2011 Year in Review

December marks the end of this year on the solar calendar, so we thought we would post up a year in review article, we hope you like it!

We began this year by learning Baguazhang. Master Yuan had all of us focus greatly on the basics of Bagua walking and Bagua standing meditation. Both of these practices (as well as the form) we continue to do regularly and can really feel the benefit in this continued consolidation. In April a large group of us left for a week to travel to Sichuan. We visited Emei Mountain, pandas, Daoist temples, etc. and ate our fill of hotpot.

Upon returning from Sichuan we began 3 days of meditation. Each day began with qi gong in the early morning and then we spent the rest of the day in 3 meditation sessions. Between meditation we ate homemade medicine balls from herbs that we had been drying for several weeks. This was a great experience for all of us and something that we hope to repeat again in the near future. After finishing the 3 days of meditation we began practicing hard qi gong which we are still continuing to do now and everyone has improved exponentially.

As usual, the summer was quite busy here at the academy and on top of our regular schedule another class was added that focused solely on sanda basics and conditioning. Though we were out during the middle of the day and under the hot sun, thankfully this summer was not as oppressively hot as summers in Wudang sometimes can be.

This summer we also took a group trip to Gu Long Zhong, the home of Zhu Ge Liang, a famous strategist of the Warring States Period in Chinese history. In August Jeff, Louis, and Simon were also asked to join their Grandmaster and some students from his school in traveling to Kongtongshan in Gansu province for a week of performance and exchange.

This year Master Yuan was also invited to travel to Thailand to help officiate the opening of a Wudang San Feng Pai Taiji Society in Bangkok. Around this same time many of us also began preparing for the Fifth International Wudang Taiji Competition. The school had about 21 students enter the competition and we took home a total of 37 medals, with more than 20 of them being gold.

The last form that we learned this year was Fangbianchan (Monk Spade). Master Yuan had 20 stainless steal Fangbianchan's custom made. For the first few days of practice with the new weapon we focused on foundational basics. After the first week all of our shoulders were aching and in need of a break. The form is challenging, especially when repeating it countless times. But as a result everyone's form has improved. Another great result of this is that everyone's stances in general are much more firm and rooted.

So ends another year. We all hope that you have a safe holiday season and we hope to see you here at Master Yuan's school sometime soon!