[ben]

We had Sifu in town this weekend for a workshop. Pictures to come later, but I thought you'd all be interested in hearing what we learned.

Sifu spent a long time discussing the importance of the circle with the center, and being aware of the vertical and horizontal lines that can define the center.

To focus on this with as much precision as possible we did a variation of absorb and project, heavily focused on feeling the yin muscles while absorbing, yang while projecting (similar to the condense/expand exercise) - and feeling the mediation that occurs when we cross the horizontal line.

We continued to work on the quarters of the circle while doing the "looping to pull" exercises.

We went through the 15 basic exercises more focused on feeling these qualities, and then spent some time working on fajin, trying to feel how the correct unification requires an understanding of how the arcs of the circle have to be connected.

Then we also did some throwing hands to bridge and strike.

For me personally this workshop really helped to clarify my understanding of some of the work we did at the intensive this year.


-Ben