Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - Rest day=evening shift except for Stance Training during breaks 1. Cat Stance = 1 minute and 10 seconds 2. Bow Stance = 1 Minute and 40 seconds 3. Horse stance = 1 minute and 35 seconds 4. Slanted Horse = 1 Minute and 15 seconds 5. Cross Step = 40 seconds 6. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds Had second Physical Therapy appontment. they tried to cancel at the last minute, but I politely complained that I had had 1 appontment in a month due to their schedule. They had their supervisor fill in. She went a different direction than the first one. Instead of the curvature issue, she was more concerned with tightness with rotation. Honestly, I think she is more on track with what is going on. She gave me a different exercise and I will still do the other one, but not as often. Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - Evening shift/ Day off Thursday, June 18, 2015 - 6:30- Last half of TCC class 7:00 - Tai Sifu Class- Same focus as last few weeks. Formal Exercise, Staff and stick. Finishing up on staff, will start another weapon next week. His tips on the staff have been very helpful. I am getting more "whoosh" in moves on my staff than before. 8:00 - Practice - Some TCC Fajing form. Formal Exercise with same focus I have been working on. Techniques. Can't remember for sure, but maybe a bit of wall bag? 9:00 - school closes
Friday, June 19, 2015 - Stance Training throughout day and evening. 1. Bow - 1 minute and 45 seconds 2. Cat - 1 minute and 5 seconds 3. Slanted Horse - 1 minute and 15 seconds 4. Horse - 1 minute and 10 seconds 5. Cross Step - 50 seconds 6. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds 7. Horse - 2nd round - can't remember exactly at least 50 seconds- 1 minute I think 8. Slanted Horse - second round - again can't remember exactly - 50 seconds? 9. Crane- starting slowly with this one again due to back issue - 20 seconds 6:30 - Weapon forms class - spear 7:00 - Talked with fellow student who's instructor is leaving. She was bummed. Trying to offer encouragment and sympathy. 7:20ish - Practice with a bit of stretching mixed in Wall Bag 2nd degree brown sash techniques. Cane and double dagger techniques. Starting on remembering stick techniques Formal Exercise Still not doing slow motion kicks until back is better. Very frustrating! 9:15 - school closing down. While officially closing at 9:00- doesn't really close down on Fridays until a bit later for the time being. This is due to instructor training going on. So, I can stay a bit later
Saturday, June 20, 2015 - 10:00 - TCC Class- Focus in first half on new pattern and sensitivity drills. 11:00 - Sparring Class. This was awesome! Tai Sifu did something we have never done before. I think it is because right now all the people in that class are regulars. We have been under his sparring tutelage for awhile and he trusts us to try things we haven't done before. We mixed up different sparring styles. Stick fighting, but with kicks added- not like our tournament style fighting. Then with smaller padded sticks that we treated like knives. Then regular sparring, but with our stick fighting/ MMA gloves- not our regular boxing gloves. Switched from one, immediately to the other, then the other. He said we will mix in some clinching and moving step style moves too in the future. Real reality check! It was awesome! I think I will do some bagwork with the smaller gloves as I found I was pulling my punches against chest protectors. I punched and bent my wrist once too. I didn't realize how much I relied on that extra padding in the boxing style gloves. Or how easy something like smaller gloves could phase me. One of my opponent's tried a block with the smaller gloves and put a finger out of joint. She was great. She had Tai Sifu pull it back into place (she is a nurse) and got right back in the match. It was AWESOME! I learned tons! Really looking forward to future classes like this! 12:00- rest after sparring. Talked with fellow student about her having to change instructors. Hers is leaving the school. I was offering sympathy and support. 12:15- TCC Weapon forms. Various gim and Sabre forms. Didn't get to Fan forms. Also CLF Bodhidarma Gim form. 1:30 - TCC private lesson. Second lesson with new instructor. It was great. Learning Fa Jing form. And just how to do Fa Jing in general. I was pleased as, while I certainly have a long ways to go, at times I did manage to pull it off! I didn't expect that so soon after truly seriously working on it. Here is an exhibition of the form - I don't think it is the complete form - but not sure. I am 4 moves into it after the opening. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huiT38HNClA"]Taiji Fajing Form - Yang-style - YouTube[/ame] 2:00 - CLF practice, with a little TCC fajing form mixed in. Stick techniques. Wall bag, Couple of hand forms. Tried out a little kicking practice. Only a little bit to start up again. Went ok, will do more next week. 3:10ish - school closed. It was a great day of practice!
It is a reality check, innit? Boxing with smaller/no gloves. I've often wondered it would be beneficial to go bareknuckle for periods of time - just to toughen the hands up - but I do worry about knuckle spread and sprains.
