Disaster Stalks the Fish

That fish thing is apparently a very deep philosophical musing.... bear with me....

Sunday night kung fu. A few run-through's of Black Crane One. I am still forgetting to bring the hands up through the CENTER before the lunge and press-down.

Then a few reps of Tiger Versus Crane. More work on that same strike-to-flying-crescent-kick sequence that we've been working on for- what, three weeks? And it's still not right. Practicing the strikes against focus mitts. I'm still failing to keep the right arm circling continuously all the way around. As is typical of me, I can focus on getting the hand positions and targeting right, *OR* I can focus on that centrifugal right arm; I don't have enough brain cells to do both at once. What usually has to happen in these sorts of cases is that I just have to rep the easier part a million times till I can put that on autopilot and focus on the more complicated part. Problem here is that both parts are complicated.

I did figure out that I have been making things unnecessarily hard on myself by trying to torque legs and body through too much of the turn; it's okay to turn more initially and also to lift the left knee up to help hike my body weight into the air. Bringing the left knee up also forces me to remember to get the weight fully on the right foot before the jump.

After the focus mitts, SK made me do the sequence with barbells in my hands (He asked me if I could do the sequence while holding 2-lb barbells, and I said sure- examined them later in the class and found that he'd given me THREE-pound barbells, the sneak). That was quite a bit more exhausting work, but it also made it harder to do it WRONG, because when you do it wrong with 3-lb barbells in your hands, you drag your entire body violently off course.

The others seem to think my flying crescent looks impressive... I can feel that I'm still not getting the centrifugal force right... if they think it looks good NOW, their socks are going to be knocked off when I get the rest of the kinks worked out of my balance problems. I'm already crescenting way over my head and getting the proper 180-degree turn to the appropriate target. I can still FEEL my body working against itself, though.

It needs about a zillion more reps, and I get tired after a dozen. Flying crescent kicks are a lot of work.

We also spent some time on the closing three-kick sequence (rt foot inside-to-outside flying crescent to west, rt foot box kick to north, rt foot inside-to-outside flying crescent to south). I am stopping the energy after each kick, and I need to figure out how to move my feet in such a way that the energy continues through all three kicks. For much of this part, sliding the relevant foot along the floor in a curve from center will suffice. I just have to remember to do it. After the box kick is the sticky wicket. Apparently you have to let that right foot swing back down AND BACK without pause, as you twist your body 180 and let that second upward swing carry into the flying crescent. Mama Mia. It's hard. I only had time to try a handful of reps, and I can almost feel how it's SUPPOSED to be.... but not quite there yet. And by the way, there's nothing that looks more spastic and ridiculous than trying this. I wanna work on it someplace where nobody is *watching* me work on it!

Every Sunday we read a chapter of the Tao Te Ching from each of our respective translations and discuss it. JM has a version with singularly lovely illustrations... written by a gentlemen whom we have all agreed was high when he did the translation. We can follow the parallels through all of the other versions fairly easily, then we get to her book, and she usually has to ask, "Uh, we *are* on chapter thirty-six, right?" Because hers bears NO resemblance. It is usually three times as long, wandering in nonsensical hyperbole that leaves us either rolling in hysterics or gaping at each other and asking, "WTF?????" (As if this material wasn't inscrutable enough to begin with.) There is a "commentary" section on each chapter that's even nuttier. Let's just say that great liberties are taken with the original work, and this author is convinced that he Gets It in a way that no other philosopher ever has or ever will. That much I think we can get behind.

Anyway- tonight's chapter made reference to fish in deep water, and when we got to JM's translation, the line came up as "Disaster stalks the fish."

Pause.

Long moment of eyebrow-climbing silence.

ROFL.

That is going to be the new buzz phrase in this school. It might be the name of a new form.

Finger is improving steadily, although not as quickly as I would like. I can do light tasks with it now, as long as I'm careful- I don't have to do everything with that finger stuck stiffly out to the side. I was hoping to get back to BJJ class this week... or at the very least, go in and watch some classes. Then my recently-repaired car went belly-up again. Obviously the correct problem was not ferreted out. Back to the shop with you. Back to transportation deficiencies for me.

(Pic- Jesse)