Today was day one of a six-day intensive course at the Zongcun Yiquan Wuguan with Master Yao Chengguang. It was great.
I joined Andrzey Kalisz and two of his students from the International Yiquan Academy, here for a week’s course. The students are Thomas, a German, and Ricardo (I think), an Argentinian based in Spain.
We have two two-hour classes per day: one in the morning at 10ish, one in the afternoon at 5ish. Today and tomorrow I have work I need to clear, so I’m rushing between the school and my office, but after that things will be easier.
In this morning’s class it was just the four of us. We worked on several standing post postures, moving our weight around in rectangles. We also practised stepping: the basic, small step (mo ca bu), and a larger step for combat. Both were practised forwards and backwards.
In the afternoon class, we joined several Chinese students: a couple of young men, and a teenage woman. In this class we practised striking (shi li) with:
- head
- shoulder
- rising palm
- elbow
- inner hip (kua)
It was very hot: the school is in a basement, with just one wall fan; by the end of the class, I was soaked in sweat!
It was strange, but good to be back: I first came here with my female martial artist friend H. back in 2008, pretty much exactly nine years ago, after which I studied for 3 weeks just before the Beijing Olympics started… H. subsequently went home to the UK and joined a well-known Buddhist movement with a somewhat mixed reputation and dropped completely out of sight. I wonder where she is now?
More to come as the week progresses.
