Angela's Blog

The definition of practice is "customary action, habit, or behaviour", or as I like to say, "repetition of an activity to improve skill!" 

We all know that travelling interrupts one's habitual routine substantially! Having been away for short periods recently, this has come to my attention, particularly in regard to my regular cello practice. Then I realized that three solid weeks had gone by without even touching the instrument.

My intentions were pure, but somehow other more important activities got my attention, then I began to loose interest, so when I finally did get around to picking it up again, I had completely lost track of where I left off, and found it difficult to focus. It seemed impossible to get back into the swing of practice mode. So I decided to book a lesson with Marina, my favourite cello teacher. This gave me a jump start and a real boost. I was inspired again, and came home totally fired up. The next morning I couldn't wait to get the cello out of its case and start working on the material she had given me. And so it goes... I am back in practice mode, making sure I find time each day to sit down with my cello.

While running with Danny's new ChiRunning iPhone App today, I realized that we go through a very similar process with exercise habits and running in particular. The point being, that we all need some one or some kind of prompting to give us that jump start. It could be arranging a regular weekly run with a friend, entering a race, or hiring a coach to help put you in the right direction. Learning ChiRunning is no different than any other practice, it requires lots of repetition and focus. This is very difficult to achieve without some kind of guidance. Feedback is so important in the early stages. It is counter productive to practice over and over again the wrong focuses, so hiring an instructor with a trained eye is a smart move while learning this new form.

I highly recommend the ChiRunning App for your iPhone. Not only does it give you the beat of the metronome, it calculates distance, time, pace per km and a route map of the run. The best part is getting these gentle reminders from Danny every so often: "check in with your core muscles", "lengthen through the spine", "attention to your feet", and "relax your lower limbs".

I also found that you can tune into the metronome with a regular beat 180 bpm or count every 3rd beat, which I much prefer as it seems to be more relaxing, like doing a waltz and floating through the air! Yes, I am inspired to chi run again.  Hope this also gives you a JUMP START!