White Sash Stylin

There was a "Test" for Kung Fu.

I forgot to channel my inner Korra, so I looked pretty weak and free flow 'ish.

But I did advance to the rank of white sash, rather than being a "no" sash so guess I am an officially official part-time student of Kung Fu. lol (Though I have been wondering if the sash "awards" and color denotations is a Western idea. Make sure those American's feel good about themselves, by giving them recognition every few months.)

About to "fight" K during the test.

I really feel like we over award things in America. I can't even tell you how silly I think it is that we give out medals, ribbons, and certificates to celebrate our mediocrity. Honestly my Kung Fu performance was sub par and I wouldn't have given myself any sort of recognition.

But I am now on my way to earning the elusive and coveted black belt :)

5'1 Bulldog and Sanda

I was fighting S. He's kind of an old man.  I mean he can throw punches and definitely has left some good bruises the last few months, but an older guy none the less. He's usually my partner.

We are working on form applications, and Sifu came over came over and told S he needed to keep his punches closer and smaller...(I'm pretty sure Sifu has legit concern I'm going to get injured one day, and I think he sees me as this walking liability.)

Well S, in his defense, told Sifu, "I'm fighting a five foot bulldog here. I'm gonna get hurt."

Yup. That's a new one. When I was in HS everyone called me Princess Chloe. And one time this boy was trying to be enduring and called me a piglet, but bulldog is a new one.

So I maybe turned down the effort 1%. 

After class I always rush over, lose the Nike's for flats, don my sweater with the puffed sleeves, and wrap up my scarf.  I feel like its my ritual for reclaiming the part of my princess self, and maybe to make sure they don't think I'm too butch or anything.

The Sifu called me back over, commenting that I always "dress up" when he still wants to work the form with me.

We went back on the floor and he took a step back. I advanced. He stepped back again. I kept advancing, until he asked me what I was doing. "Oh, I thought we were gonna fight..."

I really just like all the fighting stuff. 

Speaking of fighting. I haven't been back to Sanda for a while. Sifu wants to take his fighters to Italy for the world championships. And I was curious of course. I asked about the rate of injury, and the rate of death was brought up.

I don't think I'll aspire to become a Sanda fighter. (Though I just watched a bunch of youtube girls doing Sanda and now have this renewed idea that I could be legit.)

I told my mom about people dying in Sanda. She said "why don't you stop, and go on a mission instead." pshh. Are you serious? Um no. Kung Fu is awesome. Sanda is awesome.

(I would rather live in a Chinese Kung Fu convent if I had the choice.)

Kung Fu and Dance

You all saw the video of Wushu...

Well I am an assistant in some modern classes...(yeah whatever). Well last week I am standing in the corner thinking about how I could make this Wushu form into a dance when the teacher says..."Hey! What are you doing? Are you making up a combination? Yes, you are! Come teach it to the class."

I denied that I was doing anything. Just dancing.

Well, the whole class learned the first part of the Wushu form. I didn't have enough time to think through all the parts, so I take it in a new direction toward the end. I got someone to film it tonight. LOL.

They don't even know.

 

Can You Do a 540˚ ?

I woke up early on a Saturday to do Kung Fu. Classes started extra early because the Sifu was getting married in the afternoon.  And that's just pretty awesome he still got up early to teach us Kung Fu, on the same day he got married.

I really like, no love, Kung Fu. I finally remember people's names, people actually message me (like their my friends now), and I finished the first form.

Now that I can semi remember the form in its entirety, we now are refining all the details. I have a problem kicking. I have since my first lesson.. If it doesn't look like a half hearted fan kick, it looks like a funny developé battement. And it really shouldn't look like either. The power comes from the glute meds, and POW! Your body should make one straight line while you look over your shoulder.

To emphasize correct placement, and for practical application, the Sifu donned a protective pad for his lower torso. This way I could physically kick him without injuring him. "Are you sure I won't hurt you?" I asked. He said he's okay using the pad as long as Big Phil isn't the one tossing around kicks.  Well IDK how much effect my kicks were having, but I know I kicked him straight in the balls like 10 times....one his wedding day.

