2.51

When we were doing Da Mu Hsing in class on Tuesday I found that changing my starting direction or spinning in circles before didn't affect my ability to do the form. I have always found this to be the case for every form that I do. I've never based my forms on visual landmarks but instead I based them on how my stances felt. The way my stances feel during a form can change due to many things. If I haven't warmed up yet then they'll be a bit more shallow and a bit taller. If I injure something then I won't go as deep to prevent further injury. If I'm warm and feeling good then I do what stances feel right for the situation. When doing forms at home, I step in different ways than what I would do in the kwoon to keep my stances feeling good while in a tight space. For example, in Da Mu Hsing 3 I find myself stepping backwards into the Open-X stance instead of breaking my flow by taking a few steps and then continuing the form. I still try to avoid doing things like this by doing my form in different ways whenever possible. Combining all the directions helps me keep all parts of the form normal while helping me adapt to my surroundings.