Shaolin Fitness: led by Sifu Edge, who has just begun a career in personal training. She had us doing a full body workout. We used those balls, weights and other things. We all noticed that while it did not seem like an aerobic class, we were all sweating and puffing away. I could also feel that the core stability and balance were being worked.
Open Training: Did not happen this week. Between Janets volleyball tournaments, and Jills badminton tournaments, there are only a couple of weekends in October and November that I can fit in Open training. I have been struggling with the conflict all week, but have decided that being at the girls events is more important that Open training. I had foreseen this, which is why I had looked to the Kwoon talk challenge, led by Sherri Donohue, for a way to keep the training committment going without open training time.
Home Training: The reason I committed to the 4 cross stepping back kicks (20 of each per evening for a total of 8,000 kicks before the end of December), is because of something sifu Frietag said on Kwoon Talk on August 14. She said, quotes (because this machine is doing this È when I hit the quote button), Perfecting the Open X Stance will corrrect your angles of attack, increase your range and balance, and provide proper alignment to skeleton. All of these corrections will increase your flow while lowering your centre, speed and power of your kicks, over all leg strength, as well as your flexibility and give you a much better foot position. These benefits are not limited to your kicks. The Open X Stance is a major transitional stance for our style of Kung Fu. The accuracy you will achieve will also translate into learning your distance, and will help you to better understand the concepts of under and over stepping. The progress you can make by correcting this stance is endless. Make it one of your favorite stances. End Quote. This seemed like sage advice, so I decided to take it to heart. I checked my stances , stationary and walking, and felt that they were good. The next logical step seemed to be to practice the open x stance as it is used in our kicks. I have been practicing the cross stepping kicks at home since mid august and noticed great improvements in form, balance and power already. As Sifu Frietag promises so much more from correcting the Open X stance, I will keep this in my nightly training routine.
I am on track for the Kwoon talk challenge of pushups, sit ups, squat thrusts, cross stepping kicks and round house kicks. I also practiced round house, spining reverse roundhouse kicks, Kempo with open hands, and 2 combinations from the green belt level. Though I missed open training last Saturday, I was able to put in a total of 2 hours and 6 minutes of training at home. It looks like this challenge is what will keep me on track for black belt training for the months of October and November.
Friday class: led by Sifu Frietag - who had us doing the following 4 combinations
1. Knee block to inside of opposite leg and closing off opponent with double bl0ck with hands (chi sao style), the vertical punch to head.
2. As above and ading a step down with the blocking leg in front of opponent and turning 90 degrees in, then tigers tail to knee followed by forearm elbow break.
3. Knee block to outside of same knee and opening up opponent with double hand block (chi sao style).
4. As above and adding a stepping down on the knee and trapping top of punching arm with second hand in double block, elbow to head and switch the arms, bring elbow arm under the punch in a snake and trapping that forearm and doing a forearm lick by pulling arm against chest and twisting.
I doubt anyone reading this will understand, except for those who were at the class. But hopefully this will help us attendees remember it, practice it, and explain it to the ones who were absent.
During question period, Sihing Prince clarified that the downward hammer fist is two motions, ensuring that the first motion has a snap at the end. When fellow students highlight such details, I find it useful to incorporate the move into home training for the week following - which is why I practiced the round house, spinning reverse round house last week; Sihing Bryant had asked for clarification on this and so I practiced it so as not to forget what was learned from his question.
Home reading: I am still reading about MacKenzie Kings mother. She had a hard life, what with her dad, and then her husband. I am appalled at how controlling the men in her life were over her and her daughters. If their (the females) ambitions did not promise to reflect well on the males reputation, ambition, or career, they squashed the females endeavors. They had the power to do it. I would not have survived in such an era.
But here is a thought provoking tale:
A Sufi once established himself at a cross-roads. At night he set up a very bright lamp. Not far away he lit a candle. Beside the candle he sat and read his books. . . . curious citizens asked the Sufi why he had two forms of illumination and why he had placed them in such a manner. Look, he said, at the lamp. It is surrounded, every night, by thousands of moths. By providing that light for the moths I am left in peace by them, to read by my candle. I please the moths - and keep them away from me.
Thus it is with humanity. If everyone knew where real knowledge was, life would be chaos. As it is, people even become frenzied whenever they imagine, like the moths, that there is something which they should surround, especially if that thing is attractive to them.
