It was a fun and rewarding workshop. I attended a 2 hour session this morning on Fundamentals of Movement. The second session today was on the Simplified Yang Style 24 Form, but I didn't go to that (spent some time tending my garden). I wanted to go to tomorrow's Baguazhang session, but I have a scheduling conflict and can't go. Two friends will be at both today's second session and tomorrow's session so I hope to get a report from them.
Master Su is a very talented teacher. She comes across as enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. The session consisted of Master Su explaining some general concepts about movements, breathing, and learning, and then doing drills to put those concepts into practice.
She explained the movements as being about direction, focus and balance, and when you perform the movements you must move lightly, slowly, be relaxed, but with strength. She explained breathing as being light, slow, and done longer. As for learning, she said during class you should watch, listen, then follow, and when you go home you should think about what you learned and then practice it again.
She also emphasized posture all throughout the session. In every drill we did she reminded us about our posture. Knees correctly inline with the feet, tailbone tucked under, stomach lightly pulled in, spine erect, chin tucked, etc. The first drill we did was simply standing and getting our posture correct. Then walking and keeping our posture and then walking and being nimble. We also did drills that consisted of movements from the 24 Form. The first being the beginnng movement of the form.
All throughout the movement drills we would find the direction of the movement, focus on that direction and find our balance before performing the next movement. The drill started simply and then added in more complexity in the movements. The last drill incorporated inhaling and exhaling as the movements open and close.
Overall, it was a good session. It was called Fundamentals of Movement and that's what we did. There were around 20 students there, many who were students of Debbie Leung who teaches Taijiquan and Qi Gong here in Olympia. My Dong Family teachers, Dave and Andy, also attended this session as well as two friends from the Taiji Noon Practice Group (a bunch of us get together on the Capitol Campus at Noon each work day to practice our Taiji).
I highly recommend attending a workshop (or classes) by Master Su Zifang if one happens to be near where you live.
fyn
