Reset Button

Progression

2012-02-18T14:28:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a new staff form for some time and have finally come to the point where I feel like it is complete. I had the majority of the movements down for a long time but was still struggling with how I wanted the form to be performed. One of the main attributes of the form is the development of control over speed. When to speed up, when to slow down, how fast to speed up or slow down, how much to speed up and slow down. This skill I have continued to find a difficult one to learn. I have found through the development of this form that in reality I only have two speeds, fast and slow. I always thought that I could control my speed but the truth is I cant. Yes I can go fast and slow but I have no real control of it in a high intensity sort of situation. This has shown me a whole new dimension of timing that I never knew even existed.

You might be thinking you have this ability to control your speed but I bet in most cases you really don't. Take for example when you have sparred in the past. The instruction is given to go extremely slow. So you slow all your sparring dawn until the most intense moment of any match happens. You are about to get hit and out of no where a lightning fast block happens. You didn't mean to block so quickly your body just did it all by itself. That loss of control is exactly what I am talking about. Sure it may seem like it really isn't a big deal but I believe it is. Explore it in a different light. If I were to through a punch at some one as fast as I could their reaction would be to naturally block as fast as they could. In this instance the fastest person always wins. Now look at it with true control over speed. I start my punch as fast as I can and half way through slow down instantly to fifty percent speed and the finish the punch at full power and full speed. my opponent only has enough time to register full speed so their entire block is done at full speed. half way through it sails past my punch which I have momentarily slowed down and I am able to strike at full speed by the time my punch lands on target. With this type of control you can land a blow on most people at will. Now it seems a little more like a big deal right?

This is the skill I am hoping to learn through my form because it becomes very valuable when you start to double wheeled weapons. through a entire double weapon form for the most part it is highly intense. You are just trying to make it out alive. So your fine motor skills start to dwindle very rapidly. but if you had this type of control you would be able to control speed separately through out your body. One hand could be moving fast while the other slow and every movement could be done a lot calmer. It would make normally high risk moves much lower risk. Such a skill will not come easily and It will take me a long time to master it. Its a good thing Kung-Fu is worked on over a life time otherwise I would have no hope a accomplishing such tasks.

commitments and Priorities

2012-02-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

Today I have Saturday off while the majority of my coworkers are slaving away on the job site. Their is very little time left for the site to be completed and the company that I work for are pushing very hard to complete the task. I know that they were displeased when I told them I would not be able to work this weekend but their is very little I can do about it. I have to look out for the best interests of my family, which means that today at 6 AM It was my job to get up and care for little Julia while Tiffany gets a little well earned rest time. During the week days she gets up with the little one and cares for her at night so I can rest up and work safely in the morning. Before we had little Julia I would have and did work every single Saturday they asked me to, so for me to actually say no to them was a little bit of a shock. I can tell they are displeased but I have to remind myself why I work in the first place. I work so that I can support my family. If my work damages my family then it becomes pointless.

So here I sit at about quarter to nine in the morning watching over the little one while she sleeps and writing this blog the whole time feeling guilty that I am not sweating on site with my coworkers. But that is what commitments and priorities is all about. We all have commitments and we all have priorities in life the burning question is the relationship between them. which is more important and which is less important. To me Priorities in life are more important then your commitments. I am the type of person who does not undertake anything without being fully committed to doing everything in my power to seeing it become successful. However my priorities dictate where my focus is at any given moment in time. So while I am committed to seeing the job site get completed on time my priority is at home with my family today where I am equally committed to see my family grow and prosper not just financially but emotionally and spiritually as well.

Well there be consequences to my actions? Yes their always is and If I act properly I will always be ready to face them. It is when you don't act and don't make definitive decisions that the out comes are out of control and the consequences are unpredictable. Today the consequence is guilt for not being their when my crew needs me. In the future the consequence could be joblessness. These issues I can face with confidence and strength as long as the consequence is not the loss of my great wife an child. That Is why my priority are as they are and that is why I am here instead of their. It is why I put priorities over and above commitments.

Maximizing time and Efficiency

2012-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

We have a new soul in the house now, little Julia. I find my self for the first time applying one of the principles that Kung-Fu has helped me to learn. How to maximize time and efficiency. I apply principles of Kung-Fu all over my life all the time but this is the first time I have had to apply this particular one to my personal life. It is amazing how quickly one can adapt when the foundation of a particular skill set is already in place. If it was not already a skill I possessed it would be very difficult to keep up with all the changes. It is difficult, but it would be a lot more stressful if I had to learn a new skill on top of everything else.

Kung-Fu is one of those gifts that lies dormant in a persons soul until the moment that it is needed arises. One cant even fathom the number of ways that it's hidden gifts will help you. Then bam! out of no where you need a certain skill set,and there it has been all along waiting for you to need it. If more people were able to see what it could possibly add to their lives you would never hear of anyone ever quitting their training. It would be a totally unheard of thing for someone to discontinue.

Their is only one catch. The whole Kung-Fu (hard work) part. Without that their is nothing. Without the hours of blood sweat and tears nothing is gained and nothing is learned. Diligence and practice are the corner stone to learning any skill set and this is no different from the greatest skill set of them all Kung-Fu.

Reset Button

2012-01-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

My last post was in 2009, that is some time ago. So much has changed, my mental state, my physical state, my emotional state, where I am at with my Kung-Fu. I look back in 2009 and remember what I was working on back then. I was working on my double chuck form. now three years later I came to a point where I mastered that form and understood myself better as a martial artist. By early 2011 I had started my new staff form in hopes that I would gain a better understanding of the weapon so that I might be capable of developing a double staff form. I had just finished the majority of developing the form when I ran out of time.

A who world of personal issues came up and I knew that with the gravity of the situation in front of me that everything else would have to take a back seat in my life and that included my training. I had to make a choice as far as my training went, I knew that my skill as a martial artist was going to have to deteriorate for the next year or so and I had to choose one thing to maintain properly. I choose my new staff form because it was the thing I was most excited about at the time.

That was almost a year ago. I have had to sit idly by and feel my body slowly deteriorate. Yes I went to classes and still spent a lot of time on the mats but I was use to several hours a week with just strait practice time. When you loose that privilege your body craves it. every time I did a form it reminded my how far I have to go just to get back to where I was. and it made me hunger for practice even more. I have never seen practice as a chore before I always saw it as a pleasure but it has only been recently that I saw practice as a privilege. I have always seen learning Kung-Fu as a privilege but I guess I never connected just practising as a privilege. My excitement for learning and playing with that which I have already learned has stayed intact largely due to to factors. One my decision to maintain my staff form and two my role as a instructor. However mostly my role as a instructor. Seeing someone understanding a concept for the first time is like reliving the experience again for my self only I get to bring along all my new knowledge and skill along for the ride. Every time I learn a little more about that particular technique that I did not fully understand as a student. It truly is a beautiful thing and I hope all of you get to experience it at least once.

I retitled my blog Reset Button because very soon I get to utilize just that, in fact it has already begun. Soon I may even get my beloved Saturday practice sessions back. Every day is a new beginning and every night we all get to hit the reset button. We just have to remember we did it in the morning.

Difficulty and solutions

2009-12-22T15:23:00.001-08:00

It has been a very difficult last couple of months. I have been in trade school and it was a very difficult time. I generally do well in school but I have always disliked it. I find it very stressful and while I am capable of keeping a calm mind during them I find that test generally stress me out. For the past two months or so I have been putting all of my energy into studying and accomplishing a passing grade in this period of training. It has been hard but I feel that it has been a success. I have not gotten any marks back from the provincial exam but I am hopeful. It was so far the hardest test I have had to write and a fairly large amount of the class were unsure of how they scored. I think I passed but only time will tell.

