Sifu Finnamore

Week 11 & 12

2011-03-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Week 11 was a struggle. I really felt lost. Questioned everything I was doing. Thought seriously about quitting. Almost did, but went to see Sifu Brinker, and lost my resolve.

Week 12 was even worse. Ask me any part of any particular day what I want to do about the kung fu, and I could give you a totally different answer, depending on which part of the day it was. I decided to use the upcoming week off work to take some steps towards feeling more in control and making some decisions so that I have a sense of purpose and direction. I've compiled a list of decisions to be made, nagging questions to be resolved, actions to take, and issues to settle.

Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu, Student Member
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week 10

2011-03-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

It was mentioned that a Body for Life Challenge might be considered for our UBBT8 team. I am currently reading the book. I think most of us are indeed, doing most of the program already. But following the program for 12 weeks might just intensify our focus on goals and results.

As I read the book, I am making notes, as is suggested by the author. Answers to questions like the following ones have really added focus, direction and motivation. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and write down their personal answers to the following questions.

Have I made the decision to change?
What are my reasons for making the decision to change?
When I look at myself, do I honestly like what I see?
How do I feel deep down inside?
How do I really feel about myself?
Am I confident, energetic and strong?
do you often wonder if you're on the right path?
Would you like to creat a brighter future?

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week 9

2011-03-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

Due to A Series of Unfortunate Events this week, I did not catch up on situps and pushups and I did not attend classes.

On the bright side, I survived (I think). And I took the opportunity to catch up on my meditation minutes.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week 8

2011-02-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

I had set a goal of being up to date on pushups and situps by the end of February. It was a bumpy ride, but slowly I closed the gap, and by February 25 I could taste victory, with only 500 each of situps and pushups to catch up over the next three days.

For some inexplicable reason, my right shoulder began to hurt a little. On February 26 I was unable to lift my arm. Over the course of the next day I began to experience pain down my right back side. I think it all began with the faint, but unmistakable crunching/grinding sound/feeling I began to notice 4 days ago in my neck (C4,5,6 area). That would be the osteoarthritis, and at the time, I made a mental note to keep up with the omega oils supplements, which had fallen by the wayside over the last few days. When those neck vertebrae are grinding together, the nerves are pinched, and pain and numbness in arms and hands result. And the narrowing of the joint space in my shoulder, combined with a thickening of tendons in the shoulder joint cause severe pain, because the muscles and ligaments do not move as freely through the narrow passages in the joints. One constricted muscle pulls on another; from neck, to shoulder, down the arms and across the back. I am in pain. This has happened before. A visit to the chiropractor, increase the omegas, and a little rest, and I should be able to ease into the push ups and sit ups in another day or two.

Maybe I'm in denial, but I don't believe the pushups actually caused the problem. The crunching/grinding of my neck does not happen during regular pushups; it only occurs when I do the tricep pushups, of which I only do 50 per 200 pushups. I will have a talk with my chiropractor about that. Nevertheless, I have given myself a deadline extension. Realistically, I want to be up to date on pushups and situps by March 12.

I am reading an awesome book about kindness (the fourth of my six required readings for UBBT8). It is called "The Power of Kindness", by Piero Ferrucci. As I have not yet finished the book, I will not summarize it yet. But below is an exerpt.

Contact (interpersonal interactions), is a basic aspect of kindness. Where you find contact, you find the heart. . . .
Try this experiment. Start with an ordinary situation such as riding in a taxi, buying paper at a stationery shop, or sitting in the train. Tthen try exchanging a few words with the taxi driver, making eye contact with the salesperson, striking up a conversation with someone on the train. For some of us, that happens spontaneously; others have to do it deliberately. Be fully present in this brief contact, and expect the other to be so as well. Suddenly a change occurs: Something becomes unblocked and energy circulates. It might not be an encounter of two souls. But it surely will be an exhcange of vital energy between two people. . .
Contact is the door through which kindness can flow. . . . Right in the midst of everyday life we are given the chance to touch the lives of others and thus change the world.

Claire Finnamore, Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week Seven

2011-02-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

Two people commented, last week on my Physout page. One of the people is a white belt, and I get from his various posts, that he is really pumped and excited about his kung fu journey, and sincerely wants to help everyone around him succeed, (he asked me how he could help me improve my numbers). He seems to be fully ensconced in the Silent River family. I wish I felt how he does now, but I don't, though I could, and will again. Sifu Brinker said to me a few months ago, "The tools are right in front of you".

Several weeks ago, I encouraged other students and UBBT members to make use of the Physout site. In the past year, some of us had been using the site, others had not, and still others had started using the site, but had not kept it up to date. The Physout site, therefore, was just a private, optional record-keeping tool. As students, and UBBT members, we used the site in isolation from eachother.

Recently, more members and students have started to commit themselves to using the physout site, to keep it up to date, and comment on eachothers' pages. The physout is now a public entity, and we can use it to our advantage. It's ironic that I might be the first one who is struggling, to benefit the most. Perhaps by encouraging others to use this site, I was anticipating that I would need their help and support. By encouraging others, I would be encouraged myself.

I have accepted the white belt's offer to help. Perhaps there are more than two of us who would benefit from a public challenge of forms, or something else. I hope he responds soon.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test.
UBBT8

Week Six

2011-02-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

I wish I had more time to write, but I don't. This week I helped organize a two day volleyball tournament. At the moment, I am in the midst of it. Tommorrow, I suspect I will be far too tired to think.

This week I made up some ground on my pushups, squat thrusts and situps. Though I am still behind, it is encouraging to see the gap diminishing. I was unable to attend class on Friday, because I was setting up the gyms and concessions, etc for the the volleyball tournament. No time for open training on Saturday either, as I was busy selling 50/50 draws, and concession items, and trying to get a peak at my daughter's games. Too crowded for pushups today, but I managed to sneak out and get 3 half hour walks in - so my self -propelled travel requirement received attention (and my dog loved it). As well, the 3 2-hour round trip commutes to the site, have provided me with time to work on my knitting donation requirements.

I am reading my third of six required readings on 'Kindness'. This one, "The Art of Being Kind', by Stefan Einhorn provides a few interesting comments on what the author calls the 'counterforces' to being kind. He discusses lack of empathy, lack of reflection, not wanting to get involved, not practicing what we preach, our innate aggression, the victim mentality, the 'someone else' principle, and 'whatever we do, it'll turn out wrong'. Though I don't feel the author offered much advice on what we should do about these counterforces, it is a good idea to keep these things in mind when trying to improve our daily actions, as well as the actions of those around us, and trying to understand why some very unkind acts occur around us.

Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu - Student Member
The Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week Five

2011-02-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

This week has been a good week, and very busy too. It seems that there is a lot that I could journal, but I am short of time. I am heading into another busy week. I have made February the month for bringing up my push-up, sit-up, and squat thrust numbers. Every day is a battle, but things are improving. My goal is to be up to date on these three things by the end of February. I appreciate the comment I recieved on my UBBT tracker. It is motivating that my team members are taking an interest and keeping tabs on me.

I have also made February a cleanse-month. I am trying a different one than the Master Cleanse, which I used last year, with mixed results. The Master Cleanse (aka the Lemonade cleanse), resulted in weight loss, increased energy, and a lifting of spririt. But after not eating solid food for 7 days, I succumbed to the urge to eat everything in sight. This year's cleanse is a 30-day herbal cleanse, and I can eat normally and healthily throughout. It also includes a significant supplement of omega and essential fatty acids. I believe this may have resulted in an unexpected health benefit. I've noticed that some chronic injuries associated with my osteoarthritis have pretty much been completely alleviated. Suddenly, the crunch and grind I listen to as I perform my push-ups has dissappeared for the first time in almost 2 years. I think I might even be able to run. But I don't want to push it. For now I am happy to listen to the silence of my joints, and marvel at the freedom with which I can move my right shoulder without pain.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week Four

2011-01-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

Finally the month of January comes to a close. It is one of the three tough months of the year when it comes to being motivated. I still have February and March to go, but from past records I know that things slowly but surely get to be a little easier.

I am thouroughly dissappointed with my numbers for January. I have ALOT of catching up to do in pushups, situps, squat thrusts and forms. I should have been ahead in numbers for self-propelled travel; I have never done so much outdoor walking in this province at this time of the year. But my numbers on the bike slipped below what I had expected because I inexplicably began having a difficult time getting up at 4:30 am to attend my morning spin classes. I really have to find a solution to this problem quickly as my timetable for the next 5 months does not allow for spin work at any other time of the day. I am happy that my attendance numbers for I Ho Chuan, Black Belt Class, and Open training are on track, but I still find it a mental struggle to convince myself to go, and to stay. February is a shorter month, and that much closer to spring.

Last week, the lead teacher and I began our 'Kindness' curriculum. Our special students struggle with empathy and related skills. Sometimes the teacher and I wonder if we are teaching to the unteachable. But there is one boy, who really doesn't get it who provides me with hope. He TRIES to understand. He WANTS to understand. I think he knows he doesn't get it, and that is why he bombards us with seeminigly preposterous questions, like, 'Mrs. Finnamore, is it a Random Act of Kindness when you save someone from drowning even when you don't like them?' I hope that one day, despite his limitations, we will provide him with an answer that will work for him.

I am reading the most amazing book, by John Francis, Ph.D., called "Planet Walker; 17 years of silence, 22 years of walking". Back in 1971, when John was in his 20's, he joined thousands of people as they responded to an oil spill in San Francisco Bay, by scrubbing the beaches and fighting to save birds and sea creatures dying from petroleum poisoning. The event changed his life and began a deep personal transformation; he chose to stop using motorized vehicles, and he took a vow of silence that would last for 17 years. The book is the story of the next 22 years of his life, as he silently walks 2 continents spreading his message of peace and environmentalism, and, along the way, earning an undergraduate and master's degree in science and environmental studies and a Ph.D. in land resources. Though John currently has taken up a more traditional lifestyle, he is still an activist. He is the founder and director of Planetwalk, a nonprofit environmental education organization and he is developing a environmental studies curriculum based on the walking pilgrimage for K-12 schools and universities.

"Listen actively to learn. Be prepared to hear something new without judgment, and listen to what you have heard before from the place where you are now. Learning may come from a new understanding of what you already seem to know." John Francis

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week Three

2011-01-23T15:08:00.000-08:00

Its been a tough week and not much to write about. I've been struggling with trying to simplify my schedule. I seem to be going all the time. As a result, I don't feel I am putting 100% into any one thing. What I want to do is really simple enough. I want to spend more time at home and training my dog. I want to do well in the UBBT8. And I want to ride my bike alot. Those are the big rocks in my bucket. But I find that there are a whole pile of little pebbles masquerading as big boulders, filling all the spaces in between and flowing out over top. Some aren't even my own pepbles, but as a mother, I have them in my bucket anyways. Its tough eliminating things on the to do list when you're a mom, but I've decided to start asking myself, "Where am I?" and "Why am I doing this?". Its a start.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8

Week Two

2011-01-16T14:01:00.001-08:00

One of my UBBT8 goals is to take my dog to intermediate obedience training, and then agility training classes. One might wonder what this goal might have to do with my kung fu journey.

At first, I thought that challenging myself to focus on my dog would give me the opportunity to learn more about 'living in the moment'. Agility classes require that my dog be fit. I would have to take my dog for long walks, exercise her with games of catch, spend at least 20 minutes per day practising the obedience training. It would force me to slow down my own life, adjust my day to day priorities, be home more, enjoy the outdoors more, and watch and learn how a dog 'lives in the moment'.

The trainer at the obedience classes told me that dogs don't live in the moment. They live in the second. I argued with him that a moment is not to confused with a minute. When he looked at me askance, I referred to philosophies such as zen buddhism. The obedience trainer would have none of it. He had no time for philosophy, and 'living in the moment' mumbo jumbo; he'd rather spend time with his dogs.

Today, Lizzie (my dog) and I went for a one hour walk. Actually, for me, it wasn't walking, and it wasn't snowshoeing, so I would have to call it snow-booting. As we walked and snow-booted, I got to thinking. Lizzie is helping me profoundly with this 'living in the moment' thing. Not for the first time this year, I had adjusted my plans for the day on account of her. I'm not much of a winter outdoors person - so getting motivated, or adjusting my day, to go outside and just walk, and think, and clear the cobwebs out, relax, enjoy the freshness, and live in the moment is a challenge at this time of year. Lizzie has indeed provided the reason, the perspective and motivation I need. And in doing so, she has provided me with the opportunity to explore another of my UBBT8 requirements; Kindness.

I am currently reading the book, 'On Kindness', by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor which explores the origins and history of kindness in our instincts, our religions, and our philosophies. The authors argue that kindness is instinctual, but in society we have come to be suspicious of it and view it as dangerous. In the authors' words below:

The pleasure of kindness is that it connects us with others; but the terror of kindness is that it makes us too immediately aware of our own and other people's vulnerabilties.

Dogs, like humans, are social animals. As I spend time with Lizzie, I watch her give and recieve kindness instinctively. Is it because she has not lost touch with that inter-connectedness that we all crave, or is it the other way round? As I bring loads of wood in for the wood-burning stove, and Lizzie dances around me, I begin to wonder whether there are a few things you can't have without the other - the ability to live in the moment, the pleasure of kindness, and the acceptance of both our interconnectedness, and our vulnerabilities.

"So it is not that real kindness requires people to be selfless, it is rather that real kindness changes people in the doing of it, often in unpredictable ways"
From "On Kindness"

Week One

2011-01-08T23:47:00.000-08:00

Week One did not go as well as I would have liked. We are in the midst of snowstorms here, and so I was not able to get to the training hall on Friday or Saturday. My attendance at classes on both these days has been an issue that I hope to correct. I have made it one of my requirements in UBBT8 to attend 80% of this year's black belt and I Ho Chuan classes on Friday nights, and Open training sessions on Saturdays. I will have to wait until next week to get started.

Another of my UBBT8 requirements is to read 6 books on Acts of Kindness. This week I finished reading "Cool To Be Kind: Random Acts And How To Commit Them", by Val Litwin, Brad Stokes, Erik Hanson, and Chris Bratseth. I highly reccommend this book. Its about 4 young Canadians (the authors), who packed a motorhome in Victoria and embarked on a three-month non-profit marathon in 2002 which was called The Extreem Kindness Tour. Their mission was to commit as many random acts of kindness in as many Canadian communities as possible. Their dream was to begin connecting the world through kindness. When I finished the book, I was amazed and inspired. Amazed at the geniune depth of commitment, awareness, and leadership these 20ish young men displayed. Amazed at their excellent writing. And inspired by the many different things they did in each of the communities they visited and the impact their acts had on the receivers as well as the givers.

I have recently changed careers and am now in a position to make a difference in the community through my job. The team I work need my help in developing a 'volunteerism' component which will be delivered as a program to junior high students in an alternative classroom setting. My suggestion that 'Acts of Kindness' be the theme has been enthusiastically recieved. I am brimming with ideas after reading reading 'Cool To Be Kind'. What a great way to start the year.

If you want to have fun for an hour watch television. If you want to have fun for a day go to an amusement part. If you want to have fun for a lifetime - help others. From 'Cool To Be Kind;

Claire Finnamore, Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu

Nurture the Silence

2010-12-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

My first two week vacation in years. In preparation for this time with my 18 and 16 year old daughters, my dog and the husband, I gathered the felt pens, coloring pencils, and abstract art and stain glass coloring books. This evening we all sat round the counter and colored. Bert sat in his chair, tending the fire in the wood stove and stroking the dog's fur.

A great silent space holds all of nature in its embrace. It also holds you.
Eckhart Tolle.

UBBT7: A Review - Part 1

2010-12-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

Essentially, the purpose of UBBT8 remains the same as for UBBT7 – to develop and nurture the body, the mind, and the spirit, and to maintain and develop mastery of martial arts. A qualitative review of my UBBT7 goals helps me to build a UBBT8 program that will work better for me. By looking at the purpose behind my goals, and then assessing whether or not the goals helped me achieve the larger purpose, as well as analyzing why or why I didn’t succeed will be a great help in building a better set of goals for UBBT8. Today, I would like to focus on the body aspect of my UBBT. To be sure, I both succeeded and failed spectacularly in this area.

