June 28, 29, 2013

250 push ups
250 sit ups
50 inside cyclones
50 outside cyclones
5 kempo reps
20 weapon form
5 km walked

With the demo coming close all of our forms have to be top notch. With this in mind I have a few bugs to work out but I don't want to over do reps. The form feels pretty good and at the moment I want to maintain but be mindful of the techniques that need a little tweek when I do some practice reps.

I'm seeing flexibility as being a hindrance to the advancement of my kicks and techniques when practicing forms. This has always been a struggle for me. So I will have to stretch a lot more frequently in order for my kicks to improve. If you only had to kick at knee level I would be awesome. My conditioning has to improve quite a bit. There is still strength but endurance is not of what a Sihing should be. I'm going to, in the near future start installing squat thrusts with my daily routine and throw in a few burpees as well. I have been missing my daily bike rides lately and that really sucks because I could feel a difference in a short period of time with several things. I guess this would be another challenge that has been thrown at me from a full deck of wild cards. I have always had the advantage of working physically hard every day to maintain my strength and endurance and see accelerated progress when I was at the kwoon on a regular basis. Now that I have been in a management scum position I don't have that luxury because I am in the office most of the time or just out for walks. This has been by far the most challenging year for me and where I am at in my Kung Fu. The only thing to do is press on to be the best you can and do everything you can. That's it.

June 26, 27, 2013

150 push ups
150 sit ups
10 weapon form reps
50 round house kicks
50 hidden leg techniques
2 min. horse stance
 On the way home from picking up my daughter we seen a homeless guy on the side of the road with his life on his back and a sign that said "HUNGRY". So Eva and I went and bought him a meal and gave it to him with a bottle of water. I held the door for 4 people and bought the woman behind me a coffee in the line up.

June 24, 25, 2013

200 push ups
200 sit ups
25 round house kicks per leg
10 weapon form reps
10 board breaking sequence reps

I am in the process of trying to come up with five personal techniques. There is a lot of theoretical questions I have in order to fully understand the mind set to begin. These questions I am going to put forward to kwoon talk and see what kind of advice I can obtain and maybe something will come up to help not only myself but others that may be having problems.

Tonight I had the pleasure of hanging out with the team while they practiced the dragon dance. It was pretty cool to finally show up at a practice and see what's going on. Not only that I was asked to fill in the tail of the lion to help out. To keep the practice rolling and I had an absolute blast. Although I didn't have a real clue, I like being thrown in on the fly like that, jump in with both feet blind and go for it.
Brian Chervenka

June 22, 23, 2013

100 push ups
16 kms biked
8 kms walked

June 20 and 21, 2013

200 push ups
200 sittups
Walked 8km over the last two days
10 reps of Long 1 and 2
10 reps of 18 temple motions
10 reps of Hung 1 and 2

I did a bunch of Long, 1 and 2, 18 temple motion, and Hung 1 and 2 reps in the water today. It was the first time I have ever practiced forms in the water. What a great tell tale way to check resistance vs flow. It was also interesting doing the forms with the assistance of water. Taking away the pull of gravity gives you the time and the awareness of the technique throughout your whole body. From the transition to the grounding of it all. How you place your feet, the timing of your stance to the end of your strike. Once I removed myself from the water and practiced these same forms a whole new awareness to not only where I was shown of instability but a lack of continuous two handed mechanics. When one hand is dormant, even for a few seconds, the water gives it away right now. It's very hard to explain right now but I have definately discovered a new training tool that I plan to utilize in the future.

On a note outside of training I feel very bad for the people in southern Alberta right now. Imagine one minute your doing whatever it is you do, next minute your street is under water and your house is flooded and your being forced to leave. I hope everyone has gotten away safe and sound and has a place to stay and food in their bellies.

Brian Chervenka

June 19, 2013

150 push ups
150 sittups
50 thrust kicks per leg
25 triple kicks per leg
5 reps of board breaking technique

I am going to be out of town for the next 5 days which means I will not be at class on friday. I will have my tablet with me so I can keep my progress up to date and everyone on the team informed. See you all next week.
Brian Chervenka

June 18, 2103

150 push ups complete
150 sittups
10 reps of my weapon form
10 reps of board breaking techniques
Issue still prevelant with articulation into stance transisition but its coming along finally. Left handstill still needs to figure out what the right is doing in order to smooth out my articulation.
My stances are becoming more stable and flow is starting to come between right into left open x stance.
Board breaking techniques are going to require more work in order to make it flow. Right now I am working on the foot work because it seems awkward. Have spent sometime lately in settling into my stance as I strike to work on grounded power.

