by Inga » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:31 am
At Andover the children are expected to practice LBQ a minimum of 350 times after they have successfully learned the form before they test with Master Yang. Usually the instructor asks them to do the sequence 10 times a day for a few months. LBQ marks a pivotal point in their training, when they stop testing in class for tips (stripes on their belts) and start testing the rest of their material with Master Yang to achieve their black belt. It is an important foundation piece. The LBQ I passed with Master Yang was awful compared with my LBQ 2 years later. But that is supposed to happen, you improve with practice, and so all your material should improve as well. If I had waited another year to test my LBQ with Master Yang, my score would have been higher; some people like to wait until they are feeling it is perfect, because they want a high score or they are just perfectionists - some want to simply pass so they can move onto new material. As long as you do not forget what you have learned and continue to work on it and see new things in it, you will improve your kung fu. As misterwhite says, you don't stop working on anything, you just add to your inventory as it were. The twelve tan tuis are a wonderful warm up for me when I train. They are very basic, naturally, but I love them. They are hugely improved as well. I thought I was doing them correctly when I learned them, and technically perhaps I was, but they are better now. The timing, the depth of stances, power, etc. Gong Li Quan is practiced in the YMAA programme once you have all your foundations. It is a power sequence, used to teach one how to push off your root and coordinate the use of your hips and waist. It is more than good form and nice low stances, it is about starting to grasp how kung fu works. This is something that will not come to you if you have poor foundation, as citrus says, feet lifting off the ground. If you have a good, confident LBQ, I would say you could start GLQ - but I would not suggest forgetting LBQ, you should still practice it. You could even use it to warm up for your Gong Li Quan. I see you are in Missouri. I do not know if you can get to the East or West coast to coordinate with any of Master Yang's seminars, but if you can, I would highly recommend it. There are also YMAA schools around the country, there is one in Texas I believe. It would would be a good opportunity to have your material checked and get some corrections. And believe me, there will be corrections. We all have them. Another part of the training..always working to improve. Good luck with your progress! And if you get your vid on youtube post the link here so we can comment on it.
Ancora Imparo