I've been quite weak, stopped all exercise and couldn't eat much..just liquids and some light carbs. anything more than that would set me in a daze of nausea ...not fun.
But as I slowwwlly recovered..I was becoming quite restless and decided to get on my feet and start some wing tsun training to get my body going again. It was not exhaustive by any means as I was easily winded..but...i still found it to be quite a learning experience.
What did I do?
Obviously, form training - siu nim tao.
Foot work - my Sifu emphasizes this so much, so i started incorporating this.
I looked back at the teachings from my last class and there was a huge emphasis on keeping the elbows and hands low and heavy.
To exercise this, I actually ended up "chi-saoing" the air..closing my eyes and imagine my partner before me..and both of us working on chi-sao drills, but with the emphasis of me keeping my elbows low. The exercise was relatively slow. It was quite an interesting drill. Keeping my eyes closed during this visualization exercise, I started going through the motions and really feeling how my body is reacting.
The drill was actually very intense, not only physically, but also mentally.
I found much value in this drill and I want you to try it.
In your own training space, close your eyes and imagine you're at your kwoon practicing chi-sao with a partner of your choice. Imagine the partner throwing an attack..any attack and now you have to react..but, using the power of imagination, slow things down like into bullet time and react with your whole body. Do this for 15 minutes.
Tell me what you think!
Until then.
2 comments:
I try to practice like this from time to time, and it reminds me of your Sifu's posts about training as slow as possible and using visualisation as a training method. I think there's real merit in using these methods, and I've noticed that using them made the actual partner drills feel a lot more natural.
Glad to hear you're back on your feet.
I totally agree with your style of solo training.
My variation with solo chi sao training involves practicing my pak sau and bong sau with forward intent. I usually practice in the air on against the corners of my walls.
I also do all my forms (dummy and weapons) open handed. Just going through the steps definitely helps!
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