Why don't I just cry about it

Well lets see, I haven't been able to meet my requirements and on a scale I have already failed my chance at grading this year. My Sihing assignments are not complete and I haven't handed one in since... who the hell knows. I haven't been able to attend any practices and there is 27 of us on this team and there is still low turnouts. Reading blogs all across the map I see frustration coming through the ranks and from those that have been covering my ass and others on the team far too long. I see and read people having a moment of clarity perhaps and think maybe this is too much. We had a fair and generous warning shot about Canada Day demo and some of us don't even have a full form down yet, while others have. I witnessed the disappointment in many faces when there was talk of cancelling the dragon dance due to low turnout. There was a sting in the air. There was also a moment of me questioning what am I doing here, I am a contributing factor to this and right now I don't feel very good about it. I'm glad and in some cases almost envious of those of you that can attend the kwoon throughout the week and your journey is going well. Not all of us can do that. There is mention of guilt on several fronts. There is also nothing mentioned at all in some cases. I have not been a very good member of this team when it comes to providing a window into my training or my journey. The whole idea as mentioned at the beginning of the year was to design the dragon dance and demos as modular. That way if everyone on the team attends a couple of practices and does their homework and the fact that there is 27 of us, it should be a piece of cake. At any given moment, anyone of us could jump in and fill the position allowing everyone on the team some room to breathe or have the coverage if an absence is needed. Instead we have a handful of people that show regularly and a higher majority that doesn't. So if we require 9 people to do a dragon dance, what is the other 18 people, including myself doing. Nothing. It certainly would appear that way if your following me. I'm sure at this point in my blog I have some blood boiling. In some cases I'm sure there is the opinion of what the hell do you know, your never there. You don't even blog, and where are you at with your training. Why don't I just cry about it.

Well tears and whining don't look good on me. I have been thinking of a way to help bring a positive twist to it all. I see people down and I want to help. I am going to try my very hardest to at least get to some practices besides Friday and help fill the void of missing team members. I owe them and I owe myself. I have been practicing my forms and board breaking techniques and both still need work. One of my personal requirements was to be the best example I can to my Sifus, fellow team mates and a shining example to the rest of the school. As you can plainly see, that's not happening at all as far as I'm concerned. But I am doing the best I can. I need to take the reigns of my life and training to do exactly that. Although I blew my chance to grade I am going to amplify my training to the hard core level it once was. To train as hard as possible with the mindset that I am grading this year and time is moving fast. I accelerate better under the gun anyway. I want to advance three times my skills from where they are now and see how far I can get by the end of the year. Starting tomorrow I am going to post all my numbers and everything I do towards my training daily on my blog. I hope that with this I will shoot out of my comfort zone and expose a completely transparent window to my highs and lows with the intention to inspire others on the team and other students. As a proud member of the I Ho Chuan it is my responsibility to not only be part of the elite, but to lead like someone from the elite. To inspire up and coming students and carry on the tradition and standard of those that cut the path before me. To show those that have taught me that they haven't wasted their time, and to continue the standard through my own evolution. The bottom line is respect. Another tool I want to make a huge contribution to is kwoon talk. I want to show through example the value of this tool and awaken the knowledge of the array of black belts that monitor it and want to share their advice. It has helped me before on many fronts and others need to see this. Its like a black belt on stand by 24 hrs. Then maybe later on down the road, I can just smile about it

Brian Chervenka

Cherishing the journey

I remember as a kid getting that first sensation of something absolutely awesome and cherishing it forever. Like a certain type of food that took me about 20 mins. to eat. Still to this day whenever we make something yummy for supper I save the best part for last. Enjoy it. Savour it. This same practice goes for my interests and whatever it is I'm passionate about. Whether its maintenance on my bike or any of our vehicles or projects around the home. Even my work once in a blue moon I can take the time to do something extraordinary, really enjoy it and beam with pride. That doesn't happen very often though. But still you can accomplish something awesome at the speed of light by never losing your passion and remaining true and solid to you and just how you see the way things should be done on your life journey. I like to take my time and think everything through and understand the mechanics of it all. Not everything can be done this way though. Some things have to be done at Mach 9, yesterday. Perhaps that's what makes us successful in these situations. By taking the time to understand and feel what we are doing and becoming passionate about them brings the solution and masters of our creativity on so many levels. I feel the same way about practicing Kung Fu. I am cherishing all this time and the gift of the art. I feel very grateful to have been taught to the point I am at now, by amazing people. I cant help but sometimes wonder though if I am stalling my training with this type of mindset. Maybe there is a certain thought process lying underneath telling me that if I accomplish black belt, the cookie is gone. I know this is not the case, to me this is where your personal journey begins. But I wonder if this does have an effect. Something to ponder.

I had a really good time last weekend with the team. You guys looked fantastic, you can tell the hard work that is taking place with everyone. I beam with a lot of pride and feel very lucky to train with such talented people. Yes there are huge struggles for everyone, but we bulldoze through because that's what we do. From reading everyone's blogs, to witnessing first hand the struggles involved, the injurys, and of course the most stressful part of it all time away from the people we love. Once the smoke clears, it is very humbling and inspirational to bare witness.

As of late I have been trying to get in a bike ride every night. If possible I shoot for 10 kms. I have one of those speedometer/ odometer with way too many buttons that took me a little bit of time to figure out. Now that I have its been a very good tool. It tells me my average speed, time, distance, and top speed. I am working on building a lot of endurance and strength in my legs, so these numbers should help. I have also trying to get caught up on my push ups and sit-ups, because those are behind quite a bit and I really need to get my conditioning back up and then some. So right now I am very sick with a bad cough and shoots of pain going through my bones, from head to toe. When this happens I try to read about diet, kung fu, or watch one of my many Bruce Lee films. Also thanks so much for letting me have a position in the dragon during the parade. It really meant a lot. I can honestly say that was one of the better days I have had in sometime. Thanks team, and thanks Sifu Rybak for the help when you were at the tail.  See you at the kwoon.