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morslaDear gods, do I hurt today. The Kung Fu/Tai Chi training camp was held in Anglesea over the weekend, and it beat the snot out of anything I've ever tried before. I used to go on 3-4 camps a year for Wing Chun, but this was something else entirely.
Friday
The first class began an hour after we arrived at the camp. I recognised about a dozen people in the group, and wondered what the class would be like - the forty-odd people ranged from high-school students to retirees. I thought we would be split up into different styles (Bagua, Liu He, Tai Chi, possibly some Xingyi as well) but I proved sorely mistaken. We jumped straight into wushu training - deep stretches, high kicks and footwork drills, punctuated by sets of pushups or punches. It was a bit of a shock to the system, and set the pace for the weekend.
Saturday
First class (0630hrs) was an hour and a half of fairly gruelling yoga. The objective was to warm up for the weekend, so even the people who had done yoga in the past found it... a little intimidating. The stretches helped to get over the previous night's weariness, and it was interesting to see how different core body strength exercises are compared to the "external" exercises from Friday. Muscles from Friday hurt less, replaced by aches in muscles I didn't know I had.
After four serves of breakfast (!) I went for a walk to the beach. The sun was up, the breeze was soothing, and I got to be a geology nerd by looking at the cliff face. What more could I ask for?
The next session threw us straight into lunging stretches and Liu He boxing drills - lots of running, direction changes, kicks and punches. After an hour or so we were sorted into groups for Zi Ran Men circle walking (very low stance, almost like walking in a cat stance): palms (300 steps clockwise, 300 anticlockwise), tiger claw (200, 200), front kick (50, 50), side kick (50, 50), hands on hips (50, 50). It's been about a year since I did any circle training, but I slipped back into that meditative mindset early - it helped that I was too tired to think. We finally got to work on some Tai Chi in the last half hour of the class. I practiced the 32 Sword for the first time in months, and revised the Beijing 42 as the other people learning Wudan were all off practicing their Bagua forms.
The evening training picked up the pace even further. After warming up, we started on the Liu He 64-hands form. I re-learned a few forgotten techniques and practiced applications for each of the movements. I also got to show people how to break someone's wrist by lowering your body weight... if they've grabbed your arm, hold their hand there and twist. Seems fair to me - after all, if they've grabbed hold of you, they obviously want to stay holding on :) I rolled my ankle during some of the jumping exercises, and did some extra horse-stance practice while the others started circuit training. I iced my ankle for the last half hour of the class.
After dinner the drinks came out, and we sat in the dining hall for a few hours - we had planned to have a bonfire, but had a few complications. Half the venue was booked by a Christian group, and they insisted that they had 'booked' the fire area exclusively... I thought it was a communal area like the barbeque, but their organiser was pretty stubborn. When the general level of alcohol was high (and subtlety was low), we moved out to join the last few people from the other group by the fire. They all headed off to bed soon after (possibly trying to avoid the disgruntled martial arts group who outnumbered them five to one...). I stayed out there until about 1am and headed back with the last few stragglers.
All told, the pace was tougher than the nine-hour days in Beijing two years ago. I can't name any single day of training where I've done as much work, over all the years I've trained for.
Sunday
0600 is not a natural time to wake up, nor is it a natural time to start moving after a long day of training. Despite this, we didn't have a single latecomer to the morning class - perhaps everyone was too scared to risk additional training if they came late... This class focussed on Qi Gong and meditation, with a reasonable dose of stretching. My ankle was a bit stiff, but it hadn't been twisted too badly. I didn't do any side kicks, but kept pace for the rest of the class.
I sat by the ashes of the bonfire for a while and waited for the final class to start up. This was a follow-on from the Liu He class on Saturday - lots more movement drills, 64-hands practice, and a few more ways to apply the techniques. I need to get stronger legs (and ankles!) if I'm going to do more of this... the emphasis was on outmanoeuvreing the opponent, while getting into a stronger offensive position. The footwork is very effective, but you have to be quick - any delay and it doesn't work at all.
We finished up with another hour of yoga. It was a completely different beast to the class on Saturday morning - slower, poses held for longer, more emphasis on flexibility than strength. If only I could remember half of the movements... it was the most effective set of stretches I've ever done, and it's probably the only reason I can still walk today.
Mind you, I'm not moving too fast... I've changed my shifts at work to Tues-Thurs this week, as I didn't think that eight hours in front of a computer would do me any favours. I also fell asleep halfway through getting out of bed this morning, and woke up at 10am. Something didn't want me getting to work today.
