Beating Up A Tree

    Board Break or Break-a-thon. October 26, 2022. Both success and failure. Yes I broke all my boards (yahh!), twice (whohoo!!), but.....the first attempt was chunky and awkward. The second attempt was better but still needs work. It is amazing what I see in my mind versus the reality of, well, reality. 

   On the first attempt I paused in between strikes, making it 4 individual breaks, no flow at all. The pause felt minuscule to me, like the blink of an eye or less, but it was enough that there was no flow in between moves. I had to use muscle and not technique to do the breaks, and I felt it painfully in my hands and feet. The boards felt like bricks and my limbs felt like marshmallows. Four days later and I can still feel my first attempt like painful little balls of spite reminding me what not to do.

   My second attempt fared better. By adjusting my strike points to allow for more rotation and space, I was able to flow from one move to the next with greater ease. While it was no Cassius Clay, it felt measurably better. The extra flow/rotation allowed me to do the strikes with much less effort. I found myself able to just allowing the strike to do what they does naturally. I went from using the "Hulk Smash" mindset to the "Flow like Water" mindset. Amazing feeling. It was like the boards weren't even there. Incredibly satisfying and humbling all at the same time.

When I reflect on the two attempts I see two different ways of approaching my Kung Fu. 

   The first attempt was all about Ego. I felt stronger that these puny boards, I didn't need flow I thought, I was just going to crush them into kindling. And while I did accomplish just that, it hurt both my body and my mind. What, it wasn't supposed to hurt! How dare the board fight back! This doesn't make sense, I am big strong hulk, you puny board, why you hurt Hulk?? Why, because there was very little Kung Fu involved in this attempt, it was all muscle and no technique.This is the wrong way.

   The second attempt felt good. It felt like a stream of water, flowing from one point to the next, never really stopping, just flowing. And pain free. There were no boards, just points on my Chi stream to look at, release, then move on. It was one of those "Aha" moments for sure. It leaves me to ponder the depth of my stream. Am I a lily pad floating on the surface of this river or a coral reef, deeply in symbiosis with the currents, flowing like a force with and through me. Sorry, getting a little Jedi here.

P.S.  A big shout out to my board holder crew, Deb, Kody, Nigel, Lucy, you all made this easier by being awesome holders. I knew I could count on you all to be invisible but indispensable, you guys allowed me to focus on the boards and that allowed me to succeed. Thank you.

42 - Please Don't Panic - I Have My Towel

    For those of you who know, 42 is a special and magical number for many beings. For me, today, it has extra meaning. It is 42 days till grading day. It is a long time from right now, it is a short time from right now. Time will both fly and drag, darn time can't seem to make up it's mind. I guess the important thing for me is that I utilize that time properly. Train effectively, eat properly, be teachable, get all my requirements done, use the time smartly cause once it's gone, it's gone. There will be moments of panic, there will be moments of peace, so I will try to savor them all. December 3rd will come and go, time will move on, life will continue. I have my towel, bring it on time.

My Favorite? I Have a Favorite?

    Oct 13 IHC class. Sifu Rybak says "choose your favorite form and do it.". Yikes. I spend the next five minutes trying to decide which of my form-children I love the most. I can't decide, oh the pressure! So I go with the one I am practicing the most at this point in time. Lao Gar it is. But this got me to thinking. Do I have a favorite?

   All forms bring something different to my table. I feel differently doing Eighteen Temple Motions versus Lung or Hung or Awakening the Dragon and so on. Each has it's own connection with different parts of who I am. Yes they are all Kung Fu and share stances and such but that is where it ends for me. Internal to external, hard to soft, fast to slow, what mood I'm in, time of day etc...

   I am still contemplating this cause my favorite depends on how I feel at that moment. 

Where am I From??

    Lineage can be very interesting. Everyone has a story, some great, some meh. This last weekend we were in Jasper for my Auntie Connie's celebration of life. She passed away back on Jan 29 of this year but her only son, my cousin Mike, is very cautious when it comes to Covid and waited till he felt it was "safe" enough for the family to get together. And what a get together it was. Fifty eight of us showed up from the family plus many local non-family friends and well wishers. Nice crowd, beautiful weather, it was quite touching. 

   I am still processing some of my emotions and thoughts from the weekend as it was a lot to take in all at once. Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, people I haven't seen since my Dad's celebration of life over 3 years ago. I made some really great connections this weekend that I hesitated to make before, mainly just because of the sheer size of my direct and extended family. It can be an overload, so many people, so many stories, so little time. But I did my best to go out of my comfort zone and just plain old fashion talk to people. 

   I feel different today. I feel more connected to my family than ever before. I don't know why I was so hesitant to connect with my relations in this way. In just the blink of an eye these people can be gone, poof, snap of the fingers, the end of their story. I find that terrifying. The finality, the inevitability of death. 

   But I digress because life is to be lived, not feared, shared, not hidden from. So if you see me in class or on the street or wherever, I want to hear your story, I want to know YOU because your story matters to me. 

   Thank you for reading this, I needed to share this because it really means something to me. 

