Forms

         I've been getting a lot of great feedback in regards to my forms lately, and working on putting the pieces together.  Two of them are closely tied together, which is relaxing my shoulders, and keeping grounded during certain parts of the form.  Especially at the start of DMH V I have a tendency to bring that shoulder up too much, which just throws me off for the rest of the form.  As far as staying grounded, it is just within a few of the transitions.  It has gotten a lot better overall, but there are still a few places I tend to bring up my centre.

        The other area I have been working on is flow, and this has been in DMH in particular.  I've started by breaking the form into sections, which is broken into opponents (how I would react to a real attack).  After a one-on-one with Sifu Brinker, I've started to apply the idea of the expansion and contraction in the form as part of the flow.  In particular the contraction immediately after the expansion that is loading the energy to then be released into the next movement.  I've just started doing this, and for my first few reps I found it easier to loosen up everything, which also includes my hands, so that I can feel the expansion and contraction more.  It is working in the sense that I can better feel the moment of expansion into contraction into expansion better, but my hands are really sloppy.

        Overall I've been seeing the improvements in my forms and making tweaks here and there.  I'm focusing more on feeling the difference rather than seeing the difference.  Feeling when I have a good release of power, feeling when I am really stable, etc., and going from there.