Update at the Shan

Update at the Shan

The schedule at the Shan has changed now. The morning schedule is the same, Tai Chi at 6am, class at 8, and then Lunch at 12pm. The afternoon break would be 3 hours so we wouldn't be outside when its really hot. We'd start class at 3pm and then have dinner at 6. Now we changed back to the Winter schedule, which is lunch break until 2:30pm, class ending at 4:30 and dinner at 5:30. The transition has been tough. I'm still used to half an hour of rest time. While my brain thinks it's still rest time. we are doing drills in class!

The class size has been pretty big lately. About 26 students, even with the 5 students who left in the past month. Four new people joined our class in the past two weeks. Clement and I are the ones who train them and get them going in class. It's a fun job.

A couple of weeks ago I was doing some sparring training and I kicked wrong and messed my foot up a little. I kept training but had a limp. It finally got better this Monday. Unfortunately, I thought it was fully healed and thought I could handle some acrobatics in the ring with Mathieu. When I did a back kick flip I landed with my bad foot. It got stuck in between the mats in the ring and I fell and bent my foot pretty badly. Not good. My foot swelled again, but I have these ice packs my parents sent me which helped A LOT. I went to class Tuesday limping a lot worse this time, but I had to lead the class with Clement. 

Master asked about my foot and I told him about my accident during acrobatics. Since he saw that I couldn't do the drills well he pulled out a couple new students and had me teach them new moves. Thursday is grading and Friday is Sparring so I need my foot to heal by then. Tuesday, I asked Master if I can have the afternoon stances class off to let my foot rest since he leads that class pretty much. He allowed it so I iced my foot the rest of the evening.

Today, Wednesday, the 14th of Sept was power training day. In the morning we did forms and in class a few friends invented a new game called Charlie. Basically the game is to give the other players Charlie horses by kneeing them in the leg. Only 4 of us play which included Sam my roommate, Sam the Aussie, Mathieu, Luke, and me. During power training I couldn't do jumps or put to much weight on my foot so I did the upper body drills and more. Right before the guys had to do bunny hops across the floor, Luke who had been kneeing me in the leg constantly all morning came by where I was and I ran up and kneed him hard in his leg. He cursed and said, "Now you get me right before I have to use my leg?!!" I laughed and said, "Karma is a bitch!" He went to sit down but Master Guo saw him and yelled at him to start jumping. He swore he was going to get me back but his kneeing doesn't hurt, or my legs are conditioned well. Actually, if we keep this game up our legs will be very conditioned.

When we started power stretching, I paired up with Bart, Amitai, and Shen. Amitai and Bart are new guys to the class. Bart doesn't try very hard in class sometimes and I always call him out on it. If he doesn't do the pushups low enough I'll yell at him to go lower. If he doesn't hold the splits long enough I'll yell at him to do it again. Just stuff to help him get better. Same with Amitai but he tries pretty hard. "I dont do it to be mean, I just want them to get better," I tell the other guys when they laugh and say I'm a bully. 

A few of the guys call me the Whip Master. I didn't know what that was. They said it's someone who cracks the whip, as in keeping order. I laughed, but as I thought about it more, a whip would be pretty handy. But back to the power stretching. The past couple weeks master made me pair up with Amitai and Bart to help them with the split stretches. "They don't use enough power," master would say. So I went over and showed them how it's done. I had Amitai go first and Bart would pull his front leg out. I put my hand on his hip and pushed down. I guess they didn't use any power before because he yelled out pretty loudly. Then I had him switch legs. 

Bart went next and seemed to tremble with fear a little. He told me his foot hurt so not to go hard. I laughed and told him not to worry, that I wouldn't touch his foot. I didn't touch his foot, I just stretched his leg. He yelled out saying, "STOP STOP STOP you will break my leg!!" Master, who was watching, started laughing. I barely used any power! But I eased up and held him at a decent height. So when I went over to them again this week, Amitai who thanked me last time looked happy that I was going to stretch him. Bart, who looked at me like I was his executioner, knew that I was going to "help" them out again. Shen, who is leaving tomorrow, had no partner, so I told him I'll stretch him one last time before he leaves. Amitai went first. Instead of crying out, "Stop Stop", or "Enough," he said, "YES YES I LIKE!" Everyone laughed. Bart went next and he did pretty well. He didn't yell out for me to stop. I was proud. 

Then Shen went and I stretched him hard because it was his last time. After I stretched all of them, it was my turn. I told them that what I do to them is nothing and to wait until they see my turn. Master came over and had one guy pull each foot while he pushed my hips down on the ground. It hurt really badly. I felt nautious afterward, like I do every time, but I almost made it into full front splits. When he stretched me on my side splits, he sat on me to get me lower. I yelled and laughed at this point. It's not funny or and didn't tickle, but I edfor some reason. The new guys don't complain about what I do to them after they see that.

Friday is Sparring. Its been a while since i done it. Been training to get back into it. Can't wait!

-Scott