Tai Chi - Break and Individual

Unfortunately early in February Tai Chi classes were postponed for lack of total interest. However my instructor gave me a sheet of the moves for the rest of the form. It was incredibly difficult to do the form with only my memory and string together known moves with unknown combos. With a lot of hard work and dedication I was able to complete 2/3 of the form. I was extremely happy with this result, since it would be almost impossible to do the whole form in an entire month, but my progress is fantastic for training without an instructor.

Tai Chi - New year New perspective

I missed about a month of Tai Chi, but thankfully I had not missed much. My instructor and I talked about new ways for me to get closer to mastering the form. I focused on my breathing mostly. I originally thought that focusing on my breath as I moved through the form would have no effect, but to my surprise as I paced my breathing my balance improved and I found that moves which had caused me trouble before are now as easy as the first moves I learned when I first started. The hardest part was finding a breathing pattern that made me feel comfortable, but that came with time and practice.

Assistant Instructor?

Today in Tai Chi we had a new student just in for her first lesson. So Maureen spend about half of the class with her while I led the other students in perfecting the form. It was the first time I had ever taken charge in any martial arts class. Thankfully not only was I skilled in the form enough to lead everyone through it, but also still learning so that when confronted with specific questions, such as what move follows which or how a certain move needs to be performed, I had to truly think about what I was telling the others. This hard thought reminded me of how I was beginning to slip in some of the more technical parts of the form and reminded me what i needed to do in order to do the form correctly.
Being an assistant instructor reminded me not only of my own growth, but also how I didn't have everything perfect yet.

Tai Chi - Private lesson

At Tai Chi I ended up having a private lesson because none of the other students showed up. I was allowed to work full the first third of the form that we are working on. I worked well with the instructor, and I discovered that with one small tweak that I had the entire first third memorized even with my month absence. This made me extremely happy and I could tell the Maureen the instructor was surprised and proud. My goal of getting to the same place that the class is was set very high, but I feel very accomplished that I was able to reach it in such a short time, and I had reassuring proof that through hard work and perseverance that I could reach new heights even if I am behind.

Tai Chi - Return after 1 month absence

After one month I finally returned to Tai Chi. I was extremely happy to be back as some of the muscle tension I have been feeling over the past few weeks will hopefully go away soon with my return. As it turns out despite my absence the rest of the class has been flying through the rest of the third form. Because of this I was very open to what people had to say in order to perform that part of the form easier. After only three times I had it almost perfect. If it hadn't been for everyone helping me it would have taken much longer. This made me feel immediately comfortable with the rest of the students despite their advancements over me.

Tai Chi - Long Form First Part (and Prom Nigh fallout)

Because of the long weekend and my high amount of stress I was really looking forward to, as well as dreading Tai Chi this week. All day today I was exhausted and my muscles were aching. However when we started there was another student who had a bad cold so we all joked around about nasal decongestants. When we finally started the muscle tension caused for me to be in immense pain as I tried use some of the moves a simple as the core movements, but as I kept on doing them and battled through the pain and found out that the more I kept doing the movements the looser my body got, and the pain and muscle tension went away. This showed me some of the positive health benefits of Tai Chi in relieving not only mental stress but physical as well. This of course made me feel a sense of relief and satisfaction that I was no longer uncomfortable. This was the first time in a while that I attempted to battle through pain using non-aggressive movement or a heating pad

Tai Chi - "Grasp Sparrow's Tail" (First form)

Monday May 11, 2009
It was my second week of Tai Chi classes and already I feel the positive effects. Since so much of Tai Chi is based off of balance and concentration I found myself really working hard not only at doing the moves right, but also to keep myself on balance. This focus not only lasted throughout the whole practice, but also throughout my way home. Also since all of the movements were new I also used muscles and muscle combinations that I do not normally use not only stretching those muscles, but also giving them a much needed work out. Even in the beginning of the exorcise I felt invigorated and focused.