Sunday, June 21, 2015 - took the Day off. I need to get back to practicing Sundays, have taken the last few off. Monday, June 22, 2015 - Stance training throughout the day. 1. Horse - 1 minute and 30 seconds 2. Cat - 1 minute and 05 seconds 3. Bow - 1 minute and 35 seconds 4. Slanted Horse - 1 minute and 10 seconds 5. Cross Step - 40 seconds 6. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds 7. Crane - 30 seconds (still going easy on this one due to back) 8. Horse - 2nd round - 45 seconds 9. Bow - 2nd round - 45 seconds 10. Slanted Horse - 2nd round - 45 seconds Almost- not quite - back to where I was before my back problem started. Except for crane stance. Just not pushing that one yet. But at least I am doing it. 6:30 - Stick Fighting Class 7;00 - Chatted a few minutes 7:10 - Stretched, stance training (see above) Wall Bag practice. Then my CLF instructor asked to use wall bag for another student of hers and had me stick around and watch and learn from their lesson. 7:30 -CLF lessons. Focus on hand forms Going through reviewing all of them. Also, I am asking her to look at a stance almost every lesson to make corrections. Don't want to be stance training incorrectly. Today was cross step, which apparently was ok. 8:30 - more of stance training listed above. TCC Fajing form practice. I have some weird ego thing where I only practice this form when other students have left (I was the last student there) or away from them in a more secluded area. It's weird. I don't usually feel shy about practicing, even when I know my stuff needs a lot of work (that is isn't very good yet). But I feel really weird and shy practicing Fajing in front of others. I need to get over it. 9:05 - School closes at 9:00, but instructors have training in the big room, so I stayed and stretched in another part of the school. Left at 9:30. Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - evening shift/ rest day
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - Evening Shift/ rest day Thursday, June 25, 2015 - 6:30 - Last Half of TCC class 7:00 - CLF Tai Sifu Class- Started detailing out techniques of Dahn Do (Btroadsword) 7;55ish- Practice. CLF Wall Bag. worked with fellow student of my CLF instructor on Stick techniques. Working on remembering Sup Ji Jit Fu. 8;35ish - signalled two person partner to come start our practice. He sort of lagged today, took awhile to change shirts, shoes, move his keys. Eh, we all have our slow days. room was crowded so we went out behind school. Bad idea, one light is out and two person practice on a slight slant where you can't see each other well- well- it wasn't good. So, he had seen I was working on remembering Sup Ji Jit fu and we went over that together. Last couple of minutes the room opened up and we went back to go over our two person form. 9:00- school closes
Friday, June 26, 2015 - Stance Training throughout day, but mostly at the school as work was hectic and I just rested most breaks. 1. Cat - 1 minute and 10 seconds 2. Cross Step - 45 seconds 3. Horse - 45 seconds (not sure why I was so weak on this one this day) 4. Bow - can't remember- a Minute 30 seconds I think 5. Slanted Horse- can't remember- a minute I think 6. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds 7. Horse - Second round- can't remember- 30 or 45 seconds 8. something, but I can't remember I need to write down what I do at the school as I just don't remember well. I write it down at work. 6:30- CLF weapons class. Last day of Spear Form. 7:00 - chatted too long with a fellow student 7:30 - Practice. Fa Jing form. Wall Bag form. Hand forms. Also did a bag workout - a more serious one for the first time in a long time. Starting off slowly though and will build up. Still watching back issues. 4 rounds of 2 minutes with about a half minute rest in between. Left at 9:18 Saturday, June 27, 2015 - Alarm woke me up to go in by 9:30, but I felt fatigued. Last CLF private lesson, my instructor had talked to me about this next test preparation being a long time project and grueling. So that I had to be prepared to listen to my body to last in a healthy way through the process. So, I slept for another hour and went in later. 11:00 - Sparring Class! GREAT FUN! It started late actually, people that weren't there last week had to go get all the gear for what we are doing now. And we had to gather extra padded smaller sticks (we still didn't have enough) for the knife fighting element. We are in our second week of mixing up our standard sport rules sparring. And we added some clinch work in today. Rounds went like this. Stick fighting, but with kicks allowed. Then throw away the stick and do knife style sparring with the padded small sticks being our knives. Then throw that away and immediately do standard sparring, but with head shots (still wearing our stick fighting protective head gear), then immediately doing some clinch work. We didn't have enough sticks, so I had my opponents go at me with a stick while being unarmed. And last round I held the knife while my opponent was disarmed! We all are loving this! And talking about how it expose flaws we need to work on within the reality of street fighting more. No egos are bruised. We are all comparing how often we are disemboweled, stabbed in the face, etc with lots of laughter because we are all enjoying learning this! Me. one opponent kept stabbing me in the temple. I learned that what I was trying to do just was a bad idea! And that in the clinch, if I am going against someone who doesn't grapple or to moving step, I know how to just let them use their energy to wear themselves out and then go on the attack, but that against others who grapple in some way and know to also use minimal energy, I have a lot to learn. Also learned what I have heard commentators say watching MMA matches. Being slippery with sweat makes some moves much more difficult to achieve. I was trying to do a hook, pull, push maneuver in the clinch, but I couldn't get a grip between my sweat and my opponents. My punching with the MMA style gloves was much better than last week- much more power. Although I still got my wrist bent one time by improper positioning. We are going to be adding more as we do this and get more experience, takedowns, gun defenses...........it is just awesome! 