Adventure in Shaolin wk3

Amituofo!

After a week of trying to rebuild my new home, it is time for week 3 of the Shaolin story.

This week a new Laowai (foreigner) arrived. Philip, a new-zealand guy.
He was here last yeaar for almost 2 months and he will stay here for 3 weeks.
He arrived very early in the morning on Sunday relax-day. This Sunday I went to the massage therapist, who also gave my neck a crack this week :(.. (did not really like that and it came kinda unexpected). Further more I did some grocery shopping and went drinking tea in the tea shop with Bart & Philip. After words I went to grab a Pizza :)

Drinking tea with Bart and Philip

Monday did not start out well. This morning at 6.15h I was running but was not really awake yet... I missed a rock on the path and went down pretty hard. I was able to catch myself but my hand got messed up. Big open wound on my hand. The ground was rocky and covered with dirt (and quite some trash) so I hope it doesn't get infected. I ran back to the school, cleaned out the wound, pulled out all dirt and rocks from it, and then went back to training. Still did my core workout but changed the push-ups to fist push-ups, since I now cannot lean on the inside of my hand.
Later that day I finished learning the movements of the new word form, Qi Xing Jian. Also did a lot of Gong Fa practice and paid close attention to Tyson. I noticed Tyson makes large circular movements but breaks them on the end of the movement, which in terms of physics means loosing the power you generated with the circle... Bart uses circular movements and ends the move in the line of the circle. His movements look a lot more powerful due to that.

Ouch, hope that doesn't get infected

On Tuesday I had to take some pain killers again. Done to much yesterday and my hip hurts like hell. Also got stiff again (stiffness and hip pain seems related). I was supposed to start a new stick form today, but since I wounded my hand yesterday that doesn't look like a good plan.
After training block 2 (so after 3.5h of training) my body feels like the end of week 1. Every thing is tired, stiff and sore. The heat, moist level, lack of sleep in the past days, sore body and the open wound on my hand make me feel shitty, not really having a good day today.  I decided to take an afternoon of rest, but in the afternoon I revoked that plan and still did some practice (but on low intensity level).

Wednesday I did take some rest. I really feel depressed at the moment, and the wound on my hand won't close properly. Still did the core workout in the morning. But after that I went to Deng Feng to get some bandages. Kind of a nice challenge to get this kind of supplies without speaking the language. No training today, hope the wound closes.

On Thursday the same regime. Starting to get in a negative mood do to the combination of shittyness.  I didn't come here to sit still and do nothing. And my stomach also got a little upset. Nothing to serious, but doesn't help in keeping a positive mind. I watched Bart and Phillip practicing the stick (gun) form. I don't really mind not learning this one. To much movements in there which I do not really 'feel' and believe are use full. I'll stick to the Gun forms I know.
In the evening I practiced some Qi gong and stretches and that's about it for today.

Bart and Philip practicing Gun with Tyson.

No tiny little thin Wu Shu performance sticks here.. :)

Finally, on Friday my hand wound appears to be closing up, and I had some good sleep tonight. Today I will start training again. The weather is also perfect, since it rained yesterday evening and the temperature has dropped quite a bit. Just what I needed to get in the positive mood again.
I asked Tyson to correct my Xiao Hong Quan, which already goes much better. Qi Xing Jian also starts to feel more natural. Time for some video...
Also did core workout this morning. Next week that will be tuff, because I will increase the repeats in the 3 sets to 15-20-15 on resp. mo-wed-fri. Last week I did 10-15-10 and it was already pretty tough on Wednesday. Later in the afternoon I did some high intensity training and in the evening Qi Gong and stretching. I was completely exhausted at 20.00h already and went to bed early.

Kids training, end of block 1 always ends in some endurance exercise 

Man... On Saterday morning I could feel that I trained hard yesterday, but I do admit I do like this kind of soreness, this is what I came here for :)
After I forced my self out of bed, and managed to open my eyes I started with a good Qi Gong and stretching session. 2nd training block I took it easy. Did some hiking, lots of stretching and some taolu practice. My knees are starting to hurt from all the training so have to watch that a bit as well but I am used to that.
Today Sifu returned from 10 days of film making. So there was a small celebration (with pretty banging fireworks ofcourse :))
3rd block of training I repeated the second block.

Just a nice little temple in the mountains near by our school