Today (Sunday) was the day my teacher’s home school had their Lunar New Year demo. It was broken up into three parts–the Taiji section followed by the Xingyi chunk and lastly, Bagua. I was watching on Zoom.
The demo started with everyone who wanted to participate doing the first two sections of the Solo (Long) Form.. It is always interesting to watch a group of people do it because of course, no one is going to do it exactly the same. They only do the first two sections because the third section is longer than the first wo sections put together, and there ain’t no time for that. The audience, I mean–not the students. My teacher’s teacher has learned over time that people get really restless after two sections.
Yes, Taiji is about patience and being chill, but we’re still Americans under it all. What with the TikToks, the Instagrams, and all the other short forms of entertainment, no one is going to sit for nearly twenty minutes of very slow movements.
They did the Sword Form, and I was pleased to see that I would have been fine doing it with them. I know many of them have studied as long as I have if not longer. I have seen several of them at many of the demos.
I was drawn to one short guy with a mohawk because of how beautiful his form was. I thought it was a certain person I had seen do different weapons in past demos, and I knew he loved the weapons as much, nay, more than I did. He guest-taught for my teacher once about a decade ago, and I was so intimidated by his prowess that I flubbed up a simple sword movement in front of him. He was the kindest guy ever, but something about how good he was with the weapons flustered me.
I found out it was him because the next demo was him doing something he had designed himself. IHe was drawn to sheathing and unsheathing a katana. He asked his teacher (also my teacher’s teacher) about doing that with a Chinese sword, and his teacher said that he (the student) would obviously have to design one and do it for the next demo. Which he, the student, did.
And it was fucking incredible. He demonstrated with two other students, and I was instantly struck with how regal and lethal it looked. It’s not what I’m mainly interested in, but it was really cool. There’s one that is based on an escort mission, and I wanted to learn that one. They were not all Taiji sword movements, which made it even more interesting.
I love Taiji. I will always love Taiji. I am happy to be adding Bagua to it, and I could see adding other martial arts at some point as well. My teacher is currently learning XingYi (she demonstrated the Sword Form at the demo), which is based on animal movements.
Every time I watch the demo, I want to learn every weapon form I see. I started the Double Saber Form because one of my teacher’s classmates did it at the demo right before the pandemic hit. That really ignited my passion for weapons, and I just can’t get enough of them.
There was the Gwandao Form once again (big, fuck-off polearm that you spin over your head), the Cane Form and Cane Fighting Form (not called that, but closse enough). The cane forms were Taiji, I believe. The Gwandao Form was XingYi (again, I think).
They did free-form San Shou (Push Hands) which was interesting to watch. The second section was XingYi, which wasn’t really my jam in general.
The last section was Bagua and my teacher’s teacher’s Swimming Dragon Form was fierce. I could see the aggression in it, and I knew immediately that I had to rework the way I practiced it. I was still doing it more like Taiji (chill and laid-back) when what it really called for was to go all-in.
Earlier, he did the XingYi Spear Form, and he did that pretty vigorously as well. In fact, it seemed as if he was putting more energy into all his martial arts than usual. Even his Taiji had more pep in his step.
Side note: In the video above, this is my teacher’s teacher doing the Cane form. I did not know he had videotaped himeslf doing tthis, and I was pretty pleased to find it. Once again, though, he’s much more vigorous than I was accustomed to seeing him. And faster. I had notice he was getting faster and faster over the years, which was cool with me. I tend to practice fast as well, which I always thought was not on, but if he can do it, so can I.
Back to the demo. There were so many weapons I wanted to teach myself. Since my teacher has given me the greenlight to teach myself whatever I wannt, I feel like gorging myself on this form and that. I was planning on teaching myself the Double Fan Form next (a Double Fan Form. Not sure which), but now, I really really really want to learn the Gwandao. Still.
I also want to learn the rest of the Karambit Form (yes, someone did that form as well). I have taught myself half of that form, but I definitely need to tidy it up. Fortunately, there is a video of my teacher’s teacher doing it, so I should be able to teach myself.
I still have to be discerning, though. If I try to teach myself several forms at once, it will go badly. However, I saw a video of my teacher’s teacher doing the Cane Form…with a saber. Which is so fucking badass. That blew my mind. Who the hell would have thought to do the Cane Form with a saber?
I’m fired up again to learn all the weapon forms. I have no idea what I’ll do next because this is what happens to me when I am presented with too many choices. I freeze and don’t do any of them at all. But that won’t happen this time. I know I will choose something. I had thought it would be the Karambit Form, but my new fan is coming soon. So maybe it’ll be the Double Fan Form (when I decide which one I want to learn). I can’t wait to see what I teach myself next.