The Power of Influence

I had a bit of a revelation today and once again it was through my little one. This revelation shot me back to a memory of when I was a yellow belt and I was putting her to bed. While she brushed her teeth and what have you, I started doing push ups. Half way through she came out of the bathroom, watched what I was doing and asked me what I was doing, and of course at that time, WHY? I said because it was part of my Kung Fu training. She immediately dropped down and started doing push ups with Dad. At that time she was 4 years old. Many a night she would do push ups and sit ups with me.
Fast forward a few more years and she was a student of Silent River. Things rolled along quite well for a while until the next interest came about which required more time and more classes. Kung Fu took a back seat. But Kung Fu took a back seat for some one else as well. The source of inspiration stopped being an inspiration. She wasn't seeing the presence of Dad's training anymore. Dad became busy with work and Dad also didn't have the security blanket of an instructor to keep him in check. Dad became a Sihing and the rest was up to me. Suddenly dance class took a prescience over Kung Fu. Sudddenly Dad's work took priority over everything. Suddenly we weren't doing Hsieh Hsien together anymore. She wasn't seeing Dad doing push ups and sit ups, form work, basically nothing except the odd random blast of kicks. Now one parent was no longer present to help share with the transportation. All of a sudden there was an absence in the kwoon, a continuous absence that grew into, "should you just leave Kung Fu for now, maybe go back  later..... we all know as martial artists, later never comes.

This trip has changed things. My little one is seeing Dad training, doing forms, doing push ups and recording them and it has inspired her to want to go back to Kung Fu. That's just way cool.
  It was brought up a while ago at the kwoon, how cool it would be to have pictures of students doing push ups all over the world. This agenda has never left me and my girls know that at the drop of a hat, if we find some place cool or memorable, Dad's going to be doing push ups and somebody better have a camera ready. Which brings me to the whole point of this blog. Today as I went into position, my little one asked me, "Dad can I do push ups with you?" Of course I said, let's do it. She kept up with me 25 straight, I couldn't have been more proud. Proud of her, and proud to be a source of influence. Inspiration is everywhere, as is opportunity for shared engagement. Today was just cool. See you at the Kwoon.

Tools for the Internal Side

This particular book is one of the most influential and preferred tools of literature in my stash. I have others mind you, but this one struck a powerful chord that keeps me in tune with things. When it comes time for a reset and I need to rekindle motivation, inspiration, and respect to the art, this is the golden one. It basically touches on all aspects of martial arts and opens up my quest to apply not only the physical teachings, but the internal part of martial arts that I have limited experience or understanding. It helps manage the humilty and balance that I feel I really need at times. When I read about Kung Fu masters of the past, look at the different styles portrayed, and just how disciplined they were... well, it's just exciting and highly inspirational. It also reminds me just how far your journey can go and just how much of a better martial artist you can become by looking at all situations as relevant and all things have a purpose. The toughest part is achieving the ability to see things in this manner. If you get a chance, check it out, I really feel in one way or another it will change the way you approach your art, no matter what your discipline is.

A False Sense of Priorities

Most often whenever we are put in a position of being overwhelmed or challenged to the point of exhaustion, most of us tend to shed what we feel is causing an extreme load bearing circumstance on our lives. We begin a distorted view on what can be sacrificed and would should be prioritized. I think sometimes we reverse the polarity on the circuitry of our well being and thrust ourselves that much further behind.

X marks the spot

I have been working on forms in the sand the last few days and must admit, it really makes a not so bad looking form into a really sucks looking form. It's been a great work out on the legs though and I am hoping to have the stability of a steel column by the time I am done training here. Another really cool part about this terrain is it leaves a complete map of your footing, stances, transisitions, and linear movements. The impressions left in the sand show how much weight is being transferred and where your heel is not down all the way. In others words it tells you everything you need to know about what your doing in a particular form. I used it today to track all of my foot movements in Loa Gar and was quite pleased to witness a perfect square. However, I completely missed my starting point "X" upon completion.... by about 5 ft.... to the left ....and I had not even began to flip the shield to return to it. Long ways to go yet but I have the time and nothing better to do except enjoy Kung Fu.

The Process

The process. You hear that a lot along the way, but how many times to you bear witness to the success of the process? Lot's if you pay attention to the journey, and keep your ego at bay, and not isolate yourself along the way. You see, I am a master of isolation. It's not that I don't like people, nor is it an ego thing. It's a ....... not sure, but it's my thing. I have lot's of plans, lot's of dreams, and lot's of goals.Among other things. There is no ingrained thing that is the be all end all of everything, and perfection is a myth. I don't really care who you are, if you feel you know it all... you know nothing. Everything has a basic format, but if it is authentic and if you are passionate about it, there is the opportunity to put your signature on it. Follow that and pursue it like it is the last thing you are ever going to do. That is the process and that is what should be practiced. The most important thing to remember in your life is this, always be yourself and always stick to your agenda. As being yourself, practice the humility and the acceptance of all opportunities and all awareness. Nobody but you controls on how you feel or how you react. In the quest for mastery, emotions is not your primary tool, if anything, it will leave you a fool.

Unleash the Engagement

It was good to finally make a meeting and see some new faces for the year of the sheep. As I sit right now in the airport awaiting the 5 hour cramped flight to a holiday that has been much anticipated with my girls, I am very excited of what is to come. For the next 3 weeks and change I don't have to do anything but enjoy a holiday and train. Yes, training on my holiday. Running, going to the gym, and form work on the beach. That's all I have to be conerned about, nothing else. I plan on sending videos and blogging to continue where I left off not too long ago.

After reading Sifu Vantuils' blog I took note of the advice that was given and started a plan. I wrote down the steps for a sucess cycle and am going to start filling in the blanks. I'll keep you guys posted and will send some forms and video blogs soon. I am almost all the way through Loa Gar. So between this and the news of early grading coming up in May, my motivation and the thirst for Black Belt level is at an all time high. See you at the Kwoon.

Lost in occupation

I can see it's been awhile since I shared anything. Thats how long my focus has been narrowed to one thing and one thing only. To get home to my family and back to a normal training discipline.
I'm not feeling too well about how my training has nose dived into the ground. Instead of things ramping up they have gone to very little. I dont like the fact that I publish my intention and then don't follow through. It makes me feel like a liar and someone who can't back up their words. Alot of things went south in a big hurry for me the last while. Trying to complete this project and returning home has been difficult. So in order to keep moving ahead all my focus and energy is drawn to what needs to be done. Thats how I become about things that pose as difficult, I will do whatever it takes to solve a problem or complete a challenge. Well then what happened to my training, is it not something that is important to me? Is it not a challenge that is worthy of my solid focus and passion, does it not require the same discipline that my work gets. I really dropped the ball on several fronts this year and missed out on a lot of things. I havent really been there for the team or anyone else for that matter. Probably the most difficult thing I had to do besides tell my girls that I will be up here longer, was to tell Sifu Brinker that I won't be grading, and I did it over an email. Not cool, to me anyway. I don't have some of the key elements I need in order to grade and as I said my daily training fell apart fast once all the hours of work started and the consecutive days. I don't feel like I can walk into grading and test without being fully prepared. Im not saying everything has to be perfect or this is the end, I get all of that. I also know all about adaptability and to always expect the unexpected. If I am not ready with all the necessities to grade and be mentally and physically prepared, then I won't walk into it incomplete. My last post was nothing but a load of intention, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, it never happened. I just dont feel good about anything right now. I feel like I not only let down myself, but alot of people that supported me through it all. I really don't like not following through on what I say I'm going to do. I not like that, but it sure looks that way. It is what it is though, I made the decision and I will complete what I set out to do and remain accountable for my actions. I just have to get home and restore the balance on several fronts.
So if your wondering what's happening as of late, well, not much besides work, eat, and sleep. Repeat.