Their is always a great deal of difficulty in life and nothing worth doing is easy. The thing that I find I can draw hope from is that every problem has a solution. It may not be easy but it will always exist. The harder the task the better I tend to feel after I can clam victory over it. Some of the time the solutions come as plain as day and other time it feels like I am the conductor of the stupid train on route to Moronvill. In the end It is only a matter of time before the solution come to me. It may take a day, it may take a month, it may even take a decade, but in the end I will get it. All I have to do is still be struggling on the path and it will find me. The only problem is if I give up and step off the path then their is no hope that I can be successful.

I find that with training a lot of the time. I will have up's and downs but in the end if I stick with it I will progress and get better. When I started Kung-Fu I started with about eight people. Now their is just two of us left, Why is that. The only reason I can come up with is staying power. My ability to continue no matter what the odds has been very instrumental in what I have become. If I had decided to quit for this reason or that I would no longer be able progress and I would be asking my self where I would be instead of knowing where I am. We all have ups and downs In life and in training but it is what we chose to do with them that decides our level of success or failure.

Late is Better then Never

2009-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Mental awareness week is long passed. I thought and thought about what to write about but nothing of any real relevance came to mind. I came to the conclusion that mental issues like many other things must be experienced in some way, shape or form. I have had very limited experience with such issues and as such have no real insight in them.

It all got me thinking about it in a less conventional method. I have come to consider that a lack of self confidence and self respect are also mental issues. These issues can be regulated and in some cases completely eradicated. The cause of this issue is often social environment such as bullying or even troubles at home. In some instances these issues can be brought on by a singular bad experience. an experience that is often relived by the victim of that experience over and over again. Yet life goes on.

Often the cure is very complex and takes a number of years to completely come into effect. In western society we as a people are very impatient and always want instant results. We get tired of the countless hours it takes to resolve these issues and often turn to self medication. Weather it is of large scale or small scale we often try to mask the symptoms of this mental issue in self destructive manners for the temporary relief it provides yet the issue it self prevails.

The only real cure to these issues are countless hours of social reversal. To completely rebuild ones self esteem through years of work and pure positive reinforcement. To spend time and search out self doubt and to destroy it as it sits. confront these issues and prove that they are irrelevant meaningless through hours of mental training. Once the self esteem is repaired then one can then start to work on ones self confidence.

In the end their are many ways to cure these issues but all of these methods wind up taking years and years of effort and hard work.

Why etiquette

2009-10-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Their are numerous reasons for etiquette in martial arts training. Some of the reasons we may not always agree with but that does not mean that they are not extremely important in the long run. If you are working in a rank based system like most modern martial arts operate in, the ego often plays a role. Thus one main reason for etiquette is to prevent a student from unknowingly insulting a instructor or vise versa. Also it is to prevent students from unknowingly insulting one another in the class environment. In the resent months I have witnessed many etiquette slip ups. I have also been the offending party in one to which I would like to once again offer an apology to. All this being said, everybody slips up once in a while and this as well as the apology that should immediately follow are an acceptable part of training.

I would like now go into some of the etiquette so that we are all on the same page once again. One major matter of etiquette is the line up before class starts. The manner in which we line up is very important because it is a accurate representation of knowledge in the martial art that we are currently studying. Your line up is based on three basic criteria. These are belt, time as that specific belt rank and and age in that order. Anyone senior to you lines up to your right anyone junior to you lines up to your left. If their is a line in front of you you line up directly behind that person.

Other etiquette issues I have been noticing more and more are as follows. A student should not beckon for an instructor with the use of hand gestures. The student should wait patiently until noticed. Or at most raise their hand and say "excuse me Sifu". Also A student in the same class as another student should not try to correct them in any way shape or form. The only exception to this is when they are verbally asked by that student to do so. That student is spending their valuable time and money to be instructed by a credible instructor not a fellow student. Another thing in etiquette that is extremely important is the use of bowing. Every time you are given an instruction by an instructor you are to bow to them immediately afterwards. This is to tell them thank you for the gift of knowledge they have given you. The only exception to this rule is in a worm up( First fifteen minutes of every class). In the worm up it is acceptable for you to concentrate on preparing you body for the upcoming class.

The other piece of etiquette I would like to cover is when an instructor is speaking you are not. You need to be focused on what they are saying and not preparing what you would like to say. After all you are their to learn from them not the other way around. Their is much, much more rules of etiquette but I think that that is enough for now.

Ahh The Numbers Game

2009-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

In all the many things that we do as martial artists, the numbers game is the one I hate the most. I find for me that it is the most damaging thing I can think of for overall quality. For those of you that missed the leadership seminar, I touched on this a little bit but I don't think I went into it in very much detail.

To explain what exactly I mean by "the numbers game" I feel that it is important to start with the one hundred times theory. The one hundred times theory is one of the most beneficial tools for mastering any and all techniques and forms. It can also be the most damaging tool. If you choose any technique, for example the roundhouse kick. If you were to leave out any one of the key elements in the technique such as the three point possession, you are then cementing in a bad habit. On the flip side of that if you take your time with your training, apply your eye for detail and leave nothing out you will have a beautifully round house in no time at all.

Now this is where it gets sticky. The numbers game is where you start to do an extremely large number of any technique for the sol purpose of completing this large number. Say you want to accomplish ten thousand round house kicks in one month. This is a great and noble goal. Their is often just one problem and this is it. You start out your first day and say you do two hundred and fifty kicks. They are of good quality and your kicking even improves. the next day you are in some pain from all the good kicks you did but you push yourself and accomplish another two hundred and fifty kicks but due to your muscle pain these kicks are relative poor quality. The next day you repeat this again. Now you have done seven hundred and fifty kicks. That is a lot of kicking, but only the original two and fifty were beneficial in terms of skill. The other five hundred were actually detrimental in terms of skill. So after seven hundred and fifty kicks you actually moved backwards in your training.

Now that you know what I mean by the numbers game, It is a lot easier to understand why I hate it so much. Their is only one way around it. You have to do as much as you can at the best quality you can do it. In applying your eye for detail in everything you do you will progress much faster and better with low reps and good quality then you could ever hope to progress with high reps and poor quality. Think about it, well that was a relatively long winded blog and their is so much more to say about this subject but I think I will end it there... for now.

Eye of the Tiger

2009-08-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

To me the most important quality of a black belt it an eye for detail. It is the most difficult skill to get. It is the thing that is the most difficult quality to actually put to use. A good eye for detail can change any mundane task or skill into the most difficult thing to master. It also takes an extremely developed sense of self and a well built sense of self esteem. You have to be able to remove your ego and be able to tell your self that the technique that you have been practicing hard for years to perfect is actually done very poorly. Very few practitioners of the martial arts can actually put this skill to proper use.

Without a eye for detail one will never be able to take the power of a kung-fu form and put it to use. No matter how hard you practice that form you can never become a master of it unless you can apply your eye for detail. You must be able to pick up the slightest detail and apply it in your form, some times it is the littlest thing that make a technique in a form really make sense. The only way to be able to even have the slightest chance to apply your eye for detail is to practice the form in question over, and over, and over again. Only then can you pick up the little things, and only then can you have a chance to apply your eye for detail.

I is a truly inspiring thing to watch a person apply their own eye for detail in their own Kung-Fu. When I teach I only try to help when I think a person is having to apply their own eye for detail in a particular form or technique. I try to stay away until I have seen the technique practiced about three or four times the same exact way incorrectly. If I see this it shows me that the student has already applied their eye for detail and have not noticed the imperfection in it. If I see a student do a technique incorrectly but incorrectly several different ways it shows me that the learning process is still in action and thus their eye for detail may still allow them to master the technique on their own. It is a far more powerful thing to master a technique on their own. They will learn it far better if they can learn it on their own. Not only do they master the technique faster and better but they also are able to develop their eye for detail better.