Friday
The first class began an hour after we arrived at the camp. I recognised about a dozen people in the group, and wondered what the class would be like - the forty-odd people ranged from high-school students to retirees. I thought we would be split up into different styles (Bagua, Liu He, Tai Chi, possibly some Xingyi as well) but I proved sorely mistaken. We jumped straight into wushu training - deep stretches, high kicks and footwork drills, punctuated by sets of pushups or punches. It was a bit of a shock to the system, and set the pace for the weekend.
Saturday
First class (0630hrs) was an hour and a half of fairly gruelling yoga. The objective was to warm up for the weekend, so even the people who had done yoga in the past found it... a little intimidating. The stretches helped to get over the previous night's weariness, and it was interesting to see how different core body strength exercises are compared to the "external" exercises from Friday. Muscles from Friday hurt less, replaced by aches in muscles I didn't know I had.
After four serves of breakfast (!) I went for a walk to the beach. The sun was up, the breeze was soothing, and I got to be a geology nerd by looking at the cliff face. What more could I ask for?
The next session threw us straight into lunging stretches and Liu He boxing drills - lots of running, direction changes, kicks and punches. After an hour or so we were sorted into groups for Zi Ran Men circle walking (very low stance, almost like walking in a cat stance): palms (300 steps clockwise, 300 anticlockwise), tiger claw (200, 200), front kick (50, 50), side kick (50, 50), hands on hips (50, 50). It's been about a year since I did any circle training, but I slipped back into that meditative mindset early - it helped that I was too tired to think. We finally got to work on some Tai Chi in the last half hour of the class. I practiced the 32 Sword for the first time in months, and revised the Beijing 42 as the other people learning Wudan were all off practicing their Bagua forms.
The evening training picked up the pace even further. After warming up, we started on the Liu He 64-hands form. I re-learned a few forgotten techniques and practiced applications for each of the movements. I also got to show people how to break someone's wrist by lowering your body weight... if they've grabbed your arm, hold their hand there and twist. Seems fair to me - after all, if they've grabbed hold of you, they obviously want to stay holding on :) I rolled my ankle during some of the jumping exercises, and did some extra horse-stance practice while the others started circuit training. I iced my ankle for the last half hour of the class.
After dinner the drinks came out, and we sat in the dining hall for a few hours - we had planned to have a bonfire, but had a few complications. Half the venue was booked by a Christian group, and they insisted that they had 'booked' the fire area exclusively... I thought it was a communal area like the barbeque, but their organiser was pretty stubborn. When the general level of alcohol was high (and subtlety was low), we moved out to join the last few people from the other group by the fire. They all headed off to bed soon after (possibly trying to avoid the disgruntled martial arts group who outnumbered them five to one...). I stayed out there until about 1am and headed back with the last few stragglers.
All told, the pace was tougher than the nine-hour days in Beijing two years ago. I can't name any single day of training where I've done as much work, over all the years I've trained for.
Sunday
0600 is not a natural time to wake up, nor is it a natural time to start moving after a long day of training. Despite this, we didn't have a single latecomer to the morning class - perhaps everyone was too scared to risk additional training if they came late... This class focussed on Qi Gong and meditation, with a reasonable dose of stretching. My ankle was a bit stiff, but it hadn't been twisted too badly. I didn't do any side kicks, but kept pace for the rest of the class.
I sat by the ashes of the bonfire for a while and waited for the final class to start up. This was a follow-on from the Liu He class on Saturday - lots more movement drills, 64-hands practice, and a few more ways to apply the techniques. I need to get stronger legs (and ankles!) if I'm going to do more of this... the emphasis was on outmanoeuvreing the opponent, while getting into a stronger offensive position. The footwork is very effective, but you have to be quick - any delay and it doesn't work at all.
We finished up with another hour of yoga. It was a completely different beast to the class on Saturday morning - slower, poses held for longer, more emphasis on flexibility than strength. If only I could remember half of the movements... it was the most effective set of stretches I've ever done, and it's probably the only reason I can still walk today.
Mind you, I'm not moving too fast... I've changed my shifts at work to Tues-Thurs this week, as I didn't think that eight hours in front of a computer would do me any favours. I also fell asleep halfway through getting out of bed this morning, and woke up at 10am. Something didn't want me getting to work today.
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Date: 2005-11-21 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-21 05:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-21 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 05:10 am (UTC)Gone one better
Date: 2005-11-22 02:09 am (UTC)Re: Gone one better
Date: 2005-11-22 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 02:50 am (UTC)