I pretty much lasted through the entire session without fatiguing myself, which tells me that my body is recovering from the chemo.
Now, I just have to sit down and try to reconstruct the motions and write them down in a notebook. It will help.
Cheers...
