Tuesday, 7 August 2007
NAS round 3
Many moons ago I told my students about a tournament that was being held last weekend. Unfortunately for me some remembered and wanted to enter! My rotten luck!
I don't know why, perhaps to satisfy my own standards for the competition or at least know how the event was going, but having students in the comp made it necessary for me to judge.
It wasn't a bad competition but I did have to spend a lot of time not doing things like study (still the reason I'm not getting this site updated regular like).
The results, Xiao Mao, 2 firsts and one disqualification (just but came from bad understanding not true misconduct/malice. DaGe 1 Second for one of the better performances of his form I have seen him do (though he did muff it up a little). In the end we came away well ahead.
Now to blow my own horn, I also had someone come up and say that they were happy to have me judging their students and that I was an exemplary judge. I like it when that happens.
I also got recognized by a heap of people afterwards, that I didn't think would have seen me there. That was interesting. Eg, my office mate said his friend told him that I was there. Why in blazes would he... I live in a small town.
I don't know why, perhaps to satisfy my own standards for the competition or at least know how the event was going, but having students in the comp made it necessary for me to judge.
It wasn't a bad competition but I did have to spend a lot of time not doing things like study (still the reason I'm not getting this site updated regular like).
The results, Xiao Mao, 2 firsts and one disqualification (just but came from bad understanding not true misconduct/malice. DaGe 1 Second for one of the better performances of his form I have seen him do (though he did muff it up a little). In the end we came away well ahead.
Now to blow my own horn, I also had someone come up and say that they were happy to have me judging their students and that I was an exemplary judge. I like it when that happens.
I also got recognized by a heap of people afterwards, that I didn't think would have seen me there. That was interesting. Eg, my office mate said his friend told him that I was there. Why in blazes would he... I live in a small town.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Hmmm, been a while...
It may have been noted that I haven't been updating very much lately, this roughly coincides with starting back at uni, taking over my bosses job while she prepares to go to America and taking over my teachers classes while he goes over to America with his second senior student, sister and my boss (all the same person). This was complicated when I was sparing/fighting her in preparation for the trip and broke her arm... It wasn't much more than bad luck and good technique. My block landed with the maximum possible force given the attack and had the maximum affect possible for the situation. That does not happen too often... when it does you hope it is on someone that you want to hurt, this time it wasn't...
So I will take up regular blogging again when I am happy with my Chinese, some time after my teacher comes back from America and possibly when by boss comes back from sick leave. (She wasn't able to go as she was supposed to be getting surgery on her arm when the plane left.)
So I will take up regular blogging again when I am happy with my Chinese, some time after my teacher comes back from America and possibly when by boss comes back from sick leave. (She wasn't able to go as she was supposed to be getting surgery on her arm when the plane left.)
Friday, 20 July 2007
Thought while blogging
Principle,
If you know the attack you can make the defense fit.
Exercise,
Work on defense, understand defense then see how long it takes you to work out application to any attack. Speed up the process of thought/learn what doesn't work and don't do it, build up useful reaction speed.
If you're out there and read this before next class, remind me so I can test principle... Should be interesting...
If you know the attack you can make the defense fit.
Exercise,
Work on defense, understand defense then see how long it takes you to work out application to any attack. Speed up the process of thought/learn what doesn't work and don't do it, build up useful reaction speed.
If you're out there and read this before next class, remind me so I can test principle... Should be interesting...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
三次课
Say after me, "isn't it interesting how this month misses the days 9-13, those days do usually appear in this month, must be some kind of leap year type of thing..."
Isn't it wonderful how time flies when you are so busy you can't blink.
星期六的课
Looking at using obstacles to redirect momentum. E.g. using a tree to turn on pursuers without having to about face. The fun part was watching the attackers stopping on damp grass.
星期一的课
Centrifugal power, it is a great thing. Spinning as a recreational activity is good on its own not to mention looks cool when you through in a couple of kicks to the mix, but when you can use it in an effective way to add strength to your body, it is better than chocolate. I spent a good amount of this lesson playing with spinning strikes and things that allowed you to disguise your direction to the person you were moving in relation to by showing a forward movement with your upper body while making a backward movement with your lower body, or using a defensive movement to disguise an attacking movement. The majority of these techniques rely on the person being able to spin much further than their opponent thinks they can. This means that they don't see the attacks coming or don't guard the angles that they can approach from well enough.
星期三的课
I took the spinning lesson further this time to look at balance and how to spin into someone else's space and take their feet out from underneath them. I then put these moves back in to the context of one of our beginning forms and played with the new applications this made possible. It is amazing how much reverse engineering techniques teaches you stuff!
Isn't it wonderful how time flies when you are so busy you can't blink.
星期六的课
Looking at using obstacles to redirect momentum. E.g. using a tree to turn on pursuers without having to about face. The fun part was watching the attackers stopping on damp grass.
星期一的课
Centrifugal power, it is a great thing. Spinning as a recreational activity is good on its own not to mention looks cool when you through in a couple of kicks to the mix, but when you can use it in an effective way to add strength to your body, it is better than chocolate. I spent a good amount of this lesson playing with spinning strikes and things that allowed you to disguise your direction to the person you were moving in relation to by showing a forward movement with your upper body while making a backward movement with your lower body, or using a defensive movement to disguise an attacking movement. The majority of these techniques rely on the person being able to spin much further than their opponent thinks they can. This means that they don't see the attacks coming or don't guard the angles that they can approach from well enough.
星期三的课
I took the spinning lesson further this time to look at balance and how to spin into someone else's space and take their feet out from underneath them. I then put these moves back in to the context of one of our beginning forms and played with the new applications this made possible. It is amazing how much reverse engineering techniques teaches you stuff!