Moving Ahead

The year has been hectic to say the least, but who's isn't. I have encountered many road blocks and many triumphs, which is what life is really about. I think the biggest thing that I have learnt this year is that persistence is the key, no matter what you face or experience. Failure is an advancement, not a step backwards. Not getting wound up about things you can't control yields adaptability. Keeping a cool head no matter what the consequences breeds success and embraces wisdom. Keeping the ego at bay gives one the opportunity to learn and receive from the most hated or intimidating. Awareness keeps the empathy sharp and fruitful. Being non judgemental and understanding both sides of any observation or action creates a following of concrete loyalty. Lack of discipline and structure makes one stagnate and unable to focus. Mental and physical imbalance justifys mediocricy. Might as well just sit down and peel off the execuses and think of it as right.

Grading day is approaching fast and I have no idea really where I am at. I feel good about some areas and highly doubtful about others. I'm just going to move ahead and do my best. It would be easy right now to just say" Nah, I'm not ready, too much has went on. I'll grade next year". If I take this approach then what's going to be my excuse next year? My life doesn't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. Opportunitys are continuously coming down the pipe in my career and my life. My family has goals and dreams to ful fill and my youngest has big dreams that I need to be there for in many aspects. But there is also the advancement of my martial arts career that needs to happen. I want to grade and pass so I too can be in the black belt class that all students watch and wonder as we are scurried out the door. I need that buzz back that I had as I advanced through the ranks with the goal of reaching Sihing and beyond. I guess I haven't really lost it but I have failed in the area of discipline and making time for my training over the last few years. I have got in some descent training this year and have evolved in many ways and many areas that not too long ago would have never even been a consideration. So I'm not making excuses or even going to consider passing up another year. I have a few weeks left and I am going to make the most of it. If I am allowed to grade I am going to go for it and give it my all, if not I will apply all that I have learned and put it forth.  If I achieve black belt cool, if I fail, cool, at least I didn't quit or throw away another year through my personal doubt or hide in the shadows and not face lifes challenges. See you at the kwoon.

One of Those Days

You ever have one of those days where you feel like the right thing to do is pick up a truck and throw it through a house. If anyone or anything pisses you off, you either smash it or burn it to the ground from the fire that comes out of your mouth.

I'm having one of these days today and I want to share it.

I'm concerned right now with where I am at with my Kung Fu. I had the full intention of making more time for training and achieving something that means alot to me. I swore I would not take on big hour jobs and in the beginning of the year thats exactly how it was going. Then opportunitys came up and here I am, doing exactly what I didn't want to and as a result my training has suffered. I'm tired and angry because at the moment I feel like my training is too little, too late.
This job wasn't supposed to be the complete shit show it is. I was supposed to be here and gone in 6 weeks, not 2 damn months.  I was supposed to be back at the kwoon attending every class I could, preparing for grading. Instead I'm up here trying to get a job done that was doomed from the get go. I mean don't get me wrong, there has been many challenges thrown my way and we have prevailed. But I feel like there is no way in hell I will be ready. Between that and out of touch, head up their ass bean counters asking why we are not done yet, after emails explaining the situation, with pictures of the multitude of challenges we face daily, they still have to mention we are over our field hours and when are you going to be done. Gee, Yah think we're over hours and I don't have a clue when we are going to be done because things are changing daily around here, some days by the hour! I hate the fact that bean counters run everything now a days. So out of touch with anything beyond the numbers no matter how much proof you put in front of their faces.
Things will get better I'm sure. I'll just have to forge ahead and keep working towards my goals and maybe get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow is a new day, I just hope I didn't waste another year because I once again became tied up in my work.

9000 RPM, No clutch

I'm having a really hard time this last while getting in any kind of decent training. I'm in a management scum position but it's a little different this project. It's a small project that has a lot to it with limited man power. So I'm not just in the office, but I'm also out in the trenches with the crew. After a long day it's hard to get motivated and sleep is not a myth.I want to get out and do something, and I try to, but the hearts not in it because I'm beat. I am getting something done, but not as much as I want or need to. Working every day, all day, for days on end and then training caught up to me. Although burnt, I continue until I have to rest. This is nothing new to me, it's happened before and I'm sure it willen again. It's discouraging though, you build a descent momentum and your focus is as sharp as a razor, endurance is picking up, your Kung Fu is becoming more and more defined and then boom. Your face first in the dirt.

There was a time when I would build a resentment towards my training and blame the I Ho Chuan program for all of this fatigue and time taken away from other things I wanted to do. I don't really do that any more. Instead I look at what is really going on. It's not the program and it's requirements that makes me angry, it's the simple fact that I work alot and I don't take the time I should be for my own interests. On the other hand, I have goals and responsibilitys. I have Kung Fu goals, career goals, financial goals, and responsabilitys to my girls and to my self that must be ful filled. Tough balance sometimes, but the show must go on. I'll just continue to do what I can and adapt along the way.

One last note I did manage to get home for just a couple of days to see my girls. I missed them so much and my little one didn't know I was coming so it was pretty cool.       Also we have one of our own up here on the job so I have been working with him a little on the curriculumn and trying some of my personal techniques. With any luck I'll have something put together. I haven't forgot about sending out some forms, so they will be coming soon. I will send you my first set and then I will send you another to see if there was any improvement. You'll have to bare with me though I messed up in a few spots and ended going into another form. Whatever, you'll see.

Training from the Confines

Well here I am once again training in the confines of a hotel room. The Smoke is back as a result of the wind changing direction. As frustating as it is, there's nothing you can do about it so you might as well adapt your training and get something done. I am dissapointed though, I really wanted to run again tonight. I have been tracking my time and distances with the intent to get faster each time and deplete the need for walking breaks. Typically I run until I am out of breath or my legs are about to give out. Once I catch it or my legs feel like they have stabalized, I run again and repeat the process. Maybe not the best strategy considering I am running on rocks, but it's working for me. My phone came with a really cool app that tracks my distance, inclines/declines, speed, and a map of my run. It tells me where I was fast and where I was slow and gives me top and average speeds. Pretty cool and highly useful. I guess you could say the dinasour is evolving. Who would of thought.

On another note, I found a set of ankle weights and some resistance chords up here so that was a great find because I forgot mine at home. I struggle with my kicks in several areas. I'm finding that the weight of my leg is not enough to increase the strength in different muscles so I am using the extra weights with the hope that this will help. Also I'm not very flexible which really sucks when you are trying to get height and a full extension on your kicks and not knock yourself off center. This happens to me all the time and makes my spinning back kick a complete disaster. So I can do what I have done in the past and throw a fit and not do it, or I can fix my damn kicks. I reduce the amount of weight and carefully throw the same kicks that Sifu Olsivik taught us to do before we do the Qi Gong Five animal form. Stiff swinging, inside/outside cyclone, straight out to the side, and another I'm not sure what you call it but your back foot points to the outside and your kicking foot goes straight ahead. Your feet kind of start out like a "T". You guys all know how we use the resistance chords at the kwoon. Even though it's only been a day or two, I can already see how these tools are going to help. I guess we'll all see in a week or so because I am going to work on my kicks next week. I haven't really set a numbered goal, but I have a visual goal. This weekend I am going to film myself doing two forms, Loa Gar as far as I know, and Da Mu Hsing for my fellow students and Black Belts to check out. I am looking for help and advice to any area that needs it. The following weekend I will send two more forms and some kicks with the same intention.

