New year, new challenges! This year we want to repeat the form applications of the whole form and deepen our understanding of the movements. The first training session develops around the first movement of the form: raising the Qi. Movements you do for yourself in the form may be checked against reality by means of partner work. Especially in the beginning, the movements one thinks one is doing turn out not to be what one is actually doing. In these “moments of truth” a good partner may be very helpful.
Being a good partner – What does it take?
When one partner is doing the exercise, the other partner provides the required resistance. Enough resistance, so that the practicing other may feel something and develop his or her skills, but not so much resistance that the exercise is doomed to failure. And there is even a good reason to act in this supporting way: after a while the roles will change.
Another quality of a good partner is to give helpful feedback. In a free exchange of thoughts, both partners learn to express their observations and develop their skills cooperatively. Besides the physical experience, an intellectual engagement evolves. In a joint effort, the partners struggle to find the right words and refine their specialist language. In partner work, one is a teacher and simultaneously a student – this leads towards a respectful attitude concerning the abilities (and peculiarities) of the other.
