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.