Tai Chi Inspired Training Day 4,5 June 23,24

Day 4: Today is Sunday and I have Sundays as a total rest from physical Kung Fu.
Day 5: Monday and a whole new week

This morning was Kung Fu class and the 2 things that stuck out for me the most was 1) lower my bow stance for my kicks and 2) relax my shoulder and I could actually feel the pull of the thrust punch. Total awesome coolness. I tried to hone that in for the other hand techniques we did. However I was thrilled that I actually felt the pull of the punch. Yay!!

Before my daily training I got present and grounded myself in so that I could very much pay attention to what my body was doing and feeling. Plus it also diverted my mind from thinking about my blog. I also moved everything to the mats instead of doing my kicks in front of the mirror because with the mirror, I am relying by sight to spot a misalignment. Whereas by tuning in, I should be able to feel when something isn't quite right. That's the theory anyway.

Kicks: I noticed that I can hold my crane stance longer and that my left leg is less wanting to roll in. That is good! During the transition from bow to crane stance, I noticed that the movement that is stronger (and easier) is to sink down slightly and slide a bit forward while lifting the back leg instead of pulling the leg into position.

Core: While I was working my core I visualized the muscles pulling in like a pulley. That seemed to isolate the movement. The movements are not big and they are intense. As for shoulders, my right is a bit cranky today, so I focused on stretching.

Forms: Another week with Awakening The Dragon. The kneeling stance didn't bother me as much and I was able to be more "comfy" longer. I wasn't able to settle into this form, maybe because it's later in the afternoon after a day of Costco and errands. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I did play around with my fan in my left hand. Definitely bamboo for now as 1) bamboo is much lighter 2) I scare myself too much with the tosses with the steel fan. Had to try though.

I also chose to incorporate journaling 5 things that I like about the I Ho Chuan Snake team. I'm not sure as of yet as to whether I will make those public or not.

As a side note, I tested my non-dairy ice cream recipe in chocolate for fudgsicles by adding in cocoa, black cocoa and a tablespoon of Kahlua. Let's just say SLURP, and that the Jelly Belly Popsicle moulds from Canadian Tire and I will become very good friends.
Sherri Donohue
My Blog