Project Based Leadership

It is not quite the end of the month, but I don't see much else happening over the next few days on this front, so I might as well report now. As the reader knows from previous entries, my chosen requirement was to help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School by helping to provide more opportunities for youth to be active. The first phase of this project is aimed at the Junior and senior badminton programs at the school.

Traditionally, the junior and senior badminton season is a full 3 weeks - in March. For the last 4 years I have helped the teacher coaches and made suggestions for extending the practice season. However, the practices continued to consist of only 2 hours, 2x per week, for 2 weeks of unstructured time when the badminton nets are up and the students largely decide what they will do with their time, and who they will bat the birdie around with. If the student is not particularly athletic, they do not do that much to push themselves at the practice, and the teacher coaches do not do much to enhance their abilities on the court. If the student is already athletic, that student is likely to make the team. The less atheletic students are cut and the result is that their physical activity ends after two weeks, with no positive results: just negative reinforcements of the fact that these students are less athletic and thus feel discouraged from pursuing further physical activity.

Badminton is a particularly well suited sport for promoting physical activity to all levels of athleticism. Additionally, it is a very social, well structured, world-wide, and inexpensive sport that can become a part of anyone's lifelong physical activity. There is hope for any student of any age and ability to progress physically and technically, and find the sport both physically and socially rewarding. I feel this sport should be promoted alot more than it currently is at Onoway High School. My plan was to provide more opportunities for students to practice and play, whether or not they made the team; to provide fun experiences like a mini tournament, and to provide coaching experiences for the students to develop their skills hoping that this would motivate them to continue in the sport. Specifically, here's what I did.

1. I arranged for more gym space/time (the badminton practice season at school is short due to a shortage of gym space in Onoway), at the Red Willow Badminton Club. I secured the 4 Tuesdays in March for coached 2 hour badminton sessions, a Saturday for a mini fun tournament, and the opportunity for small groups to use the club in February. There was, of course a cost, but this was kept to $10/person. Transportation to the club and back was available in the form of the school bus, and some money earmarked for the badminton team through the school. The principal of the school was of course on side, he is a very positivie 'lets do this' kind of person. One would think, that getting the kids on the bus and to the sessions would have been a no-brainer. However, at the point the endeavor got to the teachers, the whole scheme fell flat on its face. It never happened. Go figure. I'm not sure what went wrong. The teachers did anounce the scheme, some students showed up for a lunch meeting to find out more. Then, what appeared to me, to be 'apathy' seemed to set in. The teachers were not satisfied with the number of students who had shown up- they decided to approach students individually once the badminton unit started in the phys. ed classes. Then the badminton unit in classes got delayed because social dance was pushed forward, ahead of badminton for some reason. Meanwhile, at Red Willow Badminton Club, St. Albert, Morinville and Spruce Grove teachers were banging on the door asking for coached sessions, and they had already collected the money and the students. The club manager was forced to fill the spaces originally booked for Onoway. I hung on to what I could. Badminton tryouts began - all two days of them, the team was selected. The precious students who were less athletic who didn't make the team were sent on their way for yet another year. Still, the teachers weren't ready to present the extra sessions to the qualifying students. Finally, last week, I gave up; the junior badminton teacher, now in week 2 of three practice weeks, told me there was not enough time. I guess you can't blame any one person; the apathy was pervasive amongst the students, and affecting the teachers also. The teachers themselves are very warm, supportive people. They have all gone the extra mile for both my daughters. I think the thing to do, is at the end of the season, get feedback from the teachers as to how we can be more successful next year.

2. To provide more coaching so that students at all levels of athletic ability and physical fitness can progress and be encouraged to continue with this or another physical activity, several things were initiated.
a) Badminton Alberta was approached and they agreed to provide an outreach workshop at Onoway High school. In this workshop, the coaches and a couple of student leaders on the badminton team would participate in the workshop, learning drills, how to teach them and how to coach. Now a funny thing happened with this one. Jeff, the person running these sessions for badminton alberta, called the elementary school instead of the high school. A teacher by the name of Mrs. Doyle, who loves badminton and whose entire family plays and we know her brother, jumped on the phone call, recognizing it for the opportunity it was. As a result, Badminton Alberta provided a full day workshop for the entire Onoway Elementary School on Tuesday March 24th. It was apparently a raving success. Not what I had planned, but at least the desired ripple was started. These elementary students will eventually go to Onoway High School. Onoway is 'on the map' for future sessions. Perhaps Mrs. Doyle will encourage the High school coaches accross the field.