星期六的課
As a rule my Saturday classes are an informal event. No uniform is needed no sash (of rank) required, they are as informal as you can get. This doesn't mean that you should turn up in clothes you don't want to get dirty!! In the students own defense "my other jeans were is the wash". However this aside it was a great class, we worked on getting hit from behind (among other things) the exercise that this lesson brought about was where you have one person walking away from their partner and then have the partner progressively harder push them from behind. This ended up being all students walk toward one end of the park and slowly position themselves behind each other to give someone a hit who was not expecting it. Depending on the angle of attack the best responses seemed to be rolling away or landing in a long stance turning and kicking with the closest leg. Worked well, will teach again. There were a couple of downsides to the rolling response however, apparently your clothes tend to get a little muddy...
Times for Teas, cause and effect
This is a post that I have been thinking about for a while now. It is an experiment that I have been doing on what tea's work best in my Gong Fu class.
There are three teas on the table for consideration at the moment; Pu Er Cha, Tie Guan Yin and Long Jing. All of them are great teas that I can get in reasonable quantities, practically free. They are my payment for my Gong Fu Cha demonstrations at the OuZhouChaGuan.
The Pu Er Cha is a very nice 8 year old bamboo cooked Pu Er, it is a great tea and the worst thing that I have ever served in my class. Consistently makes me and students flat and unbouncie. It does well as a tea however the leaves are so not done by the end of class and it is a shame to through it out after only about 5 serves. I think that this goes to prove that Pu Er Cha is best to drink before bed or after dinner. This is how I always recommend Pu Er should be drunk and I stand by this as testimony. I noticed how this affected class quite by accident. I taught class one day and I brought along this tea and wanted to try it. I did and the tea was great! However the class was a terrible class. Students were as flat as I could imagine and I was not much better, so irritation started. It was not the best class I have taught. I put this down to a couple of things but I didn't at the time consider the tea. The next time I served this tea, I had a similar class, flat, uninspired, unresponsive, so I started to take note... The next lesson I had Tie Guan Yin, this is a partly fermented tea that I absolutely love! It was a good lesson. The tea has a little caffeine and it class hummed away like it should, was lovely. Shi hao gong fu cha. I did this for another lesson getting students to drink a cup on arrival. Again, good class, attentive students. I tried the Pu Er one more time, I had half of my students drink the tea before the class started, the other were control. I was right, the students that drank were all flat well before the end of the evening, that night I packed the PuEr into my bag and took it home to drink before bed. As I am still doing. I have since started to take note how all my teas affect the people I can monitor who drink them. I have decided that even though it is slightly more effort (in preparation and longevity of leaves), Long Jing is best. It is fairly high in caffeine as it is a green tea and it shouldn't be steeped in boiling hot water, so it is easier to manage the water side of things from that end. It doesn't last as long as Tie Guan Yin though and doesn't taste as good when it isn't quite hot anymore, which happens often as I get taught teaching. The best properties of this tea for teaching is probably the caffeine that it has for the added jumpy without the jittery that you get from things like instant replica coffee etc. I also find that after about 4 serves it looses some of its kick and becomes more mello which makes it easier to sleep afterwards as the bounce element is well used on bouncing around the class.
So my cha of choice for Gong Fu Quan is Long Jing. Feels Good, Tastes Good, Mmmm Good.
K thnx by now.
There are three teas on the table for consideration at the moment; Pu Er Cha, Tie Guan Yin and Long Jing. All of them are great teas that I can get in reasonable quantities, practically free. They are my payment for my Gong Fu Cha demonstrations at the OuZhouChaGuan.
The Pu Er Cha is a very nice 8 year old bamboo cooked Pu Er, it is a great tea and the worst thing that I have ever served in my class. Consistently makes me and students flat and unbouncie. It does well as a tea however the leaves are so not done by the end of class and it is a shame to through it out after only about 5 serves. I think that this goes to prove that Pu Er Cha is best to drink before bed or after dinner. This is how I always recommend Pu Er should be drunk and I stand by this as testimony. I noticed how this affected class quite by accident. I taught class one day and I brought along this tea and wanted to try it. I did and the tea was great! However the class was a terrible class. Students were as flat as I could imagine and I was not much better, so irritation started. It was not the best class I have taught. I put this down to a couple of things but I didn't at the time consider the tea. The next time I served this tea, I had a similar class, flat, uninspired, unresponsive, so I started to take note... The next lesson I had Tie Guan Yin, this is a partly fermented tea that I absolutely love! It was a good lesson. The tea has a little caffeine and it class hummed away like it should, was lovely. Shi hao gong fu cha. I did this for another lesson getting students to drink a cup on arrival. Again, good class, attentive students. I tried the Pu Er one more time, I had half of my students drink the tea before the class started, the other were control. I was right, the students that drank were all flat well before the end of the evening, that night I packed the PuEr into my bag and took it home to drink before bed. As I am still doing. I have since started to take note how all my teas affect the people I can monitor who drink them. I have decided that even though it is slightly more effort (in preparation and longevity of leaves), Long Jing is best. It is fairly high in caffeine as it is a green tea and it shouldn't be steeped in boiling hot water, so it is easier to manage the water side of things from that end. It doesn't last as long as Tie Guan Yin though and doesn't taste as good when it isn't quite hot anymore, which happens often as I get taught teaching. The best properties of this tea for teaching is probably the caffeine that it has for the added jumpy without the jittery that you get from things like instant replica coffee etc. I also find that after about 4 serves it looses some of its kick and becomes more mello which makes it easier to sleep afterwards as the bounce element is well used on bouncing around the class.
So my cha of choice for Gong Fu Quan is Long Jing. Feels Good, Tastes Good, Mmmm Good.
K thnx by now.
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