From A Perfumed Scorpion by Idries Shah.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
From my journal September 13-19, 2008
Saturday Shaolin Class with Sifu Laurie: continued work on agility focusing on pacing only. Turned my push-off around so that it is always from the strong side. 3 steps. Got my time down to below 6 seconds, which puts me at a rating of 6. We also did flexed arm hang-I do not have trouble in this area; 63 seconds and 57 seconds - both double a rating of 10. Others watched my technique and improved their times by doing a few things that I do.
No open training due to forms seminar. Sifu Brinker is right; excuses of time and money just mean that the commitment isn't there. Its really quite reasonable to set aside the money in advance of all the things that will come up in this next year of preparation for black belt testing. The difficulty will be saying that I am more committed to this than to Janet's volleyball - but next year she will be on the senior team, and like Jill, will suddenly not want parents around.
Lion dances and memorial for Travis at the Moon Festival: Lion dance done by Sifus Clements and Playter absolutely beautiful.
A delay this week in finding out about those 2 combos as everyone was busy with forms seminar, lion dances, memorial/moon festival.
Home training: I've been beating myself up all week, as I can't get motivated to put in the 2 1/2 hours weekly commitment to training. So far, not including Friday, I have done 34 mins. (320 cross step kicks; timed horse stance). (I'm not counting the 1050 pushups, or the 2k run as I don't think Sifu Brinker considers that 'training'. Which means I need to train for 2 hours between now and Friday night. All I had to do was put in a lalf hour each eve. Sun-Thu.
I looked at the Kwoon talk challenge led by Sherri Donohue and I know this group can help me with my own challenge. I need to design in my own pledge that will help me to form the habit of training daily at home.
Went to weight watchers meeting on Wed. Some ladies are having a hard time sticking to their personal challenges. Our leader, Norma, said that negative thoughts like "I know I'll just gain the weight back anyway so what's the point?" or "I've blown it today, so I might as well give up for this week" etc are to be replaced with positive thoughts. Norma is very funny. She said that we should tell ourselves things that we would tell our friends to encourage them. "I mean, you wouldn't say to your friend. . .", and she began shaking her finger at an imaginary friend, "'Oh you're fat and ugly, you should just give up"'. When everyone stopped laughing she contin ued. We should remind ourselves of what we've accomplished so far, how good we feel, and that we can accomplish more if we keep working on forming positive thoughts and habits.
Made a committment to the yellow/orange belt group led by Sherri Donohue. By the end of dec. do:
15,000 push ups
5,000 sit ups
2,000 squat thrusts
5,000 round house kicks
2,000 straight pushing back kicks
2,000 stiff swinging kicks
2,000 high rising back kicks
2,000 low hooking back kicks
Friday Kung Fu class: Shield work; round house, spinning back round house. Sihing Bryant asked about whether the leg should swing out for spinning reverse round house. Sifu Brinker advised that the leg should stay close in and not swing wide as it is hard to adjust distance when leg swings wide. Need to practice this. Also did tigers tail. We should be hitting the target in shield work with top of our foot or the bottom of our shin. I asked the question about the combo techiniques, so will have to practice these next week also.
Home reading: I'm reading about MacKenzie-Kings mother's life, so no good quotes from here, just history. Here's something from a book I read a while back; "The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation" by Kabir Heminski.
The Premises of Sufi Education:
1. The soul itself needs to be educated and trained. The soul needs knowledge and practice in areas such as self awareness, attention, will, relationship, service and worship.
2. This education and training is best conducted together with others - not just for the sake of convenience, but because of the opportunities to know ourselves through relationship and because the quality of energy that is generated and shared in a group.
3. There are people who have experience and knowledge in this area and who may be empowered through a spiritual lineage to provide wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. We resist the idea of such a relationship because relationships demand something of us; honesty, commitment, change. Even if we consider ourselves on a spiritual path, we would rather commit to a technique, such as meditation, which preserves our imagined autonomy and freedom, than to a relationship and a spiritual family.
No open training due to forms seminar. Sifu Brinker is right; excuses of time and money just mean that the commitment isn't there. Its really quite reasonable to set aside the money in advance of all the things that will come up in this next year of preparation for black belt testing. The difficulty will be saying that I am more committed to this than to Janet's volleyball - but next year she will be on the senior team, and like Jill, will suddenly not want parents around.
Lion dances and memorial for Travis at the Moon Festival: Lion dance done by Sifus Clements and Playter absolutely beautiful.
