I’m back to talk more about martial arts and my goals therein for 2026. Here is yesterday’s post in which I mused about what martial arts mean to me and more. I must say, it was easier when I just practiced Taiji beacuse I could say Taiji and leave it at that. Now, I can and have said Taiji and Bagua, but that’s a mouthful.
In addition, not many people know what Bagua is. I didn’t until several years after I started studying Taiji. I mean, I knew my teacher practiced it, and she taught me how to walk the circle. I had seen her demonstrate the Swimming Dragon Form at her school’s demo before.. I didn’t know much more than that until recently. For whatever reason, at the last demo (which I watched online), I was very much into the Bagua. Or maybe it was the year before? Or I just thought more about it? It had to be earlier than this year’s demo. Maybe last year’s demo.
Anyway, I asked my teacher to teach me the Swimming Dragon Form, which she did. She taught me the first two-thirds, and then soon thereafter, we hit a movement that is probably the most intricate in the sequence. It’s a throw and a kick at the same time, and I think she was a bit unsure about it because she kept putting it off. Finally, I videotaped her doing the form and then taught the rest of it to myself.
It’s been interesting messing around with it. I was practicing mud steps (walking as if you’re in mud, never lifting my feet)on the left side for the first seven or so steps. Now, I’m teaching myself the Swimming Dragon Form on the left side for real, and it’s making me question myself on the right side as well. It’s funny, really. I have done the Swimming Dragon Form enough times (I practice it every day) that it’s in my bones. And yet, now that I’m teaching myself the leftt side, it messes with my mind once in a while on the right side.
My teacher jokes about this. In her home school, her teacher mostly practices the left side of the Solo Form in class. In our classe, we practice the right side. Once in a while, that messes her up in our class, which I can understand. Oh, and she has problems with distinguishing her right from left. I don’t, but I did notice that when I was practicing the first half-dozen postures of the Swimming Dragon Form on the left side every day, it was more difficult for me to do it on the right side.
It’s just a question of what the brain is used to and paying attention to the practice. One of the problems is that it’s easy to slip into doing something out of habit. I have done the Solo Form probably a thousand-plus times in my years of practice, and the times I fuck up the most are when I’m doing it by rote.
I’m thinking about what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the day or my writing or anything else other than what I was actually doing. That’s how my brain goes, and I would like to work on that in the new year’s as well..
That’s a soft goal for nexxt year, by the way. To keep my mind on what I’m doing. I have a hard time with that in general because my brain doesn’t work like that. And because of trauma, quite frankly. But I would like to be able to focus without distracting myself. I usally do two things at once as a way of screening out negativity. And to keep my brain occupied so it won’t start thinking dark thoughts.
I want to learn the Swimming Dragon Form with DragonHorn Knives. I also want to create my own Karambit/Fan Form. In addition, I would love to learn a Double Sword Form. Oh, and I want to tighten up my Solo (Long) Form as well. I’m dissatisfied with it because I don’t practice it that often. I mean, I do a section every day, but I rarely do the whole form in one go.
I think it’s ok that the weapons are my thing. They bring me joy in a way the solo does not. I have come to really appreciate the Solo (Long) Form because it’s the basis for everything else we do. But, if I had my choice of what to practice, it would not be in the top five.
I also appreciate that my teacher has never given me grief about my lack of love for the hands-only Taiji. She was patient with me from the start as I griped nearly endlessly about how much I hated the Solo Form. It wasn’t that I had a hard time learning it; I didn’t. I just didn’t like it. I don’t know why I expected I would, but I was disappointed.
Still. There was something in it that called to me. I knew there was something valuable, so I persevered. This is both a plus and negative about me–my tendency to note all the negatives right up front and then thinking about it later to see if there’s value in what was said to me. Then, if there was something of value, I take it in.
I can’t tell you how much Taiji has changed my life. Before I started learning it, I was a mess. After I started studying Taiji, I was still a mess, but a tiny bit less so. I had massive back pains when I started Taiji. It’s where I held all my tension. It was all over, and it really made movement painful.
Also, within several months of starting class, I started getting excruciating knee pains. It was agony, and I began dreading doing Taiji bcause it seemed to exacerbate the pain. I had some knee pain before I started studying, but it was nothing compared to the pain I felt afterwards.
I brought up both to my teacher, and she had solutions for each. For the back pain, she told me to do the warm-up we did in class which was lying on the ground and moving the knees this way and that. She told me to do it three times on each side, and she guaranteed it would help. I was skeptical because it was such a simple exercise for something so painful. Much to my surprise, the pain in my back became markedly better within sixx months, and it was almost entirely gone within a year.
As for the knee pain, my teacher explained that I was overextended so my knee was past the front of my foot. Once I adjusted that, the pain went away as well.
That’s it for today. More tomorrow.