From my Journal Sepetember 27- October 3, 2008

Saturday Shaolin Fitness Class: with Sifu Laurie. 13 fitness stations at 1.5 minutes each and then we did the agility fitness drill several times. My time was 6.3, 6.4, and 6.2 seconds. This is a rating of 4.

Early this summer, Sihing Langnor suffered a serious injury to her leg and was not able to walk for weeks. She still came to shaolin class and participated where she could, which was mostly by watching or by sitting down on the the floor and doing what we were doing or adaptations of it. Over the next few months, she began to participate on her feet, leaning on one leg at first, limping next, and now I thing she looks normal when she walks. She is even running. At first, when we ran the timed wind sprints, we all politely waited while Sihing Langnor gritted her teeth or pursed her lips and walk/ran the entire exercise. Her times slowly improved. A few weeks ago, we started the agility drill, and though she has to be careful, she has perfected her technique in pacing so well that her times are moving up the rating scale. This week I witness what has to be an even more inspiring achievement of hers. Sihing Langnor has the most beautiful and powerful round house kicks. Students in the shaolin class, as they were sweating and panting away at one of the 13 fitness stations, could not help but notice the power of Sihing Langnor's round house kicks as she worked the bags with intensity for the entire segment. Her kicks have to be better that they were before she had her injury. She told us that since her accident, she was forced to work on technique alone, without power or intensity. By taking several steps back in her training, she made amazing progress. This has to be the most inspiring thing I've witnessed in a long time. It's made me look at my weekly training and refocus on taking a step back to work on technique. And its given me confidence that the greatest results will come from practicing technique over and over.

Open Training: None because of Janet's volleyball tournament.

Home training: I decided to dedicate October to practicing all the Yellow/Orange belt techniques. This week, I picked 4 combinations, a sticky hands, and 4 warm up things. I also continued the Kwoon talk challenge of pushups, sit ups, squat thrusts, cross stepping kicks and round house kicks. I also practiced the 2k run twice this week by running 2.25 km. By the end of the week, I completed all the Kwoon talk challenge stuff, but only did 3 of the 4 yellow/orange combinations on two occasions. I felt bad about this, and wondered if my training plan this week is too heavy on the fitness and not enough on technique or bag work.

Friday Kung Fu Class: led by Master Brinker: we did round house, spinning back kick, reverse round house, straight pushing back kick alone, in combinations, with and without a partner holding a shield. And pushups in between. He talked to the class about making sure that our techniques look at least better than a green belt level. This is something to keep in mind at home training as I tackle each of the techniques in the curriculum. Then we had question period, and we did push ups in between questions. There were some very good questions but I forgot them all because I didn't bother to write them down in my book right away. My loss.

Home reading: Still reading about MacKenzie King's mother. What a dreary life of bourgeouise poverty she led! I've been thinking alot about my own life, and what I want it to look like after my daughters become more independent. Sometimes I think I want a little house in the country, with a woodworking shop for me and my husband, and my dog. I want to get rid of all the encumbrances I've collected during my parenting years, like the big house to clean, with lots of clutter in it. I want to move towards doing more, and having less. Or having more time, and less things. There's a lovely quote I've kept from a book I read last summer. It's a coffee table picture book about Clayoquot Sound and the people who live there. One old fellow who died recently lived in a shack on the beach for years, and people came from all round to take lessons from him on hand wood carving. His shack had a wood stove and a bed. He had a dog. He is quoted as saying something like: "You get a carpet, and then you need a vaccum cleaner. And then the dog can't come in."