As highly beneficial as Qi Gong has been to me for some reason it always ends up on the back burner. I have decided that this is another tool that I have been given and just letting it rust. I am going to make time no matter whats happening to use it. The benefits are endless and I feel very good when I stick to it. So that's what's happening now. I will send another video out probably on the weekend. There are a few things I would like to touch on. Talk to you then.

Getting Closer

To some of you this may be nothing spectacular, but to me I just won the geek lottery. Coming close to dispatching my reptilian brain thought process and literally smashing my tablet and phone was a very close reality. However stuborness and patience prevailed. I still have a long ways to go but at least now I'm getting somewhere. It's been eating me up quite a bit of not being able to accomplish this earlier. I don't want my team mates thinking I don't follow through on my words and I'm just plain full of s#$t.
 What you see here is the beginning of the storm that came in last week. It went from daylight to black in a very short period of time followed by lightning and rain. It was pretty gross actually, the smell of freshly put out campfire was strong and the puddles the next day were black.

Here's what it's like on a smokey day.....

 And when it's not. It's actually been worse, to the point where you can't see the trees down by the water.

This area here is where I go to train. It's pretty isolated and you don't really see too many people down here. If you do, they are running by, walking, biking, etc. They don't really pay too much attention to me. This is where I think I can start swinging my axe around without too many problems. If it does I'll find somewhere else.

So this is the start of my recorded journey up here. Hopefully a few posts down the line I'll have some footage to show you guy's with a request for advice.

Got Smoke?

I've been having alot of trouble lately trying to get some blogs out there to you guy's but it looks like I have managed to get everything working some how. I have a few blogs in my draft folder that I will be posting all at once. I said I would share my journey so your probably wondering what the heck. So here it goes.

Pretty much most of my training has been indoors due to the high abundance of smoke from the fires. It labours your breathing quite a bit with very little effort on your behalf so I have been trying to stay out of it since I spend most of the day in it. Although at times it has been so bad we had to shut down. Air quality warnings are coming out in the high 10's and beyond so no sense hanging out in that. It gets so bad there is actually smoke bellowing in the streets and buildings a few hundred feet away can no longer be seen. Yellowknife is basically sourounded by fire.
I did find a cool spot to train outside though, it's fairly isolated so I don't have to worry too much about confrontation and hopefully I can get my axe out. I do have some photos I want to share with you guy's but for some reason I can't get them to upload. I am a full blown technological idiot and  I just want to smash these things. Oh well I'll figure it out. Maybe it would be easier from my phone I don't know.

So as I said alot of training has been done from my room which doesn't leave me much space. I move all of the furniture into the kitchen and train in the living room. It's getting something done but it sucks because once I'm finished, I put it all back and off to work or off to bed. My nieghbors below me really don't dig squat thrusts either. This isn't really working out the way I planned. With endless sunshine and nothing else to do I thought this would be like the ultimate training regime. Locating the local rec center wasn't so hot either, but I did find another gym to go to. I checked it out and it has alot more equipment and better atmoshere. Not that I'm a high maintenance person, I just have a really good intuition of people or situations and where things could go. Then again real life practice might work. Probably not, so I'll stick with the other plan.
Once I can get another clear day I want to get out and run 7.5 km around the lake that is just a short distance away. I want to run this as fast as I can and then do some kicks, forms, or combinations under fatigue. We'll see and hopefully you will too once I teach myself how to upload videos and pics. Until then I'll keep posting my numbers on the website.

Float Planes, Water Bombers, and Houses on the Water

Arrived in Yellowknife a few day's ago attempting to get a job rolling and places to train besides my room. As far as work goes, you couldn't ask for a better jobsite that is right beside the lake. The only draw back at the present moment is truckloads of steel and materials that are sitting on the highway. Sitting because of the 176 forest fires that are burning up pretty much everything including the roads. It's pretty sad the amount of forest fires burning in western Canada right now. Water Bombers are flying over continuously, fueling up and back out. I have to commend the brave men and women that are fighting those fires from above and on the ground. I hope they all come home safe.

As far as my training goes at the present moment all it has been in my room. I have scoped out some walking trails that are of various terrains I intend to run on. I hoping that I can find some isolated areas and use one of Sihing Krebb's suggestions of reaching a destination and doing forms or anything pertaining to Kung Fu. I also located the local rec center so I'll check that out too.

I did manage to smuggle my Long Axe in the sea can so I could keep my weapon form sharp. I have figured out a few blocks and strikes that I want to add into the form. This once again however poses a challenge. Without going into specific details, you have to really watch where you train here, let alone swinging an axe around. Fortunately one of the guy's on the crew used to live here, so he is helping me find an isolated spot.

Well that's all I have for now, more to come and hopefully some pics or videos. I hope you are all doing well in your training and enjoying summer.

Your doing what?!?!

Well 8 more days and I'm off to Yellowknife. I sit with a lot of mixed feelings. Excitement of a new career challenge and another way I'm going to have adapt my training. Some would view this as a really stupid move considering this is a grading year. But unless your willing to come up to me and tell me this or give me a whole pile of golden advice, I don't really care what you think. Because I see it as an opportunity to show you can move the kwoon to a remote area and still uphold your commitments and still maintain your training. Easy to say yes, but I've done it before and I'll do it again. The only difference is this, you are going to see me train. You are going to continue to see my daily posts on the website. The team and even perhaps the school is going to see it by me recording video footage of my Kung Fu and posting it on the schools website. My blogs are going to be more frequent as well. I'm basically taking those of you that chose to support me on this challenge every step of the way. My intention is to seek advice and support from people on the team and hopefully inspire others. I also want to promote the schools website and use it for what it was intended to be used for in the first place. Through this I am hoping to create a tool for those that are out of town a lot or chose to train privately. You still need help no matter who you are or what level you are. If this pans out the way I am hoping it will, this will set a standard and offer a tool to next years team. There is always going to be someone who is going to have leave town or chooses to train at home.

Other feelings I have are concern. Concern that I am going to fail another year because of my absence. Intimidation through my overall knowledge of all that I need to know, and just how much I don't know. Regret that I am going to miss another bootcamp and possibly another forms seminar. I will be missing a whole pile of classes that I really need. The odds are not in my favor really. So why do it?
 To prove to myself that I can do this and I can pursue advancement in my career, better my life and training through staying loyal to the I Ho Chuan program and be ready for the fall. I'm staying positive though. The only thing I have to be concerned with is work, eating properly, and training. I don't have all the other distractions that are in my every day life. So this is as a really huge bonus. Another advantage is that one of the guys on my crew has training or has trained, so this gives me someone to work with if I need a crash test dummy.
 If I fail, at least I can say I put my heart into it and tried. If I succeed I can chalk it up as one of the greater challenges I have ever done. See you at the kwoon.