A delay this week in finding out about those 2 combos as everyone was busy with forms seminar, lion dances, memorial/moon festival.
Home training: I've been beating myself up all week, as I can't get motivated to put in the 2 1/2 hours weekly commitment to training. So far, not including Friday, I have done 34 mins. (320 cross step kicks; timed horse stance). (I'm not counting the 1050 pushups, or the 2k run as I don't think Sifu Brinker considers that 'training'. Which means I need to train for 2 hours between now and Friday night. All I had to do was put in a lalf hour each eve. Sun-Thu.
I looked at the Kwoon talk challenge led by Sherri Donohue and I know this group can help me with my own challenge. I need to design in my own pledge that will help me to form the habit of training daily at home.
Went to weight watchers meeting on Wed. Some ladies are having a hard time sticking to their personal challenges. Our leader, Norma, said that negative thoughts like "I know I'll just gain the weight back anyway so what's the point?" or "I've blown it today, so I might as well give up for this week" etc are to be replaced with positive thoughts. Norma is very funny. She said that we should tell ourselves things that we would tell our friends to encourage them. "I mean, you wouldn't say to your friend. . .", and she began shaking her finger at an imaginary friend, "'Oh you're fat and ugly, you should just give up"'. When everyone stopped laughing she contin ued. We should remind ourselves of what we've accomplished so far, how good we feel, and that we can accomplish more if we keep working on forming positive thoughts and habits.
Made a committment to the yellow/orange belt group led by Sherri Donohue. By the end of dec. do:
15,000 push ups
5,000 sit ups
2,000 squat thrusts
5,000 round house kicks
2,000 straight pushing back kicks
2,000 stiff swinging kicks
2,000 high rising back kicks
2,000 low hooking back kicks
Friday Kung Fu class: Shield work; round house, spinning back round house. Sihing Bryant asked about whether the leg should swing out for spinning reverse round house. Sifu Brinker advised that the leg should stay close in and not swing wide as it is hard to adjust distance when leg swings wide. Need to practice this. Also did tigers tail. We should be hitting the target in shield work with top of our foot or the bottom of our shin. I asked the question about the combo techiniques, so will have to practice these next week also.
Home reading: I'm reading about MacKenzie-Kings mother's life, so no good quotes from here, just history. Here's something from a book I read a while back; "The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation" by Kabir Heminski.
The Premises of Sufi Education:
1. The soul itself needs to be educated and trained. The soul needs knowledge and practice in areas such as self awareness, attention, will, relationship, service and worship.
2. This education and training is best conducted together with others - not just for the sake of convenience, but because of the opportunities to know ourselves through relationship and because the quality of energy that is generated and shared in a group.
3. There are people who have experience and knowledge in this area and who may be empowered through a spiritual lineage to provide wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. We resist the idea of such a relationship because relationships demand something of us; honesty, commitment, change. Even if we consider ourselves on a spiritual path, we would rather commit to a technique, such as meditation, which preserves our imagined autonomy and freedom, than to a relationship and a spiritual family.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
From my journal entries Saturday September 6 - Friday September 12, 2008 (51 weeks until applying to grade for black belt).
Saturday Shaolin class with Sifu Laurie. Worked on upper body for chin-ups - lots of work with all the arm muscles and upper back using weights. Also worked on the 20 meter agility drill. This is alot harder than it looks. Land speed and will power alone are not the key to this test. Lots of practice required to get the pacing right to hit the targets and change directions without losing too much time. I averaged 6.3 seconds; that's a 4 rating. Mr. Timchuck was able to shave off 2 seconds from his time by correcting some things we observed. We all need to shave off at least 9 seconds to get to a passing rating of 7. So many students and so few take Shaolin Fitness class. There is so much work to be done to pass the fitness portion of the black belt test. Mr. Timchuck is bluebelt or something and he's taking it. Mr. Panasiuk was taking it. Several of us Sihings have taken the class for a number of years. The amount of progress that has occurred for all of us in this class can be measured in how we progress as we monitor our fitness ratings and the number of comments we recieve from other students who notice our improvements in our regular kung fu classes. I don't understand why this class is not jam-packed with students.
