"The tools for success are universal."
Sifu Freitag, December 19, 2008

Anna Rice is a 29 year-old Canadian women's singles badminton player who is currently ranked number one in Canada and Panamerica. She participated in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and placed in the top 16 at the Bejiing 2008 Olympics (no other north american woman has placed this high Olympic level in badminton). She trained for the 2008 Olympics whilst completing a B.A. in Political Science and History. She has just completed a Masters degree in Communication for Development. Anna is also a "Right to Play" ambassador. This movement provides equipment for sports in developing countries. This spring, Anna will be travelling to Africa to help bring badminton to developing countries on this continent.

Currently, Anna Rice is in Edmonton for two reasons. The first is to compete in a Badminton Series Tournament being held this weekend. The second reason was to run a training and motivational seminar for the top ranked womens badminton players in Alberta. My daughter was one of the females invited to attend this function, and of course, I was on hand to take pictures and do the taxi driving. Jill tells me that I missed the most awesome part of the day when Anna spoke after dinner about how she was able to pursue a university degree whilst training for the Olympics (I did not attend this partly so that Jill's coach could be at the dinner, and partly because I had a volleyball club managers meeting to attend). I did, however learn alot from what I saw and heard from Anna. Below, I will list the major points, which the reader who also attends classes at Silent River Kung Fu, may find surprisingly familiar.

Intensity: Anna had the girls performing some pretty demanding drills, but midway through one of them, she stopped them. She said its no good if you just turn up at a training session. Every session has to count. So you need to perform the drills with all you have, to the very best of your ability or you will not progress. Anna seemed a little perturbed when she was telling the girls this, and I can understand why; these girls were getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to train for two and half hours with an Olympic athlete, yet Anna must have sensed that they were not giving their all. Perhaps she should have had them do 50 pushups.

Training with a Sense of Purpose: Anna went on to explain how she approached her training. She came to training sessions with a mind to repeat, repeat, repeat a drill over and over again to the best of her ability until she had perfected it. If the the instructor stopped and she had a free moment she would do something; continue the last drill, or do another drill. If she had no partner she would go over to the wall and hit the shuttle against it over and over again because it helps with her long serve. Every moment of her session was utilized. The purpose of every training session was to perfect, to progress, and to reach the next level leading to her ultimate goal of getting to olympic level.

Keeping your centre: I did not hear this one as I was on the other side of a glass partition. I watched her demonstrate this to a girl, and the message was very clear. Badminton requires incredible agility. A player may, in one rally, need to travel to opposite corners of the court many times to return a volley. Having travelled to one end of the court, the player must instantly make a recovery and return to the centre of the court ready to intercept the next volley - where-ever it may go. Anna was drilling the girls for this by sending consecutive shuttles in rapid succession to all four corners of the court. One of the girls was having a little difficulty with the exercise and Anna demonstrated what the girl was doing wrong. As she reached one destination and reached forward to return the shuttle, Anna allowed her torso to learn forward also, and bend over at the hip. With great difficulty Anna then tried to staighten up her torso at the same time as her feet tried to travel back to the centre of the court. It was a cumbersome move, and somtimes when anna leaned forward, her momentum pushed her shoulders so far forward that she had to put her hand on the floor to regain her balance. Anna then demonstrated the right way to perform the exercise. She maintain what I can only describe as a very deep right leading horse stance. Her centre was low, and her torso remained upright at all times. Consequently, she never lost her centre; when she reached forward she lowered her stance to extend the reach; when she needed to change direction she only needed to move her legs, the weight of a forward momentum of her torso did not have to be dragged back to its centre as well.

Strength and Flexibility: We have a picture of Anna executing a smash from the back of the badminton court at the beijing olympics. She has just travelled to the back of the court and the very last backward step has been so deep that her legs are stretched wide apart in a backwards straddle. Her very next step would have propelled her forward to the center of the court. At the very same time she is executing a smash hit which requires that her torso reach side ways and her raised raquet extend that reach and simultaneously she must keep her centre so that her smash can be executed with power and speed. Jill's coach looked at the picture, pointed at Anna's deep straddle and the powerful leg muscles and said, "Power and flexibility - you have to have both". Hasn't Master Brinker said something like this too?

Jill greatly admires Anna as a person, a badminton player, role model and inspiration. She plans to attend some training programs that Anna will be holding this summer in B.C.. I expect that she will learn a great deal and grow a great deal. I also suspect that whatever new things she learns from her experiences will be surprisingly similar to the lessons we need to learn in Kung Fu. In both cases, these tools for success can be applied time and again in other aspects of our lives.

For further info, go to http://www.annarice.org/. Anna also blogs.

From My Journal

Home training: Last week I crashed and burned, and so this week I had alot of catching up to do. I mentally prepared myself, which seemed to help. When you look ahead and see a mountain, you've got to put yourself in the frame of mind required to ascend. I was required to double the number of nightly round house kicks and squat thrusts this week. Aerobic feats of this nature seem daunting. I made myself rise to the challenge; each night I did 200 round house kicks. So that's out of the way. Squat thrusts didn't do so well. This week is the week for that, and if I can double the round house kicks, then I can easily repeat the task for the squat thrusts.

I'm supposed to do 4 Lao Gars per night, but I can only practice the first part of Lao Gar right now because that's all I can remember. Last week I pledged to fix that problem by finding someone who is willing to work with me on the issue. I approached Sihing Langnor, and she has agreed to work with me on Saturdays. I am excited about this development - it is sure to lead to success. Sihing Langnor KNOWS her stuff, and is very supportive. I wonder if there is anything I can do for her?

