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