Saturday Open Training: I worked with Sihing Maitland. We really pushed eachother. I had planned to spend time on low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, stiff swing back kick and straight pushing back kick. Sihing Maitland had planned on working on Kempo. If we had worked alone, we each would have put in between 30 and 40 minutes of training. We decided to combine our two training plans. I pushed her to do more kicks than she wanted to. And she pushed me to practice kempo more times that I wanted to. We critiqued eachother's techniques so that we could focus on these things at home during the week. An awesome training session which lasted one and one half hours!
On Kwoon talk on Aug. 8, Sifu Tiffany Playter had responded to Mr. Panasiuk's request for training tips and advice. She told him that one the things that help keep her on track was to work with a a training partner. In her case, her training partner is her husband and she said that they push eachother to get their goals accomplished. I think Sihing Maitland and I did just that and we look forward to more sihings and other belts joining in on Saturday Open Training. Sihing Lilienskold agreed - the more training partners the better, and if one person is absent one week, we have others to keep things going - pushing eachother to get our goals accomplished.
On Fri. Aug 15 at sihing class, Master Brinker urged those of us who plan to challenge black belt one year from now to commit to two and a half hours of training per week.
Home Training:
Saturday: 150 pushups
Sunday: 150 pushups; Janet and I went for a 4km walk and then practiced volleyball
Monday: Went to Servus Place with Janet. Idid 2k run and some of Janets agility exercises for volleyball. I did 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, High rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick. I also did my 150 pushups.
Tuesday: 150 pushups
Wednesday: 150 pushups
Thursday: 150 pushups, 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick.
Friday: 150 pushups
Note: I need to find out what counts for the 2 and 1/2 hours of weekly training. Just techniques? or fitness training as well. If I only include techniques and forms practice then my total training time for the week was 1 hr. 45 mins. So I missed off the target of 2 and 1/2 hours for this week. Next week there are 50 weeks left before applying to grade. Good habits take time to form and it will be harder to get the time in next week because open training is cancelled.
Friday Sihing Class: led by Master Brinker; practiced kempo and he urged us to have a sense of purpose. Wanted bigger circles with arms to release chi and have a tail to our punches and blocks. Wanted more flow and to achieve that we should practice kempo with open hands. Question period was detailed: a few things of note; kick before hhelmet crusher is side heel; should practice kicks and punches with bag and strengthen wrists with fis pushups. Sihing Kichko asked about 2 green/blue combinations that involve double hammer fist vs. double punch. I need to follow up on this and find out the difference between the two combinations.
Training plan and questions for next week:
1. Have a black belt demo green/blue combination of tiger's hip-spinning back kick-low hooking back kick-double hammer fist(high/low) turning through. Then practice this combination.
2. Have a black belt demo green/blue belt combination of double punch-pivot outside hammer fist to groin-spin with outside hammer fist to leg. Then practice this combination.
3. Find out what training is to be counted in the 2 and 1/2 hour weekly commitment.
4. Continue practicing the 4 cross step kicks from last week because I'm starting to feel some improvements and I want to keep that going.
5. Practice kempo with open hands.
6. Practice agility run when possible or if not, do a timed horse stance.
Nightly reading: 'The Perfumed Scorpion" by Idries Shah (1978)
". . . the ability to acto or not to act, in accordance with what one knows by experience to be a required mode of action. This is the stage of action stemming from unconcern for superficialities. It is the condistion of doing something, or nothing, not because it is expected of you, but because it is the real thing to do or to avoid. . . . To be at the stage of unconcern for appearances is not the same as the deliberate adoption of untoward behaviour. But the 'contrary to expectation' conduct and words . . indicates the absence of hampering assumption. Inwardly, this condition is that of the sovereign individual, whose perceptions and understanding, not rules or dogma, motivate him or her. . . the student is always encouraged to act in accordance with social norms, but also to practise 'listening' to his intuitive sense in the attempt to perceive whether this or that word or action was indeed correct in a wider context."
Saturday Shaolin class with Sifu Laurie. Worked on upper body for chin-ups - lots of work with all the arm muscles and upper back using weights. Also worked on the 20 meter agility drill. This is alot harder than it looks. Land speed and will power alone are not the key to this test. Lots of practice required to get the pacing right to hit the targets and change directions without losing too much time. I averaged 6.3 seconds; that's a 4 rating. Mr. Timchuck was able to shave off 2 seconds from his time by correcting some things we observed. We all need to shave off at least 9 seconds to get to a passing rating of 7. So many students and so few take Shaolin Fitness class. There is so much work to be done to pass the fitness portion of the black belt test. Mr. Timchuck is bluebelt or something and he's taking it. Mr. Panasiuk was taking it. Several of us Sihings have taken the class for a number of years. The amount of progress that has occurred for all of us in this class can be measured in how we progress as we monitor our fitness ratings and the number of comments we recieve from other students who notice our improvements in our regular kung fu classes. I don't understand why this class is not jam-packed with students.
