new kicks

great class last night. i got there on the early side to stretch & warm up. i got my new kicks & did my shaolin hair up pretty well! i was sucking wind the first few minutes but i was definitely warmed up before class started. sifu was watching me stretch after the body was warmer. he was keenly watching everyone! i even did a few ceshoufans that i thought were better than i usually do! today was the first day i used my new kicks (only quan tuo & 'shua have the same at class) & they needed to be broken in. this will happen naturally in time. it took me a year to break down my old kicks & in all the right places i have been told (ah rotations eat away the shoe). line drills were fun although i was behind a couple of slower classmates & it took me a while to amituofo myself in front of them. i really enjoyed the shuangtui quixitiao & quan tuo, who was leading our line, & i were practically right next to each other at the jump! it's funny that not more people make a noise to expend at the top! i made it through until yangshen yunshou which i try not to get too frustrated about [i am not bending my arm dammit!] but sifu said to practice so practice i did! sifu looked at the level 2 folks looking for someone to work on this with me (& me alone) & i saw him looking at quan tuo which gave me mixed feelings: hooray! & oh please pick someone else! sifu instead asked moneyfoot to sharpen me up! it's fun working with moneyfoot as he is a dancer & a natural teacher plus he is good fun. he said i was breaking the move down to two parts when really it is just one & as such i was losing my momentum. he was surprised sifu had me work on it because i know it & he said my arm wasn't bent (thank you!) but i feel after working on it a while with him that i was making progress, plus i was falling over less. he even gave me something to work on at home with the pivoting. he complimented my lunbi caijiao (a good motivator he is) too! he had me practice on my own for a bit then sifu came over & said i was still bending my arm so i spent the remaining 15 minutes (& that's a long time) practicing the arm against the red wall, as if i am presenting something precious. tweaked my sides a bit but i think it was better. damn you bent arms!
sifu did ask quan tuo to teach another brother fanyao! i was so proud. it's the first time sifu asked him to teach, 'shua previously had him teach xubu. there will be more of that to come!
after cleaning meditation, a good group of us hit our usual thai place & had a lovely time. heng zu was in attendance & it was nice to see him again (he's only been doing day classes, lucky guy!). he will try for more tuesday classes he said! zu, skarbakka, quan tuo & i took a cab back to the hood together!
i plan on training thursday unless tom comes to town. quan tuo showed me a pubu stretch we should do more often together. i really enjoyed the painful 3 man stretch with qbertplaya & lani (a newbie). newbies remind me that despite all my kungfu kindergarten & sifu love that i have come a long way. hooray!!
more chi! train harder!
amituofo!