morgothan’s kung fu repository

Yesterday for reason I would rather not get into, I needed a release. I needed to feel. Yesterday also happened to be the last day Shane was going to be at the kwoon before he goes back to college. The two events made it abundantly clear that our fates where to be intertwined. I asked him if he wanted to spar, and I ask one of my instructor to ref the fight. Since Shane didnt have his cup with him, I elected not to throw any kicks, to simply work on hand techniques. The fight was good, it was exactly what I needed, I was able to work out a lot of stress, and I even got thrown to the ground once, giving me the pain or getting hit that I wanted. After about 45 minutes of the sparring session, my left glove ripped from a strong strike to Shane’s cage. This singles the end of the fight. After cleaning up from that, Shane and I did some two person sit ups, passing the bricks back and forth between the two of us. This laster till the end of the intermediate class. The beginner class was about to start, and I still felt like I needed to hurt. I asked Sifu if it was ok to work out the class extra hard, which he of coarse said it was. We also had a new student, which made it all the better. I started out with something simple, horse stance exercise, for about 15 minutes. Then onto 5 minutes of nonstop burpies, then 5 minutes Helen Kellers, Then some stretching, then 5 minutes of sit ups, and ended with kicking drills for everyone. So today my body hurts. I jambed my thumb, my knuckles are cut up, my abs are sore, and my legs are tiered. Yet I still feel like I didnt push myself as hard as I should have. My body needs to be punished. Maybe on thursday when I go to Krav Maga with Tim I will finally get the abuse I deserve.

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.

I started learning dragon phoenix on Tuesday. Dragon Phoenix is pretty cool as it has you using two double edge swords. From what I have been told it is as long as spear in terms of techniques. So the rest of the summer will probably be me learning and honing in on this form. After that I will have been taught the entire shaolin curriculum from our school. So soon after that I should be testing for my black sash.