A Thick-Skinned Grapefruit

Something Jinbao said in London has been sitting in my mind a lot, particularly as I work out the soreness/injuries that are keeping my training far sub-optimal (thanks to point cutting, the Lion posture, and a touch of Phoenix stuff, I still can't supinate my left wrist without fairly sharp pain and doing things like the dishes is kind of agony -- darn, I can't really do them...). He said that you have to "work through a lot of bitter to get to the sweet" in Yin Style.

As I think more and more about it, considering the difficulty of the art and the fact that Jinbao readily says that he "gets sore too," I'm convinced that the analogy that might fit best is that of eating a very thick-skinned grapefruit, only without the luxury of being allowed to peel it.

The peel, of course is harsh and foul tasting, which is probably the experience that many new folks have when they first meet the art: the postures, the training, the turning... all of it burns and hurts and is rather miserable in many ways. Eventually, we get used to that, which would be a bit like getting into the pith of the fruit, I think. It's dry, it's bitter, and it contains many of the "nutrients" of the art. This is the tough part... persevering in the pith, and it lasts for a very long time, it seems, in the quest to become skilled. In fact, it seems to be more and more fibrous and bitter the further in we proceed. Finally, at last, the pulp of the fruit is waiting in the middle... the sweet. I've chosen a grapefruit, rather than an orange, for my analogy, however, because I have a feeling that "the sweet" is still poignantly bitter in a variety of ways. Grapefruit, though, is an acquired taste that once obtained tends to be a particular favorite.

Well... now I've got two things to do: keep working on my wrist and foot so I can get back to proper training and go get some grapefruit (so I can make one of my all-time favorite beverages: grapefruitade, which is the most refreshing drink possible).

Recipe (good post training, particularly if made a bit thin): Freshly squeezed juice of 1 or 2 grapefruits of any color.
1 or 2 parts water (where 1 part is the amount of juice from the fruit) or more to taste
Sugar to taste (a quarter cup per pint of juice is my usual, but that makes it quite sweet requiring more water for me).
Mint for garnish if you're into that kind of thing.
Serve cold or over ice.

Don't Know Chinese

I keep getting all excited about the fact that I knew the Holding and Lifting forms are called "ping tua," as well as I could tell. My ability to hear Pinyin, though is about a 6/100. It's ping tuo, apparently. Ping means "to make level or even" and tuo means "to support with the palm or hand." Even if my Chinese isn't rocking, I am, at least getting better with the forms, I think. Fortunately or unfortunately (for who can say which), I think the English name is more clear in giving a methodological approach to the theory of the forms than the Chinese, but that may be because I don't really know clearly all the levels of meaning of the words. Hopefully the English name isn't misleading me, getting me to add to the form things that aren't there.

Since my back has been hurting, 90% or more of my training for the last week and a half has been done laying on my back in visualization. That's given me a lot of time to imagine going through the ping tuo forms on someone, and I'm really glad I took the time to do that instead of adopting an "I'm hurt" defeatist attitude. While I didn't get better at actually doing the form, I did get a pretty firm appreciation for how some of the techniques work and how some of the subtleties play an important role in making them work, and I was excited to play with those a little tonight at our (very small) get together, one in which I was mobile enough to do more than act the consultant. It was pretty interesting, to say the least, and I was sort of surprised by how clearly and quickly the techniques came to life for me after repeatedly doing them mentally for over a week. I particularly feel more confident in the "give them something to think about" technology.

One of the more interesting changes I've experienced since coming from Vermont really came to a point during this time too. I'm much better, I feel, at picking out subtle details and nuances of movement and usage from the videos than I was before this trip. It's absolutely amazing what a good teacher can bring out and change for a person in even a short period of time with just a little of hardly deserved attention. It underscored a lesson I've heard and even started to notice more clearly in my classroom teaching (math) job: if you attempt teach something to someone before they're ready to learn it, then they won't learn it (well?). So many things that I heard a year ago or more are suddenly more reasonable and accessible, in fact almost obvious in some cases, after seeing these things again with a new set of goggles on, so to speak. They were, of course, completely obscured to me before the change. It gets me very excited about what further changing and developing is available.

The update on my back is that it's *mostly* better. I spent a long day in a chair on Saturday and some time since then as well, and that's keeping it from being back to normal, which still isn't awesome. In any case, I've gotten to this point without the aid of a chiropractor or other manipulator. That is somewhat encouraging. Since I have an appointment for adjustment on Wednesday of this week, I'm optimistic about the outcome, and I'm furthermore absolutely enthusiastic about doing what it takes to reclaim my back from the degeneration it's suffered at years of what I've determined is goofed-up posture, probably since the accident that broke me as a teenager.

I'm going to try my hand at turning again tomorrow. I would have tonight, but such was the nature of my work day and our meeting together that it wasn't on the agenda. It seems weird to have gone this long without turning, and it hasn't been this long since the last time my back hosed me. I think I'll have to be careful not to overdo it, though. We'll see how I feel, I guess. Before that, I'm going to stand. Tonight. For the first time in what seems like ages!

The Six that Contain the Eight.

I've felt all eight forces now, and I could describe them in a fair amount of detail, though I feel the seizing and grasping tend to be slightly ambiguous where one stops and the other begins. After mentioning this research to a fellow much further along the path than I, I was applauded for my attention and effort and admonished to remember the six much more basic forces that are vastly more important: drilling out, pulling in, rolling out, wrapping back in, dropping the elbow, and relaxing the shoulder. Those came with the line "Lion is Lion," followed by "sweeping is sweeping," and then et cetera is et cetera. Point taken, and those forces have been a new, actually easier research focus for the Lion posture. Thus, in the Lion posture, we could say that there are the six that contain the eight.

Actually, those six apply in all of the strikes to the greatest extent that the body can handle or manifest. All I can say is.. wow. When I feel them, concentrating on them, and strike, my power feels full and developed. When I forget them, I'm strong but empty. They are critical. Combining them, standing there, I immediately felt my forearm unify with my arm, my arm unify with my shoulder, and my shoulder unify with my torso, all of which is driven efficiently and powerfully by my waist. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Now to just successfully manifest it in more than 10% of the rising sweeping strikes I perform and in the remaining 100% of the other umpteen (we could argue twenty-three, but that argument is hollow) Lion System strikes.