One of the most rewarding things about living in Hong Kong has been the opportunity to learn Tai Chi with a really good teacher and a very nice club. Over the past year I've been attending class diligently for 3 hours per week and have gradually learnt most of the Chen 56 form.
One focus for the club and many of the students is competing in Wushu competitions. This may explain why they are so rigorous about getting the details right. I was not attracted to the idea of competing, but I was impressed how several students make very rapid progress once they started practicing intensively. And I noticed master gives more attention to correcting the students who are training for competition.
So, against my instincts, I signed-up in August a competition in early October. This was a little too soon for my liking, but still gave me 6 weeks to learn the 10 or so moves I didn't know yet and to polish an abridged 5 minute routine.
The next six weeks were a strange and bumpy ride which didn't quite go to plan. I started off well enough with extra practice and rapidly improved strength and flexibility in the first few weeks But I got over-confident and strained my lower back which put me largely out of action for 10 days weeks while the corset and neurofen did its job.
To buy my competition outfit we visited a strange martial arts store in Fortress Hill which was run by a charming couple of little old ladies. They were quite surprised to find they had one outfit in stock large enough to fit me, and couldn't stop laughing at how big the pants were.
I got a lot of advice and corrections from Master and the other class members rallied round to help with translations and a wide range of useful advice such as 'don't wear dark underpants'.
The corrections rather overwhelmed my ability to absorb, despite practicing daily writing lots of notes. I found it hard to remember the routine. When I concentrated on applying a correction or doing a move better than before, I'd often forget what to do next. Another challenge was pacing the routine correctly. I would either go too slow and run over the 5min limit, or too fast and rush the moves. A couple of weeks before the competition Master made me demonstrate the routine to the class, but it was a bit of a mess and I rushed it and then got lost and had to stop in the middle.
Fortunately my classmate Tommy rescued me by giving me good advice about how to prepare and kindly giving me series of private lessons before class. Tommy is a competition veteran who has won many gold medals in different categories. He told me that in competition can only do 70% of what you can do in practice so you need to practice many times and prepare everything in advance. He also gave good advice on what aspects of the form to focus on (e.g. hips rather than arms) and how to avoid the mistakes that the judges will penalize, and to get plenty of rest before the competition.
Luckily the training came together in the last 2 weeks once my back recovered and I could practice every day. I would go to a nearby park late at night after work. Even at 10pm there were usually 2-3 other people practicing tai chi at the same time, and many more in the mornings. I found the training very tiring on the legs and could usually only do 3-4 5 min sets in one session.
The competition was held at Ma On Shan gymnasium. There were about 350 competitors in a dozen different categories including about 40 in my category of Chen style. I was the only gweilo. The standard ranged from extremely high - teachers aiming to win medals to attract more students - to beginners like myself wanting to get experience and improve.
At the competition with my 'coach' Tommy
The competition was a strange experience. A couple of hours waiting and trying not to get nervous and tired. Then a few minutes of performance in front of the 5 judges. As Tommy had warned, once I walked into the enclosure it was hard to think. I wasn't exactly nervous but it didn't quite feel real either. Once I started, the movements flowed automatically and although I tried to concentrate and 'think through' the moves, I felt like a spectator in my own body. At one point I found my mind wandering, and at another I thought I missed out part of the sequence. But I kept going, finished the routine, saluted and walked back out of the enclosure.
It turned out that I had not missed any steps but I had rushed the routine somewhat finishing in only 4:15 seconds. More importantly my form had been reasonably good for a beginner and I hadn't made any big mistakes that would lose points.
After the competition was over we received our grades. In each category there are 4 places gold, sliver, bronze and 4th, and everyone else is graded into 3 levels. Tommy won a medal in Yang sword and a grade-1 in Chen quan.
Amazingly I also got grade-1 (although probably at the bottom end of the range!), which is a testament to Tommy's coaching and the support from Master and everyone else in the class.
Translation: Middle-aged men division. Tai Chi. Grade 1.
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