1. 100 hours of self- propelled travel (cycle, spin, walk, kayak). My life changed as a result of achieving this goal, and it helped me to fulfill a promise that I have made to myself and then broken many times in my life. The cycling/spinning got me into shape so that I was able to participate in two 100km rides. I was also able to begin doing the type of travel that is in my bucket list of things to do before I die. Ultimately, cycling the Silk Road is a long way off from taking a cycle trip in Austin, Texas, but it’s a lot closer than breaking another promise. Note to self: Increase hours for UBBT8, and head to Philadelphia this August for another LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE RIDE.
2. 52,000 Pushups: Sifu Brinker stressed that this goal was a way of staying engaged in the test. It was something mindless, yet not effortless, that one could do every day and anywhere. Two problems. I had not bought into the idea that pushups were a way of staying engaged. Actually, I found that mindful or mindless knitting or cycling fulfilled this purpose more effectively. The other problem was that pushups hurt, and doctors advised that my shoulders and neck needed a break. I tried to replace the pushups with a workout that developed the neck, arm, shoulders and back muscles for cycling – but that required more time and equipment than was convenient. I feel that I have hit a wall regarding pushups. I really believe that resuming them will only aggravate my osteoarthritis and injure my rapidly aging body. I think it is unwise. At the first UBBT8 meeting yesterday, Sifu Brinker employed his masterful skills of persuasion, and actually had me considering preparing for the 1000 pushup challenge on January 1, 2011. After sleeping on it, and considering the dilemma under the clear light of a new day, my strongest thought is that accepting the pushup challenge of roughly 150 per day, for a total of 52,000 pushups may be met with some success at first, but finally, it will result in failure. I’m thinking of lowering this goal, but not completely giving up on it.
3. 52,000 Situps: In truth, my purpose behind the pushups and situps was to maintain my core. Core is great for martial arts, for cycling, and for injury prevention. And, for almost two years I was able to enjoy the flatness of my stomach and the definition in my arms because I did the sit ups and push ups as well as chin ups and squat thrusts on a daily basis. When the pushups fell away, so did the situps. Such is the ease with which good habits fall by the wayside. Note to self: Make sit-ups part of a daily routine which includes squat thrusts.
4. Drink no coffee: To my surprise, there were absolutely no bumps impeding my success in this area. I did not drink any coffee at all! I plan to continue this goal.
5. Maintain healthy weight and eating through Weightwatchers. Some bumps in the road on this one, but ultimately success. The new Weightwatchers PointsPlus program was introduced at last week’s meeting, and it will make it much easier, because fruits now have no point value: like vegetables, we can eat as much fruit as we want. Protiens are encouraged more. Eating whole foods will be a whole lot easier.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

ACK!!! 33 days left to complete!

2010-11-28T20:30:00.001-08:00

Life so busy. Not a moment to spare. Still here though. Almost an hour a day of self propelled travel required. And the same goes for that knitting meditaion. Will she make it ? Finish strong.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung

It Takes a Village . . .

2010-10-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, whilst participating in the Habitat for Humanity project in Stony Plain, I ran into a lady I know who coaches girls club volleyball in Spruce Grove. She was also volunteering at the Habitat project. I've often been puzzled by this lady. She's a young single mother of an elementary school aged boy. She works full time. And for years, she's volunteered much of her time running the local volleyball club, and coaching a team of girls who are my own daughter's age. The reason I've been puzzled by this lady is because, 9 times out of 10, volunteer coaches are in it because they have a daughter or son on the team, or they are young education students adding coaching to their resumes. Very few people coach out of the love of the sport, or the goodness of their hearts. The lady in question seems to have been coaching girls volleyball for reasons other than personal gain. And I've often wondered how, as a single working mother, she finds the time, the energy, and the dedication to do such a wonderful thing for her community.

Janet and I went to sign up for club try-out this weekend, and once again I ran into the lady I am taling about. I asked her how she liked doing the volunteer work at Habitat, and whether she does it often. "Well, actually," she said, " I do it every weekend. My son and I are one of the recipient families for the Habitat project in Spruce Grove. We just moved into our home last weekend."

Awesome.

NEWS BRIEF: Two Canadian Gals Participate in Cycling Challenge

2010-10-26T20:35:00.001-07:00

Austin, Texas
October 26, 2010

This weekend, just over 5,400 people from 10 countries participated in the Lance Armstrong Challenge to fight cancer. Participants chose to walk, run, or cycle distances of 5km, 20 miles, 45 miles, 65 miles or 90 miles and through the generosity of their sponsors raised $3.1 million toward the fight against cancer. Staff reporter, Liv Strong, caught up with two gals, Sifu Claire Finnamore, and Sihing Julie Lilienskold, who travelled all the way from Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada to participate in this amazing event.

Liv: You all gals came all the way from Canada!!! That has to be the farthest anyone's come to ride in the Austin Challenge.

Julie: I think so. But we flew down. There were 36 riders that cycled down from Vancouver. And we met some cyclists from Toronto and Calgary.

Liv: So how many miles did you all ride?

Claire: We participated in the 65 mile ride, which in Canadian, translates to about 103km.

Liv: A Hundred and three kilometers!! Are you all crazy? There couldn't have been many that were insane enough to go that distance!

Julie: Just under half of the 3100 cyclists did 65 miles or more, actually.

Liv: Well how long did that take you all to finish?

Claire: It took us 7.5 hours, and we definitely finished at the back of the pack. but that's not the point. We were there to spend the day cycling, to enjoy the event and the people, and the feeling of being a part of a worthwhile cause.

Julie: It was great, being a part of a health-care movement and a catalyst for better cancer care and education across the globe. Did you know that this movement has pioneered programs around the world for survivors; worked to unify the fractured cancer community; and instigated a worldwide crusade which includes the United Nations and the Clinton Global Initiative to make the world's No. 1 Killer a health-care priority?

Claire: And being amongst so many people: survivors, activists, supporters, and patients. It was really a great feeling. And so inspiring to be meet people who, after being so sick, or losing husbands, wives, sons, mothers, best friends and heroes - they still had such strength and determination to fight back. There were cyclists who rode the 90 mile ride who had lost one or both legs to cancer. They had some pretty technical looking prothesis'. And they finished ahead of us!

Julie: Some of the survivors looked so fit. Like hard-core triatheletes. I just can't imagine what they went through to bring themselves back from the ravages done to their body by cancer and cancer treatment. It was so inspiring to see them participating. The teams were really amazing. I met one group of young guys. Every year for the last three years, they ride in memory of their buddy's father. Can you imagine the empowerment that kind of support gives to someone who loses a loved-one to cancer?

Claire: And to cancer patients??? I met a team of about 12 walkers who were pushing a cancer patient in a wheelchair for the 5km walk. Can you imagine the amount of 'fight' that can inject into someone? Being surrounded not only by 12 people who really want you there, and also by thousands of others fighting back too.

Liv: Tell me about the actual route you rode. What did you all like best about it?

Claire: Well, it was all out in the back country roads. Very hilly but incredibly peaceful. I loved the warm humid breeze, the smell of cedar, hearing chickens and roosters as we passed family dwellings. The county sherrifs waiting patiently by their vehicles to direct traffic as the cyclists made their way along the route. The cactus plants and the scenery. That's the thing: this wasn't a race - it was an opportunity to live in the moment.

Julie: I guess that's part of the reason we came in close the back of the pack. We weren't worried about how fast we could speed down the hills, or how hard the next hill was going to be. We just took our time and enjoyed what was right in front of us. Like the armadillo that tried to cross the road. I'm not sure how many of us actually saw that armadillo, but I'm so glad I got the chance to see one up close. He scurried back to the side of the road pretty quick and I was so relieved that he didn't become another Texas speed bump.

Liv: Well I'm so glad it was such a positive experience. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. And, you all come back next year, you hear?

Claire: Absolutely!!

Julie: Without a doubt.

Liv: LIVESTRONG!

Pinch Drunk

2010-10-03T20:09:00.001-07:00

Wow, last post was a long one. Here is something a bit shorter. One of my UBBT7 goals is to read 6 books on meditation. Just finished my third one; Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment, by B. Alan Wallace. This is Buddhist meditation, and I got ALOT out of it. Too much to soak in in just one read. Highly reccommend this book, but here is an excerpt I really liked.

"Very recently I was surprised and delighted to find that I could hover at will in midair. This felt so real that I was confident I wasn't dreaming, but I pinched myself just to test my assumption. Sure enough, I felt the pinch on my leg, which reinforced my conviction that I really could levitate. I later worke up, though, and since then I haven't been able to become airborne again. So either I was dreaming I could levitate, or I'm now in the midst of a prolonged dream in which I seem to be grounded for life."

After reading this, I realized two things. First, I've often had dreams about being able to hover in mid-air. In fact, its one of my most pleasant dreams, and I've always taken it as a FACT, that I can hover in mid air, and that I enjoy it. Never questioned it, not in my dreams, and not in my awake time. Second, in my dreams, I often do pinch myself to test whether I am dreaming or not. I don't think I've ever pinched myself in my awake time, except to stop myself from falling asleep.

Claire Finnamore, Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu.

Living Hero

2010-09-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm proud that Silent River Kung Fu supports SCARS (Second Chance Animal Rescue Society).

I've had a chance over the last month to get to know about SCARS up close and personal. We are adopting a puppy from SCARS, after a year of going without one in our family. We've had three dogs: Bob was a really dumb dalmation - we had him for 16 years; Joe came from the SPCA and was very smart - we had him for 18 years; our last dog, Roxy, also came from the SPCA and though she was an incredible escape artist, and loved to herd anything that moved, including cows, llammas and Great Danes, we kept her safe for 7 years until she went after a pack of coyotes and never came back. We consider ourselves pretty responsible dog owners, with an excellent track record. As a family, we treat our pets as one of us, and so the dogs have had the run of the house, and have been included in our conversations. When we signed up with SCARS to adopt an eight week old puppy, we didn't expect too much trouble.

Then we met Deb.

Deb is a full time,hard-core volunteer for the non-profit society and dedicates close to 40 hours a week contributing to the well-being of the animals that are rescued by other SCARS volunteers. Deb is very much involved in the administrative duties required to keep the society running, and she also fosters some of the most wounded and broken dogs herself. It involves taking the dogs into her home, spending alot of time visiting the vet, and alot of love and patience as she and her family rehabilitate the dogs so that they can be adopted. Within a span of five years, her devoted family of five has fostered over 90 dogs.

But you have to meet this lady, to get the full picture. I first spoke to Deb on the phone when she interviewed us prior to allowing us to be considered as eligible to adopt one of the puppies that she was caring for in her home. Deb didn't like what she heard and was not sure that we were suitable potential dog owners. The thing that bothered her was that we had admitted that both Bert and I worked full time, and our daughter at home attended full time schooling. Deb didn't feel that the puppy would get the attention it required during the first six months of its life. She was worried about pee schedules, and the puppy getting lonely.

Bert and I were taken aback. We've had three happy dogs; two died of old age. Our home is set up for dogs - with a large dog-run, fancy new insulated dog house, lots of space in the house and outside, a llamma and 3 goats to talk to, and even a stupid 7 year old turkey to harrass. WE ARE GOOD DOG OWNERS!!! We figured that Deb was taking her mission a little too seriously - a bit of a fanatic. Perhaps a little socially inept. A little 'High on Her Horse'. Some sort of crusader. But we bit our lips, worked something out with Deb, and she agreed to let us meet our puppy the next week.

Deb lives in a smallish house in Edmonton. She and her husband have 3 children. They've adopted 5 dogs. When we arrived at her house we had to step of baby gates, music stands, furniture and dogs to get to the laundry room, where the ten puppies and their mother were set up. Surprisingly, the house did not smell of dog. It was clean and cozy, yet crammed with dog stuff, kid stuff, volunteer stuff, and school stuff. The dogs (all 16 of them) looked healthy, relaxed, and sociable. The 3 kids were friendly, and showed love and compassion with the animals. Didn't see the husband.

Deb turned out to be exactly what we had expected - and this is a good thing. It becomes immediately apparent that Deb and her family loves and cares for each dog as an individual, and will do everything in their power to ensure that they lead the happy lives that they deserve. During our first visit Deb sized us up and down several times over. She worried about some things, and was relieved to learn other things about us. It was a process for her, of allowing herself to become convinced that we would really care for our new dog - that she could release the puppy to us. Until she was convinced, she didn't really relax. And she judged. Deb was clearly relieved to know that we would be popping by over the next week, to drop off a blanket or toy, and to just visit and play. The following week, we could not make it out to visit - she was uncomfortable with that, but then made allowances that we lived so far away, and had to drive up to Whitecourt with our daughter.

Because of Deb, I've really stopped to think through some things. Indeed, there is room for improvement in how well we train our new puppy and what I am willing to do for her during the first 6 months of her life. That's a good thing. Lizzie (that's our puppy's name) will be old enough to leave her mother (and Deb) in 6 more days. I think about her every day.

The SCARS mandate is to reduce the number of homeless and abused animals in Northern Alberta. This is one of the reasons Deb is so passionate about her work with SCARS. "We take in just over 400 animals in a year, and there are lots more out there,' she says. "It's a huge job, and it's going to take years and years to gradually change the mindset of people'. "We're making a difference in a dog's life, and we're giving that dog a second chance."

Ninety foster dogs. One devoted family. We need more people like Deb.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu

Almost didn't blog

2010-08-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

I figured I had a very valid excuse for not blogging this week. Me and ten thousand other mothers across Canada have shed a few tears, as they've helped their first-born daughters move out and go off to University. One mother I spoke to this week summed it up - "It's like I'm cutting off a part of me". She found herself tearing up after taking her daughter to Shopper's Drug Mart to get all the essentials she would need from there. I said, 'But at least you've got 3 more; I've only got one daughter left at home'. She retorted, 'But mine's going to VANCOUVER!, at least your daughter is still in the same province'.

And so the painful adjustment begins. In order to avoid plunging into despair and ceaseless worry, i turn my attention to kung fu.

I must say the Silent River Kung Fu Diet tracking challenge was an excellent exercise. I'm assuming that everyone else that did this excercise was truthful with their entries. I certainly wasn't. There are a number of chocolate bars that I was not willing to admit having consumed, especially on days where I had also eaten 2 Tim Horton cookies. The mere fact that these ommissions occured in my public journal taught me a couple of things.

First, I am not willing to admit certain others what I am willing to admit to myself. Previous to participating in this challenge, I had no idea this was the case. I wonder what is going on. At Weightwatchers I'm quite comfortable standing up and telling everyone that I had too much of this and that. Perhaps it is the fact that I am amongst like-minded individuals, who also struggle with sweet tooth, or whatever. Whereas, the UBBT challenge involved individuals who may or may not share similar struggles in the food arena.

The second thing I learned, was that my window of sweet-food-eating is from 3 to 6 pm in the evening. This is also the time when I feel like I could do with a nap. I'm a creature of habit - breakfast, snacks and lunch are pretty routine. And so is the 3pm to 6 pm weakness in my diet. It stands to reason, then, that some sort of change in my routine at that time is what is needed to bypass the cravings for sweet food. From recent readings on wholistic health, I've learned that an earlier bed-time of no later than 10pm might actually be the key. With a little more sleep, I might find that the 3 to 6 pm low in my energy level will be less pronounced, and this might take the edge of my desire for something sweet to eat.

Well then, its past 11pm. I guess I should get to bed.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member: Silent River Kung Fu

Eat, Sleep, Meditate: An Ayurvedic Perspective on Depression

2010-08-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Claire has sunk into a lifesyle that enhances the heaviness she feels in her heart. She eats to comfort herself. Rather than providing her nourishment, the food is blocking the flow of energy in her body and mind. It is not being digested properly, therefore it is creating a toxic accumulation. The results of this 'indigestion' are cloudy thinking, an overwhelming sense of being stuck in her body, and an inability to lift her spirit.

Change to the structure of Claire's life such as her daughter moving out to residence, and recent struggles and revelations about her daughter's health, brought about a jolt in her Vata dosha (which governs the nervous systm and flow of energy and circulation). Change is hard for everyone, but this is especially true for those who are already experiencing the Kapha imbalance (The Kapha dosha governs the formation of physical structure, regulates stability and stamina of thinking and emotional processing). When her nervous system recieves a jolt, Claire feels different than usual. Almost by reflex, she attempts to settle her physiology in order to maintain her usual way of experiencing herself. To balance the unsettled, ungrounded feeling that the changes have triggered, she reaches for that which is grounding: a stable routine, extra rest and sleep, and the comfort of sweet and heavy foods. Basically, she leans in the direction of her imbalance. In the short run, extra rest, excess sleep, and heavy foods do pacify Claire, but in the long run, they further imbalane her Kasha dosha.

Claire has a tendency to develop and Earthy Depression (Kappa dosa). Deep sadness, lack of interest and a sense of being stuck are the primary manifestations of this type of depression. Excessive sleeping and eating are often used as comfort techniques. Mentally and emotionally excessive sentimentality and attachement to the past are the root of the problem.

Kasha dosha governs the structure and cohesion of the overall physiology. It is associated with strength, stability, and structure. A preponderance of this dosha in a person brings to mind the image of a mountain. As if emerging from the Earth, Claire has a solid physical structure and a stable prescence. When she is in balance, a sense of contentment and dignity accompany her every act.

At the physical level, this dosha regulates biological strength, natural resistance (immunity), and proper body structure. At the psychological level, it affords stability of mind, emotional endurance, and mental stamina. However, when this dosha of benevolence goes out of balance, strength turns into rigidity and stability turns into inflexibility. Individuals with the Kapha imbalance can become immobilized, as if locked within their own structure, be it physical, emotional, or mental.

The Ayurvedic approach to holistic health would prescribe an extensive process geared to purify the body of toxins and undigested matter that results from an improper diet and lifestyle. Sweet and heavy foods, and eating for comfort late at night will need to be taken out of the daily habit. A diet of light and warm foods that are easy to digest and that infuse warmth and liveliness into the diet are reccommended. This would be followed by certain herbs, Ayurvedic breathing exercises, and meditation.

