14 Days Left of Tiger

    As of the writing of this blog we have 14 days left in the year of the Tiger before the year of the Water Rabbit (Jan 22 2023 to Feb 9 2024) starts. And it has been quite a year. For me it has been all over the map, mostly good/great with a sprinkle of 😕 and 😡 mixed in to keep things real. It has been a year filled with opposing forces. My football team sucked this year but we (Deb, Kody and I) had a huge amount of fun at the tailgating party before each game, I attended my favorite Aunt's (Constance Bjorkquist) funeral 😭 but I got to reconnect with a bunch of family I had lost touch with, I deeply missed my Dad at every family function (RIP 03/12/19) but we as a family are trying to make the best of the void he left by being better to each other. So it seems that for every dark, the light finds a way to shine through. 

   And the same can be said for my Kung Fu. Aha moments appear when least expected. Take yesterdays level II brown belt class for example. Forms, lots of forms, with guidance in between each round. Insights that, if acted upon, can help me in ways that are life changing in the way I practice my Kung Fu. Something as fundamental but utterly important as trajectory and skeletal alignment. Then we talked about thrust punches, two words, but so much involved in a correct one. I see hundreds upon hundreds of thrust punches in my future. Punches from a horse, punches from a bow, transitional (slide-side steps), in conjunction with a block (counter), and so on. 

   Yesterday showed me I am taking this punch for granted, and it is affecting both my delivery of power and my ability to complete the move before moving to the next move. Either I am swinging up or pulling it short or I am turning it into a hook (kinda). And there are many factors causing it, stance, rotation, intent, center, timing, over/under thinking it. 

   So I will be doing a LARGE amount of varying thrust punches, I need to figure this out, I need to be better.

   What does this have to do with the title of 14 Days Left of Tiger, not much, but I needed a title.