One thing my Bagua instructor warned me about, almost immediately upon my resuming my MA training, was regarding the progress curve. External martial arts, he said, has a pretty slow but steady rate of improvement during which you get steadily better and better over time.
Internal martial arts, he said, are different. You train for ages without really feeling you get anywhere. Then, all of a sudden, WHAM! There's a big(-gish) leap in your understanding and ability. I had one of those epiphanies, I think, during Friday's class.
All of a sudden, something he said (I forget precisely what just now) just resonated with me and I found it much easier to give my stance structure - more strength and structure than I'd had before, to be honest.
I did, however, find that a day out walking around in the cold on the Saturday made me feel like I'd injured myself. Really, I think a combination of an overworked muscle group and the cold weather made me feel a few aches and pains for some days aferward.
That said, I am better now - so back to full training again tonight.
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Friday 16 November 2012
Long live meatspace!
Most mornings, when I am enduring the tram ride to work, I notice that the vast majority of my fellow commuters* are somehow 'tuned out' of what is going on around them. Either they are tickling their smartphones, their ears are plugged into some music device or they are lost in an e-reader.
Somehow, as a people, we seem to have lost the desire or ability to connect to the environment immediately around us. Preferring instead to talk to someone miles away who isn't even a good enough friend to be with them in person. Personally, I would prefer to witness and react appropriately to what is going on around me. The driver's announcement being a convenient case in point this morning. The line was down for a while. Not that most of my fellow passengers would realise, as it was back up again fairly soon.
This doesn't just happen in the mornings, either. At any time of day, the number of people around me either literally or figuratively 'plugged in' to some electronic device, draining their attention, is considerable.
I read something on a lifting site that said, "If you've got time to Facebook, then you've got time to train...". This paraphrasing my earlier sentiments that I would now rather train than watch something I don't particularly like on tv.
What do each of us actually get from spending more time online? The illusion of a social life? How social are you if you hardly ever actually see your friends? If I train, it might not be very rock and roll, repeating the same action again and again ad nauseam. But I do get something at the end of it all - eventually.
That's why I'm shifting more and more of my endeavours into 'meatspace' (and why I'm posting on here less and less - sorry!)
Somehow, as a people, we seem to have lost the desire or ability to connect to the environment immediately around us. Preferring instead to talk to someone miles away who isn't even a good enough friend to be with them in person. Personally, I would prefer to witness and react appropriately to what is going on around me. The driver's announcement being a convenient case in point this morning. The line was down for a while. Not that most of my fellow passengers would realise, as it was back up again fairly soon.
This doesn't just happen in the mornings, either. At any time of day, the number of people around me either literally or figuratively 'plugged in' to some electronic device, draining their attention, is considerable.
I read something on a lifting site that said, "If you've got time to Facebook, then you've got time to train...". This paraphrasing my earlier sentiments that I would now rather train than watch something I don't particularly like on tv.
What do each of us actually get from spending more time online? The illusion of a social life? How social are you if you hardly ever actually see your friends? If I train, it might not be very rock and roll, repeating the same action again and again ad nauseam. But I do get something at the end of it all - eventually.
That's why I'm shifting more and more of my endeavours into 'meatspace' (and why I'm posting on here less and less - sorry!)
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