Tag: refinements | A Banana Peeled

Tag Archives: refinements

Totally realistic goals for 2026, part two

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I am going to talk about my realistic goals for 2026 once again. Here is my post from yesterday in which I blathered on and on about writing, identity, and the intersectionality thereof. Today, I want to talk about Taiji and Bagua. Why? Because why not? More seriously, because they are very important to me, and I can talk happily about them for hours on end. I try not to because no one other than my teacher would really want to hear about it.

I will mention the weapon form I’m working on because that’s understandable. I think? When appropriate, I will send one of the videos I’ve been using to teach myself so the person can see what I’m acutally doing. The response? “That looks really hard!” Which is oddly gratiying to hear. And validating. I still have three postures left to teach myself because I’ve been doing a bit of refinement. I’m feeling good about it, and I’m hoping to finish it before the end of the year. I just decided that. You would think that teaching myself three postures in a month would be a snap, but this weapon form has given me so much trouble, we shall have to wait and see.

I look back at how confident I was before I started teaching myself the form that I would be able to do so in three months. That’s the longest it’s taken me to teach myself any form, so why not? This form didn’t look that much more difficult than the others. My hubris was my downfall. Even if we take out the month I in which I was recuperating from my three shot delight, it’s still taken me seven months thus far to learn the Double Fan Form.

The thing I did not take into account was that the two fans do different things at the same time. In the other double weapon form I know (Double Saber Form), the weapons do the same thing alternately or one does a movement while the other doesn’t. I was not ready. I will admit it. I was so confident I could teach it to myself with ease. Oh, how the fates and the double fans have laughed at me. Heartily, I will add.

But! I am getting there. Slowly and painfully. I think I will feel great once I’m done. (Even though I still have much refinements to do on it.) I’m fully prepared to have to spend another month on the refinements, but I’ll be happy once I teach the final posture to myself.

Taiji, refinements, weapons, life

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I’m roughly 90% healthy after my run-in with my nemesis, gluten. I spent all of yesterday feeling punk. I ate crackers (gluten-free!!!), chips, and chicken nuggets (with plain rice). I was still bloated and uncomfortable, and I still had to run to the bathroom more than I wanted to. I had no motivation to do anything (well, even less than normal), and I just felt gross. Today, I have, well, no motivation, but I don’t feel as miserable as I did yesterday.

With that out of the way, let’s talk taiji. One of my best traits is that I learn things quickly. It’s also one of my worst traits because it makes me lazy. I don’t practice as much as I should because of it, and I’m resistant to changes even though it usually doesn’t take me long to incorporate them. Wait. That’s a different problem. Anyway. Let’s talk about the Solo Form, long since the bane of my existence. I’ve been honest that I hated it when I first started taiji over a decade ago. I thought it was slow and boring and SO FUCKING SLOW AND BORING. I sucked it up because it would get me to where i wanted to be, which was the martial art applications. Weapons? Uh uh, no. Never in a million year, not for me, thanks, mate (watching too many British YouTubers).

Begrudgingly, I learned the Solo Form. Begrudgingly, I practiced it in class. Begrudgingly, I started doing a bit at home, but that was years later. I reached a point of neutrality with the Solo Form and I was able to see why it was beneficial. I mean, I was always able to see it, but I could tell the positive effects it’s had on my life. I was able to move through crowds by ‘seeing’ the gaps. I didn’t actually see them, but I felt them. I wasn’t as uncomfortable in a large crowd (still didn’t love it). I injure myself much less even if I’m not any less clumsy.

The problem is that once I ‘learned’ a movement, I stopped thinking about it. That doesn’t mean I perfected it, of course, which is part of the problem. Part of taiji is refinement but because I don’t love the Solo Form, I don’t put in conscious effort to refine the movements. It’s funny because Fist Under Elbow used to be my least-favorite movement (well, one of two least favorites), but it was one I knew the best because I had to take more time than usual to learn it. It’s the same with Cloud Hands which is everyone’s favorite. I hate it, so I know it well. I had a classmate who liked to recount how I taught it to him so well that he got it the first time. Again, because it’s my least-favorite movement, I’ve put a lot of thought into it.