Last Si Hing class I found my self extremely tempted to correct a particular students cat stance. They were applying their stance so incorrectly that it maid my soul cry out in pain, but I resisted and eventually they applied their eye for detail and it became a beautiful thing. Just to be their and able to whiteness that event transpire made me fell good about the future of Kung-Fu. As long as students are still applying their eye for detail I don't believe Kung-Fu will ever die. The eye for detail or eye of the tiger is in my opinion what defines any and all black belts an martial artists.

Blood, Sweat and Tears

2009-08-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished a seven day work week with sixty seven hours logged. I managed to also attend Kung Fu classes on Monday,Wednesday and Friday total hours that that comprised is eight hours of class time, give or take. What a busy week it was training as much as I possibly can and always being pushed to give more and more hours at work.

The reason that I have been choosing to put in so many hours at work is to be able to build a bit of a finical net for when I go to school. When this happens their will be no in come for my household except for EI which I get for going to trade school. EI doesn't even come close to being what is needed to run a household. I have gotten very use to building this nest egg so that when Tiffany and I are both in school we are still very financially sound. Get read now and life will be better and easier latter.

I find it works the same with Kung Fu. If you put in the time as a lower belt to learn all the basics, then you will find more advanced techniques come easier. Even the silly feeling stuff like the flying play an extremely important role latter. Practicing things like slide stepping,stepping into stances,flying,shoulder rolls and the rotation of the wrists with all techniques are extremely beneficial in the future. The more blood, sweat and tears a color belt puts in now the better off they will be when learning complex and strange things latter.

Chess, the game of life

2009-08-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Life it would seem is just one big chess game. You always have to be one step ahead of everything all the time or you get left in the dust. At work you always have to be thinking about the next step or you fall behind and start to rush. When you rush you make mistakes and ultimately you pay the price.

I find that it is very important to be one step ahead of the eight ball. They say if you don't know where you have been than you cant tell where you are going. I find that if I don't know where I am going I will have an imposable time getting their. It is the same with your training. If I don't have a goal in my mind as to what I want to accomplish, I tend to drift silently and do very little. My training suffers, my motivation suffers, and ultimately my Kung Fu suffers. If I have a goal set in my mind on the other hand then the complete opposite tends to happen. I get very motivated, I have better training sessions, and my Kung Fu is empowered.

I think one of the many tricks to staying motivated with ones training is to give yourself goals. They can be anything from completing a good five minute horse stance to becoming a grand master in the martial arts. The joy in accomplishing these goals and the feeling of self confidence that comes with it are some of the many great gifts that hard and persistent training have to offer a student and master alike

Why force it.

2009-08-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

From time to time I really enjoy writing blogs. I find that when I have something that is important to me to write about, It can be extremely helpful and enjoyable. Having to write a blog every week, to me is very taxing and redundant. If I have a voice that people actually listen to I feel that I am damaging it by wasting their time by writing just a bunch of none sense. People are very intelligent, they can tell when when you are not passionate about what you are doing. If I write some thing that is just a bunch of garbage, for the sol purpose of having written a blog then I feel that not only am I wasting my time but what is infinitely worse I am wasting the time of those that would actually take the time to consider what I have to say. Do this to many times and my voice becomes meaningless.

On the flip side of all this if I do not write enough and spend months on end doing nothing, then I disappear in to nothingness. My voice again becomes meaningless because no ones figures anything is being said and no one reads the blog. So where is the middle ground, if it even exists. I for one, believe that middle grounds exists in everything. Without a spot that serves both purposes we would be destined to have conflict in everything. Their is a way to be happy and at peace. All you have to do is believe and search for it.

Nice to get away

2009-08-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Some times it is just a good idea to get away from everything, even for just a little while. A good road trip can have the effect to just melt issues away. Some time to just forget all your problems and ambitions and just relax. I find it gave me a chance to just clear my mind and get creative. After the demo which was a great experience for me but like others it was a lot of extra work,I took off too jasper for a couple of days. What a great idea, I feel refreshed and clear minded and am ready to get back to work.

I love Kempo

2009-07-26T21:35:00.001-07:00

Kempo is my favorite hand form. Their is so much knowledge in it that you could study your whole Carrier in Kung Fu and never be done with it. I am always being surprised with new discoveries and new interpretations of the form, it is in kempo that I find a great deal of inspiration.

When you are young in the martial arts and just beginning as a white belt all the different ways to do a form are very confusing and irritating. It seems that every black belt that would teach you has their own way to do kempo and other forms. In the end it is all the same form. If you let it effect you negatively you will miss all the benefits that come with the various interpretations. I have been doing kempo for a long time now and all the various ways are very stimulating to me. They are a window into the eyes of that black belt. As a black belt their is a reason for every movement in our form. If the foot is different, if a step or a punch is different their is a reason for it. Do not wast your valuable time questioning it instead practice hard in the end it is all the same form.

Some times your instructors will give you valuable advice on how to perform various movements you should always take the advice. Even if it goes against the instruction of another. Their is a very precise reason why we do the things we do and every reason is geared to the betterment of the student. So in the end again don't question the advice just accept it as a gift and move on. If you do this you will have no choice but to improve.

P.S.

I Ho Chuan = Righteous and Harmonious Fists

Forms

2009-07-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I have upped the amount of training I am doing. The injuries that have been plaguing me are healed to a point that I can continue with my true passion, forms. It has always been my view that forms have no replacement in training in the martial arts. Their is no amount of push ups, sit ups or rounds of sparring that can compare to what a form has to teach. Forms are what I base my level of true skill against. Only in forms can you see who your true adversary is and how to defeat him.

When I got the idea in my head that I was going to actually create a form I had no idea what was really involved in it. I thought that if I simply put together a series of movements that I thought were cool it would be enough. So I went about creating my original spear form. It took a series of failures to teach me what is in a real form. In the end I learned from those failures that what really goes into a form is a small piece of the creators soul. After realizing this I took the broken pieces of the form and built what became my spear form. A form that I am really proud to have created. Now I have finished my new double chuck form, I still reserve the right to change little pieces of it to make it reflect more clearly what it is meant to be, but as it is it is complete.

This is why it is important to practice forms. You not only receive a hole new way to move your body as a martial artiest, Countless hours of fantastic practice time, You also eventually receive a portion of the creators soul and insight into the martial arts that you more then likely would have never come across yourself. After a while you may even become like them, a real martial artist.

It all depends on who would like to see your insight and to have a piece of your soul which are worthless without the insight you have spent your martial arts career collecting.

So the next time you do your forms think about the insight you are privileged to receive. The little pieces of souls you are being exposed too. If the efforts of your fellow martial artists, your instructors and mentors mean anything to you, you will practice them diligently. You will respect them as much as you would respect the feelings of a dear friend. At some point the forms you are being thought become a piece of you and they are no longer separate you and them become one.

Pratice hard and have fun.

2009-07-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

As black belts and instructors we are always telling our students to practice hard and diligently to acquire a level of expertise that will make them ready for the black belt test. This is a noble goal and very attainable but this is not the only reason to practice. Practicing should be a fun, enjoyable and beneficial pass time. If it is not all of those things then you are doing something drastically wrong. Kung Fu is hard work but it is not about hard work. It is about getting everything you can out of every moment that includes fun and enjoyment.

We are always telling our students and our self that you should practice ten minutes a day. This should be an almost impossible task. When you start practicing in should be so fun that you loose track of time and ten minutes should become an hour. Practicing should not be a chore it should be a well deserved reword. You should look at practice time the same way you look at a cold drink on a hot summers day. If you don't crave your practice time then their is a problem with the way you practice. You have to do something that makes it enjoyable to you or it's just not worth it.

