I hurt.
For a couple of months, I have been an instructor at the Kung Fu school, teaching some of the beginning students their basics and the first form (Lian Bu Chuan). There is an interesting thing about teaching, that I hadn't really paid attention to before. But first, let me expound with a small aside...
I loved fall back home. It was an excellent season (actually, I loved all the seasons except for spring): the temperature would begin to drop, slowly at first then picking up speed, but always at a pretty constant rate, the air would become crisp and the leaves turned colour and the hills would be awash in a vibrant display. It was wonderful. But not so here in the SF Bay Area. There's really only two seasons here: summer and spring (curses! spring!). And gradient transitions? Forget about it! Last week, we had 35~ weather. This week, its 4~ in the morning. Sure, it doesn't get below zero very often, but when the rains come, that matters little. (BTW, that's 308K and 277K)
So, back to Shaolin. Teaching is 'interesting' as we do our conditioning (one hour of warm up, running, drills, stance training, strength training, exercises, and a bit of stretching), and one becomes very warm and sweaty (and steaming when the weather turns cool enough). Now, as a simple student, you then receive your individual instruction, where you continue to work hard learning and practising your sets. As an instructor, however, you, well, instruct. Which, while you do demonstrate moves and do some work nevertheless means a lot of standing around as you watch your students and correct them. In the cold air. Muscles tighten up, body cools down. THEN you have your lesson, for which you must re-gain your flexibility and try to re-warm your muscles, pretty much as you're doing your set and trying to kick high.
As I said before, now I hurt. At the time, the muscles seem to perform well enough, but the next day, despite some pretty heavy-duty stretching post-workout, my muscles seriously feel like they've been ravaged. Tomorrow, I get to do it all over again. It may be time to start wearing some thermals I fear, fear only because I'm not sure how that will affect me during class (I feel hot enough already!).
Kung Fu: Skill attained through hard work. And the trials and tribulations of your body.
Posted by kannik at November 5, 2003 10:40 AM in Daily, Kung Fu | TrackBack