Future Leaders and Dreamers

    So Kid's Warrior Night has come and gone. It was monumental for me. Twenty eight students between the ages of five and twelve, five instructors and two extremely valuable helpers. Controlled chaos at times but worth every second. I have dozens of stories I could relate but really you just had to be there to experience the joy of it. 

   A couple of things really stuck with me though. Like my blogs title, Future Leaders and Dreamers, seeing the personality of some of these students really hit home with me. Artists (Todai Cynthia Bourque), happy observers (Todai Caleb Stewart), absolute limitless energy (Todai Kaine Street-Ramsey), pure quiet leadership (Todai Freya Paszek), willingness to help beyond his years (Todai Nathan Sloove), focus beyond belief (Todai Nathan Ferris), these are but a few examples of the marvelous students we have in our school. If that night would have been three times longer I still would not have grown tired of the priceless interaction I was receiving with the future leaders of our world. 

   I will cherish the opportunity of being allowed to be part of this event and I am looking forward to the next opportunity to be involved in any event like this. 

 A very very large shout out to my fellow participants;

Todai Hadley and Mikayla Smith-Jansen

Sehing Shira Csillag, Sehing Simon Kohut, Sehing Kayley Burke

and our ring master....

Todai Malinda Ferris

You all make this school a great place to be.

Push Ups  12870

Sit Ups  12308

Sparring  700 min

1609KM  1707.74 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  425

Weapon Form  430

Mastery recited 40

Only One Option - Success

Kung Fu Warrior Night! Nov 28,2025

   Fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed. I am excited for this. I am hoping this is epic. One for the ages. Repeatable.

   Seeing the disconnect from reality that most people live in these days (social media, gaming, etc), this is an amazing opportunity to engage the younger students with the school and Kung Fu. A night of games and challenges, Kung Fu infused but with a little twist here and there to fully (hopefully) engage the student in a night to remember of fun and new friends. 

   I am both excited and nervous about the night. If thing go right, BOOM, total success with smiles all around and eagerness to be more engaged in our school. If things go meh, a huge opportunity lost to inspire the next generation of martial artists. I feel the pressure of this, I understand the importance of this. Success is the only option, 100% success is my goal. 

Push Ups  12850

Sit Ups  12268

Sparring  700 min

1609KM  1670.08 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  410

Weapon Form  415

Mastery recited 40

So Many Forms

   I took some time Saturday to run through all the forms I know. No easy task if you are taking your time. So an hour(ish) later I reflected and how much fun yet utterly exhausting that was. And I also realized how many of these forms were in maintenance mode. Slowing it down to "feel" each form caused many many questions. These are questions I get when I think I know something versus actually being able to do them. Each form had it's own challenges and questions, some were an entire sequence that no longer felt right. It was an eye opener. 

   Then there are the forms I should know but have devoted zero time to. Why is that? There are two gigantic gaps in my forms knowledge that for some reason I have ignored. Again, why is that? Questions I need to answer honestly. 

   I'll be the first to admit that I do not devote as much time as I should to working/learning my forms. There always seems to be something else that takes a priority over this. I could list them but that is just a list of excuses.  

Push Ups  12850

Sit Ups  12268

Sparring  700 min

1609KM  1634.39 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  400

Weapon Form  400

Mastery recited 40

Together

   Alone with my thoughts yesterday I found myself reflecting on how I train and how those around me affect it. Pushing myself to my limits when it is just me pushing is full, and I mean totally full, of excuses. I hold back, I cheat, I excuse my excuses. On the flip side of that, when I am amongst my fellow Kung Fu brethren, I approach it much differently. Then there is when I am instructing, different approach then as well. 

   These different levels of engagement have never bothered me before, but they do now. The subject has been brought up many many times before, both in structured classes and in the IHC. Training in a silo, accountability, eye for detail, practicing with intent, one on ones, reaching out for help, being more resilient, it has been there all along. 

   None of this should be new to me, I hear what is being said but am I listening to and understanding what is being said? I will admit that no I have not been. My ego is and has been in the drivers seat for a very long time, I am but a passenger. When I train alone, it is good enough, but for who?  For me, for you, for anyone? When I train in a group, same question should arise right?

   With the evolution of the IHC I need to understand my training better. When am I training for mastery and when am I training for myself? Should they not be the same?? 

