Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Goal Setting

“People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.” - Anonymous

1) 5 Yilus every day until June 30, 2012.
2) 6 Yilus every day from July 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2012.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Yilu Observations

One of the things I focus on recently is whether I am backloading on my rear foot in stances such as single whip (left side forward) and six sealings four closings (right side forward). I noticed this morning that my right side forward stance was done better. The rear kua should be lower than the front kua. As I tried to adjust my left side forward stance, I found a way that I could fix my problem. When I stretched the part behind the knee along the back of the rear leg, it helped put my rear kua at the correct position. I remembered that Master Chen mentioned something liked that in how we should push the middle joint in a bi-folding door. By doing so, I also felt a stronger connection between the front hand and the rear foot. I realized when I kept reproducing that stretch feeling, my rear kua would be in the correct position. I also realized that this feeling was mine and only mine, it helped me to reproduce what I wanted according to the rules and restrictions. Others, however, should not be looking for it, and feeling is an abstract thing and difficult to describe, and can easily mislead people. Everyone should practice according to the rules and restrictions. As I do my 5 yilu per day routine, I can see how it will improve my yilu over time.

Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method - Toronto Beginner Class

http://practicalmethod.com/lang/en/2011/09/chen-style-taijiquan-practical-method-toronto-beginner-class/

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Master Chen's Challenge - 25 Yilus per day

In the last Toronto workshop (Sep 22-25, 2011), he told us to do 25 yilus per day. Since the Nov 12, 2011 competition is coming up, Allan, Nick and I agree to push ourselves to do yilus every day. We each set our own goals (# of yilus per day), we will see who completes the said goal by Nov 11, 2011.

25 yilus per day is quite far fetched for me at this point as it takes me about an hour to do 5 yilus. I can't find 5 hours to practice each day, and I am not physically fit enough to do that many at the moment, but I'll get there some day.

So far, since Sep 28, 2011, I have been doing 5 yilus per day. I hope that the daily routine adjustment can stay, and I can keep doing this as I know for certain that this will help me improve.

Taiji TV Series

電視:東南西北太極人 (Mandarin only)

http://v.taiji.net.cn/special_info.php?id=89