Seminar Day 3

Going strong still....but my feet are starting to hurt.......one of the results of having been a contemporary wushu practioner.....all the jumping and fallen arches do not help as one gets older....if not for Aaron our acupuncture doctor....I would not be walking!!  Again a quick breakfast at May's Coffee Shop...................we saw Peter there and he stopped by to greet master Yang......Pete also promised to show up for practice sometime.........we will be expecting you!  Kumiko had her lesson first on Fan 3.................getting hard now, difficult to remember all the hand switching...and many parts end in similar postures making it hard to figure out where you are in the form.  Lunch was at our favorite Thai place in Japantown, Jitlada, Pai, the Chef made us Thai version of Hot and Sour Soup.......her's tends to be sweeter than the Chinese Version...tasty not spicy hot.  Then Corey came to work on his Bagua Sword Form.....also tough.  The last lesson was the toughest.........Master Zhao our Teacher had instructed Master Yang to teach me his version of Yang Taiji Saber..........which I learned sometime ago from Yang Zhen Duo...........but this version has Bagua combined with it and goes at super slow speed....only 13 moves.......but just the first move beginning Taiji takes almost 3 minutes!!  Almost 30 minutes to do the whole form.....normally no sweat........but by this time my feet were hurting real bad.....and I was really tired mentally......I had been learning along side all my students so I had to remember their lessons too.......talk about overload!  Whew................was I glad we finished............6pm time to head for Berkeley.....am I glad Glenn had volunteered to drive.........I was really tired.  First we go over to Calwushu to see them practice........then we go over to CalTaiji....sifu Dere is there to meet us.........so we start off with Qigong........same gongfa that he showed my class at City College.  It can give you some indication if your Qi is out of balance.  Then Master Yang had everyone work in pairs to practice Qinna......joint locking techniques..........the class was very enthusiastically applying the techniques to each other.  He said it should take very little energy and strength to subdue a person......when Glenn grabbed a hold of his wrist he merely touched and Glenn was on the floor.......it was both fast and light.  The night ended with Master Yang giving a brief demonstration of Laobazhang and Dingshibazhang......I was ready for bed!!

Yang Shi Ming swapping English and Chinese Phrases with Glenn and Kumiko.