What an awesome tournament. I like the Tiger Challenge, it's an awesome opportunity that gives back so much. It was cool to see all the skilled martial artists of all ages really show their stuff. Witnessing and being part of the various moments of triumphs and defeats, the ah ha moments and the "Man, I cant believe I just did that! moments, and let's not gloss over the "Oh oh I'm out of room" moments.
I can honestly say I experienced all of them. From not taking the space that was offered and completely jamming myself on my weapon form and screwing up the whole flow and timing, I was lucky to even finish the form, but I did.... almost. My hand form was not good, and for some reason I took off into this mutated, puppy scratching the door to be let in, Loa Gar tiger claws when sparing with Sihing Fuhr. That was the, "Man I can't believe I just did that!" moment. Plus we should not let the board break fail go with out mention. Lack of being prepared, not being in the moment, rushing through things, really screwed up just about everything for me. I felt I could have done better in my sparring if I didn't move like a D9 Cat, but this goes back to lack of preparation. This is all a lesson that goes back to training discipline and overall balance, and preparation. Being in the moment and taking control of yourself instead of running on auto pilot. It doesn't work. But it is experiences like the Tiger Challenge that can expose these things and give you the tools to do better. Leaving the Kwoon yesterday, I didn't feel good at all about my performance, but I did feel good about what I learned and what I witnessed. I left with a motivation to do better. To work harder. I left with a bag of tools to apply and a lesson learned on all about being in the moment at all times. Aside from all of that and how it may appear, I'm in a good place and can't wait to get back to the kwoon and work on all of the things that makes it all worth it. See you at the Kwoon.
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Moving Forward Under Load
I've been having some great moments at the Kwoon lately and I'm sure there is plenty to come. Changing my perspective and perhaps to a degree, I have gotten over myself and I am feeling myself gravitating towards a very positive place. So much going on right now, and to be honest, I love it. This is going to sky rocket my engagement to extraordinary levels. Pushing myself to the extreme is what I need to do to accelerate my well being and my character back to where it needs to be and being able to be at the kwoon as much as I am able is going to be the key.
I am continuing the pursuit of optimal fitness level and being able to lead a fair amount of warm ups lately is helping a lot. The students are doing awesome and they keep the energy high. So doing this together with my fellow students just makes it that much better and motivates me to be more creative and push harder.
Form reps has been my go to place to cover a high number of basics and new discoveries. As I have said before if you don't have a lot of time, forms are the best part of your training to use if you want to cover a lot of areas by doing one thing. Forms cover all of your core needs; stances, kicks, techniques, technique completion, timing, muscle building, and mental exercise, focus, breathing..... you get the picture I'm sure.
As far as my weapon form goes, well to be honest, everything up until last Friday I hated. In fact I hated every part of it so I scrapped the whole form, smashed it to pieces, and started from scratch. The timing couldn't have been worse, but I always say, if not happy doing something, change it or don't do it. So, I changed it. I feel a lot better with what I have now and what you seen last Friday was about half of my new form. I have the rest of it almost pieced together and I am in a much better place physically and mentally with my weapon. I will have to work very hard at it in order to get any where near 1000 reps, but I'm up for it. Me and "MINE" is going to blow some minds. Well that's the goal anyway.
Last but not even close to least is my five personal techniques. Due to circumstances out of my control, I had to take on a new partner. Lot's of work to do here, different guy, different build.... well different everything. Teaching the techniques, the timing, reactions, stuff not working the same is all a great learning curve and helps me really learn a lot about the fundamentals and efficiency of these techniques and an education in, "holy crap are these going to actually work?!?!" Whatever. The bottom line is I am very happy that Mr. Sand has offered to work with me and I feel very confident about it all. He's great to work with and offers honest feed back and helpful suggestions. Things are rolling ahead and that's all that matters.
Aside from a whole pile of other things, that's basically what's going on as of late. See you at the Kwoon.
I am continuing the pursuit of optimal fitness level and being able to lead a fair amount of warm ups lately is helping a lot. The students are doing awesome and they keep the energy high. So doing this together with my fellow students just makes it that much better and motivates me to be more creative and push harder.
Form reps has been my go to place to cover a high number of basics and new discoveries. As I have said before if you don't have a lot of time, forms are the best part of your training to use if you want to cover a lot of areas by doing one thing. Forms cover all of your core needs; stances, kicks, techniques, technique completion, timing, muscle building, and mental exercise, focus, breathing..... you get the picture I'm sure.
As far as my weapon form goes, well to be honest, everything up until last Friday I hated. In fact I hated every part of it so I scrapped the whole form, smashed it to pieces, and started from scratch. The timing couldn't have been worse, but I always say, if not happy doing something, change it or don't do it. So, I changed it. I feel a lot better with what I have now and what you seen last Friday was about half of my new form. I have the rest of it almost pieced together and I am in a much better place physically and mentally with my weapon. I will have to work very hard at it in order to get any where near 1000 reps, but I'm up for it. Me and "MINE" is going to blow some minds. Well that's the goal anyway.
