My Story and Training, Part 3

[arnisador]

Those forearm-banging exercises sound familiar from Okinawan Karate.

 

[Dronak]

I don't know. It's a simple enough exercise that I wouldn't be surprised if it appeared in a number of other styles. The way we do the basic exercise is like this. We start facing a partner and if we're going to use the right arm first, we'll turn left taking weight to the left foot/leg in a L Mountain Climbing Stance swinging our right arms down so the insides of our forearms hit. We free our arms and swing them up hitting the backs of the forearms together, then back down again hitting the outsides of the forearms together. We free the arms up and then switch sides making 1/2 turn R into a R Mountain Climbing Stance in order to do the same arm movements with the left arm -- down for the inside, up for the back, down for the outside. And repeat. Explaining the other three things he wants us to practice now would be harder, so I'll skip them for now. But the basic training just to work the forearms is pretty simple. Maybe one style got it from the other, maybe they both independently decided to do the same thing. *shrug*

 

[arnisador]

Yes, lots of Karate styles do something very similar. I always liked it, myself. I'm not so sure exactly what I think it develops though!

 

[Dronak]

We finished learning that long form of Yang style tai chi last night. Yay! I'm not sure exactly what's in store for us now on the tai chi side of things, but there's still plenty of kung fu things to learn as well as continuing to practice the tai chi we have learned. I just thought I'd mention that because it took about a year for us to get through the whole tai chi form. I'm glad we finally finished it.

 

[arnisador]

There must be at least one other Tai Chi form you'll eventually have to learn though, right?

 

[Dronak]

I'm not sure. The tai chi part seems to be almost an aside to the Shaolin kung fu stuff that takes up the vast majority of our classes and practices. I know that our teacher wanted everyone to learn tai chi before they graduated and left, but I don't know if he actually had plans in mind for those of us who wouldn't be gone shortly after learning the form. I was in the first group to learn it since I'm a grad student and we didn't know quite when I'd be finished with school or if I'd still be in the area once I did. I'm going to be here for another year though (I'm really trying to make sure next year is the last one), so I don't know what I'm going to get to do with tai chi after this. He has shown us a couple simple pushing hands exercises before, so I'm kind of hoping that he may do more of that with us later. But in terms of forms, I'm not sure what else he has planned. I think that some time ago he said that he does know Chen style tai chi as well, so I suppose there's a chance that we may learn some of that later. I guess I'll have to wait and see. We probably wouldn't start a new form until the summer though anyway, so it may be a while before I find out. But once I know, I'll try to remember to pass it along just to keep all of you (who are interested) updated.

 

[Dronak]

I don't know why I didn't remember this earlier, but our campus club finally has a web page created. It's probably not the greatest looking page, but it serves its purpose well enough for now. I thought I'd pass it along in case anyone was interested in seeing it. It's currently at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hahmadi/CMAC/CMAC.htm but that probably won't be its permanent home. If you're interested in knowing a little more about what I'm doing, you can take a look. I may have told you much of the information that's there already in my other training story threads, but there should be something new there even if you've read my other threads before.

 

[arnisador]

Your instructor is much younger-looking than I had imagined!

I assume you're in some of the pictures?

 

[Dronak]

I think our teacher is somewhere in his 30s, but I'm not certain. And yes, I'm in some of the photos somewhere, but I don't remember which ones off hand.