No messing about.

Yesterday, we practiced in a simple way, yet it had great rewards.

We were outside for a start, on the playing field behind the town. It can be noisy (cars, skaters, microlights, hot air balloons), and the ground wasn't that flat. The former distractions can be dealt with, given the right attitude, and the slightly uneven ground is actually good for knowing about your balance.

We simply went through the Yang short form three times, then the Chen 18 movement form three times.

Brilliant! The first time in each case is always all over the place with me. The second is OK - generally I feel steady but not capable. The third is when some learning gets done. A fourth might have been damaging without a rest.

After that, Neil and I worked on Chen style pushing hands (not sure what it's called, it's a two-hand/elbow style with a fixed stance and lots of repositioning of the hands - one of these, number 5 in the second list maybe?) which is sort of coming to the point where it makes some sense. Almost good enough to work on softness, listening and development of force, but not quite.