Practice hard and have fun doing it. Take it less seriously if you have to but make it fun. If you can do this then getting a black belt will be a breeze and Kung Fu will take on a hole new level of enjoyment.

Prioritize

2009-07-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is the last of the topics that I had to talk about surrounding organization. The very first thing you have to do is make a list of actions or activities in which you want to excel in or accomplish. I is important to remember that you cant accomplish absolutely everything in you life at once so keep it short. Ten items or so is a good length for your list. This list can be comprised of anything you want. You don't have to limit it to just kung fu stuff. Things like Learn to snowboard and learn to do kenpo are both just as good to have on the list.

The next step is to order you list from most important to least important. It is very important that you keep this pure. By pure I mean to say that you should not let any ones opinion influence you. When it comes to prioritizing the only person that has even the slightest clue is you.

On a side note if you say that you will do something do it. People will stop believing you if you don't do something you tell them you will. So if on your list you write you will work more hours at you job and you decide to tell your boos this make sure you accomplish this task. Never tell anyone that you can do some thing you cant. So if you write on your list you want to cure cancer you had better be a doctor or a chemist. Don't put things on your list you cant possibly accomplish. Doing this will only serve to destroy your confidence.

Organizing training time that makes sense

2009-06-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

The biggest mistake that I see people make in their training is that they take on too much at a time. Instead of becomeing great at what they are doing the decide that their skill level is good enough. They do not finish the last stroke of the brush and leave it all unfinished. They take on another thing and leave that unfinished as well. Pretty soon they have taken so many things that it becomes impossibe to fully complete anything. They can't even go back and put on the finishing touches on that which they already knew. Before they become compititent they go on to other martial arts, often mistakenly thinking they have nothing more to learn. Learn what you already know well, then move on to the next task. Take on only what you know you can complete and no more.

Make time work for you, don't work for time. Make everything you do count. If that can't be done, do less; you have taken on too much. Accept nothing you can't handle, but always do more then you accept. This means do everything at a level you didn't think you could produce. Remember if someone else can do it or if you can imagine it, you can do it. No one is better or more capable.

Maximizing Training Time

2009-05-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

The first section of my part of the Leadership seminar was on organization. This is split up into three sub sections the first of which is maximizing training time. This is a very important concept to grasp because we all live very full lives. We don't always have all the time we would like to devote to our training so we must make the most of what time we have for it.

In order to maximize training time you must do four very important things. First you must make every repetition count. Every poorly executed technique pushes you backward in your training. For every bad technique you need to complete two good techniques. This means the time it take you to perfect any one technique will be three times longer then it has to be if you are not careful in how you execute your techniques. The person that makes every repetition count will become proficient in it in one third the time, thus maximizing your training time.

The second way to maximize your training time is the one hundred time theory. This theory is an excellent way to become very efficient in any technique or form. In the wrong hands this is a disastrous theory, allow me to explain. It ties into making every repetition count. If you do a bad technique one hundred times it will take three hundred times to make it any better. This is why you must take the time to make the technique good before using the one hundred time theory. This leaves one question. How can I be sure that my technique is sound before I apply the one hundred times theory and put me skill in the expert category. This is very simple, always come to class. Your instructors are highly trained in being able to notice any flaw in your technique. All you have to do is give them the opportunity to notice it. if you don't show up for class you will never be able to train properly and your growth will be minimal if at all. Ask them to view your technique before(hint, hint, show up early) or after class and they can give you a thumbs up for applying the theory. While apply the theory all you have to do is make the corrections they have given you and you will be an expert in that specific technique in no time.

Another important aspect of maximizing training time is don't play the numbers game. You may be thinking that I just told you to use the one hundred times theory and now you are telling me not too. This is not my message. A lot of times in training you can get so caught up in making high reps that you forget to make every repetition count. You like being able to tell your training partners that you did one thousand push up's in an hour but you left your eye for detail at the door. You may have hugh reps but you pushed your push up technique back a full month while doing it. Always do as much as you can do as well as you can do it and don't get cought up in matching your training partners numbers, your own personal training can only benifite from it.

The last thing I have to say about maximizing your training itme is this. One repitition done properly is worth one hundread done improperly. You may be building muscle mass doing many improper techniques but it may all be in the wrong places. All I have really been saying about maximizing traing time is this. Without devoloping an eye for detail allong the way and applying it to each and every technique you do you will have efficitivly increased the time you need to train. Always apply your eye for detail and you can master anything you set you mind too.

Leadership Seminer

2009-05-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Leadership seminar was a fantastic experience for me. Getting up their and talking to people that actually seemed to want to hear what I had to say. They seemed to get a lot out of the things I was talking about. It was a honer to be a part of the betterment of peoples training philosophy. For those of you that were there you know I was a little long winded, I tend to get that way when I am excited about what I am talking about. I received a lot of positive feed back, this is why in my next few blog entries I will be going over what was said in the seminar. I will be starting next week, and I hope to get your feed back on what is being said.

Encouragement

2009-05-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Their are times in my training that I find my self disappointing and totally discouraged in my training. Times that I would like to pack it all and and abandon everything. These times happen more then I would care to admit, but each time I consider it. I take a look at all the pros and cons of training in the martial arts and I sometimes find it hard to pick my self up and come back to class and continue.

Some times I get a ray of light shine down and something miraculous happens. I get completely and fully encouraged. Encouragement is a funny thing It tend to pop up in the strangest places. Lightly I have not found it in my own training but in the training of others.

Not long ago I received the most powerful compliment that I have ever received as a student of the martial arts. One of the students of the I Ho Chuan asked me to view his spear form and teach him some of my spear form. While it was not a direct compliment it was the most powerful act of encouragement I have ever experienced. I did not actually think that anyone had remembered that form but my self. I put three years of training and evolution into that form and it embodied everything I know about the spear and it seemed to have become a ghost in the darkness. Yet someone that was not being forced to learn it had been thinking about it and wanted to learn it. It made me think that it was possible for me to add and contribute in the martial arts. For me it was extremely encouraging.

Recently I have been getting a lot of encouragement from the lion dance team. The effort and time they have been putting into learning and perfecting the dance is very encouraging to me. They show me exactly what it takes to become proficient in not only martial arts but in any endeavour. To me their dedication does nothing but make me want to invest more time and effort into them. They have been making leaps and bounds in their skill level recently that I could only hope to mirror in my own training. They are what the term encouragement means to me.

Independence or co-dependence

2009-04-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Which is better independence or co-dependence. A person can spend a hole life time becoming independent but it only takes a moment to become co-dependent. Does it make a person stronger or better to be independent or can co-dependence achieve the same strength more efficiently for many? Could independence and co-dependence simply be just another illusion? I don't know but it is an interesting thing to think about.

Tournament Advice

2009-04-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

In my experience as a competitor and a judge their are a few things that judges look for. Those things are good crisp snap in technique, good stances, intensity, confidence without arrogance, and last but not least timing. All of these are in regards to form competition weather it be with a weapon or without.

Every error and momentary loss of concentration takes away points to your score. That momentary loss of balance can mean the difference between first place and third. this is why it is very important to concentrate your training on that which you intend to showcase in a tournament. Generally I start my tournament training one to one and a half months ahead of time. In this period of time I would only practice the forms that I intended to use for competition. I would do my forms as many times as I could and I would not stop until one day before a tournament. That day I would rest and let my training come together. I would not consider my forms to be ready until I could complete them five times in a row as hard and fast as I could without error. Only then would I be confident in being able to perform them the day of. In a form you should only remember the beginning and the end, your body should automatically fire off the rest.

