Monday, August 19, 2013

Forms seminar, sore muscles and memory loss



I am still recovering from Saturday’s Forms seminar, where I was learning Lao Gar for the first time (Thank you Sifu Wiebe). I was doing very well for learning the first portion and was fairly confident going into the evaluation. However, a funny thing happened once I actually started the form. I had been having problems learning the hand portion of the sequence, and was thinking of how to do it correctly. I remember turning into the second sequence, the double foot movement to cat stance, which is sometimes referred to (incorrectly) as the “Hippity-hop”, along with panther fist and check. I remember watching my hands and going “Hey, it worked, they went were they were supposed to”, then I thought about my feet. I had to check where they were, then I couldn’t remember whether I had moved them, or where they were actually supposed to be at that moment in time. I think that at the time my feet had gone to the correct position without conscious thought, but was unnerving because I then had to stop and figure out what I was to do next, which meant I was temporarily paralyzed as my conscious mind played catch up. I would like to think this is an anomaly, but is all too common when I first learn a form, then have to demonstrate it under stress. I know that I eventually will have my body learn it well enough that my conscious mind won’t mess me up, but it will take a lot of reps before that happens. So there is a brief glimpse into my mind.

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