More on current training

My practice,such as it is - a hodge podge of YiQuan, Xing Yi Quan, and CMC's Taiji form. That's fine. I don't have the dedicated time to practice a complete system. Maybe in early retirement, I can make a real run at that kind of practice. In the meantime, here I am.

Mostly my practice is stance. I do the other things - shi li the next most often, stepping, and combat stances/mojin after that, but mostly my practice is centered on stance. When I am practicing stance I'm mostly just relaxing, or following my thoughts as one would in zazen practice; but sometimes I work on the YiQuan visualizations as well. Whatever strikes me that day.

While my intention is to stand everyday, I rarely manage to come close to that goal. There's always a lot going on.

When I was younger I used to get up much earlier to work out in the morning. The last few attempts at doing that hasn't worked out so well. I have such a difficult time getting motivated. My next strategy had been working out in the evenings when the family is settling in. I've had more success wtih that, but sometimes we go out, or have people over, or what have you.

I've organized my training material into things I really need some dedicated time for, such as stance; and other items that I can just do on the spur of the moment, such as some repetitions of PiQuan. I've become more and more aware of opportunites to get something done, and am getting better at selecting something for right NOW!

So while I may not stand everyday, I'm doing something everyday. I can really feel it when my standing practice is lacking however. I can just feel myself getting all balled up. I will continue the standing practice (or some variation of it; when I'm older I might have to sit) as long as I live.

The CMC form has become an interesting exercise for me. I hadn't practiced it in years. I wanted to see what it would be like to do it again, after some years of standing practice; and I was also curious if I could even remember the steps.

I don't practice it the way I was taught.I use it as a structure of sorts around which to practice shi li. When I work on it, it's REALLY unlike what I had been taught. I haven't been very respectful of the choreography either. I'm likely to do a movement on the opposite side, repeat sequences, do them forwards, backward, then forwards again. It's a tool.

As for Xing YiQuan, I've only scratched the surface of that. I've developed an interest in it for quite some time, as it was the foundation Wang Xiang Zhai drew from in creating YiQuan. I'm only doing a most basic variation of PiQuan, but it's enough for now.

If I were to practice the full curriculum for YiQuan as laid out by Yao Cheng Guang, I'd be practicing a lot of fighting drills. I intend to use XYQ to fill that niche. I find XYQ interesting in it's historical role and for it's aethetics.

Well, that's what I'm working on.