“Your stance is a little off,” he says. “Try copying me.”
I watch him and see how my stance is different from his, and copy his somewhat wider foot spread and more upright position. My natural tendency is to lean back a little bit more, but I can see right away how his posture works better. It feels more stable. Even better, it enables flow, something I hadn’t noticed before when practicing in class because, of course, I’d been doing it wrong until now.
We finish several rounds of tao lu, and then it’s time to fight.
This is the whole reason we decided to get into the wrestling room two hours early by signing for it in advance. We both need practice – myself more than he does. There are some people for whom physical motions like ballet, fencing, mock armored combat, and East Asian mart
