Wu style Taiji practice

I received an email from a friend of mine asking how my practice was coming along. My response:

Interesting question. When I began Wu style, I stopped doing every other Internal Martial Arts practice. I wanted to do it their way. I even stopped standing. Standing is a more advanced Wu style exercise, which I'll take up again, their way, when it is introduced in the sequence of learning.

What I do every day (I rarely miss) is Wu style's "Tai chi walking," plus five warm up exercises (reportedly the first five of a 24 exercise set which makes up the neigung exercises), then I work on the form.

From what I know from my previous experience, I think I'm getting to the heart of these exercises a little more quickly than the usual beginner. I'm getting the same feeling I used to from standing (although not as intense as I'm not doing them for the same length of time). I find this very interesting.

When the form is practiced as a group in class, it's performed a bit more quickly than I like to do it on my own. I mentioned that to the teacher, and she said that in class, they have to get through it so they can work on things, but for my own private practice going more slowly is a good idea. There's a difference between our private practice and class practice together.

I like to go more slowly so I can feel and pay attention to what's going on. Am I holding any tension? Is my lower back rounded? Etc.

It's really easy to tell if my mind isn't in the right place, and when it is.

She told me that the last instruction given at the end of the form is: "Now feel what it is that you feel." I think those words are very wise.

I have to host my out of town visitors to dinner on Thursday, so I'll miss class. I'll be traveling the week after next, so I'll miss that class as well. My thoughts are to use this time to really solidify what I'm working on right now.

This is the link to the list of movements in the form: http://www.wustyle.com/en/learning/forms.php

I'm at #32. I'm about a third into it. The next sequence has a lot going on, so I really do want to solidify what I'm doing before moving forward in a significant way.

An aspect of the form that I find very interesting is the separation of yin and yang. Frequently the weight is 100% on one leg or the other, mostly shifting back and forth. The blood really gets flowing. I am told that if you're doing it right, you get a good healthy sweat going. I have enough movements to where I'm getting really warm and starting to break a sweat.

I'm glad I stopped doing the Cheng Man Ching short form altogether before starting this. The principles are the same, but the practice is just SO much different.