Saturday, October 7, 2023

Saturday Practice

 

It's raining this morning so I did a Warm Up just inside of my middle garage looking south towards Beaver Meadow.

Next I drove to Hatfield to workout with Paul C. 

I was scheduled for 10-11 and ended up staying until 12:30ish. Eric C. his wife and Jean were there along with Jake, Paul's Grandson. We were brainstorming about getting someone to come in to do some Qigong/Tai-Chi/Internal Arts exercise with him once per week to help keep him engaged and healthy possible. 

Paul is working hard at the PT prescription. He has always had a good practice ethic and it is serving him well these days.

I reviewed the material that I have been working on with him. Starting with the overall principle of Wuji Stance. Meaning to 'square yourself away' i. e. Be in relaxed balance, vertically aligned, head up, eyes straight ahead parallel to the ground focused on on spot. Always to that when standing up from sitting and when beginning an exercise.

Next we went upstairs to Paul's practice room and I held throw pillows, one in each hand and had Paul punch them with jab's and cross's. Which he did with abandon. He was very animated and moving quite quickly and smoothly! Most importantly he was having fun, doing something that at one point he was quite good at. Being a life long auto mechanic extraordinaire, he was very strong in the grip and arms.

Next we walked the circle

Then did a short Warm Up with the first few stretches from The 10 Exercises and Big Arm Circles.

Then we moved on to review and practice the Intro to the Tai-Chi Form with Big Open moves. After several repetitions we reviewed the first half of Part I.

Next we went on to Single Hand Push-Hands. First on the left side and then the right.

Circle walking both directions

We finished with double arm circling both directions and then alternating arm circles ala Wave Hands and Brush Knee. Paul consistently chooses to use the Brush Knee circles when alternating. I suspect it's from the Roll Back to Press combination in the solo form.