As I'm on furlough from KungFuMagazine.com, I contributed an essay to the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts where I train.
Shaolin Sheltering
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As I'm on furlough from KungFuMagazine.com, I contributed an essay to the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts where I train.
Shaolin Sheltering
https://i0.wp.com/www.reelingsilk.co...68%2C555&ssl=1
very nice insights on taolu and training perspectives in general. until this time, I did not truly grasp, or appreciate group forms, and always had a disdain for it even. The way of the hermit monk has always been intriguing and attractive to me, since I first started training. I would be the kid who couldnt wait until group sessions were over, so I could ask my teacher questions and/or rush home to practice in privacy. I never liked performing or showing my kung fu to outsiders.
with group forms, in retrospect, I actually gained more than I thought. Now I find myself recording taolu, trying to get some refinement I would normally get from reflection among peers. first thing that comes to mind is my first classes. I was the tallest person in that group, and I didnt know how poor my stances were until I was able to see my peers handle them. Some were a foot or more shorter, and one person was about an inch shorter. The student nearest my height was as low as the shortest students when he got in to xie bu, ma bu, pu bu, and xu bu, which I thought, because I was tall, I was granted the liberty of holding the stances higher. I remember using that entire peer group as a ruler to measure my stances, I wasn't satisfied until I could hold the stances as low as my peers, with comfort and poise. This measuring would echo later in every aspect of taolu from expressions of shen fa, to striking with the palm (how erect or upright my hand should be), to the snap in my punch or kick, to general fluidity.
Practicing privately, once you learn to a certain degree, if you arent VERY careful, and VERY diligent, you can get lazy without that peer mirror, or ruler, to measure your taolu. Since this distancing thing has been in swing, I've been doing comparative videos with peers and it helps a lot, and also makes me want to enroll in a school or temple as soon as we can be social again lol, I mean I really miss it, and am almost ashamed at how introverted I've been the past few years. I really miss being in a martial community socially, for so many reasons. I blamed fatherhood for keeping me inside more, however, that transition and growth in my life is to be healthily incorporated into my martial community outside the house as well.
(on the bright side, I have been training a lot more, and a lot harder, into those hermit monk hours of the night, and have had time to focus in and refine some things I've been wanting to work on for years, literally years. Being inside like this really puts any practice into perspective.... *especially in the literal translation of 'kung fu'.)
Amiituofo
I'm still on furlough from KungFuMagazine.com, so here is another essay I contributed to the Academy of Martial and Internal Arts where I train.
Shaolin Sheltering: Weird Weapons
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Academy of Martial and Internal Arts
Bodhidharma Cane
I donated another essay to my school's blog.
Xingyi Sheltering
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The-Academy-of-Martial-and-Internal-Arts
Xingyi
My latest essay for The Academy of Martial and Internal Arts - Becoming A Sifu.
https://i0.wp.com/www.plumpub.com/ka...20%2C310&ssl=1
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My-personal-blog
The-Academy-of-Martial-and-Internal-Arts
Cantonese kinship terms
Same. I like the insights of it as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Djuan