Why Just Five?

    Five applications. I was working on these yesterday and I'm pretty sure I was having way to much fun doing these. A little tweak here, a complete overhaul there, it is funny how these can change based on your mood. Yesterday I was feeling playful, much to the vexation of my partner. I wasn't happy with my "kick" application, so I played. After some creative thinking, I came up with one I really like, and he didn't. Perfect, your partner isn't supposed to like it. Now I hope it is easily repeatable. I still have one more I am unsure about, but I don't want to change too much this close to "the day". 

   Gets me to thinking how easy it is to change the application with very little effort. A slide step versus a projection step, a strike versus a simultaneous attack, arm bar versus a softening impact, defensive versus offensive, and so on. So many choices, so many variations to try. At first I found these to be daunting, I mean how to do a technique creatively and effectively WITH CONTROL while making it work not just for me but using actual Kung Fu instead of the "me Hulk" mentality. 

   The control part I think is the hardest part. Sure I can smash my way through an application, but so can my opponent, and this very well could spell disaster for me. If he is bigger, stronger, faster, meaner, and I try to use brute strength instead of technique, game over. Working with different partners really highlights this for me. Size, weight, experience, intent, all play a part into the effectiveness of what I am doing if I am not using proper technique. If my technique is pure, then my opponent matters less, as it should work the same regardless of different attributes like size or whatever, to a certain extent. Sure if Andre the Giant was coming at me for a choke hold I would probably use a different technique than if PeeWee Herman was trying to choke me. But I would still use technique.

 

 

 

 

This is why I am really enjoying doing the five techniques, it tests my Kung Fu every time I do one, so why not do more?

Up and or Down

    This past week off from regular classes has given me so much time to reflect. One thing that I found ironic/purposeful was looking back in my previous years journals at my numbers. Disturbing trends started to appear. Nice thing about numbers written in ink, they don't lie. My weight is up while my diet/clean eating is down, this is a no brainer (duh). My push up and sit ups are down but my shoulders and hips feel almost pain free. My form reps are slower but I am starting to understand my flow better. My cardio has trailed off but I feel my endurance has improved. 

   The ups and downs have seemed to have settled into a groove, a groove of mediocrity. The trajectory I thought I was feeling was false. I mistook the positivity I was feeling for progression. Now that I have looked back at my numbers I realize I that I have let mediocrity creep in and direct my path. That sucks, especially 2 weeks before grading, yikes!! 

   Thankfully by writing down my previous years numbers I can see where my progression and regressions are. Once this year is done and tallied, I want to chart it and see the trends, like time of year, special events (holidays,birthdays,trips). If I want to kick mediocrity to the curb I need to understand how it creeps into my life, other than ego.

I Am....Grading

     I Am Grading. 

    Wow, even typing this, I get goose bumps. Three words, an infinite amount of feelings and emotions come pouring out. March 3 2014, my first class. Dec 3 2022, my Grading day. That is a total of 8 years 9 months and 1 day, or 3198 days or 4,605,120 minutes, or 276,307,200 seconds. That looks like both a lifetime to me and the blink of an eye to me at the same time. I remember sooo many individual moments that have helped define my journey but at the same time it all seems surreal. The amazing people I have met and trained with, too many to list but each and every one of them forever a kindred spirit, and a huge part of who I have become. 

    But who is that? That is what grading day will partially answer. That day I want forever more to be a black belt, not just get a black belt.

    I know grading day is just that, a day. It is not by any means an ending to my Kung Fu, but a sign post on my journey. I will continue training in Kung Fu because of the life it breathes into me. The humility, the empathy, the purpose, the discipline, the people who have become like family to me, Kung Fu is a part of my life until I am no more. As long as I am able, I will train, I will live the Kung Fu path. There is still so much to learn, I have only had a small peek into what the martial arts are truly about. 

    Yes achieving my black belt will forever change me, but every day I am alive, I am a different person than I was the day before, change is inevitable. I look forward to the responsibility that being a black belt brings, holding myself to a higher standard than I did the day before. 

            So December 3, 2022, I will give it everything I have. I will show who I am, good bad and ugly. By the end of that glorious day, I want to look back and say, "that was the most amazing day I have ever had". So if you can spare a second of time on that day, please send a positive thought or wish to your Silent River Kung Fu black belt candidates who are laying it all on the line, full throttle, exposing themselves to prove that they truly are black belts. 

    Thank you for reading. 

    

Slowin Down to Speed Up

    Thanks to Tai Chi, I am really starting to see my Kung Fu in a different light. Not just feeling my moves but seeing them as well. What I used to think was a completed move by feel, Tai Chi waves it finger at me and shows me otherwise. Tai Chi has allowed me to watch a move from formation to completion. Helping me to finding that precise point where energy is released, where technique triumphs and "good enough" falls apart. It truly is a beautiful feeling. 

   I do my Tai Chi every morning now. At 5:10am you will find me in the basement with my air-pods in listening to some Tai Chi tunes, flowing through my moves, preparing me for the day ahead. I should have started this decades ago, it energizes me in ways I can't really put into words. 

   So for those of you who haven't tried Tai Chi yet, you are missing out. 

  Where this ties into my Kung Fu has become pretty obvious to me. Several people have pointed out that I wasn't finishing my moves when I do a form. I never really got it, I thought I was, so one of us must be wrong. Well guess who that is, Me! I am noticing more and more while doing a form that I haven't released my energy before moving on to the next move, I wasn't in the moment. I thinking of the next move before completing the move I am currently doing. So I would tend to pull a punch short, or keep my stance too narrow, or just plain old flail around hoping to find a flow. 

   By applying Tai Chi to my forms and slowing them down to a speed where I can see the formation of a technique, it has given me a better understanding of my energy flow (or lack of). It makes me realize how much work I have yet to do (think mount Everest). Now I'm not saying I want to blow it all up and start from scratch, I just need to pay a lot more attention to my intent, to my power, to my flow, to my Chi (Tai). And with that should come more speed, more precision, more completion. 

I am not terribly happy with this blog but I am leaving it as is, not really sure I am getting my thoughts out properly.