Forms

Forms. Probably the base for all your training. Doesn't matter if it's a weapon, your hands, combinations, sparring, techniques, everything is based on your forms and how much you use them is a window to your Kung Fu. Your forms install muscle memory, dynamic stretching, and brings you that much closer to achieving center. They are also the only true way you are going to discover and learn to feel and apply the six harmonies. Your flow and to be able to utilize flow in every thing you do regarding your Kung Fu is going to come from your forms. I haven't been practicing my forms as regularly as I should be with the exception of my weapon form, and I can tell.  I feel it in any application I attempt, my kicks, stances, even throwing a simple punch. So from this point on, my form reps must increase and must be practiced daily. This should help with a lot the issues I have had lately with my Kung Fu.

The excitement of a new day

I learn a lot from my little one. It's really amazing how much your kids can teach you. I learned a valuable lesson from my daughter the other day and a reminder that life is too short. It's your life and there is just so much to be excited and grateful for, every single day.

I had just gotten up and was starting my day with a little zombie mind meditation, as I like to call it. Sipping a cup of coffee and staring at the wall, my daughter came down the stairs and sat down at the island ready to eat her breakfast. Listening to her tell me about what was going on that day with huge smiles and an energy level that was very humbling to say the least. It reminded me of just how much I take things for granted and how important it is to appreciate the little things. How know matter what, everyday is a new day and it should be just that exciting no matter what is going on or what you are doing.
Thanks Eva.

The Challenge of Five

Spending the last while working on five personal techniques. I have a goal to at least complete a rough draft for all five by the end of June, and then tune them from there. A million ideas pour through my mind but piecing this together has been a challenge for sure. During all this time I barely have one. This is a big deal for me. This showcases what you know and you are. Your creativity. Just exactly where you are at with your Kung Fu. Pretty intimidating over all, and probably one of the most important requirements of your grading. I feel like man, I don't know anything and I don't have anything. At the moment. But the clock is ticking....fast. Perhaps I am thinking way too much about it. Maybe I take on too much of the approval of my Sifus, and it just has to be that good. Well it should be that good damn it. I've put a lot of time and effort in my Kung Fu to get this far. People have taken time out of they're lives to teach me these things. Took the time to give me advice on their own time. The creativity is there, the discipline and ethic to work hard is there. It's just my stubborn mindset and relentless internal criticism that continues to hamper my evolution. That and I'm just not one to throw a bunch of crap together with no thought or heart and call it awesome. You only grade once and it means a lot to me. I want to feel like I earned it. I want to feel good about what I did and not look back and say "Yah I threw a bunch of junk together and signed it off as mine, good enough."

 I guess the main thing is to remain positive and accept this as one of my greater challenges. Personally I like being under the gun. It motivates me when someone tells me I won't make it or it's almost too late. And yes it's been hinted or mentioned in a round about way. Some would see this as approval to quit, or accept someone else's opinion as right. Well if I actually lived my life that way, I doubt you would be reading this. Moving forward, once these are pieced together, this will be some of my best work.

Together we conquer, Divided we fall

I've been thinking a lot about preparing for black belt over the last while, long while. I really think that those of us that want to grade this year really need to get together, wherever, whenever. we can.
 What I have seen in the last few years is people training on their own and then in the last few months before grading or preparing for the promotion ceremony they get together. Stressed out and tired from all the extra training they have to put in in order to prepare for it all and get used to each other. Yes I have trained on my own for quite some time. It's easier to train on your own because the only person you are accountable to is yourself. Therefore it's so easy to back up your excuses or not do a requirement. What are you going to do, beat yourself up? Yell at yourself? If you give a shit then that's exactly what your going to do. So what do you gain? Very little. How do you properly prepare for anything whether it be your own personal techniques, gauging your progress or fitness levels if you have no one to work with that is training and working towards the same goal. It's time for me to break that cycle. It's time for all the candidates to break this cycle.
The appreciation and discipline of working towards and achieving a goal is much more full filling and meaningful when you are challenged and have the presence of someone else. A balance is created. If someone is failing, there are many hands to pick them up. As unit I firmly believe that we will all succeed to achieving black belt. Everyone is very awesome in their own way. Everyone also completely sucks in other ways. This is why I feel that unification will not only prepare us for success, but install strong motivation, create honesty in ourselves, and tame the egos by learning from each other and supporting each other instead of comparing ourselves to what others are or aren't doing. We will also have someone to give us a nice swift kick in the ass that we all need from time to time.

I understand people work out of town or have whatever going on, but if we come up with a plan and communicate with each other and let people know what we are working on this will work no matter where you are. So am asking whoever is going to grade this year to get a hold of me by phone, email, or approach me at the kwoon and let's start training together hardcore. The Silent River way. I need and want the help. I also want to see a bunch of us preparing and working hard together, so when it comes time to grade, we will be known as a group that was ready to grade. Let's wake up the dragon shall we! See you at the kwoon

Tough Week

I had a lot of problems this week getting in time to train. It's just one of those times life kicks you around. I didn't get in the reps I wanted to or get to the kwoon. I had full intention to get to the kwoon on Saturday to make up for the time I lost on Friday. Unfortunately I received news of a death in the family and it knocked the wind right out my sails.

I had a cousin that was killed. A young man with a young family. I haven't seen him in about 8 years but when we were younger, we were fairly close. I don't understand as we age or whatever the circumstances might be, how we always take our family members for granted. Is it really that hard to pick up a phone or take one lousy hour if we're in the neighborhood to stop and visit. Is it really that hard to remove your ego or swallow your pride and make peace over something stupid. Why does it take a death for us to realize how fragile life really is or how selfish we can be. It seems when this happens all of a sudden we have this revelation to call our parents or tell ourselves how we are going to call our relatives once a month. We are going to visit everyone we can and plan trips to see them. Then a month or two later we get wound up in our own lives and the whole plan goes out the window. Don't get me wrong there are circumstances and people we are just not going to get along with. Some people insist on closing the doors on others. I think really though if we can make some sort of peace or balance with our family that we clash with, there will be no regrets when they suddenly are gone. I am grateful that this wasn't the case with my cousin, but it could be with some of the others in my family. Rest in peace cousin.

So due to the circumstances I won't be able to complete my goal of doing 24 hours of Kung Fu as the funeral is this weekend. However I will be able to get in 6 hours on Saturday morning before I depart. From what I understand Sifu Masterson has $100 burning a hole in her pocket. See you at the kwoon.

Numbers for the week;

• Push ups  8325/ 50,000
• Ab work 8250/ 50,000
• Distance 95/ 1600
• School forms 330/ 8000
• Kicks 3250/ 50,000
• Sparring 253/ 1000
• Qi Gong 53/ 365
• Random Acts of Kindness 70/ 1000
• Weapon form 94/ 1000
• Hand form 0/ 1000

A New Tool

So things are rolling along pretty good so far. There is always room for improvement of course. I have been working on my weapon form quite a bit last week and I have achieved a solid base. I still have work to do with the flying spinning back kick but I am confident it should come together soon. Now that I have the base laid out and most of the glitch's removed I can work on good solid stances and work on the six harmonies with every strike, block, and directional transitions. I feel really good about the form and enjoy this weapon immensely. As long as I keep this focus and discipline I should be way ahead of the Canada Day demo.