Soon after changing her diet, Claire will report feeling lighter physically as well as emotionally. Now she can return to the habit of moving her body, a re-establishing of martial arts training routines, and training for cycling-instead of sleeping when she is overcome by a feeling of lethargy which overcomes her in the mid-afternoon. Gradually, Claire's internal biorythms once again will mirror the cycles of nature. When we disrupt our internal biorythms, be it through insufficient sleep (Claire has been averaging 5 hours sleep each night) or by sleeping during the day (Claire has been taking 3 to 6 hour naps in the mid afternoon) and staying up at night (Claire seldom goes to bed before midnight since she finds that her mind is most alert and her energy level is greatest between 8pm and midnight), we lose nature's support for a well-functioning metabolism. Night-time is when the 'garbage crews' come out and clean up our physiology. If we are awake, these midnight riders (immune cells) cannot do their job and we become clogged with toxins.

Finally,learning meditation which should be practiced regularly, will help Claire to purify the more subtle aspects of her being, the mind and the emotions. Making a connection to the spiritual aspects of life will also help her to see change as a necessary part of the evolutionary process.

Source: Healing Depression the Mind-Body Way; Creating happiness with meditation, yoga, and ayurveda. by Nancy Liebler, Ph.D., and Sandra Moss, M.S.P.H. 2009

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

I Am Because We Are

2010-08-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

I feel proud of the fact that Silent River Kung Fu supports, through fundraising, the Atsikan Pa Alendo - Malawi Girls on the Move project, AND pays for the education of three students at this secondary school for girls in the poorest and most AIDS-devasted country in Africa. The project stands for things that I really believe in - that education is empowering, and the key to world peace; that people in these struggling countries do not want help in the form of us telling them what to do, how to think, who to follow, because we have done enough of that in the past and it has only resulted in their suffering; that the citizens themselves are the best candidates for leading their country and rebuilding; and finally, that it is the females that we should help to empower first, because they are the one's that are most likely to bring about the first seeds of change for a better future in their country. Greg Mortenson, who builds schools in Pakistan and Afhganistan has said, "There is an African proverb I learned as a child in Tanzania, 'If you educate a boy you educate an individual. But if you educate a girl you educate a community'. He refers to the fact that educated females have a direct impact on the economy, health, and the social institutions of their community. Educated women tend to contribute to income growth and farm productivity. They have less children; infant mortality and maternal mortality drops, as does domestic violence when women are empowered by education. Children are healthier. Educated women are more likely to insist on educating their children, becoming involved in the local politics, and having more democratic, less corrupt social institutions within their community.

I've just finished watching a documentary on Malawi, written, produced and narrated by none other than the mega-pop phenom, MADONNA. This documentary has got to be the most amazing piece of work Madonna has produced, and its amazing by any standard. I think that everyone who supports the Malawi Girls on the Move, or participates in UBBT7 should watch it. Its called 'I Am Because We Are'. Be prepared to be educated, moved, and to weep.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

Building Schools, Renovating Schools

2010-08-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

To tell you the truth, I'm not with Sifu Brinker on the concept behind this year's school renovations at Silent River Kung Fu. The tearing down of walls and heating ducts, ripping up of tiles will supposedly create more useable training space, and a more functional parent viewing area. I just don't see it. But I'm quite happy to join in the work these last two Saturdays. The company is pleasant, the school is an invaluable community asset, and I come away feeling happy about being a part of it all.

As I rode my bike home yesterday, I got to thinking about the rennovating and building of schools. I'm just now reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea", by Greg Mortenson. Mortenson, an avid mountain climber from the USA, almost died when he made his way back down K2 in Pakistan after a failed attempt to make the summit in 1993. He stumbled into an impoverished, isolated village named Korphe, and the people there nursed him back to health. When he finally was ready to return home he made a promise to return one day and build a school for the people there. Since then, Mortenson has built schools all over the most isolated, deprived areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This book is about his work in Pakistan, and the great citizens of Pakistan who worked with him to bring balanced education to the impoverished, isolated, and in particular, to young girls. The subtitle of Mortenson's book says it all - 'One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations . . . One School at a Time.'

How can one person, or the average citizen most effectively bring peace to our future? Water supply, food, and medical aide are important of course. But education is what empowers. Schools like the one's Mortenson has built in Pakistan empower the students to rise above the conditions that fuel hate and prejudice. Likewise, supporting the projects of our local schools that teach compassion, empathy, responisibility, acts of kindness will produce the kind of citizens who can collaborate with like-minded people around the world.

"The Enemy is Ignorance"
from Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

Silent River Kung Fu Diet Tracker Challenge

2010-08-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Today the Silent River Kung Fu UBBT7 team members will begin posting everything they eat, every day, for the month of August. When Sifu Brinker issued this challenge at the UBBt7 team meeting yesterday, I noticed that I was not the only person looking a little panic stricken. Do I really want the world to know how many times I've visited the Marble Slab Creamery this summer? Or how many Tim Horton Strawberry Shortcake cookies I devour each week?

The trouble with my daily diet is that I do OK during the day - I have to pack my lunch to work, and the house is stocked with mostly whole foods. So Breakfast and lunch usually consist of fresh fruits, vegetables, yogurts, and a protien like fish or chicken, cheese, or nuts. But at the end of the day, I'm pretty cranky after having endured 8 hours dealing with and 84 year old boss who is going senile - bullying, blaming, rude, and irrational. HIs son, my other boss, is a nice guy, and tells me to ignore him, but he does little to deflect the nasty little outbursts that are aimed in my direction. I'm an emotional eater - by the end of the day I figure I deserve a visit to the junk food aisle at the Calahoo General Store on my way home. Or, a nice icecream with my daughters, on our way to their volleyball lessons, or whatever else they need driving to, will sweeten the rest of evening up quite nicely.

I've decided to take this challenge as an opportunity to break a viscious cycle as I watch my weight balloon out of control, start to feel not so good about myself, and end up eating more to feed my misery. My hope is, that I won't be reporting all that many Cadbury chocolate bars, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies, Coconut Cranberry Squares, . . . and so on.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

NEWS BRIEF: Morinville, Alberta July 25, 2010

2010-07-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sihing Lilienskold and Sifu Finnamore made history this weekend. While the whole world watched Lance Armstrong and Team RadioShack complete the Tour de France, capturing first place in the team classifaication, the duo from Silent River Kung Fu successfully completed their first ever bike event - the 100km Tour d'Alberta. Although it may seem strange to compare Team Radio Shack to the two novice bike riders half a world away, there is a link. We caught up with pair soon after the event, as they slurped on some delicious strawberry popsicles.

Q. 100km!!!- you gals certainly bit of a big one by choosing to go this distance for your first ever event. How did you prepare?

Sihing Lilienskold: We've been training since March. Claire and I joined spin classes in March. When the weather got good enough -I think that was sometime in July this year - we started riding outside - 35km, and 60km at a time. We rode together only one time during our training because our work and personal schedules seldom jive. I'm a real estate agent and so I have to get the rides in between clients. Claire has a job with a regular schedule, so she took to riding to and from work.

Q. What motivated you to start this kind of training?

Sifu Finnamore. Alot of things, really. First and foremost for me was a promise I made to myself through the UBBT7. I have always loved bike riding, but hadn't done much of it during the years I was raising my kids. I wanted to get back into it, but several years went by, and my bike riding activity remained rather spotty. Totally unsatisfactory. You know how it is - we often make promises to ourselves, (getting into shape, eliminating a bad habit, changing our lifestyle, pursuing a passion, taking control of our lives) and then spend a lifetime breaking them. I signed up for the UBBT7 so that I could do a better job of following through on my promises. So one of my personal requirements was to do a set minumum number of hours bike riding, and to actually take the first step towards entering the biking community and participating in an event such as a ride, or charity ride.

Q. So the Tour d'Alberta was your goal?

Sihing Lilienskold: Well, actually no. Our goal this year is the LiveStrong ride for Cancer, which is being held in Austin, Texas in October. We're doing the 45 mile ride, which is about 72km. It sounds easier than the 100km we just finished, but the elevations (climbs) are much bigger.

Q. Why Livestrong? Why Texas?

Sifu Finnamore: A bunch of reasons. First, LiveStrong is Lance Armstrong's foundation, and if you've read his book "It's Not About the Bike", you know he is a cancer survivor and an inspiration to millions of people struggling with cancer, or struggling to believe in accomplishing the impossible. His mother is an inspiration too - read her book "No Mountain High Enough". So when I came accross this LiveStrong event it made total sense to participate.

Sihing Lilienskold: And we've never been to Texas before - we both want to travel and we've both got a list of places to visit and things to do before we get too old. There were other Livestrong events, in Philadelphia, Seattle, San Jose, Jasper/Banff, etc, but the dates didn't work, or the destination wasn't on our lists. And I think Claire secretly hopes to bump into Lance on the Austin event, because that's his hometown.

Q. So you gals have to raise some money?

Sifu Finnamore: Yes. There's a minimum fundraising goal of $250US each. But we plan to raise more if possible.

Sihing Lilienskold: It's interesting when you think about it. Opportunities to do positive things get you thinking about how it relates to our own lives. My mother died of cancer when I was nineteen. Claire's had a brush with cancer, and her brother is a cancer survivor. We've both lost close freinds and family, business associates to the disease. There's a whole community of cancer patients and survivors all around us - we are really a part of it; the LiveStrong foundation provides funding to both the community, and the research. Cycling and adventure aside, supporting the LiveStrong campaign is a great way to spend your holiday time.

Q. So where do we go to donate?

Sihing Lilienskold:

Go to the Livestrong Webpage: www.LIVESTRONG.org
Click on "Donate".
Choose 'Support Event Participants'
Select an Event - "Livestrong Chalenge: Austin"
Enter one or both of our names: Claire Finnamore or Julie Lilienskold

Donate!

Year of theTiger

2010-07-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been having alot of flashbacks to the beginning of the the Silent River Kung Fu Chinese New Year Banquet. Sifu Freitag, in a seemingly ominous tone, foretold what we could expect to come in the Year of the Tiger. I don't remember the exact words, but the message I got was that we could expect lots of struggle, dissappointment, failure, turbulence. So far, the prediction has been accurate. I hang on to the positive part of the prediction that we will come out stronger, and our accomplishments have the potential to be quite significant. Or something like that.

Take the UBBT7, for example. I remember being in a a place last December, where the goals I set out seemed very acheivable, and very much a part of my lifestyle, discipline, goals and abilities. That rapidly changed. Now, here I am in month 7, and some of the goals that I had assumed would be easy to accomplish given my daily routines, are suffering immensely. On the other hand, the goals that I had considered 'a bit of a risk', are now soaring to the forefront, taking on a momentum of their own. Very exciting.

I feel guilty that it's the non-kung-fu elements of UBBT7 that are successful at the moment. Every day that I cycle the 30km to work, and then do the return trip at the end of the day, I say to myself, "When I get home, I will do the pushups, I will do the situups, I will do the kicks and the horsestance, and the tai chi sword'. So far it hasn't happened. Today, I cycled home through torrential rain, wind and giant mud puddles. Took an extra half hour to get home, fighting that wind. I was so wet when I got home, that my pants were falling down from the weight of the water they had absorbed. I took a shower, then lay down.

Then I wrote this blog. Then I'll go to bed.

Zen and the Art of Bicycle Repair

2010-07-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

I've often fancied the idea of becoming a bicycle mechanic. My father is my role model. When we were young, he'd take us kids to the local RCMP bike auction, and buy one or two bikes that were in a sad state of disrepair. He'd take them home, combine all the good parts, and we'd have one nice bike. I loved going to those auctions, and will never forget the one time my dad bid 50 cents on a bike. It was the third bike he had bid on that that day, the first two had seen no counter-bids, so he got them both for fifty cents each. A few heads in the crowd started to turn around to see who this guy was. And so when my dad bid on the third bike, some smart alec counter-bid with one dollar. My dad let the bike go - so this guy got a bike he had no idea what to do with as it needed alot of work and was probably only useful for the one or two parts my dad needed to combine with the parts on the other two bikes.

The best bike my dad built for me was mostly orange, and pretty much a ten-speed. I biked everywhere - to work during university years, to Horseshoe Bay and back with my brother, on camping trips with my college friends on the Salt Spring Islands, to the library, or just to get away from it all. I used it right up until I left home. And the bike meant so much to me - I called it the 'Road Runner'. I wish I still had it. Lance Armstrong said - "A bicycle is the long-sought means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts'.

A couple of months ago, I started taking courses on bicylce maintenance and repair. The beginner course was basic - change the tires, adjust the brakes and gears, true the wheels etc. I worked on my own bike in the class and then went home to practice my new skills on Jill and Janet's bike. The gear adjustement did not go well, as, unknown to myself, the derailleur apparatus was bent. After a little while, I found that I had broken the cable. Next week, I sheepishly brought Janet's bike in to my teacher. "Great course Scott! I worked on Janet's bike: do you think you could possibly fix it now??" Instead, he signed me up for the next Intermediate course, and I learned how to fix the derailleur, and whole pile of other stuff. So next, I'll work on Jill's bike.

The interesting thing about Scott - besides the fact that he is a master of his Art - is his training, or more precisely, his lack of formal training. I had wandered into his shop a few months previous as it was accross the road from where Janet was taking volleyball training. I had an hour to kill. At first I observed Scott at work in the bike shop - an unasuming guy a little younger than me and in charge of about five fellows who looked to be what you would call 'pedal-heads', in their mid twenties or so. As I watched him quietly and patiently imparting knowledge and advice to his charges as they worked on the bikes, I got to envying his station in life. And I decided then and there that he needed to be my mentor. So I approached him and inquired. I quess you could say we make a rather odd looking teacher/mentor and student pair. Scott is not very well educated in that he has no certifcates or diploma's - not even for high school. "How do get to be a bike mechanic?", was my first question to him. "Do you have to go to those schools in Oregan or Colorado?". "I suppose they might be useful", he responded. "But how did you get to where you are today?" I asked. "It's just what I've done all my life", he said. And then he offered to enroll me in some of his courses. Scott is a short, somewhat dumpy fellow, with an unruley mass of sandy-blonde curles spilling over the top of his head. His hands are chewed up and red. His knowledge is profound, yet he imparts it to his students in words not exceding two syllables. His newest student- myself- is an over-educated, cerebral, chatty, gray-haired lady, taller and more athletic, and very naive when it comes to the workings of the bicycle.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

Living Hero

2010-06-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951, but her cells, known to scientists as HeLa, live on. Henrietta was a poor tobacco farmer, born in the Southern States, who worked the same land as her slave ancestors. She had a grade six education, and had given birth to five children by the time she died of cervical cancer at the age of 29.

The thing about Henrietta is that she and most of her children knew that they were brought into a world of adversity. She was black, in a times when colored people could not expect to recieve the same health care as their fellow white citizens. At John Hopkins Hospital, where Henrietta went for treatment of her cancer, black people were segregated into a separate ward. Henrietta was also poorly educated. She knew that she had a limited ability to understand what was killing her, and what the doctors were doing to her. Her chances of recieving the best treatment possible were nil. Thus, her chances of survival were slim. She also knew that the world she lived in, and the world she had brought her children into was riddled with the harsh realities of discrimination, poverty, lack of education, and dubious health care. Yet she soldiered on in her life, with hope, care, joy and courage.

When Henrietta lay dying in her hospital bed, a doctor took, without her knowledge, a sample of her cells. these cells became the first 'immortal' human cells grown in culture, and they are still alive today. These cells allowed scientists to make some vital advances in medicine; the polio vaccine was developed, cancer and viruses became better understood, great advances were made in the fields of in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping. I can't imagine how many lives in the world have been saved as a result. I know I can thank her for the polio vaccine, and for doctors being able to diagnose cervical cancer at a much earlier stage than Henrietta's was diagnosed - too late to save her.

It is a travesty that Henrietta's children grew up in the same conditions as she did. Lack of education and poverty, racial discrimitation have resulted in none of her children being able to afford the type of health care that many of us benefit from today-health care made possible through the use of their mother's 'immortal' cells. This is wrong. I'm sure that, had Henrietta been given the opportunity to give consent to her cells being used for research, she would have asked for one thing. If I had been in her place, I would have asked the doctor that if anything good came of the research on my cells, could he please ensure that my children, and their children be able to benefit from it. In order for that to happen, the doctor would have had to fight for universal health care, rather than health care for only those who could afford it. Henrietta's children could not afford health care. And the doctor would have had to fight for better education so that Henrietta's children could be in a better position to improve their circumstances, access their human rights, fight for what they knew to be right. But Henrietta's children did not even complete high school.

Before Deborah, Henrietta's oldest surviving daughter died in 2009, of health complications she couldn't afford to have properly treated, she told a friend, "It's too late for Henrietta's children. This story ain't about us anymore. It's about the new Lacks children." Those children, Henrietta's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are about my own children's ages. Deborah is right, we can't undo what was done in the past. We have to make it right for the future.

Take the first step and read this book: 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks', by Rebecca Skloot. The author has established a scholarship fund for the descendants of Henrietta Lacks. Donations can be made at HenriettaLacksFoundation.Org.