Last but not even close to least is my five personal techniques. Due to circumstances out of my control, I had to take on a new partner. Lot's of work to do here, different guy, different build.... well different everything. Teaching the techniques, the timing, reactions, stuff not working the same is all a great learning curve and helps me really learn a lot about the fundamentals and efficiency of these techniques and an education in, "holy crap are these going to actually work?!?!" Whatever. The bottom line is I am very happy that Mr. Sand has offered to work with me and I feel very confident about it all. He's great to work with and offers honest feed back and helpful suggestions. Things are rolling ahead and that's all that matters.
Aside from a whole pile of other things, that's basically what's going on as of late. See you at the Kwoon.
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Gathering the Pieces
When it comes to my training I struggle a lot with keeping to a program or an agenda, and it's been that way for a long time. I'm not sure if it is just utter defiance when I feel like I can not be myself or someone or something has come into my space and is telling me what to do. Perhaps I struggle with commitment under that brain pattern. Maybe I'm just plain nuts. But I can tell you this much it hasn't served me well. I go day to day in a scattered form of madness accomplishing pieces of things but never completing the plan. I make a plan, think it out front to back and say to myself, "Hah, that is beyond awesome and no one has ever tried that." A few days in and then suddenly... off the beaten path I roam like someone that has taken on a bad habit of sniffing glue. Then out comes the giant failure stamp with the 4 by 8 ink pad and I go on a ink stamping extravaganza. I'm very good when it comes to layout, but bright as a sack of hammers at times when it comes to following through and carrying the plan forward. Unless it has nothing to do with my training. Then I can plan a multitude of steps and have absolutely no issues seeing it all work the way it's supposed to and adapt on the fly at the drop of a hat and not skip a beat. Jump into anything pretty much and continuing on like it's nothing. Logging repairs, activities, work plans, vision, all good. Training, suck ass, period. I just don't know.
I know one thing for sure this year and it's events has drained my passion and drive in the things in my life that are supposed to beneficial. I realize this. All of my focus and energy has been put forward to several things that I was not really prepared for and things that required a painful path to closure. It's very difficult to make those around you have an understanding of what's going on or what is happening when these things cannot be shared. It's a very difficult place to be when things are happening way outside your character, stuff is said, but not followed through, and you can't explain a damn thing. Your reasons, although may or not be true, are only a front for what is really going on. The only choice you have really is to use action in the place of words, and at the moment that is my rekindled starting point. You must find a way to rekindle the fires of your deepest passions and go to work hard on your well being if you have run out of, or don't have the words. You have to pick up the pieces of the carnage and rebuild through action. You must build a bridge over that valley in order to get back to where you came from, and while you cross over, have a look down and insure that what is meant to stay down there, stay's down there for good. Sometimes that takes time, and sometimes that involves sacrifice to some of the most important things in your life. Sometimes you lose a lot of face to the people you respect the most. Sometimes things happen that you can't even bring tools to the task, because you have either dropped them, or you have to go to the print table and design and forge new ones that you really don't know how to use. You must dive in and learn on the fly. You must continue to move forward even if it means dragging your sorry ass with one finger.
But once when you stop and think about things and look back, you realize you would have never made it through if you weren't who you are and what you stand for. The people in your life that have made that influence. The tools and people that helped make your structure. Regardless of the situation there is always a way, always. You just have to fight and never give up, and keep your passions solid. Tattered to shreds or not, you can always rebuild anything from a solid foundation. I don't know if this blog really makes any sense at all, but for now, it will have too. See you at the kwoon
I know one thing for sure this year and it's events has drained my passion and drive in the things in my life that are supposed to beneficial. I realize this. All of my focus and energy has been put forward to several things that I was not really prepared for and things that required a painful path to closure. It's very difficult to make those around you have an understanding of what's going on or what is happening when these things cannot be shared. It's a very difficult place to be when things are happening way outside your character, stuff is said, but not followed through, and you can't explain a damn thing. Your reasons, although may or not be true, are only a front for what is really going on. The only choice you have really is to use action in the place of words, and at the moment that is my rekindled starting point. You must find a way to rekindle the fires of your deepest passions and go to work hard on your well being if you have run out of, or don't have the words. You have to pick up the pieces of the carnage and rebuild through action. You must build a bridge over that valley in order to get back to where you came from, and while you cross over, have a look down and insure that what is meant to stay down there, stay's down there for good. Sometimes that takes time, and sometimes that involves sacrifice to some of the most important things in your life. Sometimes you lose a lot of face to the people you respect the most. Sometimes things happen that you can't even bring tools to the task, because you have either dropped them, or you have to go to the print table and design and forge new ones that you really don't know how to use. You must dive in and learn on the fly. You must continue to move forward even if it means dragging your sorry ass with one finger.
But once when you stop and think about things and look back, you realize you would have never made it through if you weren't who you are and what you stand for. The people in your life that have made that influence. The tools and people that helped make your structure. Regardless of the situation there is always a way, always. You just have to fight and never give up, and keep your passions solid. Tattered to shreds or not, you can always rebuild anything from a solid foundation. I don't know if this blog really makes any sense at all, but for now, it will have too. See you at the kwoon
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