In December, I mentioned I was entering a period of reflection and austerity focused on training versus exposition. Spring is now in bloom and I am pausing to look back over the last five months.
Posture and Relaxation
I have been working on Cheng-style Baguazhang, focusing on my expression of the 8 Mother Palms (ba mu zhang) and 8 Big Palms (ba da zhang). I recently received corrections on my postures from my teacher in a manner that pulled the internal aspects of the postures into the mother palms and the dynamic, ever changing, feeling of bagua in the big palms.
I have been teaching Xingyiquan to one person and working through form and applications of Dragon and Tiger; focusing on keeping external and internal harmonies present in my practice. I am also spending time in San Ti, as well as in post standing practices drawn from Taiji and Bagua. I have been focusing on body posture, especially in the waist (yao) and hips (kua) and cleaning up my stepping in Xingyi to ensure each movement has the right driver.
I have been working on Taiji spear (qiang), focusing on fundamental thrusting and circling practices with the spear, and drilling segments of the Taiji spear form, focusing on each individual subset of tactics. I am also beginning to learn the 83 Posture Wu Tàijíquán form of Yang Yuting from my teacher.
There will be a seminar by Zhang Yun hosted by Paul Cote in Silver Spring, Maryland on June 8-9 where part of the time will be focused on the beginning section of that form. This is probably of interest most to Wu Tàijíquán stylists who want to deepen their practice but may also be of interest to Yang stylists who are interested in exploring similarities between the arts as practiced today.