12:00- rest after sparring. Yeah- I was just feeling tired today, so I was being lazy/ taking it easy and rested a very long time. 12:45 - Practice- Wall bag. Little big of TCC Fajing Form. Hand forms. 1:30- Well, this was supposed to be my TCC private lesson. We were supposed to work on moving step today. My instructor had time to show me one redirection type drill with our uppercut bag, then was called away. Some potential student walked in and he had to go do the school tour with her. Maybe he signed her up for introductory lessons afterwards. Anyways, my new TCC instructor is the full time instructor and second in charge at the school. So sometimes this will happen. He has to nandle business stuff. He wanted to schedule a make up lesson, but I told him I would just schedulre that as a CLF lesson with my other instructor. I am focusing on CLF a bit more as I am preparing to test (not soon) there and am at the highest sash level in TCC already. The one drill was awesome though and I practiced that for about 20 minutes. 1:55ish - Practice- All weapon techniques. I have them all mostly re-memorized.....mostly........still some sticking points. More hand forms practice. 3:00 - school closes
Sunday, June 28, 2015 - Almost skipped Sunday again, but finally motivated myself to go in. Late, but at least I got back in the habit. I had a good time practicing while there too. But I think the few days off were good too. Anyways.............. 7:35 p.m. - Stretching 8:00 - TCC 108 long form and some Fajing form practice. 9:00 - 24 hour fitness closes.
Monday, June 29, 2015 - 6:30 - Stick Fighting Class 7:00 - I need to watch this- spent too much time chatting. Some is ok- but not this much time. 7:20- 2nd Degree Brown Sash Hand Techniques. Dang. spent time working on weapon techniques recently and these aren't solid enough to stop yet. Forgot some stuff. Think I will just work on what I have been relearning recently and not add work on re-memorizing more this week- maybe two weeks. 7:30- Pirivate CLF lesson and make up lesson - worked on cane techniques most of the lesson. Then some Siu Moi Fa hand form. 8:30 - Worked on corrections my instructor gave me in lesson. Also did Dagger and double dagger and (I think) stick techniques. 9:05ish - TCC Fajing form practice 9:30- done for the day. Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - Evening shift/ rest day
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 - Evening shift at work/ rest day Thursday, July 2, 2015 - As mentioned elsewhere, I turned 50 today! Had the day off of work. Meant to go in and get an extra long workout, but I ended up seeing Jurassic World with my sister. Oh and i had a physical Therapy appointment in the morning. Still go in early enough to go to full TCC class. 6:00 - TCC Class During one part of 8 pieces of brocade, Tai Sifu said my horse stances are getting lower. Yay! Nice to know all that stance training is paying off! 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF Class. More broadsword drills, Formal Exercise. 9 star two person form. 8:00 - Practice- TCC Fa Jing form. CLF Hand techniques- some of the 2nd degree brown level ones. 8:30 - TCC lesson. Still learning Fa Jing Form. 9:00 - School closes
Friday, July 3, 2015 - My school is closed for the holiday, and I went on a Harbor dinner cruise this evening. So, I was all geared up for a lazy day. Logged onto Facebook to see the Clairemont location of my school was open. So I went in for a workout. Due to plans this evening, it was a shorter workout than normal. And the lesson here is I need to not get all snobby about shorter workouts. sometimes I get all " phooey- if it isn't 3 hours, it isn't worth it." And that is just wrong. a 1 or two hour workout is better than no workout. Also, it is good to experience the different locations of my school from time to time. Sifu Stanley is great! 1:00- Stretching and warm up. 1:30 - Practice. 8 Pieces of Brocade. Wall bag. Weapon and hand techniques. 3:00- Left school. Saturday, July 4, 2015 - School closed. Holiday. Took day off from working out. Sunday, July 5 2015 - Was going to to do my TCC hand forms today, but woke up with a bad kink in my neck. This happens once a year or so to me. Has ever since a minor car accident decades ago. Going to have to go see my chiropractor and I will be fine. But no workout today. Monday, July 6, 2015 - Neck still in pain, but better than yesterday. 6:30 - Stick fighting class. YAY! We did some speed drills for warmup. Then my favorite thing! We did matches with one armed person and one unarmed person. Not sports rules, but punches, kicks etc allowed on both sides. It is funny how one finds themselves just doing weird moves in this sort of situation. Any then I am laughing like "well THAT didn't work!" I just LOVE that we are doing more of this kind of thing in the various sparring at my school lately! 7:00 - fellow student made cupcakes for me and another student's recent birthdays. Really nice of her. So I ended up chatting and eating a cupcake for awhile. Can't just eat and leave. 7:20 - Fa Jing form practice. 7:30- CLF Private lessons. Weapon Techniques and Sup Ji Jit Fu form. 8:30 - had a real good chat with my instructor. 9:00 - School Closes
You've probably developed a great deal more stamina than you realise. The most I think I ever managed was a bit over an hour in the boxing gym and it nearly did me. How long have you been at this (MA training), BTW?
