From My Journal November 16-22, 2008

Home Training:

I did alot of falling behind and catching up this week. This would be at least the second week in a row. Saturday, for instance, I had to do 300 pushups, 200 round house kicks, 160 cross stepping kicks, 40 squat thrusts; each of them a double dose. I noticed something positive about this though. 300 pushups is a bit of a challenge and left me a bit sore the following morning - but today, 150 pushups was a lot easier that it had been before. 200 round house kicks is easily achievable, not a daunting task as it may have been in the past. I may even prefer to go the route of 200 every other day because the first 100 serve as a limbering up of my legs, and of concentrating on form. The second 100, I am able to concentrate on increasing my speed and power and I am finding that progress in this area is more rapid. 160 cross stepping kicks is still an onerous task, but I've noticed an increase in progress in speed of recovery from kick back to crane stance. Interesting.

I didn't do any other home training than the 100 day challenge components. This bothers me. I had planned to work on Say shen and Long. Sifu laurie assigned us plank and narrow pushups, multiple round house kicks for balance, and further work on the side heel thrust. I didn't do any of it. The reasons for this are the same as my down turn in training this time last year, and I did anticipate it but had hoped it wouldn't drop so low. I did, however, tell myself that what I have done this week is alot more than I did last year. Last year was no attendance, no home training, no journal to relfect and reassess, no little black book where I promply write down what I learned in class so that I would not forget about it, no Kwoon talk where Sihing Langnor could report on the Shaolin class I missed, and I can do some home training based on that. I must pat myself on the back for improving on last year, and I must treat next week as a clean slate. I will, indeed practice the breathing exercises described by Sihing Langnor. I will work on the wrist grab in Long, the flying kick in Say Shen and the crane stance and little buddha pose in 18 temple motions - all of which were things discussed in Friday's class.

I don't think I have one particular training partner. But my home training partner is my dog. She really pushes me to do more than the ordinary. Sometimes she really gets concerned when I am doing my pushups and sticks her head against mine, tries to lick my face, tries to place her paw on my shoulder. Lesser folk would have stopped, and let the dog out. I remain calm, focus, and continue my pushups. Its a bit of a challenge, because I never know what Roxy is going to do next and we are both moving targets, but eventually she backs off and lays down in a corner. Roxy also forces me to keep my centre when I do my cross step kicks because she gets worried when I do those too. She gets underfoot and I have to avoid tripping or stepping on her. Roxy has taught me to try to welcome unexpected challenges, rather than to try to control them.

Personal Black Belt Requirement: 1000 Acts of Kindness

I have included my daughters (Jill - 16, and Janet - 13) in this requirement. Between the three of us, we have to perform 1000 acts of kindness between December 1, 2008 and September 1, 2009. Thats 4 acts per day. I have to start now by educating my daughters about what entails a true act of kindness and why it is important to them.

On Friday, I announced the requirement to Jill, as we ate our dinner at Boston Pizza. Jill was overcome by the enormity of the task, feeling it was not possible for her to achieve this. She didn't really want to do it, asked what would happen if she didn't succeed in her part. I told her I wouldn't get my black belt. Jill is a dutiful daughter. She new she had to help me now. She asked me what kinds of things she would have to do. Just then, a waitress walked by with a tray of food. A fork dropped off the tray. I leaned over and picked it up. The waitress thanked me. I looked at Jilly. She rolled her eyes. I said: " and we have to keep a journal.

I informed Janet of the requirement on Saturday after her volleyball tournament. She said 'nice hair mom; there's one!'. Luckily we could talk about the volleyball tournament as an example.

There were two teams at the tournament that were worse than Onoway. They were worse by a long shot. The other 3 teams at the tournament were better than Onoway - by a long shot. Onoway was destroyed by the 3 better teams, and then they played one of the 2 worst teams. Onoway won; the girls clobbered their opponents. At a certain point the opposing team started just standing there, looking dejected as one after the other service came sailing towards them. I called to McKenna to serve underhand but she thought I was mad. After the game, the girls gathered for a meeting and the lead acting coach asked the girls to each summarize what they did right to win the game and what they still need to work on. The girls felt that their playing was flawless. Later, I said to the lead acting coach, "I wonder how the other team felt?". She got it. Janet, however, did not. Her first response was 'Huh?'. Over lunch she insisted that it was ok to continue serving overhand, and ok to continue using the first string players, because the other team needed to learn that they 'suck' and they need to work harder. The next game was against an equally weak team as the last. When this became apparent, the lead coach switched in the the weaker players. Onoway still won the first game. But the lead coach started the next game with the weak players. They did very well, and the boost in confidence to these players that usually sit the side lines was apparent. The mothers of the weaker players were elated and could barely sit in their seats as they watched their girls achieve more than the ordinary. Jennifer did her first ever dive and saved the ball, which went over the net and scored onoway a spectacular point. Sara did the most amazing overhand serve - it was unbelievable. Everyone was shocked, even the parents of other teams. Jessica actually got a serve over the net, and it scored a point. She couldn't wipe the grin off her face. Morgan actually maintained her focus and more consistently than ever, covered the front line. Her serves were more consistent, and she scorred 3 points in a row. As the game progressed, though, the Onoway team gradually lost their lead. The opposing team came to life. Suddenly, the Onoway girls got nervous. The opposing team was leading 17-15. The first string players were gritting their teeth but shouting words of encouragement to the players on the court. The lead coach started subbing in the stronger players, but it was too late - we lost by one point. The opposing team screamed with joy - it was probably the ONLY game they had ever won. So, with a win for each team, we had to go to a third game to break the tie. The lead coach started with a mixture of the strongest and the weakest players. Onoway won the the tie breaker.

After Janet told me that my hair was nice, I reminded her of the her last gave at the volleyball tournament. I asked her how being kinder to the weaker team and the weaker players on her team was better than just pummelling the opposing team to the ground. I reviewed my oberservations with her. Then I asked her how being kinder made her feel. She said 'BAD!'. But Janet always has to win her arguements.