But after working uh, Kung, Pow, Chun and more Chi Tui (kicks)-this one is right (No idea how you spell the others and IDK if those are even right...(it's just how my ears hear them) a million times. I told Sean (assistant teacher) I wanted to try something else. He said I probably might be better at jumps then kicks, and boy was he surprised.  Those jumps were nothing compared to 340 with Kori Wakamastu.

I am definatley better at jumps than kicks. Sean even hesitated at the last one saying he couldn't really do it and after his attempt told him "I did this one before I even knew it was Kung Fu." Basically a horizontal tour jeté.

Sean was pretty excited and pulled Sifu over and said that I really need to be trying Wushu again. After my failed attempt in my early few classes I was hesitant, but I got it this time---Kind of haha. My brain must be changing because it felt much more natural and like a dance.

And for your viewing pleasure here is a video of a legit Asian doing the form. Needless to say I am not Asian, or a guy, or very good at kung fu...and I need like a ton of gymnastics training to ever do what the guy does. Oh and I don't scream like the guy in the video. But here it is :)



Anyways after working Wushu for a while I wanted to do some more jumping, and trick stuff and Sifu asked me if I could do a 360˚. And I did my best Baryshnikov tour en l'aire ;) Can You Do a 540˚ ? Yes. Any more degrees than that? NO.

He said before I can really learn how to jump I have to get the physics part right. So I spent I good portion of the morning running in spirals trying to find the perfect "up" and "hang time".

We did lots more stuff and I had some interesting moments take place that in my life have never happened. But it was awesome. The Sifu and Sean always laugh when we start practical applications because it's that moment when "Chloe actually gets to fight someone," and my eyes light up. LOL. It's just fun.

Brain Part:1

This is not about anyone specifically, but everyone specifically.  As Professor Quirrell once said, "I just thought you ought to know."

There is always a lot I want to say.  And I know a blog is not a place to say anything but more trivial meanderings... Sometimes I want to stand up and talk loudly and force people to listen. But people hardly listen because of their brains. (Which here is a fun anatomy fact: back in Egypt'ish times people thought that the heart was the main "think" center and the brain was merely there to keep the ears apart.) The brain trumps the ears by probably 90% (preconceived notions impede the ears from hearing) and hardly anyone uses their heart as a think center anymore.

I am just as much at fault though. I can think of times when my ears didn't hear because of my brain.

But let's start thinking about our brain.

Everyone breathe. I always find it really cool when I actually sit and pay attention to breathing. "I literally think OMG I can't believe I'm alive. I haven't even been paying attention to breathing and this is just  plain awesome that I can breathe involuntarily."

Touch. One time, I can't remember who, said guys like to hug girls because they like to feel...um...girls chest's (yeah I'm not gonna spell out what your thinking...) well that killed the hug for me; guys and girls included. You may or may not have noticed but I often times to try go in for the side hug...sometimes full frontal hugs are unavoidable. But honestly there's only like 2 people (I could think of right now) that I would voluntarily hug.

Core Distal. If you've read any previous posts you know that I work too much in my distal edges. So do I really need to cover this one?

Upper / Lower. I sometimes (never think about it) forget that the spine really is connected to your brain. Which BTW my aunt was upset because a Children's Dorling Kindersly Anatomy book was lying around. And on the cover was a naked woman covered in the nervous system. You couldn't see anything because the pic was about two inches big, and was covered in a drawing of the nervous system....  Makes me think of the mother's of genius 14 year old's, who become doctors by their late teens.  Did their mother's worry because they studied anatomy? In anatomy class you see the the upper and the lower and the nervous system is on the inside, connected to the spine, connected to the brain.

Head-Tail. Is a tricky one. Anyways people don't generally have good head tail connection.  And when you don't have head tail connection,  you can't control your body kinesthetically.  Like this girl in my class. We are working on a dance and she continuously plows into the girl next to her. I see the 1st and 3rd of Newton's laws taking place in about second watching her dance. "An object in motion will remain in motion and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Here is a random picture of my dog.


To Be Continued.

Halfway

I tried out my new Kung Fu shoes. They are actually really light weight, and very flexible.

I learned how to break someone's arm, if they attack me from the side.

