Greetings, friends, I hope you’re having a wonderful week. I am taking a Tai Chi class and keeping a record of my experiences, so I’m going to be sharing my thoughts for the next few months. As you may know, I do Ninjiutsu, which is a martial art rooted in practicality and tradition, creativity and patience, but it’s also the type of martial art that tends to steal whatever seems useful from any experience it comes across, so even within the art itself there are pieces of Jiujutsu, Karate, Aikidou, Kendou, and even more modern arts like MMA and Krav Maga. I am hoping that my increased range will strengthen and solidify my abilities in Ninjiutsu. With that thought in mind, please enjoy this journey with me as I explore new territory and push towards unseen horizons.
08/26/2019 — After two classes in Tai Chi
I first took an interest in Tai Chi due to the recommendations which I heard from fellow martial artists at my dojo. I’ve heard Ninjutsu described as the mixed martial art of Japan, so we tend to take a very broad perspective, be open to new ideas and the influence of other martial arts, and specialize in the extraction of the useful from the obscuring rest in order to incorporate it into our own art, so it came as no surprise to me that several of the higher ranking teachers in my dojo had at one time or another studied Tai Chi. In the time that I’d been there we had even, on two separate occasions, taken a whole day to teach and study one or two of the katas.
At the time, Tai Chi was described to me as a martial art which specialized in balance, relaxed movement, and the control/manipulation of one’s ki (qi or chi, as the Chinese seem to spell it), which in my dojo at least is both acknowledged as real yet quietly ignored. While a small part of me is deeply curious about this energy and it’s uses, I have personally determined to study Tai Chi for the purposes of increasing my balance, relaxation and control, both of myself and my opponent. It’s not that I don’t want to pursue a more personal understanding of this “ki”, but I know a rabbit hole when I see one, and a part of me (the part that isn’t all that curious) senses danger.
But I’d not had much opportunity (or motivation, in all honesty) to actually take the study upon my already well burdened shoulders up to this point. But this semester, having the space within my allotted 18 credits and wanting to add regular exercise to my school experience (as is my habit, since it vastly increases my productivity and success), I found that the Tai Chi classes offered by MSU happened to fit with my schedule, and decided it was high time to see what this school of thought and physical training is all about.
So far, my experience has been positive, though I can’t say that I’m in love. As far as balance and relaxation go, I think it will improve my abilities as time wears on, but right now all it seems to be doing is building up my thigh muscles and making all the knots in my body due to stress and sleeplessness painfully obvious. This is especially true as the classes are already quite good at getting me to pay attention to my body.
I haven’t slept well since the semester began. Whether this is a coincidence due to simple timing and the sleeplessness is simply stress related, or if the relaxing, stretching, breathing and flowing movements are unlocking or creating something in my body which deprives me of sleep, I’m not sure. All I can say is that it started at the same time my classes did, and now I lay down at night tired, then toss and turn for hours (literally), feeling both exhausted and restless, like I have excess energy that didn’t get used up while I dragged myself through the daylight hours, trying to pretend I’m not sleep deprived. It’s like I’ve had caffeine too late, except I’m being careful keeping the caffeine to one mug of coffee in the morning.
There are other possible causes, though. Besides stress or Tai Chi, within the last month I’ve taken up certain supplements (whose main purpose is assisting with digestion, though who’s to say what else they’re doing, since it seems to help with my skin), using various essential oils to freshen the air in my room, consuming small amounts of hemp CBD (again for the skin), and started a new job at a ramen place where they feed me Chinese food twice a day. This last week I’ve also made real effort to drink more water, though how that could possible mess with my sleep schedule, I can’t fathom.
Anyway, I do believe that I will grow to really enjoy the katas. We’ve only done “Spinning Silk” and a piece of what may or may not be considered the central kata of Tai Chi, but they are fun. However, their martial applicability always seems just a bit of a stretch, even when we do pair work. I found myself wondering today if the teacher truly believed that he could defend himself from an attacker with this martial art. It’s a bit hasty to judge the effectiveness of any martial art upon any single defensive movement (never mind the very first), so I kept my trap shut and am withholding skepticism for now.
I do like the way my hands feel when I’m in the zone and moving through the kata. The teacher calls it keeping them alive, not letting them go completely limp but not tensing them either. For me, it’s hard to tell if I’m just focusing extra attention on my hands or I actually am storing energy in them as I struggle not to tense them or move them unnecessarily, but it feels a bit tingly and warm. Can a person feel their own body heat? The simple answer is yes, so maybe I’m just paying so much attention that I can actually experience that for once. If I get better at paying attention like that, could I learn to sense someone else’s heat? Could I learn to feel their movement and respond quicker than I could by simply watching them? These are the kinds of things I’m hoping to get out of Tai Chi, or at least lay the ground work.