Recent practice insights?

What are some of your practicing insights you have picked up recently?

This year I have stepped back and joined a school to pick up new details and insights into Yang Style Taijiquan with Coach Pei. Coach Pei from USWA (United States Wushu Academy) has been there and done that in regards to teaching and coaching every aspect of chinese wushu from forms to fighting. What I wanted to pick up this year is from his experience in training with Yang Zhen Ji, Fu Zhong Wen, Yang Zhen Dou and other Yang masters he has trained with an interviewed over the years.

Here is some recent notes I have complied so far:

Pre-form work training Yang Taijiquan: choose any one and do research before long form study. Each one helps with an aspect of the form.

This means before doing the form, try some solo or two person training’s that reveals an important aspect of the form. This aspect might be a jin (energy), an application, an qi-na or anti qi-na, a throw, a qi gong exercise, Chan su (silk jin) drill, footwork drill, a kua or rooting drill, an emitting drill (fa jin), a sensing exercise or a striking drill. These are critical aspects of developing good “Taiji gong fu”. My current coach (Chris Pei) runs his class this way. Generally we do some kind of two person training more often that just doing a standard warm-up or qigong exercise. This is very different from many of the schools I have attended.

Examples:
1. warm-up: joint loosening set: head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, ankles, spine.
2. Grasp bird tail drill (pung-lu-ji-an two person application drill)
3. four corners push hands (pung-lu-ji-an tui shou)
4. brush knee two person drills
5. separate foot two person drills
6. 8 piece brocade
7. lift hand/white crane spreads wing two person
6. single whip holding- structure integrity drill
7. moving push hands forward and back stepping
8. two hands (wrist and forearm control) drill vs one.
9. step parry punch vs jab cross drill
10. turn chop palm, backfist, parry punch drill on focus mitt (any part of that) as “opposite power” fajin.
11. part horse mane two person drill forward and backward stepping.
12. section: push to fist under elbow as qi-na.
13. section: 7 star, ride tiger, turn lotus kick, and bend the bow.
14. sink the kua drill: Pipa standing left and right side.
15. Da Lu 4 corners.

more here:
http://polariswushu.net/blog/2012/02/01/yangs-taijiquan-for-2012-deepening-knowledge/

Blog article

Not sure if it falls under insight but it is as if I just woke up one day and could suddenly actually do bagua, and get/remember stuff. I mean as opposed to my body just not cooperating, my balance being horrid, and me not being able to mimic or remember the movements if my life depended on it. This was the first 2-3 years (depending on how you count things). Now my body has decided it would cooperate, now I can watch a movement and do it afterwards to some degree, and my balance is about 500% better! Others have confirmed all this as well. The balance thing, well that is the most obvious since I can time it, and also not nearly as wobbly while circle walking. I also went to a workshop recently, and actually remembered all of the movements well enough to practice them the next day. The last time I took a workshop I barely remembered anything afterwards. So apparently after 2 years in (the time I started Bagua and more than wushu form) the body and brain finally figure this stuff out! Perhaps if I had started when I was 20 instead of 40 it would have been more like 6 months . I have never run into something so frustrating and with such a slow learning curve in my life! Well fortunately even "bad" Bagua is still most excellent for health and it has been more than worth it.

Athena