Saturday Open Training: I worked with Sihing Maitland. We really pushed eachother. I had planned to spend time on low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, stiff swing back kick and straight pushing back kick. Sihing Maitland had planned on working on Kempo. If we had worked alone, we each would have put in between 30 and 40 minutes of training. We decided to combine our two training plans. I pushed her to do more kicks than she wanted to. And she pushed me to practice kempo more times that I wanted to. We critiqued eachother's techniques so that we could focus on these things at home during the week. An awesome training session which lasted one and one half hours!
On Kwoon talk on Aug. 8, Sifu Tiffany Playter had responded to Mr. Panasiuk's request for training tips and advice. She told him that one the things that help keep her on track was to work with a a training partner. In her case, her training partner is her husband and she said that they push eachother to get their goals accomplished. I think Sihing Maitland and I did just that and we look forward to more sihings and other belts joining in on Saturday Open Training. Sihing Lilienskold agreed - the more training partners the better, and if one person is absent one week, we have others to keep things going - pushing eachother to get our goals accomplished.
On Fri. Aug 15 at sihing class, Master Brinker urged those of us who plan to challenge black belt one year from now to commit to two and a half hours of training per week.
Home Training:
Saturday: 150 pushups
Sunday: 150 pushups; Janet and I went for a 4km walk and then practiced volleyball
Monday: Went to Servus Place with Janet. Idid 2k run and some of Janets agility exercises for volleyball. I did 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, High rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick. I also did my 150 pushups.
Tuesday: 150 pushups
Wednesday: 150 pushups
Thursday: 150 pushups, 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick.
Friday: 150 pushups
Note: I need to find out what counts for the 2 and 1/2 hours of weekly training. Just techniques? or fitness training as well. If I only include techniques and forms practice then my total training time for the week was 1 hr. 45 mins. So I missed off the target of 2 and 1/2 hours for this week. Next week there are 50 weeks left before applying to grade. Good habits take time to form and it will be harder to get the time in next week because open training is cancelled.
Friday Sihing Class: led by Master Brinker; practiced kempo and he urged us to have a sense of purpose. Wanted bigger circles with arms to release chi and have a tail to our punches and blocks. Wanted more flow and to achieve that we should practice kempo with open hands. Question period was detailed: a few things of note; kick before hhelmet crusher is side heel; should practice kicks and punches with bag and strengthen wrists with fis pushups. Sihing Kichko asked about 2 green/blue combinations that involve double hammer fist vs. double punch. I need to follow up on this and find out the difference between the two combinations.
Training plan and questions for next week:
1. Have a black belt demo green/blue combination of tiger's hip-spinning back kick-low hooking back kick-double hammer fist(high/low) turning through. Then practice this combination.
2. Have a black belt demo green/blue belt combination of double punch-pivot outside hammer fist to groin-spin with outside hammer fist to leg. Then practice this combination.
3. Find out what training is to be counted in the 2 and 1/2 hour weekly commitment.
4. Continue practicing the 4 cross step kicks from last week because I'm starting to feel some improvements and I want to keep that going.
5. Practice kempo with open hands.
6. Practice agility run when possible or if not, do a timed horse stance.
Nightly reading: 'The Perfumed Scorpion" by Idries Shah (1978)
". . . the ability to acto or not to act, in accordance with what one knows by experience to be a required mode of action. This is the stage of action stemming from unconcern for superficialities. It is the condistion of doing something, or nothing, not because it is expected of you, but because it is the real thing to do or to avoid. . . . To be at the stage of unconcern for appearances is not the same as the deliberate adoption of untoward behaviour. But the 'contrary to expectation' conduct and words . . indicates the absence of hampering assumption. Inwardly, this condition is that of the sovereign individual, whose perceptions and understanding, not rules or dogma, motivate him or her. . . the student is always encouraged to act in accordance with social norms, but also to practise 'listening' to his intuitive sense in the attempt to perceive whether this or that word or action was indeed correct in a wider context."
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