Claire Finnamore
Studnet Member, Silent River Kung Fu

Art is a Science

2010-05-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

Just been to a volleyball seminar run by some amazing coaches, athletes, and Sports Medicine experts. We really have to have this guy, Bruce Craven, from Saskatoon come and speak at our school. He's a scientist, and just explained to me the six harmonies - though he's never heard of it. Who said Kung Fu was an ART? Who says the anatomy of training is a SCIENCE? I had this eerie feeling that the only difference between Sifu Brinker, and this guy from Saskatoon, was the words they were using. So it turns out that if Janet really wants to get that powerful hit, a higher jump, more speed and precision in her volleyball game, she needs to start training in the six harmonies. She starts July 11th.

Got some inspirational stuff too from this session.

'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not the act, but a habit.'
Aristotle

'Success is . . . not an accident, but rather the product of a thoughtful and well executed plan' Bruce Craven

The Power of One is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often far beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete; the body is simply the means it uses to jump higher or longer, run faster, shoot straighter, kick better, swim further, hit harder, or box better. The dictum to me ‘First with the head and then with the heart’ means more than simply mixing brains with guts. It means thinking well beyond the powers of normal concentration and then daring your courage to follow your thoughts. Bryce Courtenay “The Power of One”

Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu

To The Book Club

2010-05-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

Just had a quick conversation with Sihing Kichko about some books that I have read recently. I explained to her, that I often go on "Reading Jags", which I define as a mini-journey through one particular topic. Right now, I'm on a jag about the recent history of human suffering that occurs in war. Sounds dreary, but what urges me on is the fact that I was enjoying myself in the 1970's, 80's, 90's and now, oblivious to the fact that millions of people were suffering in other parts of the world. How was it that we failed to fully understand the atrocity that occured in Rwanda, Cambodia, Sudan? How did the world get to a place where we could accept the displacement of Palestinians, Afghans? Do we expect these people who survived to treat us and our future generations as friends or complacent purpetrators? Sometimes I feel that the education system has let us down. My daughter is being force fed the grade 10 curriculum, which covers topics such as Human Rights, Globalization. How can she really understand this stuff unless she reads individual personal accounts of people who have survived? If I were teaching, this would be her reading list.

RWANDA:
An Imperfect Offering, by James Orbinski
Shake Hands With the Devil, by James Dallaire

PALESTINE:
In Search of Fatima, by Ghada Karmi
Ambivalence, by Jonathan Garfinkel

CAMBODIA:
Stay Alive My Son, by Pin Yathay
First They Shot My Father, by Loung Ung
Pol Pot: Anatomy of A Nightmare, by Philip Short

SUDAN:
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky; The True Story of The Lost Boys of Sudan, by Benson Deng, Alphonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak

AFGHANISTAN:A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, by Malaila Joya

Claire Finnamore
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu

Empty Nest

2010-05-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Time is ticking by so slowly tonight. I'm home alone for the first time in 18 years. Janet and Bert are in Calgary for a weekend volleyball tournament. I really wanted to go to that, but Jill needs me here. But not tonight. She's out with friends and promises to be home by one or two. Its ten thirty. Worse is yet to come. In a few months Jill will have moved into residence. UGH.

Well there's lots of things I've put on the shelf, so now I can start to work on them. But not tonight. I'd rather wallow in my misery, and sense of impending doom.

The UBBT7, is actually helping me with this terrible transition though. Some of the goals I picked, are pointing me towards the things that I had left sitting on the shelf until I was finished parenting. My cycling interest is going awesomely well. (I keep on meaning to update that on the tracker.) Today, my legs ache in places they haven't in a long time. I might just develop those lean shapely cyclists legs yet! We've been doing lots of hills, and it reminds me of the all the hills I used to cycle in West Vancouver. My brother and I used to cycle the hills and winding narrow roads from Ambleside to Horshoe Bay just for fun. I cycled the Salt Spring Islands with my college buddies. And I cycled to work every day in the summer, from West Vancouver to North Vancouver - feeling my legs get stronger and stronger as the summer of tackling ridiculous inclines progressed. But back to the future. Jill and I cycled the fifth meridian last week, and its very nice now that the wide shoulders are there. We are planning a much longer trip on Monday (which will supposedly be dry with sunny periods). Oh, there's trips galore to be cycled this summer. And!!! This is the surprise; I almost took a job as a bike assembler but it was part time and I really wanted 'bike mechanic'. But, I spoke to a fellow at River Valley Cycle who's been a bike mechanic all his life - and he will be doing a couple of courses this summer. And Bert might let me quit my job, and then go to the States for a week at a highly reputable bicycle mechanic school.

Hey, and Lance Armstrong is coming to town. Topic: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! Tickets are $200. Maybe I'll keep that job a bit longer.

It's Not About the Belt

2010-05-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

The more I read the more I come to appreciate what kung fu has done for me. Anyone who has done anything amazing, miraculous, or worthwhile has travelled the very same journey that we have travelled along to achieve the black belt. Lance Armstrong, Mike Magnuson (author of Heft on Wheels,who turned his life around from couch potato to amazingly healthy, fit, and a better person, and wrote about it), Lebron James, and his 5'3" team-mate, Little Dru, and his dad, Coach Dru, of basketball: I've just finished reading books written by all of them. In all of their journey's, they've had to have the focus, discipline, the intensity, willingness to overcome obstacles, belief in themselves, and trust in their mentors, striving for mastery, battles with our own egos and demons, the humility, and so much more that was required of us in our journey's to black belt. In reading about such inspirational people, I can recognize and identify with many parts of their journey. In achieving a black belt, I recieved a gift of such great value, it overshadows, what was achieved in the small arena of kung fu.

Sihing Bachand's daughter told me that she plans to rejoin kung fu soon. This young girl will graduate from high school this year, as will my own daughter. I can't think of anything more worthwhile for her to do, than continue on her kung fu journey. It's a road map to personal success. No matter what she chooses to do. You just don't get this type of learning at school, or by reading books, or being told. You have to experience it. And then apply it to everything else you choose to do. Why do so many successful athletes go on to further success in life? Willie de Wit; a successful lawyer in Calgary. Nancy Green; spokesperson, inspiration, ambassador to generations of people. Muhammad Ali, whose book on his spiritual life journey I am reading just now. Rick Hansen. Sifu Becket in China, Sifu Edge in Vancouver. There were lessons that they learned and they recognized that those lessons they learned in sport, adversity, and personal growth, must be applied as they continued on in life. Muhammad Ali said, in his book "The Soul of a Butterfly"

"Everyone has his or her own lessons to learn and obstacles to overcome. The experiences should not be weighed against eachother because they are all equally important in the end. Each time I thought I had achieved my life's purpose, I discovered it was only another step in my journey. I thought boxing would help me be that public Black role model who was missing while I was growing up. I thought my purpose was to be that hero who shoed children that Black is beautiful. I thought my purpose was to be that champion who showed White people they couldn't treat Blacks like second class citizens. I learned that all of these accomplishments were important, but even more important, I gained a platform that allowed me to carry out my real mission, which has been to encourage all people to respect eachother and live in peace. I am still discovering God's purpose for me."

I Can't Stand the Rain

2010-04-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

When feeling depressed, the last thing that one wants to do is EXERCISE. How ironic, that exercise is one of the best antidotes to depression. When we exercise, we produce some chemicals that help reverse the malfunctioning serotonin uptake system in our bodies.

Norma, the amazing leader of my weightwatchers group, shared her personal struggles with us. A few years ago she was totally stressed out. Too busy and stressed out to exercise. And so she struggled along trying to rise above all the things that were bringing her down. Finally, one December, she said 'NEVER AGAIN'. Though her life continued to be busy and stressful, she moved her exercise priority way up the list, and committed to 40 minutes at least 4 times a week. She has to get up early in the morning to fit it in, and sometimes its hard to get started. But she knows how important it is. I should note, that Norma is one of the cheeriest, inspiring, optimistic persons I know.

I'm reading a really excellent book right now. 'Heft on Wheels", by Mike Magnuson. There's a picture on the front cover of this really fat guy, startk naked, on a Trek 5200 bicycle. Sweat pouring all over his lardy body. Face grimaced, leaning into the rain and wind. On the back cover, is a picture of the same guy, two years later, lean, toned, clothed in team road racing outfit, cool sunglasses, hammering his way up the side of a mountain on a sleek road bike. Looks alot like Lance, actually. Turns out this guy, the author of the book, was inspired by Lance. And turned his life around from cigarrete smoking, hard drinking, junk food ingesting, depressed, college professor, to what he is on the back cover of his book.

One of my UBBT7 goals is to do a whole pile of cycling this year. Of course, I'm not starting out where this professor/author started. But the path that I have plotted is very similar. So the book is inspiring. I joined spin classes in mid March so that I could start getting in shape for the riding season, and be able to handle a charity ride or something like that. The fellow running this class is and English bloke. Ten years younger, a little shorter than me. Incredibly fit. And NICE cyclist's legs. Always admired legs like that; slender yet defined. Even on a short guy, those legs seem to go forever and ever. ANYHOW, this guy is a bit of a 'British Bulldog". I think I hate his attitude so much, that I have to love him. He certainly gets me hammering away on my bike, with him yelling 'come on!! FAST legs!!" , or "EMPTY YOUR TANK!!!!!" His class is called, "the long hard Ride". One and half hours of sweat, pain, and this guy yelling in my ear. Hate him so much, I've signed up for two more of his classes in May and June.

2010-04-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of my kung fu year last year was the summer. It was then that I really got to know and enjoy my fellow Silent River students, because we were sharing kung fu experiences outside of our regular class room setting. Community parades, lion dances, competitions, community clean up projects, weapons and hand forms demo's: all of these events were opportunities to have fun getting to know young students, older students, students from the Onoway school, students from different belt level classes, young adult students returning from university studies, or studies abroad, older students returning from winter work up north, or down south.

The fact is that we are all a really interesting bunch. A microcosm of the community, the country, the world around us. Our advantage is that we share a common interests, similar personal goals, and empathy for eachother's personal journeys. You really can't get it much better than that. I see the summer, now, as an opportunity to enjoy the company of people I have come to respect and value. So as events come up, I find myself jumping in with enthusiasm.

This weekend was the beginning of what I anticipate as being a wonderful summer. A number of students participated in the trade show demo and lion dances. Some of my fellow participants are new faces, some familiar. I was glad to reconnect with Mr. Tymchuck, and as always, share a few laughs. And a little freindly rivalry from Onoway student, Sihing Lindstrom. I was awed by what Sifu Wilson has done for her small, but tight-knit children's class - what an amazing teacher she is. I was impressed by young Miss Prince as the Buddha in the lion dance. She clearly has talent in that area, and deserves some special mentorship from the likes of Sifu Robertson. I was proud of young Mr. Embury as the head in the young lion for the lion dance. He sets a great example for all his fellow young students, and he has a knack for adding a little special character to the whole show. It was wonderful and heartwarming to see students stepping forward for the first time in demo's: Mr. Estey continues to mature into and expemplary martial artist, and Krista Lowery's Lao Gar is truly amazing. I enjoyed watching our amazing young sifu Wonsiak herd her flock of tiny martial artists with such skill and confidence. And our leader - Sifu Playter was incredibly inspiring with his numchucks (did I spell that correctly?). Better than Bruce Lee . . . I'M SERIOUS!

Did I miss anyone?? Lots, I'm sure. There was the tall lady who watches her daughter in Sifu Wilson's class. It looks like she's finally decided to join up as well; she was wearing her white belt today. Excellent!! There were non-kung fu family members helping out. Honestly! They're around enough with us, they might as well join a class~! The Onoway gang, which are proving to be quite a defining force in our school. The sihings - wish them luck in their quest for black belt - the memory of my last summer also as a sihing is still fresh in my mind.

What a great bunch of people to be around. I am looking forward to the next summer event - THE TIGER CHALLENGE.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member - Silent River Kung Fu

UBBT7 - The year of solutions.

2010-04-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

As I was driving down to Calgary this evening, I had time to reflect on my UBBT7 progresst thus far. I came to the conclusion that this UBBT thing is giving me a vehicle for coming up with solution to problems I had developed over the last year and a half. Without fully realizing it, I had designed my UBBT program to lead me down the path of developing solutions.

My chi kung requirement, for one, was a recognition that my body was screaming for a more internal practice of martial arts. I couldn't go on trying to cope with the injuries I was accruing with the external focus on martial arts. At 49, with osteoarthritis and other issues, I needed to ensure I took a step back and worked on alignment, corrections, stance, mobility, and flexibility. So good goal - and though it is not going well at the moment, I will hang on to it. There have been some stumbling blocks with the Chi Kung - first of all, I am the type of person that requires external motivation such as classes or periodic workshops; and these things are not as available to me as I had anticipated. I am presently working on finding a solution to that problem.

Another requirement - my daily meditation through knitting requirement was also a recognition that my life was unbalanced, crazy busy like. I needed to slow things down, in fact, I craved getting back in touch with simpler spaces in my life. The meditation is not going as I expected, but I am happy to say, I am on track in that I am sticking to the daily 20 minutes of knitting meditation - though I haven't really mastered the meditation end that well, but I'm just letting it happen how its going to happen.

Now, pushups are interesting. For all intents and purposes, it could be construed that my push-up requirement is not progressing well. But had a revelation somewhere between Airdrie, and Calgary. I AM PROGRESSING IN PUSHUPS!!! Here is my progress. Sometime in February I went to the doctor about incredible pain in my neck and numbness in my hands and what is termed 'neuropathic' pain in my arms. It turns out that I've got that osteo arthritis in several vertabrae down my spine, a number of 'bulging' discs, and a bunch of pinched nerves. I was pretty certain that the push ups aggravated this condition, and so I guiltily struggled away with the fact that I had stopped doing them during my treatment. You see, I was improving, and I felt so good for once in a long time, and I didn't want to ruin it by doing the pushups. Last week I noticed that for the first time in over a year, I could pull my t-shirt off over my head with both arms rather than one, and I could reach behind my back and unhook my bra. I could lie on my stomach and rest my chin on my arms. I reach forward and pick up a 7 pound object without shooting pain around my collar bone and down the left side of my neck. I could lift up a tea cup with my left arm and drink from it without pain in my shoulder and neck. This was so great, and when I started realizing that I was close to 80% improved from 2 months ago, I decided to ask my doctor about my UBBT7 push up requirement. He's going to monitor me and I will start with the ladies ones, and I have been advised to purchase those bars so that I don't dammage my wrists, and I've done that. I'm thinking, now, that the pushup path was not what I had envisioned for the UBBT7, but what I had envisioned - to just keep on doing it - would have eventually led to failure anyway. What I have done is taken alot of steps backward in order for healing to take place, and I am taking a wiser approach. No, I won't complete the numbers, but I will not give up. My only mistake on this front was, in planning my program, I had not been realistic.

Another requirement that is helping me find solutions, is the tai chi sword requirement. I have to do a few public performances of this form this summer. Thank goodness I put this one in, because it is forcing me to address the problem of 'balance'. Over the last year, as I prepared for black belt grading, my life got increasingly out of balance. It was all kung fu, kung fu, kung fu. Family and balance fell by the wayside. As soon as the chinese new year celebration was over, I raced out the door, totally focused on reclaiming the balance. As a result, I have been 'MIA'from Silent River Kung Fu. Well that's not balance either. Now the Tiger Challenge approaches, and the performance of the Tai Chi sword is calling my name - causing me to reflect on my current 'balance'. Yes, I've gone too far the other way; while its been fun, I stand to lose everything I have gained by being in kung fu.

I also have another very good requirement, and it is actually going well. In recognition of the fact that my osteoarthritis limits my running, I have to find another way to work my cardio/aerobic conditioning. I chose to commit to a certain amount of cycle/walk/kayak/spin for the year, and most of that will be occuring in the summer in the form of charity cycles, and other activities. The spin part of course is happening now for the training for the summer. I've joined a brutal spin class in St. Albert, run my a crazy British guy - one could say 'Hell on Wheels'. And its great.

Now, the journalling requirement was a surprise for me. Journalling once a week was easy peasy for me. So what happened? I think there is some logical reason for me not journalling - maybe it was an opposite reaction to last year of total focus on kung fu. Who knows, but it happened, and is an indication of something probably rather temporary. Unfortunately, this puts me in the FAILURE category for UBBT7. Fortunately, there is the NEVER GIVE UP requirement, the value of which is that this UBBT will be a year of solutions.

Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu

If nothing else, stay engaged

2010-03-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

This week has been so, so busy. And Kung fu is at a transition point for me, because I have just started my life as a sifu. Intimidating. I realized that I had spent the last 6 years as a sihing. I had become very comfortable with the role, and the routine. Now, with a new class to attend, new times, new role, new expectations, and a giant black belt waving about my waist in the most uncomfortable, and shockingly ostentatious manner, I realized that I did not want to attend my very first sifu class. And with all sorts of things going on aside from Kung fu, I had a grab bag of excuses not to go to class. In fact, I even considered re-engineering my transition. Time for a Change?? Why not drop everything - kung fu classes, weapons, lion dance. Hadn't I punished my body enough this last year, training for the black belt? At my age, I would be better off without the kicking and breakfalls, the pushups, the joint locks and the sparring. I would be wiser joining a yoga class with my best friend. Pursue our dreams of cycle trips by joining spin class and training for long rides this summer. Hey, and there might be regular Chi Kung classes at this other place - why not go there? I sensed an enticing plan hatching.

