flash practice

There must be a better name, but you get the general idea. Quick bursts of practice, maybe a few minutes each, usually unexpected. And they can be quite revealing at times.

I have had a few of these lately, each of them valuable. You can’t make any substantial progress with only these short bursts, but they can be valuable supplements to the regular regime.

My daughter likes going to gongfu class with me on Friday nights and will practice her routines or basic staff motions there, but not much at home. So I was surprised and pleased when she suddenly said “let’s practice sticks” a couple days back.

That was great – for about three minutes. Then she told me to wait right there, she would be right back. She went into the house and soon emerged with badminton equipment. So much for the sticks.

True, I had also been wanting to play badminton with her for some weeks after the brief Badminton Excitement about a month earlier, which ended as quickly as it began. But this was strange timing indeed. We played badminton about 20 minutes, until it was quite dark outside. Six-year-olds have their priorities, I suppose.

But that quick little flash of practice time together with my daughter was quite valuable, something I need more often. And it reminded me how difficult it can be to explain to / show others a motion which you can do by yourself with no trouble.

A second incident involved a visit to a friend’s taiji class. I am not her student but needed to drop by on other business. She invited to run through a taiji form with her students. Normally I might have tried to politely decline, but I saw this as a chance, a very small kind of test.

I had not practiced this particular form for some weeks, since I have been concentrating heavily on the Sha Family tai ji forms. I had no problem with the order of the motions or anything, but I soon noticed where the rust had crept in – especially on the “Snake Creeps Down” move. Creeping down was okay – but I was noticeably wobbly when rising into the subsequent one-legged posture.

So it was a good wake-up call for me, a reminder to continue the occasional rotation of back burner items while focusing on one form or set. And it only took a few minutes of my time to make this (otherwise obvious) discovery.

Days like yesterday – over eight hours of stretching and practice - are obviously valuable and rewarding. But I will also be searching for these short little bursts of practice time as well.