b) As part of the personal development of my own daughter in the areas of acquiring life skills, and leadership skills in her community, Jill was enrolled in the NCCP coaching certification program level 1 this winter. Jill has already done some coaching at summer camps and lessons at the Red Willow badminton club, so she is past the stage of intimidation and fear when it comes to working with the many types of students that challenge the coaches. She has finished the course and is currently coaching both the junior and the senior badminton teams at Onoway high school. Jill is teaching the structured drills that were missing from the practices in previous years. She has introduced physical conditioning warm ups as well, something that came as a shock to many of the studens. She is somewhat of a role model too, for the young girls at the school. Last year, she was the first athlete from Onoway in any sport to qualify for the provincial championships, and she won silver. Students and teachers last year noted her badminton skills, and soon, teachers, and the male athlete of the year role model were lining up to play matches against her and try to win. The same is happening this year, and the spectating crowd is growing. Young girls are dragging their parents into the gym to point out jill playing against a grade 12 male. Jill is running the poor boy all over the court and he is drenched in sweat. Jill is setting a positive example to young girls, and the mothers are taking note - I am being approached with questions about badminton classes, camps and training, how Jill got to the level she is at, and so on. I take this opportunity to promote the sport and encourage the parents to get their children involved. I've made a mental note to provide the teachers with notices about summer badminton camps, classes, clubs etc so that they can be announced to the students or included in the school newsletter. Most importantly of all, when the game is over, and the boy picks himself off the floor, Jill and Kyle congratulate eachother and, together, they continue coaching the other team athletes, working as a coaching team and respecting eachother. This boy is not considered a role model in the school for nothing.

So I guess things didn't turn out they way I had imagined in phase one of my project based leadership. However, enough good things are happening and can be built upon in the future.

The second phase of this project begins very soon and I will report on it at the end of June. I'm going to help the track coach.

Claire Finnamore

Home training.

This week has been a real step up in my training commitments, thanx to the 'Tick Tock' posting and probably the most impactful motivational speech Master Brinker has ever made to the Sihing Class. I think it was video taped, which is good because I think alot of other students besides sihings could get alot out of it. I will be thinking of this speech when I consider my assignment on intensity. In the meantime, my most immediate response to the speech was to readjust my priorities, make some sacrifices, and sign up for the Tiger Challenge on May 2. The second thing I did was step up my home training plans for next week and enlist my family as helpers; Janet to time a number of things, and Bert to hold the board each evening for one board break (he already has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, so he knows how to hold the board properly)

Master Brinker has repeatedly calculated the number of hours we have left of home training, based on the assumption that we do 2.5 hours per week. After reviewing my training last week, I found that I am actually doing almost 1 hour a day. This is encouraging.

To review:

Last week's totals :

Pushups = 1050
Sit ups = 700
Spinning flying inside outside cyclone kick = 170
Cross stepping kicks = 280
Round house kicks = 700
Spinning back kicks = 350
Lao Gar = 19

My highests scores on fitness requirements this week :

Timed situps = 51 (Power rating = 9)
Push ups = 35 (Power rating = 10)
Flexed Arm Hang = 60 sec (Power rating = 10)
Pull ups = 3 (Power rating = 4)
Perpendicular Splits = 160 decgrees (Power rating = 6)
Timed round house with Sifu Laurie judging = 38 right and 41 left (Power rating = 5)
Timed spinning kick in Shaolin class = 18 right and 21 left (Power rating = 6)
Horse stance = 2.5 mins (Power rating = 5)
2 k run did not do because of injury to right heel.
Timed thrust punch =237 (Power rating = 10)
Time lateral jump = 41 (Power rating = 1)

Of note
My spinning flying inside outside cyclone kick is getting really good!

I asked Sifu Freitag to critique my Lao Gar at open training this week again: last week she said 'pretty good' and this week she said 'pretty darn good'. So I figure that I'm progressing here too.

