Thud!

...is the sound you should never make while practicing the Yang short taiji form. It's also the name of the most recent Discworld book to come out in paperback. Awesome read. It's not as dark as the last two were. Some dark moments, yes, but overall it was much, much lighter. Or, possibly, my mood is lighter than it was last winter. Likely some of both. I found it at the Border's in Logan on Saturday night...and finished it last night.

Summary? Well, the anniversary of Koom Valley is coming up, and the dwarves and trolls are getting themselves all worked up. In the middle of all this, a rabble rousing dwarf is found dead with a troll's club next to him. Vimes must take precious time out from reading Where's My Cow? to his young son to try and stop the pressure from mounting into a riot or war. Oh, and deal with a strange demonic dwarf symbol that seems to be following him around. And figure out what the deep dwarves are up, er, down to, and who Mr. Shine is. And incidentally, find out that Koom Valley isn't what anyone thought it was. ;^)

As far as the taiji workshop... I learned a lot. It was pretty awesome the times when Ben Lo passed me by while walking through and making corrections. At the least, I wasn't making any obvious errors then. The corrections I did get? Keep fair maiden's wrist in places I hadn't realize I'd been losing it. Bend hip joint (mostly I didn't get that one...until Sunday, when my legs were too tired; but I figured out that with the sacrum straight I COULD still bend the hip joint). One that I need to ask Don about: thirty degrees total between the feet at closing. I was taught sixty degrees, thirty on either side. Don will probably check Cheng man Ching's last book to get the official decree. I need to get myself a copy, I've decided. I still haven't figured out Ben Lo's way of doing Bend Bow to Shoot Tiger. I know what the final posture is, but not the transitions to get there. Oh, I also got corrections related to tense shoulders. It seems that some of the tension from last winter worked its way into my shoulders. Letting it go has been mildly...painful. It's my first experience of finding emotions locked away in the form of tension, though I'd read about the phenomenon before.

On the plus side, my legs are actually in better shape than they were a year ago. I suppose I have all the hiking I did to thank for that, since I have not been as assiduous in my practice as I was last summer. Most interestingly, when we switched over to push hands on Saturday, my legs hardly bothered me. The other person was always ready to switch sides before I was (with one exception, where we were both ready at the same time). So I was rather pleased by that. I also pushed with one of Kayo's students (Bruce, I think). We were pretty close to evenly matched, but he has phenomenal root. The only times I pushed him out were when he started an attack and I managed to get out while he was in an awkward position. The key? Relaxing my right shoulder. *sighs*