Their are some hints that will help you maximize you score. Show up early and perform your form in every direction your form could be judged in. this will help eliminate the brain farts that happen when you are in the heat of the moment. Ask high ranking black belts to view your form and give feed back on it. These should be people you do not feel conferable doing your form in front of, black belts that make you nervous. Also the feed back will be invaluable to your training. Next map out your space on in the ring by doing your form. This will allow you to get as close to the judges as possible without hitting one of them. It will maximize your score and make your judges blood rush which my help to provide the illusion of intensity. Also it well let you know if you need to ask for additional space to complete your form. In open tournaments it is good practice to have a couple of forms ready. A softer form and a harder form, use which ever happens to correspond to your judges. Soft style for hard style judges and hard style for soft style judges. this allows them to see something the are not so used to and it will score you points.

Any one of the following will cost you points in a form.
brain fart- momentary loss of place, only remedy is lots of practice.
loss of balance- shakiness in a stance or movement- best remedy is repeat that section over and over again.
lack of intensity- All judges can very easily pick up on this. To fix this think of something it would be worth dying to protect and then fight in your form to protect it.
lack of snap- any technique without snap cost you points. Treat every technique as if it was not prefect and powerful it means your life. It definitely means the difference between placing and not.
Lastly attitude- Walk in to a tournament as if you are the best and all others are only competing for second looser. Do not however ever question a decision by a judge. It will only end in shame for your as well as your school.

And Never under any circumstances question a judge, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER QUESTION A JUDGE, EVER!

Keep all this in mind when competing and it should increase the odds of success in any tournament.

Goal Accomplished

2009-04-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

This passed Saturday I challenged myself to one thousand push ups and one thousand sit ups. It took me the better part of a day to do both at the same time. Now initially I thought that the Physical aspect would be the most difficult but it wasn't. I thought that having to push my upper body to an extreme that it has not experienced for a very long time, would be difficult. The truth is that after a while I got to a point that I could do a small set every time so physically it only got so hard. On the other hand mentally it was like doing the hurdles. every set I had to tell my self that it well all be over soon and I could go to bed. I had to do this probably twenty five times. each and every time it just kept getting mentally harder but eventually I accomplished my goal.

I think that most things in life are like this. After a while they only get so hard but mentally their could be limit to the difficulty. Every failure takes away mental strength and the longer that failure continues it just keeps getting easier to give up and pack it in. It can become easier to stay in a state of perpetual failure then it is to succeeded and pull your self out of the gutter.

Kung-Fu is no different. It becomes easier to stay unaccomplished that it is to take a risk and better yourself and increase your training. It feels safer to do nothing then then risk the chance of failing at success. The problem is that without failure success is meaningless.

Multiple Persona Syndrome

2009-03-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

As I grow older I find that in all the different walks of life people expect different things of me. Weather it be at home, work, Kung-Fu, People expect a different set of abilities, attitudes, and roles from me. In each of those places I find myself being almost totally different people to be successful in each of my roles. True all the different persona's are held together by one common being, one set of rules and guidelines that they all must abide by. Who are all these different people?

Sifu Playter who art thou? This is a very capable armature in the martial arts. Good with weapons, forms, Physical fitness, and bound with plenty of drive for success. A dependable person with a good attitude but doesn't always do what he is suppose to. Not all that great with criticism but always striving to be better. A little dark and withdrawn at times which makes him a bit of a lone wolf.

Michael Playter the Apprentice. This is a person that is hard working. Capable of working independently or in a group. Also capable of leading a group in completing tasks in a timely manor. Never misses work and is very rarely not up for a new task. Always trying to develop new skills and friendly.

I don't know if I am the only person that has a different persona to camouflage myself for different worlds but I some times find it to be a necessity.

The budget

2009-03-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Recently we have been working hard on budgeting our finances. We have set forth certain boundaries for spending. What to spend on how much to spend on it emergency money etc. It was originally designed to give my wife more time to devote to her studies, but it has done much more than that. It wasn't that we were have a hard time managing our money because I have always been fairly good with money. It was set up so we could accomplish our goals in a time frame that we had and to accomplish them in a way that did not make our lives completely miserable. What I have found with it though is that it gave me a greater respect for what I had. all the little things that I use to take for granted suddenly resurfaces and presented themselves again.

Soon we will have completed the goals that we have set forth to complete at which time we could scrap the budget. The thing is I don't want to all the benefits of budgeting which have come forward very quickly and well be lost equally as quickly if it is scraped. We will remain on a budget, it might get tweaked a little but it will still be effective.

Budgeting is a very interesting exercises. It challenges the will and shows you just exactly what is important to you on a week to week basis. I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to accomplish a financial goal or anyone who wants to step out of their comfort zone for a little while and see what you can do with limited resources.

Excitement

2009-03-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight I get to spend the night thinking about the new day I am going to have tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow is just another over exhausted Monday. This Monday is different, this Monday represents the first day of the rest of my life. The excitement is at a level that I have not felt for a long time. It is close to the first time I ever competed. Will I do well? Will my skills and knowledge shine through the nervousness on a new beginning? Will they like me? It is this feeling that got me hooked on competing and made me such a ferocious competitor. The feeling of being alive and curious to see what is around the corner. Will I win?

After a while this feeling will die and it will just become another routine in a long list of routines that make up my day to day life, but tomorrow is different. Tomorrow I get to break out of the normal life and experience something new for the very first time. An event that I must savour because the opportunity does not walk into ones life every day.

I guess it all boils down to change. Change is something most of us are afraid of. We stay in our routines because those routines are tried, tested and true. The routines never fail, they have proven to be extremely safe and that is a comforting feeling. Their is just one question that is left unanswered. Do we control our own destiny like we all like to say? or does the routine control it for us?

I believe that if we never change that which works we will never find that which works better. Take back control of our own destiny make that change and again be afraid of the consequences of that action and be excited to live for today, tomorrow, and the next day. We may find that if we change some aspect of our life every day that we find that Monday's again become the Mondays that we remember at the age of five and not just another beginning of a work week we know we will hate.

Back Again

2009-02-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

For the last little while I have been slacking off with the whole blogging thing. Their is no really good excuse for this so I will just call it what it really is LAZINESS. Something it is high time was corrected. So what will I write about?

This week I will be leaving a job that I have grown in and prospered from for two years now. The reasons for this are a little personal but just like the laziness with blogging it is definitely time for the change. I am making this change in a time that maybe is not the wisest but never the less it needs to be done.

I start my new job this Friday and am a little nervous over the change but the experience that I could possibly gain is priceless. Change is always a good thing it takes a person out of their comfort zone immediately and they are forced to adapt to a new situation. Life is change and without it you tend to become a zombie going after the same thing over and over again " Brains BRRRAAAIIINNNSS"

Physical and mental trash

2009-01-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

Just spent the last few hours Cleaning out the closets in my house and I'm not even close to being done. Two garbage bags latter and yet still more useless trash to get rid off. It makes me wounder, if I have this much unidentifiable useless trash in my house I wounder just how much useless trash I've got rolling around in my head. How much mental weight do I and those around me really have? Also can I rid myself of it by just letting it go to the dump along with all the trash in my house? This could be a good way of taking some weight off my shoulders, after all anything that is just dead mental weight is only taking up room and should be tossed out along with the rest of the trash.

Christmas, X-mas, Why-mas?