My lateral agility jump is alarmingly dismal. I did this 5 times this week with my lowest score being 36 and my highest score being 41. I asked sifu laurie to help me on this one, and she will be including it in the Shaolin fitness program over the next few months. In the meantime, tips from my fellow students and the sifu's need to be solicited.

Next week's home training is a little more intense given 'Tick Tock', The Speech, progress made from last week's training, feedback at open training and the Power Rating Results.

I will continue with the kicks I worked on last week and add the flying front kick while reducing the number of flying cyclones.

I had a discussion with Sifu Prince about 'Functional Training' and he mentioned the benefits of doing the front thrust kick from horse stance. I thought I'd add that in along with the hidden leg technique.

I've GOT to work on the lateral agility jump and the horse stance; and I have added in the power of the instep turning 360 degrees as I know that needs work too.

Surprisingly, the perpendicular splits needs work; the kwoon stretching challenge continues to the end of the month and my goal is to get to at least a 7.

Having signed up for the Tiger Challenge, Lao gar needs one more week of work, and I will start on the board break each night for my right leg this week (Bert is only prepared to hold the board for one break each night as he would like to get to bed at a decent hour)

To summarize, I find that I am alternating rapidly betweens feelings of panic, and a fragile sense of confidence.

Home Training: Here are the numbers for the week.
Pushups: Goal = 1050; Actual = 985
Sit ups: Goal = 700; Actual = 700
One minute timed Agility jump: Goal = 6 times at 85 each: Actual = 5 times at 30-41 each.
Inside outside spinning cyclone kick: Goal = 350; Actual = 217
Cross stepping kicks: Goal = 280; Actual = 280
Round House Kicks: Goal = 700; Actual = 587
Spinning back kicks: Goal = 350; Actual = 200
(Total kicks: Goal = 1680; Actual = 1284)
Loa Gar: Goal = 42; Actual = 22

Some successes, and some near successes; overall a good week. I am concerned about my agility jump and had hoped to ask for a few tips on this at class but never got round to it. As it turns out, Master Brinker sent us sihings a kwoon message (subject: 'Tick Tock) asking us how our home training is going, and I responded by sending him a copy of this week's home training journal (info above is a summary of it), to critique and make suggestions for going forward. Maybe he will see my poor agility jump results and give a few pointers.

Open Training:
I filmed myself doing the inside outside spinning cyclone kick at home training and found some items to fix this way; and I also had Sifu Frietag critique this kick at open training and she provided me with a tip for fixing the thing I noticed from filming.
I had Sifu Frietag critique my Loa Gar form and pick one thing for me to fix - it turned out to be a clarification of one of the five things I had a question about. Sifu's Becket and Robertson were at open training and provided further pointers, and I got answers to the remaining 4 things I had questions about.

Sihing Class: I summarized this on kwoon talk. Of note for this blog, Master Brinker talked about aiming for being at our peak of physical fitness in about 10 weeks. I have NO IDEA how to plan this out - totally overwhelmed knowing that there must be a scientific approach to this and not knowing whether trying to read up on it will send me off on a tangent. It's tempting to get a personal trainer like Sifu Edge. For this week though, I have decided to proceed as follows:
1. Hope that Master Brinker, upon reviewing last weeks journal will provide some guidelines for the next 10 weeks
2. Planned next week to include some baseline testing; record daily, my performance for timed agility jumps, thrust punches, and sit ups. At open training record my 2 flexibility tests. Record the time on my 2k run once this week.
3. Will continue what I did last week for forms, pushups, situps and kicks as there is still some work to be done.
4. There will be a pull-back on the amount of running I do in a week because I am having some chronic joint pain which seems to be getting more aggravated over the last month, so I need to see a doctor and get it sorted out.

Black Belt Requirements:
Due April 1; Written Assignment - what is a black belt - completed my first draft. Last night I came to a decision as to one more item I want to add to this assignment and so I have two weeks to get that done.
Due at Grading: ALL requirements from Yellow to 2nd Degree Brown. I assume we have to demonstrate our proficiency and knowledge of all the combinations, techniques, self defence, power training, theory, and sparring. Taking a look at the course curriculum is incredibly overwhelming. Today, between volleyball games, I broke the curriculum down into 11 chunks for me to tackle over the next 11 weeks. Then I decided on a game plan for carrying this out because some of the stuff would be better done with a partner, some stuff requires getting answers and building study notes, other stuff requires a week of practice and then getting a sifu to critique my execution and then another week of fine tuning. And other stuff can only be done, if I know for sure I will be in town for open training. My goal for this week is to build a study sheet for the Yellow/Orange belt Theory. There are 21 things to know, and I am embarrassed about how little I can answer at this time.