Probably. I don't doubt I have developed more stamina than I give myself credit for. But keep in mind a three hour workout is not all gung ho full tilt the whole time. Sometimes I am refining my techniques and moving slower or working on memory with something I am learning or relearning. I do mix in breaks where I chat with fellow students sometimes too. But yeah, sometimes it is long hard workouts too. Sparring for an hour followed my moving step practice followed by more working out on Saturdays comes to mind. I mix it up. I am at a little over 11 years in Choy Li fut. I started Tai Chi Chuan group classes a year after that - give or take a couple of months. I started formal TCC training with a private instructor about a year after starting group classes. I count that year and say I have been doing TCC for 10 years. I started on April Fool's day- seriously!
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - Evening shift/ mostly rest day. Except some Stance Training. 1. Bow - 1 Minute & 45 seconds 2. Slanted Horse - 1 Minute & 5 seconds 3. Cat - 1 Minute & 15 seconds 4. Horse - 1 Minute & 10 seconds 5. Crane - 30 seconds 6. Cross Step - 50 seconds 7. Horse - 2nd round - 45 seconds Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - evening shift/ rest day Thursday, July 9, 2015 - Stance training throughout day. 1. Bow - 1 minute & 45 seconds 2. Slanted Horse - 1 minute & 20 seconds 3. Cat - 1 minute & 15 seconds 4. Cross Step - 1 minute! 5. Horse 1 minute & 20 seconds 6. Crane - 35 seconds Now I was doing them at the school and didn't write them down. I need to write them down because I forget exactly. 7. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds 8. Slanted Horse - 2nd round- estimate 45 seconds 9. Horse - 2nd round - estimate 45 seconds 6:30 - last half of TCC class 7:00 - 7:00 Tai Sifu CLF Class. focus on Dahn Do (broadsword) detailing of moves. Formal Exercise 8:00 - practice - wall bag. Fajing form 8:30 - TCC Private lesson. Fajing form, which is coming along. Getting better. There is one move I just can't get yet, but the rest is doing ok. I don't get the fajing in the move every time, but sometimes. And the percentage of times I get it is increasing. Also worked on more bag drills for moving step. Also, things are coming along well with my new TCC instructor. I think we are both getting more comfortable with each other in this role of me being his student now. I think it must be hard to take on a new student who has been another instructors student for 9 years. And I came to him suddenly and walked into the student/ teacher relationship as his most advanced student that he has ever had in either CLF or TCC. My lesson time will change next week so that I can resume my usual two person practice at this time. My two person partner has been very understanding. 9:00 - School closes
Friday, July 10, 2015 - 6:30 - Weapon forms class - Started Bot Gwa butterfly knives form. Good thing! I crammed to learn this after my TCC test to get it down for tournament, then haven't practiced it lately. And I didn't know it well enough to take a break. As soon as the instructor went over it, it came back to me. But I had started forgetting the form. There is just so much to practice! Sometimes some things take a lower priority. 7:00 - Practice. Wall Bag. Formal Exercise. Other Hand forms. Bag workout. Increased time and rounds from last week. 5 rounds. Roughly 2 1/2 to 3 minutes per round. 1/2 to a one minute rest in between. I need to get my interval timer a new battery to track my rounds better. I am just looking at my stopwatch now. Hence the rough estimate of rounds and breaks. Back sore afterwards from higher kicks- which I admit - my Physical Therapist told me not to do just yet. Also, felt very tired after the bag workout. It affected the rest of my workout. Stopped working out at 9:08.