2008-12-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

Every year their is grumbling about what to call Christmas. You hear it on the radio, you see it on television. This is what I like to call a "non-issue issue". Christmas is a Christian holiday, it is called Christmas because you are supposed to be celebrating this dude named Jesus and his birthday. Christ is the title the Jews gave their savior hence the name Jesus Christ or Jesus the savior. This is where we get the word Christmas from. We used the term X-mas so as to not offend minorities or other such people, who would perhaps like to celebrate the holiday but not call it Christmas. This is total nonsense, Christmas is Christmas for a reason. Why are they totally afraid of the word Christmas. Changing Christmas to X-mas is like taking a deck of cards exchanging all the reds for blacks because the color red offends you. It is still just a deck of cards people only now it is a deck of card that is totally useless. So the next time you are filling out your CHRISTMAS cards fill them out with the appropriate terminology or stop celebrating the holiday all together. From this blog entry you might think I am a christian, I'm not. I'm just a little tired of going through life tipsy toeing over broken glass just so people don't get offended on my choice of shoes

You don't have to be a ninja to be invisable

2008-12-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I was out for supper with my parents. Supper was going well when all of the sudden my mother started gasping for air. She then started to choke the words Heimlich, Heimlich, to which my father immediately responded. He gave her the Heimlich three times and suddenly a piece of wet, chewed steak came flying out of her mouth. It almost hit some one coming out of the washroom and I felt relived.

Shortly after this episode happened I glanced around the dim steak house. I was very confused with what I saw. Not a single person paid the slightest bit of attention on what was going on around them. Not one person, had even really noticed what had happened, not even the person that the steak almost hit seemed even the slightest bit phased.

It made me realize that very few people have a clue what happens around them. as long as you don't interrupt their perfect little world they don't even know you exist. We as a people spend a lot of time making ourselves presentable for complete strangers who don't know or really care that we exist.

While I'm driving I some times wounder about the people on the road with me. I try to imagine what their lives are like. This person in the red mustang who just cut me off is someones son, brother, father, husband, and now to me all they really are is a big stupid moron that got his licence out of a cracker jack box, and he definitely paid too much for it. And yet someone loves them even if they are satins spawn, are they really that bad..... sure why not it makes no difference to me I'll never even see them again. Even if I do happen to see them again it wont matter because neither of us well recognize the other.

I wounder if anybody ever thinks about others on the roads or even people that they pass by on the street. I think most people are so caught up in their own little existence to give two thoughts about others. Kind of a scary thought in a world where pushing a button and not pushing a button is the difference between it being minus nineteen degrees Celsius and plus one billion out.

God of Gods

2008-11-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

Their are many gods in the world, but their is one god that all people of all walks of life in all the world worship. This God is so powerful that all other gods need this one to even have their voice heard. This is a god that has no mercy and all the power to change the world in a heart beat. Everybody worships this god every day of their lives. The more they worship it the more power the god grants them. This god could cure the sick in the world and feed all the worlds hungry in an instant if it so chose. Every day you wake up and every decision you make is based on this gods will. Weather you are able to feed your family and sleep in a warm bed at night is decided by how much time you spend in worship. This god has the power to turn husband against wife,brother against brother, mother against daughter instantly. Society's and empires rise and fall at its slightest whim. This god is so powerful that every church or it's equivalent in every country of the world makes time to worship it. This god can make a saint into a sinner and a sinner into a saint without the slightest argument from anyone.

Every country in the world has a name for it and build huge monuments, declaring its greatness. Its church is in the centre of every major city in all the country's of the world. If you don't worship it you become an outcast in society. This god makes its presence felt in every nook and cranny of your life. Form the moment you wake up, when you flush the toilet and when you buy groceries it is their watching you. Their is no escape from its ever watchful eye. This god has power over every aspect of your life.

Who is this god and how did it become so powerful. You gave it all the power it has over you. You allow it to control your life.Without your faith it doesn't even exist and you are absolutely powerless without it. Like other Gods it has many names in many tongs. Some know it as yen others know it as the euro and yet still others know it as dollars and penny's. It's priests are known as bankers, and banks control your destiny. If you don't believe me try to go a month without your bank card,credit card, cash or a check book and see how far you get. It is the golden idle of the twenty first century and we all worship it. Now that you know I'm talking about money re-read this post and ask your self if I'm wrong.

I once was told a saying " money is not the most important thing in the world but its way ahead of whatever is in second place"

Two work outs in one day

2008-10-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

It has been my recent experience that working out is much easier to do when in school. My work outs have been becoming increasingly more difficult since I have gotten back on the construction site. My days are longer ( four eleven hour days) and it has been more energy depleting then I remember. We are installing the drainage on the site that I am on and it is all in cast iron pipe, which causes a lot more ware on my muscles then pushing pencils in school ever dreamed of being. All this reminds me of one of my favorite sayings "whatever doesn't kill you will only make you stronger". I am a strong believe in this, even as I write this blog at 11:30 PM at night and know I have to wake up at 5:15 AM in the morning.

These could be seen as potential excuses to avoid doing my workouts but this is not how I chose to see them. They are only things that are to be conquered along the way to success. I look at it as if their is absolutely know way that I could ever be beaten by a set of circumstances. Life doesn't ever win only those that chose to live it win . I want to be a person that lives life and does not get consumed by it. Every obstacle is an a illusion of failure and failure is an impossibility. If this is true, as soon as I think of trying to accomplish a goal I have already succeeded. and if that is true then all a person has to do is to believe in them self and what they want, and it would be imposable not to accomplish any goal they chose. Or maybe it's just really late and I'm just really tired,either way I have just successfully written another blog. Funny how that works.

Up Date

2008-10-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Sun-Sun

1400 push ups, Average 200 a day, total done for UBBT(student) 6600
1400 sit ups, Average 200 a day, total done for UBBT(student) 6500
16.4 km Roller bladed, Average 2.3 a day, total done for UBBT ( student) 16.4
21 reps of form, Average 3 a day, total done for UBBT ( student) 21
15 minutes meditated, Average of 2.1 a day, total done for UBBT ( student) 15

This is just a up date on what was accomplished this week. No real blog entry to speak off.

Free at Last!

2008-10-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

" So what are we going to do tonight Brain?"

" The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!"( Pinky and the Brian.)

Free at last! I have escaped out of the cage of NAIT and am back in reality. All my hard work has paid off and I am coming out of it with a 93 average ( Sweet). Now on to bigger and more interesting things.

I love the quote at the top of this blog. It is exactly how I feel about taking on the UBBT( student portion). It is an exciting challenge with many unforeseen rewards. Now that I am lifted from the world of studying for a while ( and my only pathetic excuse for not training as hard as I should be) I feel as it is time to try to take over the world. It is time to approach it in a passionate and decisive manor. I must maximize every living moment and take this challenge on full bore. My focus is back and the eye of Mordoor is focused on accomplishing my goals. I am extremly excited for this next chapter of my life to begin, and it begins today. This is the day the world stood still.

Try to find all the reference, their are four to books, movies or TV shows, why?

My wife and I are having a little challenge with each other. The challenge is this, Do not watch TV for an entire month. and on the 24th of this month it will be complete. Their has been a few rewards to this challenge. One is all the spare time it seems to clear up. More time to accomplish things in life. Less time being a mindless zombie, being devoid of meaning life. This is a great challenge for anyone that doesn't have enough time in a day. You might be surprised at how much time is being wasted in front of the TV. At the end of this month we are going to cancel the cable and be freed of the TV demand forever, or well we? BA BA BAAAAA

Keeping Focus

2008-10-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have found it difficult to keep my focus this weekend on any and all the things I have to split my time up into. Family, friends, school, UBBT (student) , it all has seemed to want to occupy the same mental space at the same time. When this happens it is almost impossible to put out a quality product no matter what you do. I always look forward to a long weekend and think " I'm going to accomplish this, that, the other thing oh ya and I have been putting that of for a while I'll do that too.". for one reason or another I very rarely get passed the first thing on my list. This weekend has had to be different. I have had to accomplish many things and no excuse will do. Tuesday I write three final exams, so I have had to study my brains out. Thanks giving weekend Time to relax and spend time with family and friends( leaves little time for studying). UBBT (student) , I am accomplishing very little right now and cant afford to do any less.