Personal Black Belt Requirements: At sihing class this week, Master Brinker urged us to review our Project Based Leadership. As mentioned in an earlier blog, I will post a review at month end because, by then, the first phase of my project should have been completed.

Home Training: this week has been excellent. My own efforts to dig deep, combined by pushup and sit up challenges issued by sifus robertson and shipalesky have resulted in some huge improvements in my daily training, and the cummulative totals. To keep the momentum going, Master Brinker's talk at sihing class really instilled a sense of urgency in me. Every night of home training counts, and open training is a must for the next 26 weeks. The focus is practice and repeat, with a sense of purpose. To that end, I have decided that next week, home training will focus on the following things
1. Continue with 150 pushups, 100 situps, 20 squat thrusts, 40 cross step kicks, 100 round house kicks, and 6 lao gars daily. ( A note on Lao Gar: due to including this in open training on Saturday, sihing lilienskold and I got some very good pointers from the sifus Robertson and Beckett, which will be focused on this week at home training)
2. In response to what was learned at Sihing class on Friday, I will add in 50 spinning back kicks daily, and up this total next week. This will also help me bring my cummulative totals up (I am way behind on round house kicks, and have decided to add in other kicks to close the gap).
3. In response to discussion period at sihing class, I have decided to add 50 inside cyclone, spinning flying outside cyclone kicks, which is something that, after I ho chuan class a month ago, I had made a mental note to perfect, but never got round to doing.
4. In response to current challenges on kwoon talk, I will continue with the stretching, which I had hoped to do daily, but found that unless I do a run first to REALLY warm up my legs, the static stretch doesn't work (ie, I think I just injure, and I don't get a good stretch). So the stretch challenge last week was done 2 times, after the 3.5km run I managed to get in twice at Servus Place this week.

Personal Black Belt Requirements:

Last week, I mentioned how terrible I was doing with Acts of Kindness. Though I've turned it around this week, and have started logging, the numbers are still low, and more worrisome, I'm having trouble keeping my daughters involved. There are a few thoughts floating around in my mind that may evolve into solutions, but nothing worth journalling just yet.

The seventh personal black belt requirement is to re-enter sparring. I don't know whether anyone noticed, but I stopped sparring some time ago when sifu davies broke a tooth, and everyone was forced to wear mouth guards. It's amazing how little personal hang ups, when allowed to sit and fester and develop into big hang ups, and create limitations, can really impede personal growth. I never did really enjoyed sparring anyway, particularly with some males, who, unbenownst to them, emit some sort of aura that cause me to get highly irrational. I believe I had this problem fairly well under control, but the introduction of the mouth guard was too much to handle. I've used every excuse in the book since purchasing my 3rd mouth peice, which I decided not to 'lose', to not spar. Yesterday, I purchased the gloves which are necessary now. So now, I'm ready to spar - I think. What I REALLY should be doing is going to San Shou, but that is an actual, bona fide, impossibility due to other committments. This may change after May 2.

I put this requirement in because its part of my decision, that in order to earn a black belt, I should not allow myself to stay in my 'safe zone'. Joining the lion dance team, and the next two personal black belt requirements are all part of that general theme which I had consciously decided to tackle.

The eighth personal black belt requirement is participate in a public testing performance. I've done this before, but I felt I needed to commit to doing in again. Initially, I had hoped to put something together to music and compete in the tiger challenge. But the tiger challenge is on may 2, and I will not be in town, and cannot and will not change that important date. So the public performance will have to occur elsewhere. Currently, I am working on Lao Gar, and I hope to get to the point where I can convince Master Brinker to let me perform it somewhere this summer.