P.S. This was my Dad and the way he approached life

Heel Toe Walking

                                   

https://youtu.be/hFElUILOkC4

 

 

 

                                                                                                                     

 

Heel toe walking. Start with your feet together standing normally. Choose a foot, left or right, it doesn't matter. Slowly start to lift your toes as far back as you can while lifting you foot. Start stepping forward gently kick the ground a foot step in front of you with the ball of your foot. Lift your foot and strike the same spot with the heel of that foot while continuing to step forward. Now let the ball of your foot fall to the ground. Repeat with the other foot, and so on and so on, until you start to get the hang of it.
 

 

 

Now we speed it up a bit. Try to combine all the motions together with as little pause in between them as possible but still keeping proper form. Again, do this until you start to feel comfortable and confident enough to start speeding it up to almost a regular walking pace.

 

Now that you have learned and practiced the steps and are conformable with the motions at a slower pace, it's time to speed it up to a normal walking pace. And here is the key to this, keep your center low and relaxed. If you stand up straight and stiff, heel toe walking does not work. So keep low, loose and breath, and enjoy some Heel Toe Walking.

POV

    Working with Ms Burke yesterday I opened myself up to her point of view. Through a off hand comment made by me, we opened up a conversation about foot placement. Now I know she has really been putting a lot of thought and effort into foot placement, but I haven't. I have just been going where my energy takes me without a lot of focus as to whether I am pivoting on the ball or heel of my foot. We played around with some moves and she showed me what she was working on. Very interesting. The insights she is having by doing this is something that has never even donned on me. Makes me wonder if I am even paying attention some times. Am I doing things "just because" verus "why is it this way". 

   It is amazing how a different point of view can change your vision on how you are doing things. While it can be disheartening sometimes, it is what I do with that insight that really matters. In this case, what am I doing with my pivoting on each move, and more importantly, why am I doing it? I guess I have found another rabbit hole to go down. 

   Maybe, just maybe, this is what it means to me to be teachable. I need to take what insight I gained yesterday and apply it to my training. Thank you Kaylee for your insights.

2 Min of Random

 Here we go, the timer starts now....

love chocolate dont like mushrooms wow road block already mmmm love summer tolerate winter love mexico my dogs name is bailey kody is now 17 (wow) go elks go foooottttball running out of time this is hard!!! stop looking at the timer silly and type 10 sec left another block done....

Circles of Truth

    What do a sore hip, physiotherapy, sleeping Hammers (18 temple motions) and mastery all have in common? At first I would have thought not whole bunch . But boy am I wrong. Back story first, connection later. 

   My right hip has been troublesome as of late, so much so that I finally sought professional help, enter Todai Bauer. In talking to him, I finally realized that it was time for me to lose the "I am invincible" attitude and get trained, professional help. What I can definitively say is I should have done this years, no, decades ago. In 37 minutes, my physiotherapist (Karen) had identified several areas of concern that have caused me decades of pain. Wow. Plus I got to try shock wave therapy, this was pretty cool and helped pinpoint without a doubt EXACTLY where I was tight. More please!! If I had just done this 30 years ago, that would have been 3 decades, yes that's right, 3 decades without hip pain. 

   Now for the Sleeping Hammers portion of this episode. Lately in class we have been using the "phrases" of 18 temple motions. I kinda knew them prior to this but never really paid them any heed. They were just the names of the moves, no biggy, right? What an idiot I can be, so it seems. What brought this to the frontal part of my brain's parking garage was Todai Duncan's video. There, for the world to see, he put 2 hammers in a blanket to show they are sleeping. What the Heck?! Where did he come up with that, brilliant!! And that started my quest to look into the "phrases", specifically Sleeping Hammers. Boy has this road of discovery opened up a new and spectacular portion on my Kung Fu journey. 

   So I will try to lay this out coherently. Tight hip causing lack of mobility unless I want pain. Pain caused by the muscles being tight and not releasing causing excess pressure on the joint and the kibbles and bits inside the hip that allow for ease of motion. To alleviate the pain, PROPER stretching and go to the physiotherapy and listen to what the professionals tell me, then do it. Makes some sorta sense right? Now for the 18 temple Sleeping Hammers.

   This move (for me) is about power and when to release that power. Hammers (fist) swing around coming down on the target, releasing their power (Chi). Boom, target destroyed, intent fulfilled. Kinda like any kick we do. Power builds up (technique) , travels through you and releases through your foot into the target. If there is no release, there is no power, if there is no power, there is no technique, and so on....kinda like my hip not releasing, hmmm, connected somehow??

   Mastery demands and eye for detail to be successful. I am not seeing what was right in front of me. Funny thing is, in Wednesday's class we were doing lots and lots of Da Mu Hsing. One move in particular was pointed out to me. I wasn't releasing my hips causing my punch to not fully extend. Again with the release!! How have I gone 8 years in Kung Fu and never noticed this before. Arrggg. Mastery is relentless, but I love her none the less.

   So in a round about circle of truth, I now have exit sign to a new path, and it's name is Release. Pack my bags, I'm going on a truth trip. 

   Sorry for the length of this blog, it was actually considerably longer to begin with, this is the condensed version. Hope it made a bit of sense.