Wolfmoon, skating and blauwgrond

After making it to the TaiChi Class were it was almost just as cold as it is outside(there is no central heating in the building) or maybe even colder because outside there was lots of sunshine, we first went to have some lunch and then walked off to the park.

It was supposedly the last day to skate so i just had to try the ice; my friends had no skates unfortunately. A long time ago i used to do figure skating but it must have been 8 years since i last skated. Way to long. I stopped because the city council closed our beloved the ice rink and with that, our skating club went down. I was never any good anyway (should have started when i was 5) except in doing pirouettes. But man did i feel like bambi on the ice yesterday. My skates were a bit blunt and felt so strange to my feet not to mention all the stuff on the ice, little twiggs etc. Hmmmmmmmm but it was fun and after a while, it felt a bit better. Definetely have to go skating again! We drank some tea that we brought with us and then set out to practise in the music pavilion overlooking the skating people and swimming ducks.

Stretching was no good in the cold so we did some Bagua walking; we are learning the steps to another friend of the Kung Fu school who also went to China. Doing the mudwalking step is not easy and is a great excercise for your balance. You have to step a bit inwards with your outside foot and in a straight line with the foot on the inside, that way you walk in a circle. Then ofcourse there are the 8 different postures that aren' easy either. With these postures you train and stretch your body and ligaments. It is very intresting to see that when you have the correct posture you can see what you train, when you do not have the correct posture or do not keep the right shape the effort is in vain. It looks like some quiet walking with your arms up in the air but it is a serious fysical exercise ( and then we are only talking about the outside effect) , it makes you so warm (but without getting out of breath) that you just have to start taking your coat and jumper off. Even if it is freezing you dont need gloves. When you are halfway, even a t-shirt will do. It is quite amazing. When you stop you have a warm and good feeling allover. Then it is time to wrap up again. There is a circle of dirty foodsteps that you can just spot now... After that we walked through the 24 Chen form. It still gets dark very early and we did not bring our campinglight this time so after that it was time to leave. We went for a hotdrink and some soup in the Surinamese Restaurant called Blauwgrond. It is very close to the park at a roundabout. I have passed it so many times in the past always thinking it was a snackbar, take out kinda place. Only recently i discovered it is an excellent tropical style place with delicious surinamese food and an always feel good atmosphere. The prices are very decent and afforable and you get so much food that you will not need breakfast the next morning. On Sunday, there is lifemusic that makes it feel like an eternal summer. You cannot sit still even when you have no sense of rythm like me you are moving on your seat. They play some kind of i think salsa music. If you are ever anywhere near Leiden i can definetely recommend this restaurent if you like spicy food you wound be dissappointed. MMMMMMmmmmm especially the masoesa vegetarisch is supergood! Even my non-vegetarian friends love it and prefere it above meat! The restaurant is located at the Wassenaarse weg at the roundabout. It is very big and i think the outside does not do the place justice. It is absolutely one of the nicest fun places i have been to recently!

 

And then ofcourse there was the moon.



It was the Wolfmoon as native Indians call it if i am correct. Luckily, it was so cold and with the clear sky the moon was perfectly visible. It looked so enormous and bright. I took some pictures but they don't do the moon any justice. It was beautiful. I hope everybody got to see it.

Training in the Park

Training in the Park
21-05-2008
Location: Beijing
Written by Koen van Westbroek, translated by Ester van Dam
All pictures except last 2 by koen van Westbroek

ofcourse we do a lot more the shopping and sightseeing. We came to China to train with Xu Laoshi in TianTan park.
The day usually starts with greeting our teacher and the other students, then it is time for stretching, usually followed by Qi Gong. Xu Laoshi often checks our hands and/or legs after Qi Gong to see if they are nicely red and warm. Then he will decide what we are going to do that day.

The things we train are:


• The eight postures


This excist of walking in circles around a tree holding our hands in different postures. There are 8 postures and per posture you have to walk both left and right way around the tree. This is mostly to build up strength, relaxation and body structure.

• The eight palms
With this execise we walk again around a tree, only less circles in only one posture. The focus is on changing directions, the changes exist out of several technique that exist of punches, kicks,pushes etc.followed in a sequence

• Chen Style TaiChi 24 Form
Unfortunately we do this not often enough. It is a shortened form from the Chen Style TaiChi system. This system characteristics are its fluent movements and the use of Fa li= explosive force in the forms.
• A Bagua Form (Sipingquan)
This is a straightlined Bagua form, without any of the characteristic circle walking. We did not have enough time to learn the whole form so I (Koen) have only been able to learn a small part. Hopefully Ester will learn more, so when she returns can show me the rest. I definitely want to keep practicing this for the next time.

• Push hands (Tui Shou)

We practice a lot of push hands. We have been shown many techniques but also engage in free push hands with the students of Xu Laoshi. The students I had to push against are becoming bigger and better all the time. Xu Laoshi wants us to push according to the Dutch competition rules. Chinese style push hands allows almost anything you can throw, move, grab and apply qinna (joint locks).


We can see that the Chinese students find all these rules pretty strange and now and then couldn’t help it to use a small joint lock. I find Chinese style push hands much more interesting so on Sunday I started pushing back according to the Chinese rules. My opponents were very enthusiastic and it became a totally different game. I flew through the air several times and landed on the floor.



That it can be a bit rough was shown by my arm that evening. It was portraying all possible shades of blue.
On the photo you can see what can happen when you do an afternoon of Chinese style push hands..

Too bad it was the last training day for Natasja, Maarten and me. There is a saying goodbye dinner planned at Xu Laoshi’s house on the last evening. Ester has the luck that she stays two more weeks