My Magnifying Glass

    I see you, you see me. Your actions can affect me as much as my actions can affect you. So I must have intent when I am doing my Kung Fu. My moves, words, actions all must have the proper intent every time I do them. The affect I have on others must produce the desired effect of progress that I intend.

   This is how I am trying to approaching my Kung Fu now. In case you never noticed I am a bit of a goof off. I have spent many a decade goofing around, joking around about everything, never really applying myself to the task at hand if it is too hard for me. And I have found that creeping into my Kung Fu every now and then. The goofing around equates to excuses, and the excuses equate to mediocrity. Ouch.

    Last Thursday I had the privilege of coming up with a lesson plan for the kids classes. It took me three days to come up with 15 minutes (x3 for 3 classes) of purposeful applicable intent-full Kung Fu. I felt like this was a final exam in high school (many many years ago in 1988). Prep, simulate, re-prep, re-simulate, and so on. And then it was time to face the fire, no goofing around allowed.

   Now I am by far my own hardest critic and the cracks in my plans showed up as vast fissures in my mind. First I didn't take into account the skill levels of each class, I only had one game plan for all. I had no plan "B" for when things slowed or didn't go where I intended. Second, I didn't control the class the way I should have. My focus was to narrow, I wasn't seeing the big picture as I should have. These are incredibly valuable lessons for me. It puts me in even more awe of other instructors and how flawlessly they seem to react and adapt. I can only hope that with more experience and guidance that someday down the road I too will be able to show the mastery that the instructors at our school possess.

   So by seeing the way the students reacted to my intended lesson, their actions caused me to look at my actions leading up to Thursday. I can see the flaws in my intent now, but can I change them? I guess better to ask how to change them. Their actions opened up new avenues of ideas, be them good or bad, for me. This has really caused some deep reflection on my part, and I am kinda liking where it is leading me.

   

 

P/UP 10627

S/UP 10600

SPAR 160 min (no change)

1609 KM 501.36km

AOK 350 recorded

HAND FORM 85

WEAPON FORM 100

MASTERY 9