Started learning the horse whisk form, very exciting! Working in front of the mirrors at the kwoon can be a bit grim, what felt smooth and graceful while practising does not look like that in front of the mirrors ... yikes!!! I look slow and lumbering, when I actually want to look cool and dangerous. In my logical side I think ... okay you have only been at this form for a week, give yourself a break. But my emotional side comes up with some very negative back talk and not just about my form but body image as well.
I want to use the mirrors as a tool to help me perfect my form but its hard not to be distracted by seeing EVERYTHING that I perceive as less than perfect. Does everyone go through this mental exercise in front of a mirror. I actually have to mentally drown out the negative body image rhetoric by focusing specifically and looking and asking myself are my feet or hands in the right positions, do I have my hips aligned correctly, are my shoulders in the right position in relation to my hips and so on. Really what does my messy hair or body size have to do with my kung fu. I need a new paradigm ... one where I see a martial artist and focus on the skeletal alignment, stances and the flow of what I am doing and can turn off Terry on her personal channel listing all her imperfections.
Friday, February 26, 2016
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Escrima sticks YouTube links and sites
Escrima sticks are being done by a number of people this
year and I have been asked to provide some links on you tube (I did an escrima stick form a couple of years ago). The terminology with this can be confusing,
be aware that escrima sticks are also called kali , arnis, silat and
the drills are called sinawali (weaving patterns) abaniko (blocking) drills, also numerous striking patterns that
have interesting names that involve heaven.
When doing searches use these types of terminology and you will get
better results. There are A LOT of stick
fighting videos on you tube, in addition to the kali, arnis, silat and escrima there
is irish, trinidad, zulu styles and the list goes on, if you are making your
own forms you can have fun looking at
some of the other styles as well and pick out some cool stuff. Trying to learn a escrima/arnis/kali stick
form off you tube for single or double stick can be tough, most time the
performances are so fast you can’t figure out what’s going on so I suggest
learning basic striking patterns and drills first.
Not sure if you will be doing single or double stick forms ...
The best sites for learning drills/patterns/footwork for
double stick that I found are below:
do a search for sinawalli drills or kali sticks done by
Stephen Mullins, he explains what's happening and goes through it slowly and
there a numerous you tube videos, primitive but informative.
www.kalicenter.com these guys have numerous videos you can
find on you tube for free , they also have DVDs if you want to purchase them
and below is the online school costs.
Kali Center Online School - Monthly Membership $12.99
Kali Center Online School - Yearly Membership $119
showy but
he can be tough to follow, he also has numerous you tube videos posted.
Below are some great
warm ups and drills you need to know for doing double
escrima stick.
Single stick drills
The biggest struggle I had was with the footwork, and I just couldn't wrap my brain around the way they were doing it so I stayed with the kung fu footwork and stances. Later I discovered there are many schools of thought on stances with the escrima stick(s) so its kind of your choice.
Good luck and remember to have fun with this ....
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Slow transition
So my brother (who lives in china) sent me this picture, it summarizes the year of the sheep leaving and the year of the monkey entering. Thought it was pretty cool.I am getting nervous excited about the chinese new year celebration and our perfomances ... I know a lot of people are already practicing their new forms but my transition from sheep to monkey seems to be slower and I am still very focused on my sword form performance and the dragon dance. Have not even picked up the horse whisk yet and don't feel comfortable shifting my attention to the new form until after Feb 20th.
My ankle is holding up okay ... wearing the brace certainly helps, wrists and shoulders are taking a beating and its good we only have 10 days left before the performance and big wind up of the sheep year.
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