Date: May 30, 2015
Location: Tewksbury Park
Weather: Between 70's and 80's. Sunny.
Attendance: One-on-one with Mr. Tu

Today's routine:
Pao Chui
Ba Zhang Quan (8 Grand Palms)

Summary:
The first moves of Pao Chui are the most important ones. They look like straight punches, but they can cover a whole spectrum of moves. Keep the fist straight on punches, so it won't buckle. Feel and breathe with your feet. To a beginner, you see colors in black and white, but to an experienced eye, you see the different shades between them. To find your center while stationary is difficult, and to find it while moving is even more challenging. Your center can go up and down between the sternum and dan tien. Try to keep your center in the dan tien area. The power in each move is part of the training, but is not the ultimate goal. Mr. Tu quoted the late Gong Bao Zhai, "Skill and virtue must come together." More training is required, which means more stationary stances, more circlewalking and more practice of the opening moves of Pao Chui.

For the Ba Zhang Quan, recognize the shoulder moves. The moves are not rigid, but more relaxed and flowing. When jumping back, do not jump with your feet, but more through your torso.

Date: October 19, 2014
Location: Tewksbury Park
Weather: Between 50's and 60's. Windy & sunny. Very chilly.
Attendance: 

Today's routine:
Pao Chui
Ba Zhang Quan (8 Grand Palms)

Summary:
Chilly, windy day. I wore three layers and a head band to keep warm. Mr. Tu quoted the late Gong Bao Zhai, "When still, the feet are nailed to the ground; when in motion, move like the wind." Our session should have ended there. That was the major lesson for the day. Look at the the way the clouds move. They don't skip. Teaching needs to be abstract to meet and measure the level of the student. He pointed out that the the first move is the most important one in the Pao Chui form, and needs to be practiced a lot of times. The six harmonies should not be confused. In Chinese, it means "to fit." My moves are mechanical, and they need to flow. Gong Bao Zhai did not speak much when he trained Mt. Tu, but when he spoke, it was something to remember. A demonstration of the Ba Zhang Quan left my back palm in pain. Mr. Tu noticed and massaged it back in place. To experience pain is to remember.

Date: October 13, 2013
Location: Tewksbury Park
Weather: In the 60's. Windy & sunny. A little chilly.
Attendance: Me, Tom, Charlie, Tim

Today's routine:
Warm Ups
Circlewalk - External
Stretches
Kicks
Baji

Summary:
I was wearing a wick t-shirt coming in to class. When he saw me, Mr. Tu advised me to wear a 2nd layer, so I went to pick up my long sleeve wick in the car. During the warm ups, I've noticed my body's stiffness from playing computer games the night before. After the warm up routine, we then moved to the sunny area at the top of the parking area hill. Tom led the kicks routine. Mr. Tu noticed a couple of people, dad & son maybe, started playing catch football where we usually park our car. To avoid our car being hit by the football, Mr. Tu advised us to move our car closer to where we were practicing. Overall, our group was a little quiet today. Mr. Tu pointed out some corrections on Baji. Angle correction on my form. Emphasis on horse stance for everyone was also mentioned. He pointed out the blocks in the form. He started telling stories of how he trained Baji before. He mentioned about it being the healthiest time of his life: hard training and eating lots of food (vegetarian?). Tom left early, during one of our Baji breaks. I noticed he liked to do the Baji form in a faster pace. He was in the front of the line when we started, so I was following him. After Tom left, Mr. Tu did some application session with high block, grab & peeling the skin while going down. Mr. Tu did not do the demo to us himself. He just guided us how to do it amongst ourselves. I tried to do it to Charlie, Charlie to me, then Tim to Charlie. We could not do it right, of course. Mr. Tu said it was too early for us to do the application, but overall, it was a taste of the move. Mr. Tu mentioned it had a feeling of arm/shoulder dislocation when done right, from his experience with his teacher. Charlie mentioned having a high cholesterol level, and about his doctor telling him to be on medication. Mr. Tu mentioned that cholesterol in general is not bad. He asked us to do more research on cholesterol & things in general. We started talking about politics, and how Republicans & Democrats are failing. The ceiling debt and Obamacare. The high influence of corporations on government, etc.

recuperation

Recuperating from last Sunday workout. Still training with Mr. Tu. This time, it's Sunday 3pm to 5pm schedule. I usually get to the park around 1:30pm to do stretching, running warm-ups and some of the forms. There are two groups in training: beginners & advanced. The beginners group are learning the Pao-Chui form. So far, our advanced group have learned 5 of 10 Tam-Tui forms. We're also getting deeper into the Two-Man form. Every week, the training seems to get harder as we get deeper into it. It's amazing how our body recovers without injuries. It usually takes me 2-3 days to recover. Also last week, I had a cold so I did not train much during the weekday. The week before that my Uncle Eric & family visited, so not much training done either that week. And this week, I'm renovating the 1st floor bathroom with wifey Maris, but I'll probably finish this task by Wednesday. Then Thursday & Friday will probably spend some time training.

thoughts about teaching

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this site. It's actually been more than a year since my last post. I wasn't sure if there was anyone out there reads this stuff. Apparently, people do.

Well, naturally, so much has happened over the course of one year. One thing is that our Saturday class has been discontinued. Teacher was tired of dealing with all the nonsense from the students and other curious ones. So now were left to learn by ourselves, which is not a bad way to learn.

Nowadays I practice by myself, or sometimes with my friends/brothers/colleagues, or whatever you call it. Practice is very important because without it the knowledge learned seem to wither away and you have to start from scratch again. In my case, my memory gets rusty and I tend to forget the steps, and there are some numerous steps and forms. So daily practice is mandatory and not an option.

I've been thinking lately of teaching part of the 64-form for free, but it's still in the works, since my schedule right now is very tight. It might work if I was teaching with a group of other teachers, but it's hard enough to get going just by myself. Group efforts are usually slow, in my experience. So a single focused effort is probably the way to go, but I'm still open for suggestions.

lobes

Lobes of Steel

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Published: August 19, 2007

Consider this before skipping yet another workout: Exercise can improve your brain, too.

learning

Practicing Ba Gua Quan, like any other art, is like learning a new language.

1. First you have to learn the letters, or characters.
2. Then the words.
3. Then sentence structures.
4. Then paragraphs.
5. Then eventually, poetry.

My goal, even though I think I'll never reach, is poetry.