All of this makes me think about two words excuses and perseverance, I have many excuses to not achieve all I must do but I have the perseverance to achieve what must be done. Perseverance one of the many thinks Kung-Fu has taught me and one of the many things the UBBT (student) seems to be putting a bit of a shine on.

Thanks giving weekend is a time to be thankful of what you have. I am thankful of my Family, Friends, the chance to go to school, Kung-Fu and the chance to take on the UBBT (student) . Most of All I am thank full of what each one teaches me about my self on a day to day basis.

This week (SUN-SUN)

I accomplished my 4 sets of 75 and am now trying to achieve a set of 100, closest I have got Is 90 regular push ups

1625 push ups, average of 232 a day
1650 sit ups, average 235 a day

2 week's to go and 24 years behind

2008-10-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks at Silentriver Kung-Fu have been pretty epic for me. With the introduction of the UBBT(Ultimate Black Belt Test) their have been many changes to the school and my personal attitude. For a long time I have felt a little lost to where I wanted to take my training and I have not really set any real training goals. In the recent months at Silenriver it has all changed for me. The introduction of the UBBT has given me a sense of purpose that I haven't felt sense training for my black belt. It is just the challenge that I needed but never knew to look for. Being accepted as a Student member has lit a fire underneath my feet that has made it nearly imposable to stand still.

For the last month and a half I have been at NAIT(North American Institute of Technology) to complete my second year in Plumbing. This week I was informed that The UBBT has already begun. I Still have two week of my technical training to go and have little time to commit to the test. We have mid terms, Finals, and Provincial Examinations to complete. Needless to say I have been studying almost every waking moment to accomplish a passing mark.

I have to complete this goal before moving to the next. I can still do some stuff but unfortunately it has to be kept to a minimum. What I have been doing is Push ups and sit ups.

I Have decided to start posting a log of what I have accomplished.In the past two weeks
(Sunday-Sunday) this is what I have done.

2525 Push ups total, average of 180/day
2450 sit ups total average of 175/day

The push ups and sit ups are going well. I am now able to do sets of 75 push ups. That is more then I have ever been able to do before and I can feel the strength building. When I can do 4 sets of 75 in a single day I am going to try to increase them to 100.

When I get out of school I am going to start to accomplishing the rest of my goals. I feel like I will be two weeks behind and it is difficult for me to hold off on them. So far the UBBT has given me back the fire that once burned inside I wounder what other mysteries it will unlock for me.

The Sifu with no legs

2008-09-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

I was practicing forms in a class recently and found that my legs were burning like crazy. What is so strange about that you might ask? What was strange about it is that I generally consider myself to be a fairly fit person and normally that level of physical exercises doesn't bother me at all. This time it did and my legs almost cramped up on me. I realized that I have been slacking off a bit on my workouts and that I was developing noodle week legs because of it.

The strangest part of it was my attitude. I wasn't distressed that I am becoming weaker, I didn't feel sorry for my self and shed a flurry of internal tears, I got excited. I was excited because I found a new thing to tackle. A brand new challenge that will not only be fun to accomplish but could possibly open new doors and avenues for my exploration. I am a Sifu with no legs and proud of it. I will defeat the dragon right in it's lair and steel it's legs.

Their are always excuses for becoming lazy. My biggest excuse right now is that I'm in school and it is taking up the majority of my time. I look at excuses as being the dragons fire. I gotta raise my shield and push forward or I my never get my legs back again.

Intensity, Fact or Fiction?

2008-09-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

In my nine years of training I have heard a lot about the word intensity. Your forms must be intense, you must show intensity in every kick, punch, sit up, push up, hick-up,burp and fart. Only then are you truly one with Kung-Fu. The question I have asked myself all through out my training is what is intensity truly? For a very long time I thought intensity was measured against the person next to you. If my kick snaps louder then theirs or if I can pump out more push ups then them in a minute, then I must truly be intense. Some of you may remember back when we had the old mats and we would run in circles. I thought a great show of intensity was to make my circle bigger then the person next to me. If I could do that then I must really be Intense right?. The only other option I can think of is that all this "intensity" all that time was just to serve my own ego and inflate my head which grew pretty big.( I use the word grew in hopes that it is in the past tense).

Not long ago I was showed by a white belt what true intensity really is. It wasn't that he was putting out twice the punches or kicks then the people next to him. His intensity was measured in the buckets of sweat poring off him. While those around him were relatively dry he looked like he had just got out of a pool. I looked at him and said to myself "now this is a guy that is taking his workout in his own hands." In that class it wasn't Sifu that controlled the pace, it was exhaustion and for that thirty minutes or so his belt was a black as mine.

When I am in class I look around and I see people that are here to just go through the paces and don't really try to develop that eye for detail that we all preach about. But then their is a select few who sweat those bucket's and I say to myself "I'll see you in a few years Sifu." The difference between a white belt and a black belt for me is one push up. And that push up is number 41.

Realizing the past and changing the future

2008-09-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since my last post. I have not really had much that I wanted to openly share. With all the things that have been happening lightly around the school I have found my self looking inward and trying to figure it all out. I have been asking my self a lot of old questions. and recently I have getting some answers. I have asked my self why I started Kung-fu and where I want to go with it. Why I originally chose the career I am currently in and what my original purpose for choosing it was . These are questions that I assumed I knew the answer to, I didn't. From there I started to wounder what my mind set was at the time that I made the decisions. The answer would eventually lead me to the truth.

When I started Kung-Fu what I really wanted out of it was to get the same level of confidence I saw other people around me having. At the time I had very little confidence and self-esteem and I thought that this would be a great way to achieve it. I mean I don't think Bruce Lee had much of a confidence or self-esteem issue. So I started and over the years the benefits of training just kept rolling in. Those that know me today don't think I have much of a confidence issue in fact today people would more likely classify me as being overconfident and maybe a little cocky. Today my biggest issue would be keeping that enormous ego in check. When you train for a long time It pays to come back in the place in your mind where it all started and realize really what training has done for you. If you don't you could just keep training and never really realize what a gift it is. Training would eventually envelope my hole life( right around the time of my black belt grading) and all decisions to follow would be only a reflection of that day.

I really only got into the trades for one reason. Once you get that ticket you have it for life, even if you decide you want to try something else for a while. At the end of the day you are still a journeymen and you can come back to that trade and still make good money. It was only meant to be a back up plan. I could go live a dream ( like teach kung-fu for a living) and if I failed I could always go back to being a tradesmen. Over time I lost site of the dream and the backup plan became my only reality.

Forgetting how to dream is a very easy thing to do, all you have to do is wake up and it's gone. You can snap back to reality and the world seems a little less wonderfully but it's real. getting back to sleep and re-capturing that dream is the hard part. You have to either get lucky and happen into the same dream world you were in before or you have to control you're mind and dream the dream again. I got lucky and happened to fall asleep and find that same dreamland again. this time I plan on hitting the snooze button a few times.

I forgot the dream and getting the trade ticket is all that mattered, reality bites but at least it's real. I dreamed the dream again and now I tend to sleep walk a little. I wounder if it is possible to live in reality while I am still a little in dream land. Now that I have a dream again I find it a little hard to wake up.

What have I learned from all this. I learned to sleepwalk

Evolution and Kung-Fu

2008-02-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

We all use the term martial artist as it applies to ourselves and fellow students of the martial arts but we use it very loosly. We never stop to think what these terms actually mean. Are you a martial artest as soon as you strap on a white belt and participate in your first class? Or does it take years of study, diligent work, and a creative nature and thought?
I believe that there is an evolution in a student that takes place. An evolution that starts as soon as they decide to particpate in the martial arts and take part in their very first lesson. Everybody starts here on day one yet some of us leave after that first class and yet others invest a life time of blood and sweat, they may eventually even claim the coveted title of grand master.
Yet some of us claim that we are martial artists and with the same mouth claim that a grand master is a martial artist. This has never made sense to me.
A grand master spends a life time of growth, inovation and dedication, yet as soon as we strap on a belt we become a martial artist. NO! that is not the way it works, I cannot ,in good conscience, put myself on the same ground of the great masters and grand masters that have come before me.