Saturday, July 11, 2015 - Total failure to get up and go in early. Oh well. 11:00 - Sparring Class. We learned a lot of stuff about clinching today. In these new sparring styles we are doing, we are allowed to clinch behind the neck, which we don't do in our standard sparring rules. So it was some basic drills in controlling someone from the clinch, throwing them around with the clinch. how to get the superior clinch position, Elbows and knees while controlling the opponents head, stuff like that. What I found particularly awesome about it is that it opened my eyes to some ways to use my TCC in our sparring. As Tai Sifu was teaching us drills, I found it very TCC like and felt like my TCC training was a big help. If I can develop this, I can utilize my TCC to my advantage as not all students are also TCC students. I will need to work on closing the gap and GETTING into the clinch position though. I think Tai Sifu meant for us to move into the sparring we have been doing (stick, knife, regular but with head contact etc. and clinch rounds) the second half of class. But the clinching took more time. I didn't mind. I particularly learned a lot this class and I found it really useful. 12:00- I seem to be lazy today. Rested and chatted for way too long! 12:55- TCC weapon forms practice 2:00- All weapons techniques and brown 2nd degree hand techniques practice. 3:00 - school closes
I need to add something about yesterdays sparring class that I forgot. When we were doing the clinch/ close fighting techniques, we also drilled headbutts for the very first time. Interesting, I think I did not hold my neck firmly enough and swung it sometimes. Even thought Tai Sifu said NOT to do that. Just need more practice. Sunday, July 12, 2015 - 7:24 p.m. Stretching and warm up. TCC 108 long form and Fajing Form practice. Whew, little rusty with memory on the 108. That is what I get for taking a few Sundays off. I need to get back to being more consistent with Sunday practice. 9:00 - 24 Hour Fitness Gym closes
Monday, July 13, 2015 - 6:30 - Stick Fighting Class- Still focusing on a more self defense style. Armed vs unarmed. Both armed but other attacks allowed. Awesome! 7:00 - Chatted with fellow student and with parent of a student. 7:30 - CLF private lesson. Focus on Sup Ji Jit Fu Form. Honestly, I think it is the hardest solo hand form in our curriculum before hitting Black Sash level. Even though there is another hand form at a more advanced level. However, It seems easier than I remember it when focusing on it a couple of years ago. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-s-eg4IYE"]Choy Li Fut - Sup Ji Jit Fu Kuen - Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong - 1985 - YouTube[/ame] 8:00- Too much talking lately! I need to figure out how to politely pull away from some conversations earlier. I am spending too much time socializing lately. Keeping this log helps me notice things like this. 8:30 - CLF practice. More Sup Ji Jit Fu- working on remembering my lesson. Small Five animal. Brown sash 2nd degree techniques. Left at 9:27. Made up for some of the time I spend chatting by staying a half hour late and practicing out behind the school. This is a place where students practice when the school is crowded or you just want some quiet space. And the big room was open close by with instructors training, so I was safe.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 & Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - Rest days Thursday, July 16, 2015 - Stance Training throughout day. 1. Horse 1 Minute & 30 seconds 2. Slanted Horse - 1 Minute & 30 seconds 3. Cat - 1 Minute and 15 seconds 4. Crane - 40 seconds 5. Cross Step - 55 seconds 6. Bow - 1 Minute & 45 seconds 7.Horse - 2nd round - 1 minute & 20 seconds 8. Kneeling Horse - 20 seconds 9. Horse - 3rd round - 50 seconds 10. Slanted Horse - 2nd round - 30 seconds 11. Cross Step - 35 seconds All in all, a good round of stance training today. 6:30 - Last half of TCC class 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF class- Tai Sifu Developed a short form with basics for the Broadsword. We learned it last week and this one. Our curriculum Broadsword form is quite long. I think this is a way to work on the basics without teaching the whole form to those in class who don't know it. It is a good intro to the basics of the Dahn Do. Stick Form. Formal Exercise. 8:00 - practice. TCC Fa Jing Form. Worked in front of a mirror. Some TCC bag drills. CLF Wall Bag. A few CLF techniques. 8:35ish - Back to Golden Leopard vs Tiger two person practice with Mr. W. 9:09 - left. A little after school officially closes.
When I think of bag drills, I immediately think of what transpires in a Western Boxing gym. Tai Chi Chuan bag drills seem like they would be done in a totally different manner, different flow, some way of doing non-angular points of execution.