I was pretty certain, though, that I was using all these excuses and all the reasoning, just to avoid a change that intimidated me. So I went to class.

I remember that 2 or 3 or more years ago, I had quit kung fu, because i had thought that it was interfering with my family life, and I wasn't getting anything out of it. I spent 6 months, trying to replace the Kung Fu with something else. I tried Tai Chi. I bought a nice bicycle, and joined a cycle club. Trained with a hard core triathalon group. Dabbled in badminton. After six months, I returned to Silent river Kung fu. I had not found anything that could replace it. I had no idea what it was about the kung fu that I missed, or couldn't do without. But I knew I needed to come back.

I should be a bit wiser today. If I were to quit again, I'd find the same thing. Sure I still want those bike trips, and now I want less punishment to my body. Yes, I find the transition of belt colors extremely uncomfortable, and disorientating. But the last thing I should do is discard the framework, the network, and the support group that will allow me achieve my other goals. Though my life is a hurricane, and I am uncomfortable with this transition, this phase will pass, and for now I need to stay engaged.

Somedays, after a hectic week like this one, the best way to stay engaged is to read my fellow students' journals. They inspire, motivate, speak to my own issues, and re-engage me. And it helps to go to class.

Claire Finnamore
Studnet Member - Silent River Kung Fu
http:www.silentriverkungfu.com

Transition Time

2010-02-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

Alot has happened in the last 28 days, though journalling sits at zero. I do have my little black book, and have managed to jot down my daily pushups, situps, etc, etc, but there has been no time to sit down and enter the numbers onto the UBBT7 tracker. Not even today. The year of the Tiger certainly does seem to be a challenging one - I'm having difficulty already just trying to grab it by the tail.

The task for me right now is to re-balance. Everything was really out of wack in the months leading up to the black belt ceremony - kung fu crowded out my personal life. Now that we are finished with all the practicing, requirements and rehearsals, my personal life has come back at me full force, and I let it for this last week. It was Kung fu's turn to be crowded out. And what fun!!! Time with daughters, friends, aquaintances; time for myself; time to refocus, check that life is running as planned, time to think, time to consider what I want to return to , what I want to adjust, and what I want to delete.

Yes, I can see that everything is going along pretty much how I want it, though just a few notes to self were needed. Now its time to get back in motion.

Claire Finnamore
Student Member - Silent River Kung Fu
http://www.silentriverkungfu.com

Send Real Humanitarian Aid

2010-01-30T20:11:00.000-08:00

This week was a good week. I can feel myself distentangling from the web of winter blues. My UBBT7 numbers this week reflect this - pushups, horse stance minutes, kicks, and knitting hours are way up. Sifu Brinker has published a challenge for Valentine's Day - 1000 each of situps and pushups - and I'm pumped for that.

I am very happy with my knitting. I have finished my first charity project - a scarf. Though it seems insignificant at the moment, I envision a complete care package to be donated by the end of the year; quality wool scarves, socks, hats, at least one blanket, and more if time permits. All canadian-made yarn of course. I have been wondering where this package will end up; Canada? Tibet? Siberia? Afghanistan? Who knows? If nothing else, this project is fueling my sense of responsibility to everyone else in this world. Thoughts are leading to acts, and that was the purpose behind some of my UBBT7 goals.

I've just finished a MUST READ book relating to my comments above. "A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice." by Malalai Joya. This woman, born in Afghanistan in 1978, was raised in the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan; became a teacher in secret girls' schools in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, helped established a medical clinic and orphanage, and most significantly, continues to speak out about the injustices that Afghan citizens face under the US-sanctioned present-day government. It is a book that clearly expresses the reality that the Afghan people live under; and we must be cognizant of this point of view if we dare to hope of a future where world peace figures into the picture.

"Every time you kill an angry young man overseas, you're creating fifteen more who will come after you." Major-General Andrew Leslie of Canada

Claire Finnamore
Student Member: Silent River Kung Fu
http://www.silentriverkungfu.com

2010-01-24T15:59:00.000-08:00

'You can't stop the birds of sadness from flying overhead; but you can stop them from nestling in your hair.' Sharon Creech

There is alot to write about this week - it was an inspirational week. But the thing I must own up to is my terrible start to the UBBT7. I continue to struggle. There are alot of reasons for this - some I can do something about, others I have to accept and wait out.
The UBBT7 tracker that Sifu Prince created for Silent River Kung Fu is an excellent tool. I've just updated it and had a look at all the red sad faces (8 of them) which indicate that I have fallen significantly behind my goals. My automatic response to all these sad faces is to dwell on the reasons and the obstacles. But that's not productive, so I am endeavoring not to waste time in that zone. I'm focusing on the plan for this coming week - to turn 4 of those sad faces into happy ones. There are two numbers which are easy to catch up - knitting meditation is a little bit behind, and I will enjoy the excuse to spend more time on that this week. The other one is techniques - I am supposed to pick one technique from the Silent River Kung Fu curriculum each week, and repeat it 30 times. This week, I will have to repeat it roughly 130 times or just under 20 times per day. Not really that difficult, or time consuming. That leaves two big numbers to catch up on. I'm choosing kicks this week (I'm supposed to do 525 kicks per week) because Sifu Brinker commented on a problem with one of my kicks in the Lao Gar form which needs correcting). Instead of doing only 75 kicks per day, I will do 225 side heel kicks from bow stance each day. That ought to fix both my Lao Gar and my UBBT7. And looking back on my numbers last year in preparation for the Black belt test, I see I was pulling off over 300 kicks per day, to improve my roundhouse. spinning back kick, combination kicks, and flying kicks. So this is not an unrealistic one week goal. The other big number to fix this week is the sit ups. Instead of 150 per day, I will be at least doubling that number.

Well, I must get started. And I'm looking forward to a few more happy faces next week!!!

Claire Finnamore
Student Member - Silent River Kung Fu
http://www.silentriverkungfu.com

Zen Ox Diagram 7- more or less.

2010-01-16T22:29:00.000-08:00

What a year.

In a week, I will hopefully be attending the private black belt promotion ceremony which will bring me to the final phase of my quest for black belt. If all goes well, I will finish up the Year of the Ox having acheived what I set out to achieve. I have been studying kung fu for ten years, and I chose this year to train, prepare and test for black belt because I was born in the year of the ox. I wasn't actually sure that I was ready to test, but I told myself that if there would be one year that I would focus my efforts on achieving a black belt, it surely must be in the year of my chinese sign.

It is truly meaninful to me that the ox is represented in an ancient set of drawings and prose called the Ten Ox Diagrams. According to Zen philosophers, the ten drawings represent the various stages in our search for our own true nature. The journey involves accomplishing the mastery of self. There are only two figures in the ten diagrams. The ox is our true self. The little buddha figure is ourselves as the seeker of truth or seeker of our true nature. The diagrams depict the little buddha looking here and there for the ox, finding it, trying to tame the ox with whip and rope, mounting the ox, and then becoming one with the ox, abandoning the whip and the rope after realizing that the unity of one's nature and oneself is effortless in the end. The message is that discovering enlightenment occurs within oneself; all has been one since the beginning; the ox was only a means to the rediscovery of our true self and thus enlightenment regarding all things in the universe.

It is safe to say that my black belt journey has been one of self discovery for me also. I think I spent a lot of time in struggle and turmoil with myself and the ox. Kung fu is the means by which I can discover the truth about myself, come to terms with and correct my flaws, practice humility and trust, remove limits, strive for effortless effort, walk in peace and harmony. It doesn't matter whether I earn the black belt or not; the journey has been worthwhile, and its not complete yet.

Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu - Student Member

2010-01-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a disasterous first week!! Right off the starting block, my motivation was incredibly low. I had forgotten about the cabin fever, winter blues. Looking back at last year's journal, I see that my numbers had taken a dive in Jan/Feb, and that in March I struggled and fought myself back on track successfully. So now I have to do better this year. First step is to look at the facts.

I did not meet my weekly goals on pushups, situps, techniques, self propelled travel or horse stance minutes. I came close to my goals for kicks, meditation journal entries and Chi kung forms. I met my goals for Tai chi sword form, knitting meditation, 10 day cleanse, maintaining goal weight, and abstinence from caffeine. There is no reason why a can't get on track this next week. So that is my goal. In the meantime, here is my January 8 journal meditation entry.

The knitting is not going so badly because I love to knit. The mindful part is not going so well but I've decided not to worry about it - stay relaxed and allow the progress to happen. So thus far, I've never made it through a whole row without noticing that my thoughts are once again in full throttle and far away from the present moment. Two areas of slight progress though. First, I have made it from an average of 3 stitches, up to 8 stitches with mindful focus intact. This has allowed me to become more aware and appreciative of the color, feel and rythm of the work. Second, I've started to trace how I got from 'focus' to a mind in full throttle. It starts only with one stray spark of a thought sneaking into my empty mind. Within stitches, that spark fires through the pathways of my mind, igniting a string of thoughts which relate to the intial spark. Its like a string, thread, or yarm - highly combustible, and fast burning.

2009-12-31T20:12:00.000-08:00

I'm using this journal entry to help organize my thoughts. Tommorrow I will be starting the UB7 daily training. My tommorrow will look like this:

Horse stance; hold for a total of 10 minutes
Pushups: 150
Situps: 150
Kicks: 75
5 Animal Chi Kung Form: 1 - 2
Tai Chi Sword: 4
Curriculum Technique: 4
Knitting Meditation: 20 mins
Walk, bike, spin, Kayak, or Hike: 18 mins
Consume no caffiene: day one of 365
Cleanse: Day one of 10
Meditation Journal Entry: 1
Garbage Journal Entry: 1
Read: 1 of 6 books on garbage, or 1 of 6 books on meditation.

There's one thing that I already want to add to this daily routine. Weight training. This category will include the stretches and will focus on the things I have been advised to do given injuries and arthritis issues. Over the next week, I will put together a program that I can do at home and at the gym.

I can chip away at the horse stance, pushups, situps, and kicks during the day and aim to have them all done by 9 pm. Forms, self propelled travel, and techniques will have to be done in the evening before bedtime usually, but it will be a bonus if I get them done before hand, like when I'm at class, or at open training etc. Then the evening can be all about a pleasant wind-down. Starting with the chi kung form, followed by 20 minutes of knitting meditations, then the journal entries. I always read a book before I fall asleep for the night, so no trouble there.

2009-12-20T20:34:00.000-08:00

UBBT7 starts in a couple of weeks and I'm getting nervous. Preparation for this challenge did not go as well as expected in some things. Pushups is my main concern. In preparation, I actually stopped doing pushups, and booked some physiotherapy to fix a 'frozen??' left shoulder. The healing did not go as quickly as I had hoped (my timeline may have been unrealistic). The upshot of it all is that, with only 2 weeks left until UB7 starts, my left shoulder is still a work in progress, and my back and neck is very sore from all the adjustments, and pushups are a problem.

Sifu Laurie gave me some words of advice that I MUST listen to this time round. Vary the position of my arms and hands for the pushups, do opposite stretches like that superman one and bench lifts backward. I really want to train smarter this year. How many times do I have to hear the same advise???

I won't go through my entire list of UB7 requirements. Much more interesting to introduce them gradually. I have 5 physical requirements (pushups and situps and kicks is one), 3 Health requirements, 3 Martial Arts requirements, and 3 personal/spiritual growth requirements. That's ALOT. What was I thinking??? Never mind; they are all pretty exciting.

I spent the last couple of months preparing for most of my requirements. The above mentioned shoulder fix was one. Much more successful was preparation for the chi kung, the one year caffeeeine free, the tai chi sword, and meditation requirements.

Chi Kung: I want to do this form 500 times this year (or six times a week). In preparation, I took Sifu Olsvik's second set of chi kung sessions. And I issued a challenge to all chi kung students to join me in practicing this form regularly. So, there will be a little chi kung community to keep things going.

Caffeine Free Year: I had reduced my coffee intake this last year by eliminating the 2 - 3 cups of coffee I drank at work each day and instead drinking hot water which I like. A month ago I eliminated coffee completely and have avoided all other caffinated beverages. So I'm good to go on that one.

500 repetitions of Tai Chi Sword and one public performance with at least 3 other students: I employed the strategy of interweaving personal goals on this one. The tai chi sword is my weapon routine for the chinese new year ceremony, so I have had Sifu's Hayes, Frietag, and Wilson full support and attention in learning this form. I'm not sure how much of this form I have learned, but I am very happy with the progress in the techniques and form so far. Sifu's L. Shipalesky and Dennis have committed to preparing for the public performance this summer with me. Other students have shown an interest in participating, and I am excited about that too. And I have issued a challenge to fellow UBBT7 students to join in also.

Meditation requirements: I have secured a copy of 'Mindful Knitting: Inviting contemplative Practice to the Craft' by Tara Jon Manning. And I have selected the projects from this book - so I have a 'course curriculum in knitting meditations'. My knitting basket is ready with most sizes of needles and yarn for the projects.

So, nervous, but excited.

2009-12-13T20:16:00.001-08:00

This has to be a record for me, and I'm proud of it in a twisted sort of way. One month less 2 days of no journal entries!!!! I was hoping to make it all the way to Jan. 1, 2010, when the UBBT7 journalling would start. But now I'm feeling much too naughty and selfish.

In actual fact, I have been feeling pretty exhausted of words and drained of thoughts. I really had no idea the amount of time and effort and focus that would be required of me after the initial black belt test, and up until the ceremony. Its alot of work coordinating practice times with 5 other candidates, making corrections and improvements, attending rehearsals and meetings. Unfortunately, I'm also run ragged with other things which cannot be ignored. I often wonder how long I can keep the pace up. And a number of times, I've felt sure that I would have to abort the whole black belt journey.

Though I'm happy, and surprised to still be in the running this week, I do look forward to a little bit of a slower pace.

2009-11-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

I'm really becoming very interested in this Chi Kung stuff. Aside from the classes, which are great, I have started reading a few books that I found at the library. I've dug into one book, 'Harnessing the Power of the Universe: A complete Guide to the Principles and Practice of Chi-Gung' by Daniel Reid. It explains things quite well, but there are so many concepts to learn and understand; Chi, three Treasures, Polarity of Yin and Yang, Three Elixir Fields, Three Powers, Five Elemental Energies, Meridians, Eight Extraordinary Channels, an on and on. It would be overwhelming if one was in a rush to learn it all. I have decided to take my time, and enjoy and contemplate what I am reading, and reflect on the reading and the classes in a special journal. And this will be incorporated into my UBBT7 goals.

Chi Kung is very much a form of moving or standing mediation, according to the book I am reading. On this vein, I'm reading another exciting book; 'Mindful Knitting; Inviting Contemplative Practice to the Craft', by Tara Jon Manning. I was drawn to this book because the last three months of preparing for the black belt test were so intense that I began to yearn for a simplification, relaxation and a slowing down of my life. I love knitting, and as the author of this book states, 'There is a relationship between the work of the hands and the qualities of the mind'. Knitting, for me is both grounding and fulfilling; mindful knitting promises to create a quiet, calm state of being, where my thoughts become kinder, towards myself and my world. The book contains directions on mindful, meditative practices of knitting as well as some simple projects - dishclothes, scarves to knit as we engage in the practice. I hope to include these activities in my UBBT7 goals also.

Related to the above projects in chi kung, meditation and mindful knitting is the concept of Charity Knitting: knitting a blanket, hats, etc to donate to homeless people in Canada or needy people in other countries. Both of the books mentioned above address the concept in engaging in activities that benefit others.

In the Chi Kung book:

'In human life, most people enslave their minds and spend their energies to serve their bodies and satisfy their desires, thereby mistaking the servant for the master. In the higher orders of the universe, which human life was designed to reflect, spirit is the master, and energy is the tool through which the spirit expresses its creativity in the material form. . . one must learn to balance physical health and vitality with spiritual awareness and virtue. . .'

In the Mindful Knitting book:

Through our mindful activities, we first begin to feel our own tender hearts and discover, perhaps to our amazement, that they have a rich capacity to hold joy and sadness. Now that we're finding this quality within our own hearts, we can almost magically begin to see this capacity in others. The bridge for making this connection to others is our deepening understanding of the basic goodness inherent in every moment. As our experience of basic goodness matures, it hits a sort of saturation point, and its focus begins to shift automatically from our inward situation to the world at large. . . Just as our notion of basic goodness expands and spills over, so do our mindful actions in the world at large, making it a better place, situation by situation, person by person, stitch by stitch.'

The UBBT7 requires a spiritual education\growth component. This is how I will address it.

2009-11-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

This week went quite well.

I did a 7 day cleanse. As a result, I experienced an increase in energy, more positive mood, less stiffness in the joints, much better sleep, and significant weight loss. The significant weight loss was the worrisome part. I believe I lost 10lbs. According to all the conventional wisdom, this is bad (a maximum weight loss of 2lbs per week is reccommended by the medical and nutritional experts), and I wonder if the wieght will stay off. We shall have to see. Other than that little worry, I would do the cleanse again because I do feel alot better. In the meantime, it would be nice to find more 'scientific' research results on this cleanse, which was the Master Cleanse, or Lemonade Diet. Its been around since the 1940's; my grandmother used it and reccommended it to my parents who drink a lemon, honey, cayenne pepper adaptation every mornining before breakfast. Of course, certain naturopathic 'gurus' such as Tom Woloshyn have written books about the cleanse, and claim to know what we are doing to our bodies when we adhere properly to this diet. However, the books contain no scientific backup, and the author's credentials are self claimed experience only. I blame the establishment for this; our medical institutions steer clear of naturopathic research and regulatory systems and so the public is left to fend for themselves.