Moving along with the rest of my training I didn't get the amount of reps in as I wanted to but I still have something to show for the week. I worked on forms mostly. The new tool I speak of is my tablet. I started to use it to film myself while doing forms. It has been very helpful in exposing certain areas that I cannot feel or see while doing the form. Which in turn gives me that much more information and I can make improvements and witness them first hand as continue with filming repetitions. For example I have been missing a block in kempo for sometime now. I never realized it until I watched myself doing the form. I am going to start filming my kicks as well. Something I am struggling with, but hopefully this tool will help me here as well. I have been riding my bike and doing my best to finish the day with a walk at night. Soon I want to start running once or twice a week. This one will take a little bit since I don't really like running which is all the more reason I should do it.

One last note it was really good to be able to be at the kwoon this weekend and also help out with the rotary park clean up. My decision to discontinue week end work has already improved my mindset and balance towards my journey this year. See you at the kwoon.

Numbers from last week;

• Push ups 7825/ 50,000
• Ab work 7750/ 50,000
• Distance 90 kms/ 1600
• School forms 310/ 8000
• Kicks 3100/ 50,000
• Sparring 253/ 1000
• Qi Gong 49/ 365
• Random acts of kindness 70/ 1000
• Weapon form 74/ 1000
• Hand form 0/ 1000

Because I Have Kung Fu

Lot's of changes are occurring as of late. I am directing my front wheel on a different path. Since I have trained at our school I have been able to balance things fairly well overall. It's never easy but anything worth it never is. Last year I focused my attention to mastery more towards my career than anything else. An opportunity and a intense challenge was dropped on my lap to better myself and proceed further down the path of mastery in regards to my passion. My work. So I jumped on it. As I have said before I didn't choose a career to remain stagnant or mediocre. I was also supposed to grade last year for black belt and focus more towards my kung fu, my other passion, but that went to the way side with the amount of attention and focus that was needed for my work. Between that, a family that missed me, and a lot of personal challenges I honestly thought I would never have to face. My training took a back seat and balancing became very difficult.

Fast forward to this year. I had a plan to work only on the tools and only Monday to Friday. I was going to put a huge focus towards my Kung Fu  and everything else would travel along side of me with Kung Fu in the lead. My girl's and friends were behind me, I referred to a friend to have a look at my plan I laid out for critique, and it was all good. I discovered a different perspective towards my Kung Fu mentally. The ability to train using Wu Wei was a tool that I wanted to install in my training and do my best to have a better handle on it by the time grading day arrived. It was rolling along pretty good until I set foot on the job I am at now. Here I am again working 7 days a week and very little time to do anything. Missing classes and open training is going to guarantee me a fail. It has to change.

The I Ho Chuan program is put out in front of you to emphasize your weaker and stronger points and to help you improve and balance. To help you make better decisions. Well I made a decision last Friday at work and then another on Saturday at the meeting, and I followed through today. I told my boss that I am no longer working Saturdays or Sundays. I may have to leave 10 minutes early on Fridays so I can make my Sihing class. He asked why, and I simply told him, " Because I have Kung Fu and I have a goal." I asked if this was a problem and I was told no. If it becomes an issue I will move onto another job. No big deal. I am not owned by anyone and this is a level of mastery that requires my full attention and focus. Sacrifices will be made in order to succeed and I am no stranger to this. I have been there in other aspects of my life in order to achieve mastery and this is something very special and I will see it through.

I have a few goals this month that I am working towards. I want to do the full 24 hrs of Kung Fu at the pandemonium. I want to have all my push ups and sittups caught up by the end of the month. I want to learn the full Loa Gar form so I can start tracking reps. See you at the Kwoon.

Numbers from last week:

• Push ups 6775 /50,000
• Ab work 6700 /50,000
• Dist. 70 kms / 1600
• School forms 270 /8000
• Kicks 2900 /50,000
• Sparring 223 /1000
• Qi Gong 44 /365
• Random acts of kindness 68 /1000
• Weapon form 44 /1000
• Hand form 0 /1000

As Promised

I said a few posts back that I would post my numbers in order to be totally transparent to the team and fully meet the requirement of tracking your progress publically. These aren't impressive at all considering how much time has gone by. Although the total on a lot of this could be much higher, it's not for two simple reasons: 1) I didn't write down every single rep I did. 2) I didn't do enough reps daily. I still haven't learned Loa Gar completely and this is the form I chose for the year of the horse. I could have estimated sure, but what good is that. I'm lying to me and all of you. Besides our Black Belts are too keen to try to pull this stunt. Because they have all been there and can recognize B.S. This is also a result of "I'm Gonna, I'm trying, tomorrow I'll.....," You get the picture I'm sure. So just because I am publically admitting that I am failing at the moment, this doesn't give me a pass and make it all okay. I need this to be clear to everyone on the team. I am old school and thick skinned so if you have anything to say to me that can help or give me the wake up call I need, please come forward. I welcome it.

 So instead of trying or I'm going to, I AM DOING!! and you are all going to see me catch up and progress because I am not hiding nothing from anyone anymore. You will SEE my completed requirements and numbers every week. You will see my steady progression when I am at the kwoon. I am not wasting another year screwing the pooch, or blaming work or what ever else I can divert my own lack of discipline towards. It sounds like we are finally going to start working on the phase of the project that I was hired to help with. Once this is done, I'm out of there. This schedule is too much to get in descent training, so it must change. I'll pull another dispatch slip where I am working Monday to Friday and that's it.

Just pondering a little on the things that I am at a higher level of mastery with in my life and something occurred to me. I seemed to have found the time and made the effort to practice mastery in other things. Lots of time and effort. Just like many of you have in order to better your careers or education or both, or whatever it is your into. So what's the difference between that and achieving Black Belt. Nothing. It may not seem like it or sound like it, but out of it all, I am remaining very positive and very grateful through all of this. The excitement of this years journey is still alive and well. See you at the kwoon.

• Push ups: 5725/ 50,000
• Ab work: 5650/ 50,000
• Distance: 60 miles
• Weapon form: 32
• Hand form: 0  I don't count nothing until I can do the whole form.
• School forms: 250/ 8000  (1000 of each form) I will break this down next post
• Kicks: 2700/ 50,000
• Random Acts of kindness: 38/ 1000

The Severance of Useless Energy

 Take a moment to assess all the things around you that promote your being "average." These are the things that prevent you from going beyond the limits that you've arbitrarily set for yourself.

I have been trying to memorize Mastery the last little while. I should know it in my sleep by now for the amount of times I have read it and use it for guidance. I seem to relentlessly procrastinate when it comes to my Sihing and I Ho Chuan requirements. Not because I don't care. Not because there hasn't been ample warnings from Sifu Brinker on the damaging effect of leaving them to the last minute and treating gifts as hoops and instead of tools. Is it because I have no work ethic? No. It's simply because my priorities and discipline are off balance at the moment in my training and this is the mindset I've arbitrarily set for my journey to mastery. Hence, accountability and discipline.  Am I going to sit here and complain and moan about how hard it is and how I am just so busy? Am I going to put negative energy out there and blame every possible thing I can think of as to why I am choosing to stay stagnant or mediocre. No. To me this is not only disrespectful to my teachers, the school, and other students. But to myself. What kind of example or message am I sending through this practice? I am basically telling the world through my blogs that it is okay to not try harder and constantly make excuses even though I am signed up to a hard core challenge. I am behind in many aspects of my journey so far. So should I quit? Should I just sit down and cry about it until I wet myself ? Should I quit my job? Tell my family to beat it. Tell my friends to beat it. Pump up a big ball of negativity and walk around in it like a hamster. Not likely. I keep moving along and doing my best to adapt and follow through on my journey. So what do I do to keep moving ahead?

