I had a private lesson today with my teacher. After griping about the state of the world around us,* we talked about me working on different weapon forms. Her teacher is very excited that I’m so into weapons and has said that I’m welcome to any of his classes. I would love to take a weapon class from him, but I have to sort out my lack-of-driving situation. In addition, as I told my teacher, if I did attend a class in person, it would be hers.
I miss attending class in person. It’s not terrible to do it online, but it can’t compare. My brother and I were talking about self-driving cars, and he said it would be good for me. We talked specifically about the Tesla one, but I refuse to buy a Tesla as long as that man (I wrote mad. Not far from the truth) is connected to it at all.
I would like the freedom to get places, though. My eyes are terrible. My reflexes suck. I have no periphery. Freeways are the worst. I haven’t been on one in quite some time. I do need to think about a self-driving car because it could change my life.
Back to the weapons.
Well, let’s talk about the Swimming Dragon Form first. I am so near the end, I can taste it. My teacher helped me out with the latest movement I’m working on in that form. Since Bagua is so new to me, I have to have some beginner’s tips. The good thing is that because I’ve studied Taiji, I have a base to at least do decently on another internal martial art.
My teacher was talking about how her teacher’s teacher, the grandmaster of Liu Ho Pa Fa, another internal martial art. When he was younger, he had no use for Taiji. He thought it was too soft and had no use in combat.
Oh, by the way, here’s the link from yesterday.
Back to Grandmaster Choi. He had his mind changed (not sure how), and now he has a Taiji form. As my teacher explained it to me (or I interpreted it this way), he has a few core truths (like all movements should be combat-based) that he has incorporated into all his forms. A quote from him: “No form. Human form.” In other words, he doesn’t care so much about structure and such.
Funnily enough, as I was looking for a video with him in it, the one I found (and included below) is from my teacher’s teacher.