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.