The first step to mastery is the removal of everything in your environment that represents mediocrity, and one way to attain that objective is to surround yourself with people who ask more of you than you would ordinarily give of yourself. 

 At the moment it is difficult to be at the kwoon as much as I would like to be in order to do this. So a great substitute is all of my teammates blogs. This is a very important tool to benefit those that can't attend regular classes. So when you don't blog you are of no help to people that need it and of no help to yourself. Although sometimes late and being a private person, I am blogging more than I ever have because I need help and I want to help others. Even though I don't like it or it makes me feel uncomfortable, I don't think I am special or I need to be allowed to not do something just because I don't want to, or it's hard. If that did happen, I am thankful that I have others on the team that will tell me to get over myself and do the damn requirement. I also read mastery and assess everything around me that is negative or damaging to my training and remove it. I have severed people from my life and have made many sacrifices to keep things in check.  I consult people I hold as my mentors. I ask for help when I need it. I don't hide from everyone or just pretend that I am moving along and everything is just sunshine and roses. I am constantly making adjustments along the way and trying to do my best. I have moments of failure and moments of progress. Some things work and some things don't. When I am at the kwoon I try even harder because I am surrounded by likeminded people and teachers that expect more from me than I would of myself and distance myself from the politics. Each time I go to the kwoon I want to show some progression. The bottom line is commitment, accountability, adjustment, and following through. See you at the kwoon.

Correction is essential to power and mastery. - Stewart Emery

Working out the Kinks

Moving along steady in a scattered but productive process. Shaken documentation and working lot's of hours but it is what it is. Getting in some reps in the morning really helps with the balance of it all. Knowing at the beginning of the day I have something done has really helped a lot in my attempt to balance it all with out tipping way to the spaztic side, whether it be laziness or productivity. I have this large roll of paper that I have written down all of the I Ho Chuan requirements and put it on the wall. I use this for motivation and to help me with my journaling issues. I am going to total up everything that I have done in the last 9 weeks and post my personal goals and numbers. I will include all of my numbers and progress in my weekly blogs to show the team a view of my absence. This way anyone of the team can see where I am and what I'm doing. I want to be as transparent as I can in order to welcome critique and advice as I prepare for grading. As of course I am more than willing to help anyone on the team at anytime, all you need to do is ask.

Since last I Ho Chuan class my weapon form has progressed a little further and I am now able to start counting form reps. There is still a few transitions and techniques that aren't really running smooth, in fact they suck. You all seen the pause and I should mention there was a whole sequence missed. So I have needed to change a few stances and strikes/blocks but it is coming along well. I started to use my stick in place of the axe to help with the space issues. This also allows me to work on my form with a little less weight and less items to smash to pieces when doing the flying spinning back kick.  This one is really hard to practice anywhere but outside with the long axe. This part of the form is the most complex for me. Height, timing, stability, form and flow are all required here and they all need work. So I am working on height and doing elevators to keep the muscles around my knees strong. When doing these I have used a balancing aid until I can maintain a form of my knees staying over my feet and solid balance. I have also been using the heavy bag so I can actually feel how I am kicking and a target for accuracy. As everything improves I will raise the target.

I serviced my mountain bike so it's ready for some miles. I am hoping to get a chance to grab a chin up bar fairly soon here. As far as everything else goes it's pretty scattered right now. I am attempting to go over everything and break down my strong and weak points. I am hoping from there I can achieve a training balance that will adapt to my life style. I will admit I am a workaholic, but I am also a martial artist with a goal. That goal is to continue the linage of our great school and bring out the best I have in me. See you at the kwoon.

Closer to the mayhem in motion

So lately I have been putting time into my weapon in an effort to create a form that I can perform for the class this Friday and start accumulating some recordable reps. Those of you that are training this year with a long weapon know all to well about the challenges and frustrations involving space to train. Not to mention that right now it's still difficult to get outside. I tried tonight but the ground is mush, so the garage and basement have been working fairly well. So far I have only broken a few things. Training in this confinement has added a better awareness for weapon range to hand placement and I am starting to get more comfortable about practicing inside. I see this as a realistic comparison to real life situations where adaptability was survival. I'm sure no one said, "Yah I'll hack you up in the spring because it's too cold out right now!" or  "Oh sorry man you have to pick someone else to fight in here, my weapons too long"

As of tonight though I have found a sequence that I think will be a good base for this weapon form. Although I had lot's of ideas, combining them into flow and choosing stances has been difficult. I've taken pieces out of other pieces and added to others in order to make directional transitions flow into one another. This weapon is not something you can just hit the brakes on once you unleash the momentum. This momentum which enables the weapon to achieve devastating blows, can also leave you very vulnerable to attack if you don't follow through wisely. Like tying yourself up and exposing your back. Aside from this things are moving along steady. Sometimes really well, other times not so well.
 I am struggling a lot with writing things down. I am getting in some consistent  but scattered reps, but they don't mean squat if they're not recorded. Pretty dumb if you think about it. For someone with very limited time and every minute counts, this tool should be in first place. I guess this goes to the tool vs hoop perspective that I need to quit messing around with and just do it. Do I want to achieve this years goals or do I want to be a failure?  See you at the kwoon.

Improvements and adaptations

I did some more arranging and setting up of the training area I have in the basement this past weekend. I have added some training tools that I feel will help a lot of the areas I need to work on physically. I found a long and heavy length of surgical tubing that I use when throwing kicks. It responds very similar to the bungee chord we use in San Shou class. So this was a cool discovery. I'm pretty excited to have this because I feel it will improve many aspects of my kicks that requires lot's of work and attention.

I found this exercise tool for your improving your grip. You can adjust the spring between 40-95 pounds. I am doing 100 reps per arm @ 50lbs daily. This will develop the smaller muscles around the joints and increase endurance. It will help keep the hands strong when applying hand techniques for solid application and to avoid personal damage. This should also help improve the control and handling of the weapon I chose to train with this year. I want to be 100% confident on this, especially when swinging it around in an accelerated fashion around others and in public. This tool should help.

I am going to install a chin up bar in the near future. I seen some neat exercises with weights that I want to try out. I have also scored some assorted dumbbells that I plan to put to use as well.

I ran another copy of the curriculum and stapled it all on the wall. I had done this previously but took it all down in order to keep one with me. It works really well because it is all spread out in front of you so you can source anything at a glance and make notes quickly. I'm trying to streamline training and time efficiency.

Well that's all I really have for now other than I am working lot's of hours and am struggling with discipline and tracking. I am not using my time very well or getting in the reps I should be. I was approaching a state of being overwhelmed but I have learned to adapt and things are slowly going back to the way they should be. Instead of wasting time and making excuses and accomplishing nothing, I using those same minutes to do something in regards to Kung Fu. If I lose focus on my goals and treat the tools I have been given as hoops instead of tools, I will fail. Period. I have absolutely no intentions of failing my journey again. So I won't. I have put myself in a position this year loaded with options regarding my family and work. If work is interfering with my training I will work under a different schedule, even if it means quitting my current job. Right now I have made a commitment to a person I have a lot of respect for. One of the people that has mentored when I was first starting out and has been a contributing factor to the skillset  I possess today. He specifically hired me to work on a certain project that requires skill. I cannot make a jerk out of him and quit. So I must see this through and adapt accordingly as I have before. However, once my services are depleted, I will move on to a job that will accommodate whatever is required to complete my current Kung Fu journey.
 I have full backing from my family so that's not an issue. So the only thing stopping me, other than work and limited time with my family, is me. See you at the kwoon.

