shanmonster | Feb. 20th, 2004

Ahhh. Kung fu. I made it last night. My nightly stomach cramps abated enough to let me give it a shot, and I had a great time. It was a fun class, even if my stupid asthma kicked in and had me weak and coughing for a bit. Sifu Danny was a sweetie and offered me a Fisherman's Friend throat lozenge, but I smiled and told him thanks, but that wouldn't do a thing for my lungs.

We did exercises with partners. I worked with Dmitrii. He's a good match, because, although he's quite a bit taller, we're about the same weight. We practiced doing sloooow side, roundhouse, and front kicks at knee, rib, and head level, then holding the leg in position, unsupported. I realize I've lost a lot of strength in the past few months, because I simply could not hold my leg up any higher than waist level. My legs vibrated with the effort, but it just wasn't happening. And I've also lost a lot of flexibility, because when we worked on doing splits and side splits, my side splits were a good foot from the floor. Unacceptable! I want to practice until I exceed my previous ability. Not so very long ago, I could get about four inches from the floor on a good day, and last summer, I could hold my leg up, unassisted, above my own head.

Then we went onto sliding front kick drills. I cross the floor with two kicks to most other people's four or five. Kicking is what I'm good at. I cover a lot of ground, quickly, and with power. But I couldn't keep up my pace. My heart felt like it was going a million beats an hour, and I had to stop frequently, holding my hand to my chest while fighting to get my heartrate back to normal. I suspect this is backlash from the Propranalol, but it's unacceptable. I need to get my cardiovascular fitness levels back up. I want to start doing hardcore cardio exercises every day. I'm planning on taking the cardio kickboxing class at the Y again. This should help, and I can work on my technique while I'm at it.

Nevertheless, when I was doing my sliding front kicks, I was giving it my all. Sifu Ricky was going from one person to the next with a kick pad. He's a big guy, and well-muscled, so he's pretty hard to move. When he got to me, I was determined to knock him back. So I did. It took me three kicks instead of two to cross the room, but at the end, he said, "Wow. You have a lot of anger and meanness in there."

It made me smile.

The class was broken into two. Several of the advanced students were taken aside to work on sparring, while everyone else worked on Fook Fu. Some of this group didn't know the entire form. So those of us who did took the others aside and taught as much of the rest of it as our students could soak in. The girl I worked with finished the form with me. I'm very impressed at how quickly she learns. She has the basic order of movements down very well, but she's still just going through the motions. As time passes, her understanding will progress, and then her movements will look martial rather than like a half-assed dance choreography. She says she practices every day. Excellent!

We next went over the first few moves of Gung Gee. I don't like doing just the first few moves. It's like a cock tease. There's just no fulfillment without completion, damnit!

At some point, I happened to catch a glimpse of the guys fighting at the other end of the room, and I burst out laughing. One of the guys, Roger, a huge muscley guy I'd never want to get pissed off at me, was fighting in a most determined fashion. But he was wearing his white jock on the outside of his black pants. It might not instill fear in his opponent, but it would certainly be a distraction!

Of course, it also adds a tempting, glowing target.