I beleve that there are at least three steps in evolution in the martial arts. The first is novice student or dabbler. The next step of evolution in the martial arts is, in fact, becoming a martial artist. Last, but most important ,is the martial philopher. There may be a fourth step but I have never concieved of, heard, or seen it. These are the three steps of greatness and they are not titles to be thrown around lightly.

The first of the three is novice student or dabbler of the arts. This is the title you have gotten as soon as you take part in your very first class. In this stage of evolution you're goal should be to obtain as much knowledge and skill as you possibly can. This means countless hours of pratice and pushing your body to its furthest limits. Most people never get close to getting past this point no matter their rank or apparent skill. The reason that they never get past this point is because all they will ever do is copy others. They can never get better than a certian point because they will never really create anything worth while. They may create things that are fine for them but to everyone else, it is pointless to learn and therefore completely usless. You see, their evolution depends on those they mean to teach. If what they try to innovate is usless then no one will learn it and they will not have added to what is already there. Adding to what was originally there is the only way to evolve.

The second step is to become a martial artist. Very few praticioners of the martial arts ever really acheive this step. Only once you have added to what you were taught and taught it yourself are you barely even close to acheiving this step. Once the person you taught then teaches it to another and your additive then becomes a working part of a martial arts system may you become a real martial artst. You can not acheive this level on your own and it is those that help you become a martial artist that actually give you the title.
Most of us never get to this point but once there the possibilities are infinite. Once at this level you spend your entire carrier inovating and bettering a style of martial arts. The only way to evolve past this point, and become a martial philospher, is to change the way people train, think and act.
The martial artist step is not a level that one should be able to recognize in one's self, but only a level that others reconize in you. If you feel that you are one, ask yourself who has copied me and why have they? This level can only be achieved by one that has dived into their own training and found modesty and uneasyness with their own skill level . They will never think that their skill is adequate because, once they feel this way, they are unable to create anything worth while. If this happens, they actually de-evolve in to step one of evolution. This is a fluid level of evolution going back and forth between evolution and de-evolution which makes it the most difficult level to maintain.

The third step of evolution is to become a martial philosopher. This level is very personal and may not even be shared with others. At this level one begins to change more mentally then physically. At this point the martial arts cannot be stopped by anything including death. One's internal martial arts is like the spirit, immortal. Many may claim to be a martial philosopher but it is very rare to actually obtain this level. So rare it is, that those that obtain it often become legendary figures in the martial arts community.
The legend may become more than the individual, but then again maybe not. Such is the way of many legends. There are only very few ways to obtain this level. One could create an entirly new style of martial arts. Although, one would have to ask oneself what is the point of inventing a new style if no one follows it. This is why only true martial artists have even the slightest hope of ever even getting close to acheving it.
Another way is to actually change the world in which we live. Destroy barriers which hold others back. This takes a lot of internal strength. To complete this goal you have to be able to follow your soul, even if it makes enemies of people that you respect, trust, and honour. This is the battle a true martial artist really trains for. Petty fights over thing that do not matter are a total waste of time. The fight for one's own true destiny is the one that really requires a life time of training.
To combat and change the world one must first recognize one's own faults and combat them. Only then is one truly capable of combating external issues no matter how small they may be. The last way is to change the way others view the martial arts and therfore change the way in which martial arts are praticed. Not in just one school of study but in all schools of study. This is very difficult because before an martial artist can change the way others artists think and pratice they must be able to understand and transcend them. Every style believes that it is the mightiest style and before it can be transcended it must be befriended, there is an infinate number of ways to do this but one must know oneself intimatly first. This is another reason for finding ones own faults and either befriending them or conquering. If one does not know ones self one cannot really deal with criticism, wether it be good criticism or bad criticism. A martial artist on this journey will be met with all kinds of criticism and must learn to make the negitive into the positive. When all has become positive then one is ready to be befriended and only when one is befriended is one ready to be transended. This is why it is very difficult to become a martial philosopher in this manner. One must be ready to admit that other styles may have better ways of doing things and adopt them and love them as part of their own style. One must be able to make defeat in to the best victory imaginable.

Myself I am finding it very difficult to trancend the first level of evolution and become a true martial artist. It takes far more then mere skill. It takes leadership that I may not even posses yet. One day I may get there but for now I will continue to enjoy the ride. It is a journey of many high peeks to climb to, cliffs to fall from and valleys to rest in. Personally, I would rather fall from a cliff then rest in a valley and I would rather climb to a peek then fall from a cliff. Eather way, it a rollercoaster ride that I never plan to get off from.

The last communist

2008-01-24T17:10:00.000-08:00

The poem to the left of the screen has been one of the single most influencial pieces of literature that I have ever read. It was first introduced to me as a junior high student and it is the only piece of literature that has ever servived my school days. It has always taught me to think very carefully before I decide to pass judgement on others.

I look at the world around me and see a world where judgement and blame are passed around all too easly. Not by just other people, but by peers, friends, mentors, strangers, myself, and even more frighteningly governments. People that I trust, respect, and envy all get blinded by snap judgment and blame. Those of us who are not blinded are too afraid to speak up for those that the trends of our time are currently describing to us as killers of babies and rapers of the planet. Because, if we do, we will be thrown in with them and viewed as evil and dispicable people; this reality is extremly distressing to me.

This fear allows our governments to push us around, leaving them accountable to no one. We are all so paralized by our own fears of the snap judgments of others that we simply sit there and watch while our families and friends are persicuted before our very eyes. No one ever does anything, including myself.

I watch the the world around me getting very pushy and excitable towards invisible minorities. By invisible minorities I mean people that are not necissarly seperated by color or creed but by habits. The world has been picking on these minorities for a number of years now. People with smoking habits are the best example. When I was little, they had their own sections in restaurants. Then from sections they wern't allowed to smoke in specific buildings. Later they were not allowed to smoke within a certain distance from the entrence of buildings. Now they are not allowed to smoke in any buildings. When does it stop? The answer is it never stops. It keeps going until they are totally band and made against the law, thus taking away another right from the people around you.

Now I am not a habitual smoker and I will not attempt to say that smoking does not kill because in all likleyhood ,it does. But what I will do is stand up and fight for the freedom of choice. I will stand and say that while it might be a disgusting habit, we as a society have no right to persicute a minority. This persicution can and will lead to social genocide of a total group of people. What do we do when people decide not to change send them away to special camps? Who does this remind you of?

Once people realize that other people can be pushed around, they will pick another group and push a boundry with them. If they find that they can they will continue until they think that they have rid the world of another bad habit. Later, they will choose another and another and another until they have created what they believe to be a perfect world or new world order. Soon, the only people that are left are blond haired, blue eyed people with no bad habits to speak of and no offensive speach or attitudes. A perfect world, no? Everything is perfect, everything is wounderful and nothing is out of place. We only have to give up humor, art, creative thought and of course freedom.A small price to pay for perfection.

I titled the blog "the last communist" not because I'm a communist, because I'm not. I chose that title because political and philisophical beliefs are also invisible minorities. Having blond hair and blue eyes will not save you forever. Eventually they will run out of people to demonize and they will come for you. if you help the world rid itself of other invisable minorities what is there to stop them when they come for you. Everybody is a minority of one sort or another even if it can't be visually or socially seen. If you want the freedom to choose for yourself, it is unwise to take it away from others no matter how offensive you find their freedom.