Don't bite off.....

I recently hit a reminder of what not to do in your training. I set a goal to do 10,000 kicks that shouldn't be all that hard considering I gave myself a whole month to do it. In all honesty I am barely a 1/4 way there. All these kicks take up a lot of time at the moment and steal from other parts of my training that I need to work on. Weapon forms, hand forms, techniques, etc. Things that I am way behind on like Loa Gar and 5 personal techniques. Also personal goals should take a back seat to the I Ho Chuan requirements, another recognized misdirection. My work schedule is not so time forgiving right now. 1 hour plus each way and 10 hours work doesn't leave much time, but it is manageable. If I stay away from the extreme training mentality and work a manageable and consistent rate instead of something that looks like a heart rate monitor short circuiting! I will be back where I started at the beginning of the year mentally and not lose focus and end up feeling like a failure. Not that I am there, but I have been. Therefore I recognize the pattern and know first hand how this can cripple your morale and focus and install stress. How easy it becomes to lose direction due to extremes. So I need to stomp old habits and get back to positive and progressive focus. I have a lot of trouble with routines so going off track of a fragile one that was starting to become a solid base sucked. It was my own doing but I caught it in time. Keeping in mind the past is the past and this is my journey and the march must continue. So primarily I will follow the I Ho Chuan requirements and school curriculumn first hand and practice quality over quantity instead of the other way around. I will go back 15 mins. meditation, stating 10 things I am grateful for, 1 rep of Qi Gung, 75 p/u and 75 ab exercises before I leave the house. The remainder of training can happen through out the day as time permits. Short term goals must still be a part of the plan but more manageable numbers. I can always raise the bar as my training quality and endurance matures. Training in Kung Fu happily and mindfully becomes more ingrained and more solidified. Training to the absolute extremes with no heart or passion will lead to lousy Kung Fu and failure of this challenge. Maybe I'm misguided and not getting it, or maybe something has finally penetrated my thick stubborn ass skull and this will continue to be my best year ever. See you at the kwoon.

Shotgun Post

In other words scattered thoughts.

As far as my Kung Fu is going, it's going slow, but it's moving. I'm really excited about this year. I'm really looking forward to grading and probably have the most positive outlook I've ever had. The year of the horse will be one of awesomeness to it's purest form. Everything in all aspects feels right. I just need to get my ass in gear. Less yak, more smack.

My goal of 10,000 kicks this month has taken a beating due to me being sick for almost two weeks. This isn't an whine, just a fact. One of our teammates has had a far worse experience than my little virus couldn't carry water for. That, and this teammate is tough and the engagement never left. Awesome example. So no cry babies here. Nonetheless, I feel a lot better now and will continue to try to achieve this goal. The biggest detrimental factor at the present moment is flexibility. I have a major imbalance of kicks to stretching ratio. It's takes less time to throw an abundance of kicks, than it does to stretch for the proper amount of time. The math is obvious and the lack of balanced discipline is prevalent regarding the issue. The shrinking of the muscle as it develops, and me not stretching properly, is causing me to throw myself continuously off center as I try to raise my kicks. As we all know, the more you work a muscle, the more it develops. That in turn also causes the muscle to shrink, which reduces flexibility, which requires a disciplined and committed stretching regime.
  Although my kicks aren't high, my crane stances are getting higher which is the cornerstone to all kicks and a stable center. So this is a good thing.

Weapon forms are due to be demo ready by May 15. I'll be ready for this. I'm really pumped about the Long Axe. (Thanks Sifu Freitag, for your help.) I did have some more techniques to show the class last Friday, but for some reason I get completely messed up in front of the I Ho Chaun and lost my train of thought. No sequence of form will do that. Oh well, you'll see soon enough. One thing that I am really working on is to differentiate stance transitions and sequences from learnt forms.  I have used sequences from some of our school forms when creating my personal weapon form. As a result it has completely messed me up when asked to do the form I have pirated from. Not cool.

One last thought is this. Anyone that is a student, and especially a I Ho Chuan member: COME TO A SAN SHOU CLASS! You have no idea what your missing. If you are really passionate about yourself and your Kung Fu, and you wish to look into the depths of it all, join this class! I Ho Chuan members, get in your rounds! You`re already there, what`s another hour! See you at the Kwoon!

Achieving Version 1.0

So I'm pretty excited about the weapon I chose this year. I remember being over at the weapon rack and looking over all the fun just sitting there and all saying "pick me!' and Then Sifu Freitag pulled the two short handled battle axes and I thought, these are pretty cool. It would be a two handed weapon so I could probably put together something from some of the other stuff I have been working on. Then Sifu said, "Or there is this one"  and that was it. Soon as I grabbed it and looked over it for a few seconds an incredible feeling came over me. I felt like I had just won the weapon lottery, it was love at first site. I still get pretty excited just looking at it. I'm not sure of the exact name, so I call it MINE.
 During class a lot of ideas poured in and that just reinforced my confidence to begin training with this weapon. I have been working on some techniques with each part of this weapon and I do have some that I think will be effective and I will use in the form. I'm trying to mesh my stances now to create a flow and not having much luck. There is a few kicks involved as well. The issue I have right now is I don't know this weapon completely. I haven't used it enough to trust it. I don't have the room to really swing it around and see how it handles at top speed, balance points, and which stances to use. And get this, apparently people do not like a person swinging around a almost 6 ft, shiny, pointy, spearheaded, axe from hell, in the middle of the street. Whatever. So once outside I will be able to learn to handle the weapon completely and confidently. Then I will begin to work on meshing stances and experiment with flow and stabilization during application and transition into the next technique. It is going to be a challenge to get something together in time for review. But if I keep working on what I have so far something should come together. Come on sun. See you at the kwoon

So this month...

So far this year is rolling along and the discovery of strengths and weaknesses have been exposed and are placed into certain levels or priority that will require immediate attention. Kicks and stretching are going to be a huge part of my focus this month. In order to stick to my plan I have laid out for the year I am going to try to do 1/5th (10 000) of my personal goal of 50,000 kicks and 2000 minutes of stretching by the end of the month. That works out to about 325 kicks a day and over an hour everyday of stretching. I have been doing Qi Gung almost every morning and this has helped out a lot as well. I feel the impairment that my lack of flexibility and low endurance is causing and how this is disrupting the flow and confidence to do techniques be cause the tight muscles cause so much instability and shorten range/ vector. With the lack of endurance it is causing me to hurry through techniques and the lack of flexibility removes options when training with combinations or sparring. Basically it completely messes with all of it. So I plan to do these kicks from various stances in order to have a balanced muscle structure to protect my joints and well rounded endurance in my legs and play with a lot of stretching techniques. My push ups and sit-ups are basically done the same way. For push ups, I have 5 different configurations and 6 for sit-ups, although lately it has been 5. The idea is to not cause only one group of muscles to develop and others to not, creating an imbalance and a disrupted joint path. This should keep the  muscles strong and in a balanced form around the joints and good solid core. Along with stretching of course. So I guess between that and work, and everything that comes along with it; reviewing the I Ho Chuan requirements,  reviewing the curriculum, random exercises and forms, or playing with my weapon, that's what I'm doing. See you at the Kwoon.

