morgothan’s kung fu repository

So as you all know I am in the middle of Dragon Phoenix. The hardest and most complicated form in the entire shaolin curriculum. This week due to unforeseen circumstances I was unable to attend class, and this week coming up I will be in Egypt for work. So in the middle of the form I am forced to take a two week break from training at the kwoon. Well I guess I will just have to kick it into overdrive when I get back if I want to finish this form by the end of the summer.

This week I have been continuing to learn Dragon Phoenix. I am not about 1/3 of the way done with the form from what I have been told. The last line I learned is very crazy, very complicated, and very difficult to do correct. It involves a lot of spinning both the swords around my body in awkward ways, changing direction, and all in all doing things the human body was not meant to do. My shoulders are sore, my wrists hurt, and my legs are getting tired. This form is intense. As soon as I finish it I will try and record it to post it up here. I warn you though, since I will have just finished learning it, the form will more then likely look somewhat sloppy. But I still want to get a recording of it, and if I am going to record it for myself, I mine as well post it.

So I am now three lines into Dragon Phoenix. From what I have been told the form is about ten lines, plus an opening and a closing. So I am about a third of the way done with the form. So far I like the third line the best. The opening is kind of dull, and the first line is very stop and go. The second line flows very nice, but is not that impressive looking, nor is it all that fun to do. The third line however, has a lot of fancy moves that flow very well into the next. Starting from the high lotus, there is a leap to another high lotus, then the swords continue to move, while bringing you up to a rooster, then they continue to move bringing you leaping down to a low tiger. Then standing up and blocking with one sword then immediately stepping forward and thrusting with the other. Then hide the swords as you spin in like in double edge form. From there, the swords circle around and back to another high lotus, then spin back and alternating chop with the swords. When all of that goes together it just flows really nice, and looks very impressive at that. All and all line three of dragon phoenix is definitely in the slide show.