Dear Coach XiaoZhou, here are my notes from today’s practice.

It was very interesting. It was an honor to meet Master Ling in person and to see/experience him coaching us all. Since we have a bit of a language barrier between us, I am at times a bit ‘lost in space’ and am likely to behave kind of weird. My apologies for this. In retrospect, I really wish I would have started learning Chinese when we first moved to China. It would have been an incredibly valuable resource to start tapping into by now.

Back to the practice. I primarily worked with Coach 木白. He rightfully pointed out a lot of improvement potential in the forms (or movements) I already ‘know’. I think this will make my beginning chapter of the  shuilanquan much better. He was a most patient, diligent, and detailed teacher.  Some flaws are known ones (of which I am of course embarrassed, as they need to be addressed again (and again)). I still go into Gong Bu at times when the weight should be on my back leg. He talked a lot about the center of gravity (as do you) and on which leg the center should rest.

He further emphasized the importance of hands, body and legs being synchronized. I am, not seldom, out of synch. He pinpointed the need for relaxing and lowering my shoulder/elbows (I’m often high up and tense - this is unfortunately my “natural state”), protecting my center (for example in ’part the mist and reveal the sun’), ’balancing’ the hands so they ’reflect each other’, and of improving my Gong Bu stance, with back leg straight (apparently I still bend my knee) and shoulders and hips facing the same direction (toward my opponent). It obviously does not end here, but if I write it all, this note will see no end.

Master Ling pointed out that I am ‘weak’ which is true. I have spleen qi deficiency and an altogether weak spleen and stomach (in the TCM-way of looking at this). My kidney qi is also on the lower end, but I have not felt as strong and healthy as I do now in many years. Though my Taiji, Qigong and now Shui Quan leave much to be desired, I am lightyears away from proficiency, the qigong and TCM (primarily) have brought me to a level where I feel quite healthy and I can function well. It is many years ago now, but in 2017 I had problems standing for longer periods, and would get out of breath just from walking slowly. Master Ling said I need to eat more. I eat quite a lot, but still over the past few years I have lost weight (unwillingly). I think my over active brain consumes all my qi. ����‍♀️ I wish it was ’over-smart’ instead of overactive.

The movement Master Ling was specifically pointing to was the wind and snow movement (there was no wind nor snow when I was turning from moving right to moving left). I had to practice this a few times and managed to get at least some wind into the movement in the end. What is the full name of this movement? Would you write it in Chinese for me?

My apologies for having you read this much. I hope your teaching this weekend has been successful. Thank you for all your time and effort. Kindly Veronica

P.S. I forgot to choose a Chinese name, I realized when Master Ling called me Dr. V. I like both of the suggestions, but might lean toward the one sounding more like my name (Wei Yike) however ’auspicious omen’ in RuiNing sounds very strong and the characters  would be easier to write. What is your suggestion? I will trust your judgement better than mine.  

Veronica 8/24/2025

［此帖子已被 Veronica 在 2025/8/25 17:16:20 编辑过］

小周教练您好：

以下是我今天的训练笔记。

今天的训练非常有意思，能亲眼见到凌大师，还体验了大师的指导，我感到十分荣幸。不过，由于我们之间存在一定的语言障碍，我有时会有点“跟不上节奏”，表现可能也有些拘谨古怪。对此我深感抱歉。现在回想起来，我真希望当初刚搬来中国时就开始学习中文，要是那样，到现在中文肯定能成为我一个非常有用的技能了。

回到训练本身。今天我主要是和木白教练学习。他很中肯地指出了我那些“已掌握”的招式（或动作）中还有很多可以提升的地方。我相信这会让我在水蓝拳的入门阶段打下更坚实的基础。木白教练非常有耐心，教学认真又细致。有些动作上的问题我自己其实也清楚（当然对此我也感到不好意思，因为这些问题需要反复纠正才能改进）。比如，有时动作本该重心在后腿，我却还是做成了弓步。他还多次强调了重心的重要性（您之前也经常跟我提），以及重心该落在哪条腿上。

此外，他还特别强调手、身、腿要协调一致。而我经常出现动作不协调的情况。他明确指出我需要注意放松肩部和肘部，并将其下沉（很遗憾，我平时肩部和肘部总是架得很高，还很僵硬——这似乎成了我的“常态”）；要注意护住身体中线（比如在“拨云见日”这个动作中）；双手动作要“平衡”，做到“相互呼应”；还要改进弓步姿势，保证后腿伸直（显然我现在后腿膝盖还是会弯），同时肩部和髋部保持同一方向（朝向对手）。当然，需要改进的地方远不止这些，要是全都写下来，这笔记就没个尽头了。

凌大师提到我身体偏“弱”，这个评价很中肯。从中医角度来看，我确实存在脾虚气弱、脾胃功能整体不佳的问题，肾气也有些不足。但即便如此，这几年我的身体状态已经是多年来最好的了。虽然我的太极、气功，还有现在学习的水拳都还有很大提升空间，离精通更是相差甚远，但多亏了气功，尤其是中医的调理，我的身体状况好了很多，日常活动也完全没问题。说起来已经是很多年前的事了，2017年的时候，我连长时间站立都很困难，甚至慢慢走路都会气喘吁吁。凌大师建议我多吃点东西。其实我吃得已经不少了，但过去这几年还是无意间瘦了下来。我觉得可能是我脑子太活跃，消耗了太多气血吧。����‍♀️ 真希望它不是“过于活跃”，而是“过于聪明”就好了。

凌大师重点纠正的是“风雪式”这个动作（当时我从右侧转向左侧移动时，动作完全没有“风”和“雪”的感觉）。我反复练习了几次，最后总算让动作有了点“风”的韵味。请问这个动作的完整名称是什么？您方便用中文写下来告诉我吗？

很抱歉让您看这么长的笔记。祝您这周末的教学一切顺利。感谢您一直以来的付出和指导。

此致

维罗妮卡

附言：

凌大师叫我“V博士”的时候，我才意识到自己还没选好中文名字。您之前给我推荐的两个名字我都很喜欢，不过可能更倾向于发音和我本名更接近的“魏伊可”；但“瑞宁”这个名字里“吉祥如意”的寓意特别好，而且这两个字写起来也更简单。您有什么建议吗？我更相信您的判断。