Hello Coach XiaoZhou, and thank you for today’s lecture.

It seems the plum rain season is here…

Today’s reflections regard the names—again! I can’t believe how much more sense each move/posture/form makes when you know their names. The 引鸟趋林（yin niao qu lin) or ’Lure birds to the forest’ (or attract birds to the forest) is again, perfectly visible in the movement. Also, when you know of you hit, push or protect with your hands the movements tend to stick a bit better (in my teflon-like brains).

I’m still struggling with the legs, not straight (probably from my qigong), or too straight (maybe from my age (and ‘weak knees’)）. I also think we do not have any ‘short stance with weight on a bent rear leg’ in my taiji, so I completely miss it most times. I, instead, often try to go/lean forward with my legs more towards a bow stance.

I’ll work on my arms to make sure the wrists are straight when they need to be straight, I’ll make sure to remember the arms should be like ‘sticks’ to make the turning of them more ’controlled’. When I do that, I can feel the whole inside of the arm mobilize and ‘grip’. I get the similar feeling when I do some of the qigong (or preparatory qigong) exercises. It is a very interesting phenomena.

Thank you for your immense patience, repeating, answering questions, pointing out the main flaws, repeating… and so on.

I was very tired today, I think I’m like my dog, extremely affected by weather changes, and often very slow during rainy days. Well, I did my best with what energy I had.

It was great to see you and your student do what I believe is the full sequence, all chapters. It is amazing how controlled your movements are. I’m also very impressed by your student, and what she managed to accomplish in two years. Wow!

It would be great to have a practice buddy, I’m hoping to see the new guy the coming Sunday!

Veronica

06/08/2025

［此帖子已被 Veronica 在 2025/6/9 14:38:24 编辑过］

（附：Veronica的学拳小记翻译）

晓舟教练您好，感谢您今天的授课。

看来梅雨季节到了……

今天的感悟还是关于招式名称！真没想到，知道动作的名字后，每个招式的意义都变得清晰太多。比如“引鸟趋林”（yin niao qu lin），也就是“吸引鸟儿入林”，这个动作在演练时的意象简直一目了然。而且，当你知道手是要击打、推按还是防护时，这些动作在我那像涂了特氟龙的脑子里反而更容易记住了。

不过腿部动作还是让我很头疼——要么不够直（可能是受练气功的影响），要么太直（也许是年纪大了膝盖不给力）。我觉得我们练的太极里好像没有“重心在后腿弯曲的短 stance”（注：此处“stance”直译为“架势”，结合上下文可能指特定步型），所以我老是漏掉这个要点，反而总想用腿往前倾，更接近弓步的姿势。

我会多练习手臂，确保需要伸直手腕时做到位，还要记住手臂要像“木棍”一样，这样转动时才能更“受控”。当我这样做的时候，能感觉到整个手臂内侧都调动起来，有“紧绷”的感觉，这和我练某些气功（或气功预备式）时的感受很像，很有意思。

感谢您无限的耐心，一遍遍地讲解、回答问题、指出主要问题，再重复……今天我很累，可能像我的狗一样，对天气变化特别敏感，雨天总是提不起劲。不过我还是尽我所能练了。

今天看到您和学生演练了整套（应该是完整章节的）动作，太震撼了。您的动作控制得如此精准，学生两年能有这样的造诣也让我赞叹不已。要是能有个练拳伙伴就好了，期待周日见到新学员！

Veronica

［此帖子已被 晓舟 在 2025/6/9 14:51:58 编辑过］