Chi Kung class started on Thursday. What a surprise to see far more than the maximum capacity of 12 students at this class. My estimate is 15 - 18 students. It seems that alot of the guys really loved it - didn't get feedback from the females yet. Though this is a repeat class for me, Sifu Oslvik introduced many new components to the warm-up and teaching. Highlights of the class were Sifu Oslvik's demonstration of power as he transitioned from horse stance to pushed in bow stance. The power generated from his grounded leg, up to the hips and on. One got the impression that the recipient of a punch generated in this fashion would have been propelled backwards several feet at least. I look forward to working on this myself, and incorporating it into the Lao Gar form.

Sihing class was small due to continued flu-like issues. The Pandemonium circuits were completed with little time left over for discussion, during which time Sifu Brinker spoke about the stances for tiger claw in Lao Gar (alot of work still needed to achieve the power and stability required - but that will come with the practice of Chi Kung stance transitions mentioned above), and living in the present moment which is something I would like to somehow incorporporate into my UBBT requirements.

Lion Dance class was great. We have nearly finished learning the double lion dance. It is time now to focus on our own individuality during the freestyle portions of the dance. I had the opportunity to step in as the tail for Mr. Embury, who is in the role of the young lion in the double lion dance. This allowed me to appreciate what he is adding to the routine. We still need somebody who is interested in taking on the role of Buddha. The dance is not complete without someone who will take on this role seriously.

Saturday was a good day too. Helped role pennies for the Malawi girls. Shoalin class was a fun workout of the core - too bad we didn't have a camera to capture some of the partner work Sifu Frietag had us do. During open training, a few of us I Ho Chuan students worked hard on the bokken form assignment. Repetition beyond what we felt was enough took us to new levels of self critique and appreciation of the form. Though the form is short, there is actually alot to perfect and master. The only dissappointing aspect of open training was the lack of attendance - I'm sure the flu had something to do with that. Hope everyone is ok.

Well, that was my week, and I'm pleased with it.

2009-10-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

This last week, since the final portion of the black belt test, I took a little break. Less than 100 pushups, all week. Even less situps. No visit to Servus place for aerobic, strength training. Though the body needs the break, I feel I'm in dangerous territory. At sihing class on Friday, Sifu Brinker spoke about how easy it is to break a habit: 3 days. I'm the type of person that requires a framework by which I can develop and maintain good habits. The long term goal of preparing for the black belt test worked extremely well for me. At this time of transition from pre to post black belt test, I have been actively reflecting on the collection of habits that I would like to keep, and also, I'm seeking another framework. Hence, I signed up for UBBT7. That doesn't start right away, so I'm considering some preparation-type framework. Sifu Prince had mentioned a cleanse or detox a while back and that got me thinking. Seems like a great idea. Additionally, I need to repair some of my chronic injuries; shoulder needs therapy, for example - I need to debind the muscles and tendons around the socket so that I am less resistant to the therapist's work, so less pushups is not a bad idea . . . but not for too long. The lack of visits to the gym are worrisome; I'm trying to transition back into a volleyball/badminton mom, and this is upsetting the schedule of training I had at Servus place. I want to change the running of stairs, the kicks, and the stationary bike, to spin classes - but the schedule at both Servus and TLC conflict with upcoming post test requirements at kung fu. Thankfully, Chi Kung starts this week, and the classes will provide the impetus I require to get going on all the things I am hoping to incorporate over the next year. Even so, I feel rudderless at the moment; and reinstating old habits as well as developing new ones will require alot of energy and will power.

2009-10-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

This Pandemonium fundraiser has tested me at a number of levels.

1. At first the test or challenge was at the sihing/black belt candidate level: being a leader, making a difference, contributing to a successful campaign. I put my writing gloves on, and got to work. My contribution would be to raise awareness of the foundation, its projects, and their relevance to us. Thus, the kwoon-talk and blog posts about Malawi girls, The Simon Poultney Foundation, SCARS, and The Children's Disability Fund. I felt I put some quality work into those posts, but lack of reaction from fellow students caused me some inner turmoil. Was the message not reaching out to or inspiring my fellow students? Were fellow kwoon talkers put off by the whole Pandemonium thread, and thus only inspired to hit 'delete'? And what about the ones who don't read blogs and posts? I decided that my next step would be to do some awareness campaigning directly to the students at the end of their class. But before I got the opportunity to do that, a conversation with a highly respected fellow sihing stopped me in my tracks: I needed to rethink what I was doing - on two new levels.

2. I had asked my fellow sihing what she thought of the apparent lack of effectiveness of my awareness posts. She asked me, "What is it that you are asking of your fellow students by posting these awareness-raising blogs?" I had to answer, partially I was asking them to go out and raise money. Lets face it, even at the level we are being asked to raise money, we all hate doing it. We have to grovel, beg, and accost our friends. No matter how much we believe in our cause, no matter how much we personally will profit from the task, its something that grates at our sense of right and wrong. For me, I'd much rather do, than fundraise. Rescuing dogs, cuddling HIV/AIDS infected babies, mentoring youth in trouble, picking up garbage - I can do. Fundraising from my friends and family simply made me feel guilty of doing something to them that I don't appreciate them doing to me. Especially when budgets are limited. Much as I hated the idea of approaching community businesses and other strangers, I felt that this made more sense. Raising awareness amongst fellow students would have to wait until I could sincerely demonstrate a way to put my money where my mouth is.

3. And this challenged me on another level. I'm good at writing, so sending out the introductory letters was not a problem. Following up was a distasteful, stress inducing journey. There are people out there that are naturals at this kind of thing. Then there's people like me who have to learn this skill. And here's the key: why would I benefit from learning the skill of fundraising at the business, corporate, community, government grant level? The answer, "To impress my fellow students and more importantly, the Grande Frommage by raising gobs of money" would be purely hypocritical and I wish to resist that by making my challenge at this level not about the dollar figure end result. The sincere answer brings me back, full circle to my initial goal of raising awaremess of our foundation, our projects, and its relevance to us. I am truly proud of the projects and the Benevolent Foundation, and any contribution I make towards them. I totally believe in the various missions of each project we support, including the adopt a driveway program, empathy projects etc. As I approach the age of 50, and envision what I want my life to be like post kids I have begun to develop a desire to make a difference. One of my desires is that the last 5, 10, or 15 years of my working life could be dedicated to jobs that do make a diffence. Working for a non-profit, or charitable organization is something that alot of people my age are considering, and as a result some universities offer post graduate studies related to this career direction. Grant -seeking, Approaching Corporations for Sponsorship, Public Speaking, Proposal Writing, Prospect Research, Administration of Non-Profit Organizations, Volunteerism, Asking for Money Face to Face. All of these topics are addressed in educating people who would consider careers in non -profit and charitable organizations. So, yes, there is the potential that I could benefit from asking community businesses for sponsorship in the Silent River Kung Fu Pandemonium. I have decided to continue pushing myself to do this. I'm totally stressing out over it, and I'm not sure how successful I will end up being. But it might be in my interest not to give up.

A year's training in Review

2009-10-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning now, to see the last year of my training with a little wisdom brought on by hindsight. Three things.

Just Right: I passed my fitness component of the test and I attribute it to the last several years of attending Sifu Laurie's Shaolin Fitness classes. The biggest impact the class had on my fitness test results was the kicks. Kicks account for 8 of the 21 test scores used: if you don't pass the kicks component, you will fail the entire test. Sifu Laurie has worked us hard on our kicks over the years; from technique, strength building, balance, core, stamina, strategy, practice, mini goals, homework, challenges - everything that is required to develop our kicks to acceptable standard for the test. The process at sihing level, takes no less that a year of regular attendance at the class; one cannot improve on these things in any less time than that. I attended the classes for several years, and every class was worth the time, because every step of my improvement in kung fu classes could be partly attributed by the work I did in the weekly Shaolin class. Sifu Laurie also worked with us on the other test components: many classes were devoted to the shuttle run and agility run, flexibilty, chin ups and flexed arm hang, horse stance and lateral agility drill. Furthermore, some classes were devoted to health issues such as injury care and prevention, hydration, proper breathing and relaxation. I am convinced that a passing grade on the fitness test is 81% attributable to attendance at Shaolin fitness for at least one year, if not more - 10% is attributable to home training, and 9% to the spring boot camp.

Too much: Starting in March, I began to experience aches and pains, which of course were my body's signal to me that I may be injuring myself. The osteoarthritis in my ankles and left knee began to flare up. I thought I had done the right thing by seeing the doctor, being referred to a physiotherapist, reviewing my body weight, adjusting my training methods, and changing my diet to incorporate foods and supplements that were appropriate for my condition. As it turns out, I was doing everything right except one thing. I believe I overtrained, and my body never had the chance to heal. The reason I have come to this conclusion is because of my hindsight observations. In the two weeks leading up to the test, the pain in my ankles and left knee was almost crippling, my hips were getting stiff, my left shoulder had limited movement. Even so, I continued to train, telling myself that there were only a few weeks left, and I must stick to my training plan. I made it through the test, in pain, and with the help of advil, and some entreaties to the examiners to please be aware of the my list of injuries. Since then, I have eased up on my training. With a lot of guilt at first, I noted that I went three days without ANY fitness conditioning. I adjusted my training to address some details brought up in the test, and the intensity changed from a focus on the entire test to one of strategic and specific targets. Then, yesterday, I noticed that my ankles were healing, my left knee could bend a little more, my shoulder felt less bound up. There was less pain. And my kicks and jumps had more vitality. So now I am in a position to review the entire year of training if I want to because I kept a record of my training as well as when my issues with pain began and what I did to adjust. Obviously I didn't have it quite right, so if I have to go through the process again (and I hope I don't), then I can refer to my detailed notes and come up with a much more intelligent training regime. Less is more.

Too little: One of the examiners in the test noted that I knew my techniques, but I had not acheived the level of proficiency at some of them where my execution of the technique was sufficiently convincing and ruthless. My interpretation of this is that, though I know the bell block defense to a knife attack for example, (bell block to the nerve bundle above the wrist, followed by a wrist trap, jerk the opponent towards self, reverse punch to head, cross step towards opponent, arm bar to elbow, duck under and apply wristlock), I had not practiced it enough that the complete technique was one swift and effective application done with accuracy and intensity. Over the last couple of weeks, I have worked on fixing that. The breakthrough came last night at sihing class and today at open training with sihing kichko. On both occassions we practice one technique only, over and over again for a minimum of a half hour. It is essential to practice with a good partner, who will keep up the pace of repetition with minimum talk which is 100% focused on technique critique, then systematic correction/repetition. Additionally, that partner must be someone who will push you beyond your limits. As Sihing Kichko said today, we often practice a technique for 10 minutes, note some minor things that still need work, then move on, fully intending to iron out the minor things later - but we never do. And she noted, that because we practiced for longer than we thought we needed, we began to notice other things to perfect, nuances and details; and at the same time the technique began to be executed without the thinking about it. It is essential to get to this point. In my year of training, I don't think I did enough of this with respect to my knife and choke defense and the one steps and close combats.

So we get older and wiser.

2009-10-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Its thanksgiving weekend, and one wonders what to write about that is relevant to our activities at Silent River Kung Fu. Hm. Turkey is a bird; Cranes are birds too; we fold Peace Cranes; thats to do with our desire for World Peace; which is related to our many other projects; that includes the Benevolent Foundation; oh yes - the Silent River Kung Fu Pandamonium!

Another of our projects that directly impacts our hopes for world peace is the Malawi Girls on the the Move project where we sponsor the education of several girls who otherwise would surely live without hope of rising out of the cycle of poverty. What has the education of a few young girls in Malawi got to do with our hopes for the future of our children? What are the challenges that we face for our future anyway?

The experts the world over are telling us that our challenges are climate change, depletion of resources such as petroleum based energy, forests, arable land for food, the waste produced by unprecedented levels of consumption in our society and sustaining of viable ecosystems. For at least the last 50 years, the great thinkers of our times, from people like Martin Luther King, Francis Moore Lappe and John Kenneth Galbraith in the 1960's, to John Ralston Saul, Jared Diamond, David Suzuki and the Dalai Lama today, have all echoed the same message. Averting the collapse of our world will take unprecedented levels of international co-operation. That cooperation entails active protests against war, the virtual elimination of industrial and post-consumer waste, changes in industrial and economic practices to manage climate change, environmental thinking to protect the world's ecosystems and species, adoption of lifestyles that embrace simplicity, and a shift in our geopolitical outlook. These challenges are the kinds of things that make the average person want to stick their head in the sand. What can the average person do? With the corrupt politicians and political systems of our time, and the growing resentment of the countries who are the have-nots of this world, the challenges seem far too overwhelming. We have no faith in the second part of the message that the great thinkers unanomously convey to us. The change can only come from the ordinary people, the grass roots. As Ghandi said, we must be the change.

The Malawi girls on the move sponsors the education of young girls in an underdeveloped country. One of the great leaders of our time will be a lady named Wangari Maathai, from Kenya or Sudan, (I can't remember which one). Not only is she an inspirational leader, but she also echoes the message of international cooperation and environmental thinking. Perhaps one or more of our Malawi girls will rise above their poverty with the help and empathy of people like us. Perhaps these girls will be tommorrows leaders who one day will lead as Wangari Maathai is doing now. Perhaps, by actively helping, and understanding the challenges of the Malawi girls and others around the world, our young students will grow into the kind of leaders and citizens that will lead and cooperate and empathize with similar minded people on the other side of the world as they deal with the challenges of averting war, waste, pollution and collapse. Therein lies our hope for peace, preservation of the planet, the future.

Suggested reading: Read how Wangarri Maathai was able to recieve her education and become the influential leader she is today. Incidentally, Wangarri Maathai received her university education due to President Kennedy's African Airlift program, and another of the students who benefitted from this program was Barak Obama snr. Both Barak Obama jr. and Wangaari Maathai have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. www.greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=432

2009-09-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Over the last year, I have experienced a growing conviction that our Kung Fu journeys are more about the growth of a community, than about our own personal growth. We want the world to be a better place for our children - at Silent River Kung Fu, we learn how this can happen, first by pursuing our personal growth, then by watching, participating, learning, helping, contributing. As we evolve, so does the school; the ripple effect of our efforts reach out to a community, and continues on in ever widening circles.

So the evolution of the community relies on its individuals improving upon themselves. And we as individuals rely on the evolving community to continue in our own personal growth. This is our ecosystem. This is how the world can change so that the human race can survive. As Frances Moore Lappe, food activist and author of Diet for A Small Planet stated in her book, "The great environmental awakening is that the awareness of relationship is permeating our consciousness, and ever so subtely eroding the notion that we can stake out our own safety and happiness apart from the well being of the communities in which we live."

I am proud, that as a group of sihings, this years black belt candidates have exemplified this concept by the support we have given eachother and all other students in their quests for personal improvement. What each of us learned today was that we needed eachother, and that the only way we could help eachother, and thus help ourselves was to accept that we each were evolving and striving to become better. Knowing that, the weaknesses, flaws, bad moments, we observe in eachother are not seen as barriers to our inter-relationships and growth as a community, but as stepping stones in that individual's journey. Whether we pass or fail this test, this is the gift that we will take with us.

2009-09-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

The Chi Kung classes are over. We have learned all 5 of the animal forms, and can now practice them on our own. Sifu Oslvik reccommendes minimum once daily, optimum twice daily. Watching Sifu Olsviks perfect stances, grace of movement and strength of centre has inspired me to make Chi Kung part of my daily routine over the next year. In actual fact, I have started planning for my post black belt test life, whether it be as a sihing or a sifu. The students at Silent River have inspired much of that planning. Oddly, it is the students still in their 20's or very early 30's who make up the bulk of my inspirers. The one's in China, stunt school, or back in Stony setting up business based on their passions and pursuits have had a deep impact on myself, and how I nurture my own two daughters' dreams, characters and passions.

But first things first, I guess; and there's still two weeks of intense training left in my pre-test life. I was thinking about that as I was training at servus place this morning. Sometimes I get really annoyed with sifu Brinker. How is it that he convinced me that I needed a black belt? If I had known that it would involved turning my priorities inside out and such a crazy schedule these last months, I never would have considered the challenge. How is it that I won't give up? Why is it that I am prepared to spend this entire day, for example, doing kung fu? This has to be insane. I have bruises all over my body, a mildly sprained left ankle and swollen knee and ankle joints from aggravating the osteoarthritis. I am using my cane to attack my best friend in our coreographed applications, when I'd rather use it to hobble over to my car and go home. My car is a mess, the laundry needs doing, I have missed Janet's volleyball games, Bert is doing all the housework. Yet here I am, doing pushups, chinups, situps, kicks and stairs on a sunday morning when I'd rather be napping. But then, as I walked over to the chinup bar and the stairs in the north corner of the servus place running track, Jill comes up behind me and asks "Mom are you done?" She has just finished a pretty good 40 minute workout herself, designed for her badminton game. She is red faced, and sweaty and figures she's done her workout; I am still huffing from the kicks. I tell her that I have stairs and chinups yet. "I guess I could do arm work: I haven't done that today.", she replies. We compare our arm muscles, and note that mine are harder and more bulgy, and then we move on with our workouts. I think to myself, "That is exactly what I want to be as a mum. Someone who can still inspire and raise the bar by example, even when my girls approach the peak of their physical abilities. What better way for a parent to show their children what it takes to realize their potential and achieve their dreams?