The last black belt requirement is daily meditation. The motivation behind this one is all tangled up with my mouth guard, lion head hang up, and a bunch of other somewhat related physical and psychological idiosyncacies I have which make nose breathing a challenge at the very least. I really thought I should bust through this web of limitations, and decided back in December that the best way to do this was to start with mastering the dragon breathing (taming the dragon) exercise. I haven't gotten around to doing anything about this yet, but that sense of urgency is clicking in, and after last fridays discussion about sound focus, and my dismal failure at this exercise, it is time to get started.

THE PATH

The Path has its own requirements, and the things which people want to do are likely to be those which will help them to continue in the way in which they are already set, rather than in the direction which will break through their limitations. Idries Shah

Home Reading

" I remember the day my friend the sea decided to come to my aid and rescue me from limbo. The beach was deserted and a cold wind blew towards the land. My head lay in the lap which tied me to these shores. The whole universe floated rhythmically by, obeying impulses from my voice within, lulled by everything around. Suddenly a stronger gust of wind brought a different voice from the sea; I lifted my head in surprise, it was nothing, a false alarm. I settled my head back, returned my dreams to the caressing lap again, when I heard the sea's warning once more. Its vast discordant rythm hammered at the fortress in me and threatened its imposing serenity. We felt cold and left the beach, fleeing the perturbing presence with refused to leave me. On that small stretch of beach the sea pranced about indifferent to its eternal law and spawned the note of caution, the warning."

"The bike snorted with boredom along the long accident-free road and we snorted with fatigue."

from 'The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America' by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.

Thouroughly enjoying this book which is Che's diaries from about 1951. At this point, he has not evolved into the revolutionary he eventually becomes, but apparently the book reveals his early personal growth as he experiences the culture and lands of South America.

Home training: It is now month end, and as mentioned last week, it is time to crunch some numbers, and see where I am with regard to my personal black belt requirements. The figures below reflect what I have done December 1st-Feb 28, and what I have to achieve by Sept 1.
Pushups: Done 7027; should be at 13,500; thank goodness for today's 1000 pushup challenge.
Situps: Done 2010; should be at 9000; thank goodness for today's 1000 situp challenge.
Round house kicks: done 1950; should be at 7050; this is a problem
Squat Thrusts: Done 2335 which is 995 more than I need to be at to achieve my goal. Thankyou sihings Lilienskold and Kichko for the recent challenge.
Lao gar: Done the learning part and 23 repetitions of the full form. Need to 6 per day to achieve the 1000 repetitions by Sept 1.
It's amazing how much 2 months of struggle can put one significantly behind. I'm not too worried about the pushups and situps because the recent challenges have shown me that it is quite easy to do more than 150 per day. All that is required to fix these two items is focus and hard work. The Round house kicks are a real problem though. I'm not sure what is an acceptable solution to this. I think trying to catch up will result in injury from overdoing it, and it could have a negative affect on how I anticipate my daily training. Certainly I can continue with the 100/day and I'm thinking I should add in different kicks to make up for the shortfall. If master brinker happens to read this, perhaps he can comment. I am pleased with where I am with the Lao Gar.

Other Black Belt Requirements.

Last week I summarized the first 5 of my 9 personal requirements.

The sixth personal requirement is to journal 1000 acts of kindness performed by myself and my 2 daughters. So far, I have journalled 4 acts since Dec 1. Obviously I have some work to do in this area - journalling has simply fallen off the wayside. However, I have to say that committing to do this has resulted in a shift in my outlook. This requirement, and the the community project, and recent home reading has caused me to take a more serious attitude towards giving back to the community personally and through my daughters. The puzzling thing is how everything we are giving back is resulting in us getting back from the recievers more than we gave them. I was discussing this with Jill's coach, Mrs. F. She and I listed dozens of examples where we have found this to be true. Jill's teachers and coaches are redoubling their support of Jill whilst she is committing herself to training fellow students at school and helping with recreational classes at the club. The new coach at badminton, in return for Jill volunteering to help at the recreational classes for 1 hour per week, gives Jill a one hour private lesson. Her time is worth about $15 per hour, his time costs $50 per hour. I could mention more examples, but I'm getting off track. What I've got to do is journal our acts of kindness - I had not been doing it up till now and its important to do so.

I think I'll stop here and talk about the last three personal requirements next week. There are those 1000 pushups and situps to complete, laundry, housework, and a volleyball practice for Janet tonight.