The Details:
It's 69 at the house. The sunrise was at 5:34. I'll be driving down to Paul's for 10 this morning. We are still waiting on Johan to finish the deck job.
The Practice:
I started out in the driveway with a short warm up and a Round (left side) tuned into connecting internally and externally (to nature's Qi).
Next I drove to Hatfield to meet with Paul for 10.
We went upstairs to his Taiji Room and started with the first few of The 10 for a warm up. I emphasized dorsiflexion and ankle strength in general.
Next we did a focus pad session with Paul doing Jab and Cross to the pads. He gets very jazzed up when hitting the pads. It scares Jean. Pad holding is a skill and may be more difficult to acquire than the punching side? Hmmm! I encouraged long punches all the way to muscle lock. Paul has very powerful short punches. Purely for martial arts it's a good thing but for Parkinson's focused exercise bigger, more open movements are best.
Next we did two Rounds of Part I with Paul following me. I called out the names of the postures with a few suggestions about 'how to do it' and some detail.
Next we did Single Arm Push Hands on both sides. First he was looking at our hand connection then at me (eyes) then I suggested he close his eyes. The drill tended to smooth out when he closed his eyes.
We finished with simultaneous arm circles in both directions. Paul is only able to do the 'fountain' and unable to coordinate alternating circles. I also did a palm up, palm down exercise with Paul