I passed the halfway mark on the set...almost finished...

Some people invited me to lunch, I didn't go :/

I still work in my distal edges...

Sunday's are the worst.

Today sucked.


My new Kung Fu shoes are pretty cool. They're just shoes, but they serve a really cool purpose. They have traction on the bottom, which I tripped me up a few times (pun intended). But I felt like I could defeat the avatar wearing those shoes :)

I haven't mastered the arm break yet, with an actual arm, but the motion I have down. And let me tell you, this arm break (should it ever happen to you) will basically, probably, shatter your olecranon process and all the other stuff in your arm. You better hope you have a palmaris longus in both wrists, cause the surgeon will probably need both to reattach everything. (my uncle is an hand/arm surgeon (yes they have those) and said they use the palmaris for reconstructive parts cause it's not really needed in the wrist.)

Passing the halfway mark was pretty awesome. I like the second half, because there is A LOT of just raw, legit action drive, that is useful in a fight.

I met some new people, they invited me to lunch. I wanted to go, but had prior, supposed "commitments"... And I will be changing my name, to my dad's boss's name in his cell phone. What if I had been kid napped, crashed, died? Oh well, my dad already told me he's not Liam Neeson, and doesn't have any special "skillz". (Taken reference)

Because I am short, and a girl, they say repeatedly that all my power needs to come from my waist (center). That I won't really taken anyone down on the mere strength of my arm. So, yup. Still working on that.

 I have never liked Sunday's or even Saturday's, they are both equally terrible if you don't have anything to do. When I was at school, I would have actually preferred working straight through weekends, like go to classes/work and such. I would rather work for 4 straight weeks, every day and take 10 days off every fifth week. We are throwing out the Georgian calender and bringing in the Chloe Calender when I am Dictator of America.

Today started out ok. Breakfast was phenomenal actually, thanks to my part - Bacon, Potatoes and Mango Lemonade. We had other stuff, but my part made it better :)

My friend left the church because she couldn't go to an extra "men's only" meeting. I say if I HAVE to go another meeting, I will leave the church. And I had to sit with my mom's primary class today for 2 hours while they practiced the children's singing program.

At about 1 hours and 30 min, the four year old class (not mine, I had the fives...) Well they got a bit restless, and started flailing selves this way and that, a few girls started using their dresses as hoods, and one nearly flipped over the banister.  They were all twirling and letting their tongues hang out. It was really painful to sit through as an adult, so for a 4 year old, I can't even imagine.

Dinner was awful. Like I can't even tell you what I ate. I did have a glass of limeade and ice cream. I hate ice cream too. (Shaved Ice person, I never eat ice cream, makes me ill...) Lets just say that dinner started off burned, then going back and forth between take out, to Jett eating every last crumb of our only good cereal.

And my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen since 6 o'clock. Yup. Today Sucked.

Becoming Korra Part: 2

Kung Fu is especially hard. It's not like dance either. The Sifu wanted me to run my set with Aurora. I asked Aurora if we could start halfway through, since I don't know the end. She actually told me "No, we have to run it through the beginning and make sure every part is perfect." That's where dance is different. Learn the movement then make each part perfect. I took the opening stance.

I videoed myself performing the set last week. It was really bad, but good see it in film. I looked pretty loose, and full of free flow through the whole set. So I tried to engage all my muscles and channel myself into bound flow, which only was partly successful.

Aurora told me not be so hard on myself. "I'm not being hard on myself. Coming here every week is like an audition. And I'm not getting the movement and I'm not recreating it, the way Sifu does. If this were an audition I would be cut."

Speaking of auditions

Afterwards, I was laying in bed, checking my Facebook, when I saw Michelle's face on the screen.
It felt such a long time ago that Michelle and I were chasing the Disney Dream up and down the Pacific Coast. It was really only a month ago that Michelle and I sat in L.A. traffic believing that today would be the day our lives would change.

I made the mistake of bringing the audition calender up on the screen, because it was then I remembered how just how badly I want to become Alice.

But I think the world needs more people like Korra than Alice. We need people being good, grounded and action driven. Just like Korra.

 Like Korra