So I have a daily martial arts routine. I used to call it my Taiji routine, but I have added Bagua to it so ‘martial arts’ routine or ‘internal martial arts’ routine is more apt.
I have evolved it to the point where it’s an hour long (if I don’t stop and scroll on my phone, which I actually do). If I get caught up browsing online, it can stretch to two hours.
Anyway, it goes like this. As Shadow begrudgingly eats his breakfast (or scarfs it down. Never anywhere in the middle), I start doing the arm stretches. It can take Shadow up to a half hour to eat a meal, so I can do all the stretches during that time. Arm, leg, waist, and more. Then, after Shadow finishes his brekkie, I can do the rest of the routine–which is the weapons. Oh, I also do the Bagua while he’s eating unless I’m walking the circle with the DeerHorn Knives. That takes a lot of space, which my kitchen does not have.
My weapons forms schedule is a bit more elaborate. It goes like this. Every day, I do the Fan Form, the Sword Wu-Li (dancing) Form, a row or two of the Cane Form (both sides), staff/spear drills, and the Double Saber Form. Then, on Monday, I do the Saber Form (both sides). Sword Form (right) on Tuesday. Wednesday used to be the day I did the whole Cane Form (both sides), but I’m trying to break it down a bit more to polish it. Thursday is the /egn side of the Sword Form , and Friday is the Karambit Form. The what? The Karambit Form, which is not either Taiji nor Bagua. I’ll get to Saturday in a second.
I also do the weight set on Tuesday and Friday. It’s three simple movements of a freeweight on each side. My teacher said that I only needed to use an eight-pound weight, but I’ve moved up to ten-pound weights. I have a twelve-pound, fifteen-pound, and twenty-pound, too. I gave one of each to my brother’s ex-wife (back when they were married), so I only have one of each left.
Let’s talk Saturday. That is the day I have a class. I want to add another one this year. I would like to go in person, but I’m not sure my body can handle it. My immune system is shitty, and I do not want to get walking (non-Covid-related) pneumonia again.
Anyway. Saturday. It’s the day I’ve decided I can do whatever I want with my weapons. Here’s the thing. I am very rigid in my sechduling. I like to do things in the same order at the same time, etc. But there’s another part of me that just wants to do what I want to do whenever I want to do it. That’s the part of me that I indulge on Saturday. It’s because I have class so I’ll be doing all the warmups/stretches I do on the regular. So on Saturday, I don’t do the stretches and just groove withthe weapons. It’s a nice release, honestly.
And this is the two sides of me. The Myers-Briggs doesn’t have any scientific value, but it does give good insight into how people view themselves. I was pretty far in one direction for three of the four categories. INF. Those three are very much who I am (Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling.) But for the last category, Judgment and Perception, I’m evenly split between the two. I am someone who is impulsive on the one hand, but loves a schedule on the other.
Anyway. In the New Year, I want to learn the Swimming Dragon Form (Bagua). Once my teacher teaches it to me with just hands, I want to learn the DeerHorn Knives version. It should not be too hard to do once I learn the hand-based form.
When my teacher taught me the first movement, I was so befuddled. In Taiji, you are front-weighted the vast majority of the time. If your weight is on your back foot, your mostly just chilling. You’re not going to attack is what I’m saying.
In Bagua, it’s common, apparently, to keep your weight back while you’re attacking. It was such a massive change, that my brain refused to accept it. My teacher gave me a horse-stance drill to do that would help me get used to having 60% of my weight on the back foot. It has helped, and I’m becoming more comfortable with it.
I also want to learn the left sides of the Taiji weapon forms I already know.
My teacher introduced Pushing Hands in class today. Obviously, I could not partake because I was not there (I only do Zoom right now), but I remember how uncomfortable it made me feel. She mentioned that as well because it makes you vulnerable. Oh, she brought it up at the beginning becuase she had a class earlier today in which her partner injured her shoulder. Unfortunately, in her home classes, her teacher is not vigilant about making sure the assholes don’t get to asshole. That’s one reason I refuse to take classes from him. There are others, but that’s a big one. I know my own teacher would never allow that to happen, which is the way it should be.
Side note: This is a problem with these kind of classes because there is no board overseeing them. There is no requirements before you can call yourself a Taiji teacher, which means that if something goes wrong–students have no recourse.
This happened with my first Taiji teacher, too. H ewas a lech, a creep, and he claimed to be a church so he didn’t have to pay taxes. He had a house, and he rented out rooms to his students. Which was iffy. And he used their expertise in various areas to his advantage as well. Oh, and he fucked his students. One who was nearly half his age. Yeah, that’s what you want in a teacher.
I would not put up with my teacher behaving like that. I understand that they are humans, but I do not truck with slimy predators. That’s a hard line for me.