Well tonight was interesting. Monday nights are apparently the nights for beginners and I had absolutely no idea. So I turned up and we started with the usual stretches and punches and then Sifu turns and says something along the lines of "Monday and Wednesday nights are usually for the advanced students, everyone is more than welcome but you might not get the full benefit from these lessons straight away" immediately I could feel my face drop. Everyone in the class bar two others from the beginners course were senior students, at least half were wearing black sashes.
We started with form 2 and 3, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, I tried to follow and was told to just try and imitate and see what I could pick up, I was so completely lost I just stood back and watched one of the senior students and tried to note any of the techniques. I think I remember maybe two of them from the entire form and even then I couldn't tell you which form they're from, what they are or where they go within the forms but I guess I went straight from the most basic lessons to one of the most advanced so it was really jumping straight into the deep end. I'm not going to talk about every single technique we practised, I'm just going to summarise what I remember with any amount of detail.
So what did I actually pick up?
Well we started with a little bit of Chi-Sau, I got a little confused at first as I'm too used to starting in either Tan and Bong or double Fook so when my partner went for half and half straight away my brain drew a blank and I had no idea what to do for a few seconds. Once I figured out what was happening I got into it though but it was only really rolling rather than trying to attack, my partner would have destroyed me anyway. I need to remember to keep the Tan-Sau high when rolling, I kept dropping it when turning back from the Bong.
The main thing I learnt from tonight is not to attend the Monday and Wednesday sessions for a while, but seeing as I did, get stuck in. The people there know a hell of a lot more than me so I need to listen and absorb as much of what they're saying as possible. Drill. Drill. Drill. There are some absolutely fantastic people and martial artists in that school and most of the people I was training with tonight are the people that are pretty much at instructor level. There are people there that aren't as good at instructing, but they're still damn good at what they do and their opinions are still completely valid.
I also had a bit of a light bulb moment when during a pak sau drill where we were told to start as if we were attempting to diffuse a conflict - arms in the air defensively and out front, held apart - Sifu was saying that because of how you're stood in that situation, your arms are ahead of you, and wide apart leaving a gap to your face, it subconsciously baits people to attempt a straight punch, your arms aren't exactly in a block but they're in the way of a cross and they're also just about in the way of an uppercut so you only really leave opportunity for a straight punch, it clicked with something Sun Tzu says "Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him" Rather than defending everywhere and leaving nothing open to attack, making the enemy unpredictable if you're pretty sure they're going to attack anyway, trick them into attacking on your own terms, this way you have the advantage and if they're not going to attack, then you've lost nothing anyway.
Back to class tomorrow, hopefully for something more appropriate to my level.
dòjeh jóutáu
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