Tai Chi

Looks like time got away from me, again. Remembering to blog every week doesn't seem to be my forte. Maybe I should put it on my 2012 New Year's resolution list alongside the perennial "lose five pounds."

Surprise, surprise, I done finished my first Tai Chi class. I've been Tai Ching for a whole 4 months now which means I'm supposed to know the set. Far as I can tell, knowing and doing are two different things in this here Taoist Tai Chi world. I mean, there's like 108 moves in a set. Sure, lots of them are repetition, but it's like learning an intricate dance. It's gonna take a sight more practice to be good at it.

Then Luann talked me into attending a 3 hour class called an Intensive and it liked to have killed me! I'm amazed I could walk after all the donyuing-or whatever it's called-I did. Those are like deep knee bends, but the instructor swears when done properly it won't hurt your knees.

How would I know if it hurt my knees? My legs felt like rubber bands after doing a million of them. I wobbled around the room for most of the class, wondering if I was gonna fall on my face, break my hip and end up in a nursing home.

Don't get me wrong, the instructors are just as nice as they can be and they tell you to sit down when you feel tired. But I don't feel tired doing those donyu thingys, (if they keep using Chinese words, I'll have to go out and buy me a dictionary). No, I don't feel it until we stop. Then I feel it.

Anyway, the instructors filled my brain with way more information that it can process. Here I was, happy I'd finished the Beginning class and sort of learned the 108 moves and now they want to go and tweak them moves. From what they were saying every one of those moves has a whole bunch of nuances they don't teach newbies.

So much for learning Tai Chi and practicing at home!

Of course, finding out there was more to it than what we learned in that Beginning class made me feel a little bit better. From day one, I had the sneaking suspicion the instructor was doing lots more than she let on. First of all, I do the moves way faster than her. So finding out there's a lot more to a move made me feel better. She wasn't slow, she was doing more. I reckon when I can go as slow as her, I'll know the moves.