Acts of Kindness: We are still journalling. Highlight this week: I've mentioned Jill's badminton coach before. This weekend was the 20th anniversary of the Red Willow badminton club. I decided that I should help with the catering for a couple of hours, and this is why I didn't stay for open training. I learned some more things about Mrs. Folinsbee in the process. I always knew that she was the type of Christian who wore her faith on her sleeve. What I learned was the extent to which the Red Willow Badminton Club was formed on the faith that the endeavor would do good works for the community. It was never about badminton. Badminton was just the vehicle by which the Folinsbee's could help individuals, young and old. Mrs. Folinsbee talked about providing enriching experiences for families and young people. This was God's plan for her and this is what she set out to do by forming the club. My daughter, Jill, has benefited so much as a result. I nearly choked up, so I ran out and got another tray of sandwiches for the buffet. I've also known for a while that the club is up for sale because the Folinsbee's are getting old. They've had several offers from developers who want to tear down the club and build condo's on this prime, prime land. The Folinsbee's WILL NOT sell to these people. They will only sell to someone who is willing, and able to keep the club running. Because of this, the Folinsbee's have continued to run the club several years longer than they really should have. What keeps them going is their faith - that one day, the right coach will present him or herself, and a business plan will be created that will continue the Folinsbee's good works. I had been wondering how the Folinsbees had been able to keep on going this long; today I learned where that tenacity and willpower was coming from. It's weird how each time I've endeavored to give back to the Folinsbee's I've come away feeling like I was the one who benefitted more.

Community Project: Providing opportunities for Physical conditioning for youth in Onoway.
This one is becoming a long and winding road. It has taken me to Morinville and St. Albert. But I believe that I am right on track. Last week I journalled about the lack of opportunities for 14 year old girls who want to play club volleyball. There now exsists a new club volleyball team of 14 14-year old girls. It was started by two mothers, myself and a lady from Morinville. We run under the umbrella club of the Saint Albert Saints. Practices are mostly in Mornville. We have 2 qualified coaches. How can this possibly relate to providing more opportunities to youth in Onoway? What I think will really work for the youth in Onoway, is if a school athletic club was created. Youth would have the opportunity to play recreation league volleyball, and badminton and train for track and field. Physical conditioning would be strongly promoted along with fun and exposure to opportunities such as clinics etc. I can't really plant this in Onoway all at once - its a formidable task. But I can build it bit by bit based on opportunities that present themselves. Through my involvement in the Saints volleyball, I will learn alot about how to make things like this happen, I may even get some certification and experience coaching. Ideas will present themselves, such as tonight. A parent mentioned a teacher in Jasper Place High school who started a "Spring Volleyball League". Forty kids signed up, so 4 teams were formed and they play eachother. There's a start. Anyhow I won't do anything in Onoway for volleyball just yet. I'll just watch, do, and learn in Morinville. Besides, Jill and I have discussed a few things she would like to do for the school badminton team in Jan, Feb, March.

Home Training: This week was the first week of home training that incorporated the personal black belt requirements. Each evening, my home training should look like this at a minimum.
1. 150 pushups
2. 100 sit ups (20 regular, 20 crunches, 20 leg raises, 20 bicycle, and 20 side to side with a earthenware plant pot in my hands because it's the nearest think around the house to a medicine ball - luckily the plant pot does not have a plant in it.)
3. 100 round house kicks
4. 20 squat thrusts or the 4 minute TABATA method using squat thrusts
5. 40 cross step kicks
6. 1 dragon breathing
7. 4 Lao gars

I guess I'm ok with the fact that my first week of this new routine was almost a crash and burn. I did not do any round house kicks or squat thrusts or dragon breathing. I also don't know the complete lao gar form so I only did the beginning part 4 times. Never mind, I know what to do for next week - catch up on the stuff I didn't do and make an appointment with someone to learn a bit more of Lao Gar.

Personal Black Belt Requirement: 1000 Acts of Kindness through myself, Jill and Janet. We have a little diary to record this and we are sort of on track. A couple of hightlights. The first was at 7am on Saturday morning on the way to Janet's club volleyball tryouts. We paid for the order of the people in the truck behind us in the Tim Horton's drive thru. Someone did this to me last June. Janet got quite a thrill out of the act and told one of her friends at volleyball who thought the act was awesome. She told her dad . . . The second act didn't work out very well, but its the thought that counts. Driving to another volleyball tryout on sunday morning, we spotted a man struggling to keep his balance on the icy sidewalk as he made his way to church. Unfortunately, as I attempted to manouvre to the side of the road so that we could park and then help him to his destination, the car started to skid. We narrowly missed a well dressed female church goer attempting to cross the road. The car behind us lost control also but only momentarily. I decided that attempting a full stop would only make matters worse for everyone in the vicinity, so I continued on down the road. As Sifu Davies would say, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Personal Black Belt Requirement: The community project - help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School.
I've put alot of energy into the planning of this one this week. Its significant that my experience this week has been that everywhere I turn, there is a huge need for adults that will support girls who want to be active. I found out that parents in St. Albert identified a huge need for opportunities for girls to play club volleyball. So three parents started a club with the intention of forming a team of 10 girls in the under 15 age category. Twenty six girls tried out. They came from Onoway, Edmonton, Morinville, and St. Albert. ALL of them were high calibre players - the coach said that they all deserved a place on a club team but there are not enough adults who will step forward to help coach more teams. Same story in Spruce Grove; one team of 10 players - 50 girls tried out. The numbers in Edmonton are not much better - more clubs, even more girls who will not get on a team. Its phenomenal how many 14 year old girls want to be active, and how few opportunities are provided to them through the community of adults in their lives. The rural population seems to be at a distinct disadvantage. I know of some girls whose parents refuse to do the driving involved in getting their daughters to gymnasiums in Onoway, Stony Plain and Spruce Grove.

As parents, we tell our children that physical activity, healthy lifestyle and good nutrition are important. But do we actually mean it?