Thanx once again sifu Brinker.

2009-09-12T20:00:00.001-07:00

Last week I was worried about overtraining. This week was the opposite problem. Though Bert has really stepped up his support by taking over almost all the ferrying, meals, housework and homework supervision, I found that Birthday celebrations, problems with Janet's course schedules, volleyball tryouts, work, a house showing and the need for two taxi drivers for one evening of our daughters' separate extra curricular activities got in the way. By Wednesday I realized that I needed to take aggressive measures to fit in the appropriate minimal amount of training. So I cut my work day short so that I could get in the first decent physical conditioning workout of the week. It turns out that, aside from the shaolin fitness class on Saturday, that was the only day I got in an intense physical workout. So I'm glad I did it.

The forms seminar was also an intense workout, but specifically on kempo, which is the form I chose to focus on. Shaolin class was a brutally intense class focusing on the timed kicks, and very worthwhile. Ji Kung class is helping with centre, breathing, awareness of skeletal alignment, and mobility. Some of these things will help with the black belt test, but the real benefit will come over a much longer time, when skeletal alignment can be perfected, centre truly utilized, and mobility and flow more fully developed. This is what is exciting about the Chi Kung class - I can see it taking the Kung Fu to much greater levels. After black belt testing, I hope to make Chi Kung central to my further training and improvement.

The most important thing happening this week is Sihing Kichko's charity run for suicide prevention and awareness. She is passionate about this cause, and I know that there are many more of us at Silent River that realize how close to home suicide hits. I can guarantee it, that in any one of our kung fu classes, there are at least 2 people who have struggled with suicidal thoughts at some point in their lives, and a further 4 or 5 people who have personally been affected by it. Yesterday, as I drove my daughter home from a badminton session, she told me about a boy that she had been training with over the past 3 years. This boy was the same age as Jill. He was a typical fellow. At 15 he was a little annoying as he struggled with his feelings about girls and his own self esteem. He tended to put others down. He constantly put Jill down, and did outrageous things that attracted attention. But he asked her out too; constantly. I often chatted with this boy's mom and dad at tournaments and training sessions. We shared stories of raising two active kids; the driving, the growing pains, the role of sports and so on. We laughed over her son's attempts to present a macho image, but he was so typical, and we both expected him to mature into a fine young man. But he didn't. At 17, spurned by girlfriend, he killed himself earlier this summer.

With guys, you just never know. They tend not to give any warning that registers. It seems that they just do it before anyone realizes that they are in pain. There are warning signals, but those close to them have to be aware because the signals are so subtle. This is what suicide prevention and awareness week is all about.

2009-09-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

I really missed the regular classes this week. With less than 30 days left before testing, I wanted to have Sifu Frietag look at my forms to see which one I should work on the most. I wanted to work on the bags and time my kicks. I had questions about theory, and I needed a partner, with a sifu watching, as a I practiced the curriculum one-steps, techniques, and close combat/takedowns. But the training hall is dismantled, and I was kept busy, painting, painting, painting; taping, taping, untaping, untaping; scrubbing, scrubbing, scouring.

It was nice getting to know some of the students in a different venue though. That Mr. Robinson is a very easy going guy; something I don't think I would have seen in the structured format of classes. I liked working with him. He got my jokes. I think we will understand eachother alot better in classes. That Sihing Langner too. Such a warm-hearted person. And not afraid to work hard. I just wish she hadn't set such a high standard when it came to scrubbing floors! Mrs. Prince and I worked very well together. We got alot accomplished on our shift together, and in-between tasks, I found myself giving her lots of advice about raising two daughters. I hope she didn't mind.

I managed to keep up a good pace of training this week also. But tonight I realized that the biggest challenge for me will be not to overtrain. I had increased my timed kicks (1 minute, each leg of side heel, front thrust, round house and spinning back kicks) to every day last week. Though I was gratified to see my numbers creeping up to the ratings I had set as a goal a few weeks ago, I noticed soreness in my knee joints. It is hard to resist the urge to train really hard every day when it seems that every minute of every day counts. I have to make a concerted effort to mix it up. Strength and flexibilty one day, kicks and cardio another day, and so on.

I've discovered stairs at as a way to push my cardiovascular conditioning without putting as much stress on my heel. I had totally forgotten this as a form of training, until Jill came back from Vancouver where she trained at an International Badminton camp. They had her doing stairs every day, and that reminded me of when I was on the high school track team, and we had to do stairs every day. It was brutal, but I don't think there are many more effective excersizes for power, footwork and legwork and endurance.

People about my age at Servus Place have started to chat with me. A fellow named Randy asked about my forms and it turns out that he is a black belt teacher of Wado Kai Karate, and that the Karate black belt fellow who is training at Silent River knows him. Randy wished me luck in my test. A lady in her mid-fifties named Rachel approached me to compliment me on my kicks. "You are so fit!" she exclaimed. Then she sprinted round the track 2 times, running so beautifully and powerfully and I remembered that I had seen her before at the Fowler track. I asked her about her training. She is competing in the World Masters in Australia next month. We wished eachother luck. Today another fellow who focused on walking laps around the track at a very fast pace asked about the Chi Kung stretches. Its a good feeling having this type of feedback. At first I had felt so uncomfortable doing kicks and forms at the gym while everyone else did laps, weights, pilates, yoga, and team-sport specific training. But now I see that people are simply intrigued by the martial arts.

2009-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

'In gathering saskatoons, and washing berries; therein lies the Tao.'
Claire Finnamore - August 30, 2009

Last night I submitted the last of my requirements to be eligible to test for Black Belt. It was a summary of my Personal Black Belt Requirements which I had established in December, and was due Sept 1. I had chosen nine goals for myself, and below, I will include exerpts from last nights report.

2. 41,100 pushups, 27,400 situps, 27,400 kicks.

Pushups = 34,765
Situps = 20,731
Kicks = 17,528

Two things interfered with my success on this front.

The first was the Winter Blues. Motivation to keep up the training routine ebbed in December, January and February. This is reflected in my numbers: I fell behind on 5509 pushups in Dec/Jan, and 6990 situps and 7050 kicks in Dec/Jan/Feb. Winter happens every year, and though I worked hard to pull myself out of the blues, I now see how much this hurt my success, and perhaps this will help me for the future.

The second interference was injury, in my case, osteoarthritis. In April and May, I was forced to take it easy on my knees and ankles to allow healing. I fell behind by 3405 kicks at this time. I could not control the effect injury had on my numbers: I could have done a better job controlling the effect motivation had on my numbers earlier in the year. It would have been better to have had a greater sense of urgency during the winter months.

3. 1000 repetitions of forms

I completed 828 forms. Again, the Winter Blues interfered with this one. However, the things that helped were; participation in the forms marathon, participation in the demo team, and actively teaching the form of Lao Gar, and Stick to fellow I Ho Chuan members.

6. Acts of Kindness:

d) Research Acts of Kindness guidelines and give each girls a book to read to get them thinking more about this.

I put up the poster on the fridge, and then Sifu Simpson’s poem from Kwoon talk. I didn’t find appropriate books. Instead, the girls read the book ‘They poured fire on us from the sky’ which is about some Sudanese boys who were orphaned by war, and became refugees in their own counry. The book is written in their own words, and they now live in America and travel the continent giving speeches about their ordeal and getting support for those still in Sudan. I thought the book would expand the girls sense of empathy for those who experience hunger, war, etc. Jill has finished the book and she says it was very impactful. Now I have to go into her room and find the book so that Janet can read it.

e) Pursue opportunities, small and formal, that the girls can participate in that will allow them to reflect on and perform acts of kindness throughout the year.

I took Janet to the Malawi Girls presentation. When Sifu Laurie went back to Malawi this year, she helped put together the medical supplies we donated, and she expressed an interest in having the school girls write letters to her and she write back. I’m not sure what came of this, because I forgot to ask Sifu Laurie about the letter we sent with the first aid supplies. Janet remains interested in this project; she asked after the letter writing idea last week. And earlier this month, Janet agreed to the idea of selling her old hoodies and tshirts so the proceeds could go to the benevolent fund, and she got the clothes, washed them, and hung the hoodies on the hangers, and was pleased with the estimate of money raised (about $90).

9. Daily Meditation: learn dragon breathing and perform it daily.

Instead of dragon breathing, I am learning the Chi Kung forms which put a heavy emphasis on breathing, and there is the standing meditation of 3 minutes, to be done 3 times daily. So, though I started late on this requirement (August), I feel it is much better than the original goal because it is so much more comprehensive, and the teacher is so qualified and experienced.

Conclusion:

I am surprised at how much I actually got done. The last requirement was the most surprising, because up until July, I had made no progress. Then the opportunity to take Sifu Olsvik’s Chi Kung classes came up, and the results were so much better than what I had aimed for. When it boils down to a common theme, I’d have to say, that once you set goals, don’t pass up opportunities. Even when you don’t think those opportunities apply to the goals, there you are achieving them. It’s like the spirit goes on auto pilot once the goal is set – and you gravitate towards the opportunities that help you fulfill them. The Chi Kung classes, the Lion Dance, I Ho Chuan, Malawi Girls, blogging, reading journeys, health set backs, kwoon talk challenges, forms marathons, and your own family’s interests and development, all provided the opportunities that made reaching my goals, or nearly reaching them, possible.

Well, I hope this long entry is helpful to anyone hoping to achieve a black belt in the future. This morning I recieved notification that my application to test for Black Belt has been approved. So I went out and picked the abundant crop of saskatoons. What I think I will need over the next 4 weeks, is Peace of Mind.

2009-08-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last week was a good week.

Chi Kung class: This class is addressing a few challenges in my black belt testing. First is the flexibility test. Sifu Olsvik has assigned us a number of daily stretching excercises which will open up our hips. I've been working diligently on these exercises. Its amazing how inflexible most of us are, even with our kung fu training. Mrs. Crawford and I compared notes - we were both stiff and sore in areas of our hips that the kung fu stretching does not address. I am a little more excited than her about all this, probably because I have started to feel a little more flexibility, and she has not noticed that yet. Second is strength and endurance for the horse stance test. Again, Sifu Olsvik assigned us 20 minutes of modified horse stance daily. I admitted in class, that I am struggling with this one as I am so used to multitasking, that 20 minutes of simply standing in horse stance (don't have a TV) becomes guilt-ridden and unbearable. Anyhow, he said it had to be done, and the results, at minimum will be an effortles five minute horse stance in the black belt test. I'm not sure whether any of the sihings at Friday's class noticed, but Sifu Olsvik stood in a beautiful horse stance for a very long time - it had to be at least 20 minutes - still as stone, sturdy and relaxed! So, I need to renew my effort on this exercise. The third is breathing and, through the routines and exercises, a better awareness of my centre. It's helping with my Lung I & II, and sound focus. Coincidentally, Sifu Laurie brought her netti pot to Shaolin class on Saturday, and gave us a demonstration. Daily use of this device is supposed to reduce swelling and clear trapped allergens and other germs from the sinus passages, thereby making the proper breathing technique much more efficient, or, as in my case, it makes it possible. So I went to Sangsters Health Centre and bought one, and used it. Sure is weird, but not all that bad.

Orange Belt Class on Wednesday: I'm sure Sifu Prince is usually an excellent teacher. But he really outdid himself at this class. We practiced Hsieh Chein, which is a very weak form for me, partly due to the backward shoulder roll (bad for my left shoulder), and partly because sound focus is something I do not do well at, if at all. Sure enough, Sifu Prince had us belting out our Hsieh Chein, and lots of sound focus. This class was a high quality class. I benefitted greatly from it, and I noticed that ALL of the students improved their forms in Hsieh Chein, Hung I, and Long I with Sifu Prince's guidance.

Our Journals: I do go out on a limb a bit, expressing my inner stuggles etc. I've always felt it would be helpful to others, to tell it how it really is for me, because if I am struggling, then more than likely, ten other people will have the same issues. But after last week's entry, I feel that I benefitted more than anyone else. The response from the students and sifus was overwhelming. Who would have thought that other people, students and sifus alike, had struggled with the same things, and really cared whether I got past these obstacles? Its a strange sensation, and I feel almost guilty and uncomfortable, because it now feels like the focus is on me. With this kind of support, I HAVE to give it my all, and if I don't succeed . . . And I worry that the other sihings are getting as much out of this support as myself. I hope that they benefitted from the board breaking practices as much as I did; and that they also needed to review and practice the close-combat and takedown basics covered in sihing class.

The Sihing Class Five sihings attended. It had to be at least 20 sifus also in attendance. And it wasn't a matter of them being there for something else; no discussions or other business was attened to, no meetings, no bag work or situps and pushups off to the side; they were all totally focused on the sihings, advising and guiding us through our class. That was really awesome.

2009-08-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

This stage of the training towards black belt testing has become very personal. I suppose everyone has their own personal demons in life that they either try to overcome or ignore, manage or bury, accept or deflect. I guess its a measure of the black belt test, that one eventually has to address oneself at this level. I get the feeling that the rest of the sihings have also come to this very personal struggle in their training. We have all gotten rather quiet and subdued.

Sometimes I feel like giving up. After all, its not work, or family, or finances. And I've really enjoyed being a sihing, so why not continue as one? Why do I need to add this stress, which seems so unneccessary, to the stresses of my own personal life? Its such a relief when I imagine my life without the upcoming test, or the responsibility of being a sifu, and continuing into the next year enjoying the privileges of being in I Ho Chuan, Chi Gong, Lion Dance, the workshops, seminars, and so on.

Then I feel bad about Sifu Brinker. Over and over again for the past 10 years, I've heard him say that this is the most important thing you will ever do; it will transform you . . . blah blah blah. But he says it with such conviction that i need to stop for a moment and properly think about those statements. Why is it the most important thing for me? Why will it transform me? I find that the answer lies within my present struggles. It's all about self improvement, at a level that previous tests in my life have not addressed. Furthermore, this test and journey has a critical impact on the things that I deem more important in my life - family, job, health and well-being. Thus far, this journey has indeed transformed me. There's sifu brinker, on the other side of this giant gorge, beckoning and saying, 'No, THIS will transform you.'

2009-08-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Last week was complete self destruction. My kung fu training was all but obliterated. I lost my faith in hope. I chastized my self for believing. I pretty much resigned myself to failure.

Still, I am aware of a tiny seed of optimism flickering occassionally in the dark. I think it starts with something Sifu Brinker has been repeating lately - "Look at where you've started and how far you've come".

So I opened up my journals, and did some math.

Pushups: I've done 33,335 since December 1. My goal is to do 41,000 by Sept 1. I need to do 334 a day over the next 23 days to achieve the goal. It's possible.

Situps: I've done 19,200 since December 1. My goal is to do 27,400 by Sept 1. I need to do 356 daily over the next 23 days. I guess its possible.

Kicks: I've done 15,200 since December 1. My goal is to do 27,400 by Sept 1. I need to do 535 daily over the next 23 days. Its impractical.

Forms: I've done 754 since December 1. My goal is to do 1000 by Sept 1. I need to do 11 per day over the next 23 days. I can do this.

And I've completed my 26,000 pushups.

Kung Fu IS

2009-07-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, a situation developed which caused me to fear. I guess I had grown complacent over the years, thinking that I was in control of my future and my family's. The situation proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not. The future as I had imagined it, may entirely not happen, and I was consumed with a fear for my future, the future of my daughters, the mental health and financial security of my family. Over the weeks since I came face to face with this situation, my fear has gone from all consuming, slowly ebbing away for a time, and then stealthily creeping back into my thoughts, bringing with it feelings like guilt at my complacent attitude, regrets, bitterness, flashing rage.

Thank goodness for kung fu. The classes themselves, and the training focus are welcome respites. In tossing a fan, helping with classes, dreaming of great demos, pushing my physical limits, my fears melt away and I find therapeutic spaces of pure relaxation and peace.

Thank goodness also for kung fu, for providing the framework through which enduring, honest and supporting friendships can thrive. I have leaned heavily on Sihing Lilienskold these past weeks.