Concious to subconcious

The last little while has been going along alright as far as my Kung Fu is going. The biggest issue I have is a conscious routine that I can turn into a subconscious routine in regards to my training. I get bored of routines quickly and I lose the moment due to the fact it becomes the mindset that I have to do this. Then the nonconforming side comes out and the heels dig in. Must be the Taurus in me I guess. This mentality has to change or the odds of my Kung Fu evolving are going to remain slow and the odds of me achieving black belt slim to none. So I gave it some thought and thought of all the subconscious routines I have that I don't even think about, but perform almost religiously everyday. The thought process required is quite simple if you step outside of yourself and look at it for what it is. Your training cannot be viewed as a part of your job you hate, or going to the dentist, or paying taxes. It's not something you have to do because someone say's you have to. It's something you want to do, this is your chance to get rid of the day's events. This is the chance to release and relax. So I am trying to develop the excitement of doing all aspects of Kung Fu and the excitement of the I Ho Chuan requirements. I try to think of it all as a gift that I am lucky enough to be part of and create a solid structure so I can look back and be proud of not only a physical development to my Kung Fu, but the evolving of the mental side of it all. This is really starting to restore the excitement for my Kung Fu that has perhaps over the last while stagnated. I'm working on it and my numbers and reps are not where I want them to be, but they will be and a subconscious routine will develop and the numbers will start increasing. I think another huge difference this time around is I am trying to let my body run on auto pilot and not overthinking. When I am practicing my forms I lock my internal critic in a box. When I feel something is not right I make a small mental note and move my thoughts else where and I don't stop the technique or the form to avoid concentrating on that one thing. This definitely takes practice and I am no where near being able to let it all go, but I'm working on it. We'll see what happens. If I can mature this mindset, I think things should roll along cool. See you at the kwoon.

The beginning of a hidden discovery within

Well back home and back to reality. While I was away I started my training regime on Febuary first much like the rest of you. I started with Qi Gong on the beach first thing in the morning followed by push ups and situps. I managed to get in some form reps and some running. Although the numbers aren't where I wanted them to be, the quality is there, and to me that's all that matters. This is due to the fact that as long as you are doing things mindfully, but not mind fully, ( practicing Wu Wei, which I will give my perspective in a bit ) it is automatic, and you are becoming stronger and stronger everyday and your endurance is getting longer and longer everyday. Flexibility, stances, muscle memory, techniques, kicks, punches are all going to improve, so stay cool and roll with it all. You will reach your goals, they are already completed, you just have to get where they are.  This applies to all your Kung Fu. Therefore doing make up sets will be easy, which is not something you should bank on but something that will come involuntary.  I found in the past getting all wound up about numbers and reps stress a person out and in a sense your setting yourself up for failure or unnecessary stress. You lose the whole essence of your Kung Fu, you are travelling in parallel, not as one. Your Kung Fu should not stress you out. You have to look at as a stress reliever, and an escape from everything else. Is it not part of your daily challenges and should it not coincide with everything? Of course, it has too, but it should be treated as an escape, a personal journey of cool excitement. A life tool that installs tranquility and a potent health and physical enhancement. The most important part is to remember, THIS IS YOUR JOURNEY. All though we will all travel in parallel with each other on our paths to mastery, we are all different. Worrying about where others are, and where you are not, frustrations and bad attitudes are ego based. Toss your ego in the garbage, it's a detrimental contribution to contaminating  your Kung Fu. It will grow like a bad weed and it is highly contagious to others around you. Concentrate on your Kung Fu, but have a strong supportive hand out to help others on the team and kick your ego to the curb. One more very important action required is to have fun, and enjoy your journey, it's a gift, not a sentence.

Erica bought me a book for Christmas that I read extensively on my trip. In fact I read it twice. Bruce Lee's; The Toa of Gung Fu. I have already installed some of the things I have learned to my daily Kung Fu and was reminded of some things that I used to do, but some where along the way have let my ego fog my thoughts and discipline. That was then, this is now. One of the many things that struck me that I want to share, was a section on Wu Wei. Wu means "not" or "non" and wei means "action," "doing," "striving," "straining" or "busyness." It doesn't really mean doing nothing, but to let ones mind alone, trusting it to work by itself. Wu Wei, in Kung Fu, means spontaneous action or spirit action, in the sense that the governing force is the mind and not that of the senses. I have heard Sifu Brinker speak of this practice but never really understood it until now. I have the tendency to have an all are nothing approach to things. I tend to over think a lot of my techniques and forms while doing them. Which, under this definition, has thrown wrenches into my training gears and has impaired my advancement. Although I am the type of person that requires a "blue print" to all my Kung Fu, I like to get good before I get fast. I need to achieve a correct form and know it is being done properly before I will continue. To just roll into any aspect of Kung Fu that you don't understand or are performing incorrectly as fast as you can with no knowledge as to why or a solid base is stupid and I refuse to practice this way. However, once I have a correct base and form then I can apply Wu Wei. It really does work. To give you an example. As I was running, I was thinking about my strides and what I need to do to "fix" them so they feel better. My brain was telling me to stop because of the burning fatigue I was feeling. I thought of this discipline and just let my mind wander and let my body do what it wants. When I finally came out of it, I was running along smoothly, nice even strides, and I felt no fatigue as I travelled at least a mile. Way too cool man! So now that I know I am capable of this, let the practice of Wu Wei commence. See you at the Kwoon.

From one animal to the next

As I sit going over my plans I have laid out for the year of the horse and go over the successful moments and the failures of the year of the snake, I contemplate. I think about people on the team and how they have grown. I think about how I interacted with most of them and hopefully I helped them the same way they helped me. We don't really realize at times how the smallest comment or even just a smile will inspire you to do your best and remain engaged within the team. When you see others training and sweating, they're forms evolving, the mixed emotions, new discoveries within themselves, overcoming life problems, sickness and injuries, it inspires and makes you feel proud.  When you have a group of people doing awesome things and are not afraid to hold you accountable when your not, it keeps your own discipline in check. I had the pleasure of training with some really awesome martial artists this year. For that I am grateful and a big thanks goes out to the team that helped me so much.
I had some lows yes, but who hasn't. Just gotta keep going and not give up. Probably the toughest issue I had was when I realized I wasn't going to be here for the banquet. How the heck am I going to finish now and what's the point anyway. The year has been mostly missed and now I am not even going to be here for the finish. It couldn't end this way. So I offered to the team as a reliable sub and did my best to follow through and help out where I could. This was the best part of the whole year for me. I helped out my teammates in a time of need and it meant so much to be there with them. I participated in various spots in the dragon, helped out with the lion, and was a crash test dummy for the candidates. I had the opportunity to see the full dance and the demo, it was just awesome man! I did mange to make a video of my sais form but in all honesty I am glad it won't be part of the demo. To me it's plastic, and if anything would take away the authenticity and completely thrash the flow. So I'm cool with that and I'm so proud and moved by the finished product of the demo, nice work team! You all look awesome. One more cool highlight of the year I need to mention, I am sporting one of the most wildly coloured black eyes in my life into which has been an excellent source of attention pretty much anywhere I go. Thanks. Getting back to the candidates, you guys look awesome and I couldn't be more happier for you. Good luck. To the rest of the team good luck tomorrow night and Happy New Year to you all! See you at the kwoon.