Last year in January I travelled to California for master’s first Modesto workshop. We landed couple days ahead with few friends on SFO to have some extra time to hang around before the workshop. Many times jetlag is worse to that direction, and this time for a few days I was completely out of any timezone. Luckily every thing is just temporal.
In practice we focused on the first class to the first section, the beginning, for the first class ever there. I always enjoy the first things, the basics, the fundamentals. In my personal practice I still focus the most on slow set, and that’s where I still progress the most. Nice counter balance for that is the left side and we did that once in Modesto as well. Some people even demonstrated the first section to the left. I think this was the first time I saw kids demonstrating fast set. Also one demonstration was inspired by the good luck of red color over chinese new year of the rabbit.
After the workshop we drove to LA for master’s home class, that many times makes a difference. I was a little surprised how many students I already knew from the class, but I had a chance to do push hands with a new person to me. That’s one of the most interesting things to travel around, to practice with different people.
I also had a great privilege to spend some sunny days in master’s place in Ocean Side. I even had a pleasure to try surfing with him and his sons. I sucked, but failing hard makes you appreciate the art even more. I should get more comfortable with salty waters. Baltic Sea is nothing compared to Pacific Ocean.
From Southern California I took a flight to Vermont. In there I had nice chance to every day visit some local teacher’s class. One of my goals on this trip was to see other teachers teach, and I got many new points to keep in mind and apply in my own classes.
In Vermont workshop we practiced mainly the first applications. I was lucky to demonstrate some of those with the master. There is a lot of sensing and yielding in finding the correct timing in many applications. You’re easily either too rigid or too loose. Be there in the moment.
After Vermont we drove to Concord class and the plan was to have some extra time with master’s family in New Hampshire. We had nice time playing some pool, ice skating and downhill skiing. We had a pool table, when I was a kid, so sometimes with a little luck, I can be competitive. Skating was simple to catch again, but last time I skied was early nineties, around the same age older boys were now here.
Like last time I mentioned my accident of falling and hurting myself, this time I also fell quite hard on couple first runs down the hill, but I didn’t hurt myself. Speaking of which, I’ve improved my body awareness more because of the damage done. So I’ve come to the conclusion, that sometimes breaking things is a chance to learn. Though I’m not recommending anyone to do that on purpose. Healing is a process, not a problem to solve. Finally hand standing feels like it used to, and now I can push up with either foot.
Just before I got back home, I had a chance to teach a private class to one local student. We practiced some forms and did the familiar applications we practiced earlier on this trip. This was also a pleasure for me as a young teacher to teach a young student. And you can also learn as a teacher from any student. Concentrate on their practicing and try to figure out what’s the best for them. There’s a lot to learn.
Finally as a sugar on the bottom, the next week I got back home, grand master was visiting Copenhagen. Now a days that’s the closest where I have a chance to see him, so of course I had to be there. This time he was teaching us to practice slow set and push hands faster, and it makes a difference. You have to know the meaning of velocity or you can not react faster than the other. Also we practiced some Kaihe.