Monday, January 22, 2024

Monday Practice


 The Photo:

Another mostly grey and cloudy sunrise. I didn't bother to bring my camera rig. I used my phone camera (which has been very finicky lately) to shoot this image.

The sunrise was at 7:18 (again), high tide at 6:12. It's 59 at the house. It's going to be warmer than it's been lately. Yay!

Very few tourists and only a handful of locals on the beach this sunrise. John (the surfer) did stop by for a chat. Paul is away for work this week. The 'sunrise walkers' were on Hill Street, I guess because the tide was too high to walk the beach??

The Practice:

I started with a full warm up using the 10+

Next I did a Round (right side) focused on connecting to nature, especially the horizon while doing Wave Hands Like Clouds and Single Whip. I'm also adjusting the positioning of my press postures so that I used the palm (PartI), the wrist (Part II) and the forearm (Part III). 

Next I did a round of Anyo Lima and Chinto Kata I'm noticing that the sequences in these forms are more and more familiar. It's been a positive to get these external forms into my daily rotation. I've had that for decades in the past and I'm not sure when but I now realize that I was not reviewing them often enough. I guess I thought after teaching them for 4 + decades that they would just always be there. It's sort of true with the first few but definitely not true with the more advanced forms. At least that's my experience.

Next I did a round of Taiji Jian reciting the names throughout. I did the round with my walking cane. It's interesting and informative doing the weapons forms with this short staff with a rubber tip; The additional weight and length make it a bit more challenging.  Oh yeah and the soft sand adds a bit of challenge to maintaining relaxed balance while moving.