Hung Ga training at home.

[Athelus]

Hi all, as some people may know (from my meet and greet post) I've just started training in Hung Ga. I'd like to spend some time daily practicing what I've learnt (Which at this point is a few stances and first few moves of a form).

So far I'm having issues practicing the horse stance. At the school I was able to do it with relative ease and comfort (other than my knee shaking like crazy after about a minute) but now that I'm back home and trying to practice it hurts my back. So i'm figuring i'm doing something wrong and don't want to keep practicing the wrong way for obvious reasons (hurting myself and learning the wrong method).

Can anyone give some advice on how to best practice the stances at home?

I won't see my sifu for a fortnight due to a scheduling incident where i have to be at the theatre next week during training time, so would be nice if I could continue to practice and not lose 2 weeks.

Thanks in advance
~Stewart

 

[mograph]

(This may or may not help you, and keep in mind, it's advice on a forum, so take it at your own risk.)

When I stand in Zhan Zhuang, if my lower back hurts, it's probably because I'm letting it do the work of holding me up. In fact, if an body part calls too much attention to itself, it's probably doing too much work. To relieve this, I do one of two things (or both): 1) move the intention down into the legs by adjusting my stance so I feel the work being done by a balanced combination of everything below the waist, and/or 2) drop the tail slightly, or tuck in the pelvis a bit forward & up to engage the front core muscles and straighten up the torso slightly, since I may have been leaning forward too much and letting the back hold up the torso.

I hope that helps. Since I can't see you, and don't know deep horse stances, this is the best I can do. Hopefully others have better advice.