   I cannot exist as a martial artist by myself, this I know. I need the comradery that it brings, the togetherness. Even the concept of together separately applies here, not just for the flow of my Kung Fu but the very existence of my Kung Fu. I cannot do this alone. Only the presence of my fellow travelers in this everlasting martial arts journey can sustain me and feed my quest for being better than I was yesterday.

   Anyways, this is what happens when I have a Saturday alone with just my thoughts rambling around in my melon. I feel that theses are all valid questions that I need to answer, so I will endeavor to by using the resources so generously offered to me by Silent River. 

Push Ups  12850 , 

Sit Ups  12268

Sparring  700 min

1609KM  1595.98 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  400

Weapon Form  400

Mastery recited 35

Hard to Do, For Some (Me)

   Thursday''s Kids classes. Halloween game night. I was tasked with running one of the games. I have seen this game run by others many many times, I understand how the "rules" work. Well it was my turn to run the game this last Thursday. I realized very quickly that what I knew about the game and what I could openly orate to the students for instructions were two very different things. My mental road block went up immediately . I stammered, I hesitated, I was unclear, I failed. I was dying for someone else to come over and save me from this disaster. 

   Thankfully Todai Ferris just let it play out. As soon as I realized I was on my own (so to speak), I did what I could to salvage the game. I turned on the Goof. I started to have fun with them instead of being a spectator. While it was not an ideal outcome, it was what I had to give at that moment. There were still bumps on the road but it started to turn the corner from a disaster to mostly fun for the students. 

   I still feel it was a sub-par outing by me but it was also a great learning moment for me. What looks seamless and easy for another is because they are good at it and have obviously honed their skill to achieve this level of proficiency. Countless repetitions by them has made them both competent and confidant at this skill. I am not envious but in awe of the skill. 

Funny how teaching can be so unbelievably rewarding, if you let it be.

Push Ups  12250 , 

Sit Ups  11623

Sparring  700 min

1609KM  1561.09 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  385

Weapon Form  375

Mastery recited 35

Direction From?

   The push/pull of a punch. This opened a whole can of worms for me. Doing thrust punches from a horse stance has felt like a pull for quite a while, but I am stationary. The power still travels from the earth up into my hips then is pulled towards it's objective. There is rotation, there is vector, there is intent, there is release. It feels natural both in body and mind. But then the twist came.....

   Now do it from a slide stepping bow stance. Suddenly I feel I am pushing my power up to it's final destination. So why does this change in stance(s) change anything? I am still using the earth as a base, I am still engaging (hopefully) my six harmonies, my vector hasn't changed, my target has but I am moving towards/away from it. Is it my shoulders, is it lumbar positioning, are my eyes down, has my center risen to my chest, are my hips just doing footwork not transitional power, do I not understand the concept of push versus pull, is my ego refusing to being open to change? So many questions. 

   Dissection. This is how I am describing my approach to this new paradox. I am starting with my shoulders, this is where I feel the problem lays. Am I too tense, too loose, too forward etc. If it turns out that it is, fix it and repeat until it feels as natural as the aforementioned horse stance. If not keep looking until I figure it out. I feel the fix may transition it's way though the rest of my Kung Fu like wild fire, cool.

Push Ups  12235 

Sit Ups  11623

Sparring  650 min

1609KM  1527.09 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  385

Weapon Form  375

Mastery recited 35

Little Tweak Big Pain

   Most of my pains and aches are old friends, some of them have been with me for a while, but a new one came to visit this last week. 

   While doing some kicks the top mid frontish of my left hip "popped". It hurt right away, kinda like smashing a hammer on your thumb. This was a new one, the pain was very deep, even standing correctly made it throb. Throughout the week it has migrated from my hip to my lower back, guess it is taking a tour of the neighborhood to see if it wants to move in. I have been doing my best to gently persuade it to move on, gentle stretching, heat/cold, massaging it, Tylenol, the standard stuff, and I think it is finally taking the hint and packing up and leaving. So after 4 days of gingerly moving to and fro I am hopefully bidding my newest pain an unfond farewell. 

   Seriously though, this really highlighted a flexibility issue that has been creeping up on me, especially my hips. During Covid there was a hip stretching course I took and it did help with opening up my hips. As is usual for me, once the course was over I moved on, never following through with the benefits that it brought. Time to dig it up from my old laptop and reengage with my body. 

Push Ups  12235 

Sit Ups  11623

Sparring  650 min

1609KM  1496.85 km

Acts of Kindness  1400 recorded

Hand Form  385

Weapon Form  375

Mastery recited 35