Short Trip Home

 

Finally, after 3 years, I managed to take a short trip home. As part of this trip, I visited my teacher, Master Kwek. A few months ago, he was hospitalised for COVID-19, and although he is fine now, his memory is starting to fail. Still, while sitting down, his ting jing was still as good and he could point out my problem areas easily.

As his health wasn't really good, I couldn't really get him to see me practising at the void deck. Instead, I practised a few moves in his living room while he gave some pointers.

The most important pointer I got from him is that it is more important to practise each move correctly than to try and complete an entire routine. If I am short of time, I should just practise a few moves, slowly and correctly. For example, my kua still sticks out sometimes. I had not really noticed it on my own, but Master Kwek pointed it out right away. The important thing is to practise each move correctly, and if I had been doing so, I probably would have paid more attention to my kua and worked harder on it.

 

Bottom line: Practice only counts if it is done correctly. Otherwise, it is just a waste of time.

Anyway, after visiting him at night, I drop by to the nearby coffee shop and bought hor fun for supper, something that I used to do.

My Collection of Matsuda Ryuchi Books

This is my collection of books by Matsuda Ryuchi (松田隆智) sensei.

The entire journey started with the 拳児 manga series. This is the original 21-volume set.

And this is the republished 11-volume set.

He has also written books about his quest to find the strongest punch.

His later works also include two books about the results of his years of pursuing martial arts. I actually summarized the contents of one of them previously.

His earlier works are instructional books on Chinese martial arts at a time when they were still not well known in Japan.

Of course, talk about Matsuda-sensei and you cannot avoid talking about bajiquan, and he has instructional books on that too.

Plus an overview of Chinese martial arts, more like a research compilation.

And he was also featured in Japanese magazines that focused on Chinese martial arts. Here are some of those issues that I have which featured Matsuda-sensei.

As you can see from his Wikipedia entry, he has written many other books, some of which I do not own. Maybe someday...

About Being On My Own

In August 2015, I left Singapore and moved to Japan, and basically came to be on my own when it comes to my taiji journey. Of course, I do try to return to Singapore when I can and let my teacher, Mr Kwek, take a look at my progress on this journey. COVID-19 kind of threw this into limbo and it has been a while since I was able to return to Singapore.

So I am kind of really on my own for a while now. And it is not just in taiji. Last year, my calligraphy teacher moved to another prefecture at one end of Honshu, which also means I no longer have the chance to directly learn from her. Under her, I have reached the stage when I am ready to go for grading to become a calligraphy teacher.

In both taiji and calligraphy, it is when I am on my own that I actually become a lot more motivated to practise. Of course, I had been practising a lot of taiji when I was in Singapore under Mr Kwek, but there were stretches when work prevented me from going for classes, and during those stretches, I didn't really practise on my own too. But now, without a teacher or regular classes to attend, I end up trying to practise every day on my own, whether it is routines or just basic exercises. While the total amount of time spent on practices may have dropped from my peak while in Singapore, I would say I am more consistent in the amount of practice.

Similarly, ever since my calligraphy teacher moved away, I have been practising more often on my own. In the past, I wasn't really a good student, practising calligraphy like only for the minimum required. But now, I will take my own initiative to practise, to write things and such. I guess it is when I am truly on my own that I feel motivated (or anxiety, for that matter) to keep practising so that I can at least maintain my standard, if not get better.

Still, to be able to do this requires a certain level of skill before becoming "independent". If I had not reached my level when I left Singapore, I would not know what is good or bad, and no amount of practising on my own would help; instead, it would just mean I keep repeating my mistakes until they become helplessly ingrained into me. For calligraphy, because I have reached this certain level, I am able to independently assess my own pieces and know how to make each practice piece better.

In conclusion, I think it is okay to be on your own. But only after you have reached a certain level that allows you to be able to point out your own mistakes, to know what is good and bad. Before reaching that stage, trying to practise on your own actually becomes a hindrance for reaching greater heights.

Manga "Kenji" (拳児)

I am a "fan" of Matsuda Ryuchi sensei, and have written previously about one of his books as well as his passing. I actually got to know about Matsuda-sensei because of his manga series, Kenji (拳兒). Back when I was still in junior college, I had read the series (translated into Chinese), and when I was studying in Japan, luck had it that the publisher was doing a rerun of the series, publishing them in 11 volumes (instead of the original 21). So I dutifully went to the bookstore regularly to buy new volumes as they were released.

Well, recently, I finally managed to get myself a set of the original 21-volume set on Yahoo! Auctions.

This is really just a "I want to collect them all" mission rather than my desire to read the manga, since I have already read it before. Still, I am really happy because this set of manga is really a bit of martial arts history. Or rather, a part of my taiji journey, since I first read it in junior college, which was also when I first started learning taiji.

(It has been a while since I wrote on this blog, and this post is really unrelated to taiji. But I do have something I want to write about and will try to do that soon.)

Tracking My Training for 2022

Continuing the practice in 2015, carried on till 2021, I have been tracking my training, and will also do so for 2022.

For 2021, I practised:
58 sets of Chen style Old Frame First Routine
58 sets of Yang style 108
102 sets of Sun style taijiquan
(total 218 sets of taijiquan in a year)

105 sets of Chen style taijijian
105 sets of Yang style taijijian
(total 210 sets of taijijian in a year)

175 sets of Yang style taijidao

And also many hours of basic exercises and single moves.

Total number of practice hours in 2021: 312 hours

Again, for 2021, I have not been keeping my training log... 😅
And the amount of practice has gone down from 2020.
So I am looking forward to increasing the amount of practice in 2022!