And thank goodness for kung fu, for bringing into clear focus, the essential need of every person to surround themselves with people that mentor, support, and expect more of eachother. Jill's coach and life mentor at the badminton club, Mrs. Folinsbee, is one person I sought out today because I was struggling with the fears. Mrs. F has accepted Jesus as her Savior, and she wears her faith on her sleeve. At 60 odd years old, she's had her fair share of trials and tribulations. "Sometimes," she said, "Its like I'm running up a corkscrew around a mountain. On each turn, it feels I'm no closer to the top. And at each turn I say, 'Here we go again'. But you know, each turn makes you stronger. If you can relinquish that fear, because God is in control of the plan, and He gave you the strengths that you have and you must focus on those. And things will work out in the end. Maybe not how you imagined. But they will work out because thats how they were meant to work out". I hung on her every word. And as she turned to help out a gentleman whose shoes had come apart, I took my leave of her, went to a nearby park and picked up a book about Lance Armstrong that a fellow kung fu student, Mr. B. Young, had reccommended. I had read something about relinquishing that fear in this book the previous evening and I wanted to find it and reread it. Lance Armstrong is a cyclist, and his book is about his struggles with cancer early on in his cycling career. I'll just quote without comment. The book is called ' It's Not About the Bike; My Journey Back to Life', by Lance Armstrong, published in 2000.

"What is stronger, fear or hope? It's an interesting question, and perhaps even an important one. Initially, I was very fearful and without much hope, but as I sat there and absorbed the full extent of my illness, I refused to let the fear completely blot out my optimism. Something told me that fear should never fully rule the heart, and I decided not t be afraid. . . . I asked myslef what I believed. I had never prayed a lot. I hoped hard, I wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a theif, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, "But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven." If so, I was going to reply, "You know what? You're right. Fine." . . . Beyond that, I had no idea where to draw the line between spiritual belief and science. But I knew this much: I believed in belief, for its own shining sake. . . Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming doom, every single day. And it will beat you. I didn't fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world, how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism. Dispiritedness and disappointment, these were the real perils of life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millennium doomsday. I knew now why people fear cancer: because it is a slow and inevitable death, it is the very definition of cynicism and loss of spirit. So, I believed."

2009-07-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today the weather is rainy, windy and dreary. I could easily give in to the temptation to sit and stare. Instead, I turned the radio dial to CKUA, which was playing one of my favorite programs; John Worthington's 'Old Disc, Jockey'. 'Stormy Weather' happened to be playing at the time. I located some fairly colorful scrap paper, and made a plan. Fold one peace crane, do 50 pushups. So, to the tunes of Count Basie and His Orchestra, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, I managed to fold seven cranes, fire off 300 push ups, and dance a Lao Gar to 'How High the Moon'. Now the program playing is 'Voices in Jazz', which I don't much like, so I have decided to turn my attention to my journal, training goals, and the laundry.

Last week's training went fairly well. I had hoped to do 260 pushups daily, for a total of 1,820. I improved on last weeks totals, but still fell short at 1,545 pushups. It seems that my body wants a rest from the daily pushups, which it decided to take on Saturday. Keeping this in mind, I have decided to aim for 300 push ups daily this week, and as mentioned above, I have started the week off well. I am not terribly pleased with the number of kicks this week. A sprained or broken middle toe, and some temporary issues with my left hip really dragged my numbers down. However the toe seems to be mending, and a visit to physiotherapy on Monday is scheduled, so next week should be better. In spite of the set backs, Sihing Lilienskold and I managed to get some excellent help from Sifu Brinker after he observed our spinning back, round house and side heel kicks at the bags. So there was still progress in this area. Forms practice went quite well too. I was not able to do Lao Gar until the end of the week, due to that middle toe problem. However, I did LOTS of cane (point, strikes and blocks; left and right on all). I am looking forward to next week, as arrangements are coming together amongst I Ho Chuan members to form a team form demo in either Kempo, or Lao Gar. I find that being involved in the demo team and I ho chuan has really motivated me to practice forms at home and in open training, as well as other spare moments during the week. Attending the color belt classes this week has also helped me to focus on and practice combinations and techniques.

I am finding that these last couple of weeks have turned into a steep uphill climb for me. My goals are high; being aware of this, there are feelings of doubt: will I achieve my goals? Will it be enough? I feel resigned to the fact that i can only ask myself to not give up; to place one step in front of the other, and see where I end up. There is one annoying question in the Zen and Art of Motorcycle novel study sheet: "How is Kung Fu like climbing a mountain?" Annoying, because it seems like such a cliche question, that begs a cart load of cliche answers. But as i look back at the beginning of this paragraph, my answer feels not so much cliche, but very real. Well past the tree-line now, the incline is steeper, the ground seems harder. It is hard to judge the distance to the summit; one is left with the feeling that it is probably further than one thinks. The struggle now becomes one of keeping the desire to succeed intact; and to keep placing one foot in front of the other.

Flying vs. Falling

2009-07-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

This week was a tough week. Full of upheaval that knocked the wind out of my sails. Looking at my figures though, I didn't end up too far off track. I did 1420 pushups, vs. my new goal of 1820 per week. This was my first week of this revised goal of 260 pushups per day, and I managed to accomplish that for 5 out of the seven days. Next week I will meet the target.

I'm pleased with a few other things about this last week.

The Wednesday night white belt class was an excellent review of combinations, and I plan to follow this up with home practice this week. Theory was also reviewed, and I feel confident in this area now. Additionally, at open training on Saturday, Mr. Crawford had a number of technique questions, and I was pleased to be able to give him some quality answers with confidence.

On Tuesday night, Sifu Playter held the first Lion Dance/Demo practice. Mr. Tymchuck and I had his full attention, as no one else showed up. I worked on my Lao Gar, and recieved some in-depth feedback. This was followed up by a mini-demo practice after Lion Dance practice on Friday. Again, Sifu Playter reviewed my Lao Gar, noted the improvements, and gave me some further advice. So, some excellent coaching time on forms was had this week. It turns out that sihing wonsiak hopes to do some lao gar demos as well this summer, and her lao gar looks very nice. This gives me an opportunity to offer up an alternate routine to practice for demos and recieve the same quality coaching for these also.

Its a Hard Day's Night

2009-07-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

With seven weeks left before the deadline for some of my personal requirements, its time to look at my numbers and build a plan into my home training that will allow me to reach my goals. I guess it a final push for the following items.

Pushups: The curriculum requirement is 26000 March 1 to September 1; I'm at 20,503, which is ahead of schedule, so no worries. However, my personal black belt requirement is to do 41,000 from December 1, 2008 to September 1, 2009. I'm at 27,530. I figured out that I would have to do 260 pushups per day instead of 150. After doing the 1000 push up challenge several times, and finding that 300 or more pushups a day is not all that much of a hardship, I'm thinking that 7 weeks of 260 pushups per day is attainable. So I'm going to go for it starting tommorrow.

Situps: My personal black belt requirement is to do 27,400 situps by September 1. I'm at 15,111. This means that I need to do 126 situps per day, to reach my goal. This is not a problem as recently I read somewhere that a lady (either a famous fitness trainer, or olympic cyclist, or something like that) does between 200 and 300 situps per day, so I decided to give that a try, and found it quite easy. So I think I will exceed this goal.

Kicks: This started out as round house kicks only, then I experienced some joint pain and found out I had the osteoarthritis and that I was actually injuring myself when I had pain so I had to lay off the kicks for a while. As I got back into the kicks, I limited myself to the ones that don't hurt, like cross-step kicks, hidden leg, thrust from horse, crescent, etc. Round house was a problem, and even more so the flying kicks. So I decided to change this goal to Kicks in general. I never ran this by Sifu Brinker, so I hope this is ok. I need to do 27400 kicks by September 1. In order to do that, I need to do 288 kicks per day. Thanx to the Kichko Kick Challenge, which causes me to do 300 kicks per day, this is also an attainable goal. I need to be cautious though, with the wear and tear on my joints, but more about that later.

Forms: This also started out as Lao Gar only. And I've done alot of Lao Gar. But I also changed this one up, after realizing that I needed time and energy for other forms, like cane, kempo, etc. And I was getting darn sick of Lao Gar for a while there. So, again, I never ran this one by Sifu Brinker, but I'm sure its fine with him???? So I need to do 1000 form repetitions by September 1. I've done 476 of mostly Lao Gar, followed by Cane, and then a bit of 18 temple one week due to follow up on a sihing class. In order to reach my goal, I need to do 13 forms per day. This will be a challenge, but I'm going to go for it.

Overall, this month, and particularly the week since boot camp has been defining for me. The pressure that the increasing levels of training, commitments and focus is putting on my day to day activities have caused me to really question whether I want to continue preparing for a black belt test over the next 2 to 3 months. Truth be told, I am not at all sure whether I have come to a decision on this. I feel as if there might be a straw that will break the camel's back; it could be anything over the next few weeks - not being able to get over the joint pain after each training day, the house might sell, the economy and accompanying job insecurity, fatigue from the long days and organizing the lives of 3 other family members, or a bolt of lightning might come and strike me down. For the moment, I have decided to continue on, and tackle what issues I can. I found a book in Chapters, very recently published, that points to some diet changes I could make (my sweet tooth and the resulting sugar, carbohydrates intake might actually be triggering a heightened inflamation response to joint pain, and certain fatty acids and fish, and yellow fruits and vegetables are found to actually help stop, or reverse the degeneration of the joints). I've purchased the book, to read this week. Additionally, Bert has decided to take his holidays this month for the entire month. I've loaded the driving the kids responsibilities squarely onto his shoulders. This is such a relief and will shorten my day, so less fatigue. But the possibility of that bolt of lightning still enters my mind from time to time.

When I'm 64

2009-06-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday night Sihing Kichko got us sihings to share with eachother, our inner struggles in relation to the approaching black belt test. For myself, it was not surprising to find out that we each experienced variations of fear, terror, self-doubt, lack of confidence, and guilt. The act of sharing these emotions provided a source of strength for me in that our group took another giant step towards gaining support and strength from eachother.

Afterwards, at the boot camp, a topic that I was hesitant to broach on Friday, was discussed by a number of the sihings. It was a topic that I've been keeping close to my chest for a long time, perhaps because it is at the very core of my struggles with my feelings of guilt. I was relieved to find out on Saturday that it was a valid, and common struggle for at least a few others.

It is true when Sifu Brinker says that this is a journey of enormous personal growth. Looking back at my journey thus far, and looking forward to my developing goals, aspirations, values and committments, and strengths, I can only sum it all up by saying that an entire universe has unfolded. I am truly pumped about where I want to go from here. On the other hand, this journey has also exacerbated a drifting apart between myself and my husband. I constantly hope and pray, that this is only a tempory state, initiated by our intense focus on our children, and the lack of energy and time we have left over at the end of each day for eachother.

What I have known for a long time is that there are many of us experiencing the same struggle. In the last couple of years, with the children becoming less dependent on their mothers, the females I have talked to describe a re-booting of our own personal aspirations. Things that were put on hold, such as kung fu, travel, fun, change, personal growth, contributing to community, can now be re-visited. And as we enter into these things, it is accompanied by a surge in excitement, and energy.

Our husbands, on the other hand, are responding to this return to normalcy, by coming home at work at the end of the day exhausted and deflated. All they want to do is sit; that's what they didn't have time for in the past, and now that's what they want to do. So, rather than a coming back together, there is a further drift apart. And our attempts to re-engage our spouses by suggesting together activities, exercise, experiences, fun and change, are met with stubborn refusal or disinterest. So when we go off to our classes, boot camps, seminars and training, there is that sense of guilt that the time and energy put into our personal growth is misplaced: wouldn't it be more appropriate to put that energy into the growth of relationships?

As I look around myself at the people who share the above struggles, I see more failed relationships than I care to think about. And I wonder if its less that I dare to be different, or that I feel too weak to continue on the path that is separating us. I was greatly heartened by a journal post by Sifu Linda Shipalesky a number of month's back, in which she mentioned a coming together in her relationship. How can my husband and I achieve the same thing? Perhaps a UBBT requirement should be involved. I believe that the coming back together is the more fulfilling path, not because of an arbitrary rule or vow, but because looking back, I have seen what, in this particular scenario, we as partners have achieved together, and looking forward, I have witnessed the enormous personal toll on the invidual and and rest of the family that the coming apart has taken.

So there is the crux of my guilt struggle. As Sihing Lilienskold and I tried out the various BJJ techniques at the boot camp, we both ruminated on the wonderful moments of fun, laughs, new interests we were sharing, and regretted that these moments were not being added to a bank of experiences in our spousal relationships. Instead, a bank of unshared experiences is accumulating, and before long, the scales will tip irreversibly.

2009-06-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sifu Laurie's book launch on Saturday night attracted more people than could fit into the studio. It was standing room only for many attendees, including the latecomers, such as myself, who had to stand outside the studio for the presentation. I dragged my daughters to the event, as I recognized a wonderful opportunity for them to gain a clearer picture of the world of the writer and writing. I feel that the reason that we do not pursue our passions in our careers is because of a lack of knowledge of what is involved, a lack of exposure to others who have gone ahead, and a lack of reference to how one's personal strengths and aspirations measure up to what is out there. I wasn't expecting my daughters to come away from the event deciding to be writers, but I was hoping they would come away saying, 'Yes, it is entirely possible that I could do this too.' Mission was accomplished somewhat; Jill came away pumped and inspired. Janet came away with a wonderful anecdote, involving a sifu's struggle with a giant chocolate covered strawberry, that was stuck to it's doilie, and was difficult to consume in a delicate manner.

The wonderful thing about Silent River Kung Fu is the diversity of its members, and thus, the diversity of opportunities that can offered to eachother to enhance our personal growth and that of our families. Frances Moore Lamme, author of Diet for A Small Planet, and renowned world food activist made the following observation. As adults, who desire to grow as persons, to give back to the community, or bring about change in something that they are passionate about, we have no place to go to learn how to effectively succeed in these types of aspirations. There is no university course that teaches one how to mobilize a community to bring about change for the betterment of society, the environment, the world. Lamme does, however, point to something very crucial; and that is the community groups of like-minded individuals. These groups provide a 'safe environment' of mutual support and trust in eachother's journeys, passions and endeavors. I believe that Silent River Kung Fu is one such group.

Sometimes I think it is important to focus our attention on the people who exist 'at the fringes' of Silent River Kung Fu. Sifu Laurie has been away for extended periods of time, and in her classes, interfaces with a smaller group of students. Yet she has brought so much growth to my daughters through her activities in Malawi and writing, and solid support to myself through her knowledge and strategies for physical fitness challenges. Sifu McKinnley also, is one to pay alot of attention to as she travels accross the country, yet sends us so many thought provoking insights, and spiritual challenges. Sihing Bachand may not realize it just yet, but she too will have plenty to inspire us with her present journey. The difficulty for me at this point in the paragraph is finding a way to end it, because the more I think, the more I see examples like the three I just mentioned. Everyone one of us has so much to offer eachother, we just need to pay attention.

On a somewhat related note, I am reading a book which is a collection of essays. Here are some words that I thought were worth writing down.

'Life is a journey that you walk with other people'. Wangari Maathai

'Get in touch with your passion. Passion is always a driving force in any success.' Russell Simmons.

'Any religious belief or teaching that is not based on humility and compassion should be looked at very skeptically and warily.' Moby

2009-06-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

I have not been entirely satisfied with some aspects of my progress towards Black Belt testing lately. This has caused me a bit of worry, but mostly frustration with myself for not getting myself to the place I want to be. This last week has given me reason to feel a little more optimistic.

1. Physical conditioning: After reviewing the Fighter's Body late in May, I decided to use June to get my home training to a good starting point for a 3-month program suggested in the book. It wasn't until last week, that I felt that I was making progress.

I managed to do Power, Strength, and Agility training each day. This consisted of daily, 150 pushups, 125-300 situps and crunches, 20 combination kicks or front thrust-sideheel-back kick, 100 crescent kicks, 50 cross step kicks, 50 front thrust kicks from horse stance, and 50 hidden leg techniques. The kicks met sihing kicko's 99 day challenge of 15 minutes of kicking each day. Additionally, for agility, I managed to practice some jumping for lion dance agility, and some stretching. I believe that this is a good program because it works on core, arms and legs.

I also finally worked in a cardio training alternative to running, which follows a 7 week program of cycle fitness training. I did a 45 minute spin class at Servus Place which counts as a 'quick spin' component for sprint or speed training, and a 'long push' component for endurance and power on hills. I also did a 45 minute session of outside riding following the guidelines for the 'stamina booster' session. On Sunday, I will be going for a one hour 'long leisurely ride' which is supposed to keep my heart rate at a certain level for a certain period of time. So that's 3 days of cycling as reccomended for week one of the program which, after 7 weeks will get me to the next level towards my goal of entering into a charity ride this fall. I am happy with this program because it sets mini goals which keep me motivated to increase the cardio consistently over the long term and it helps me peak at just about the right time.

2. Forms: My daily forms practice (18 Temple Motions to follow up on sihing class, and Cane for I Ho Chuan class), increased, though I need to pick this up a little more by increasing the number of daily repetitions. And I somehow managed to entirely ignore Lao Gar which is not good for my Personal Black Belt requirement of 1000 repetitions of this form.

3. Techniques: Despite some very creative ideas on my part, I just have not been able to attack this portion of my home training with much success. Sifu Brinker must have read my mind this week, because he addressed this issue in sihing class on Friday, and I'm convinced that he looked pointedly at me when he was hammering a few points home to the group of us. The main point was that in order to know the curriculum we have to teach it. Now that summer is here, and the girls' weekly evening committments have changed, I will have some opportunities to get to the training hall for the classes on Monday, and/or Wednesday. This week I'll be there on Monday.

4. Meanness: As a group of sihings, we've been told we are not mean enough, and I know this is probably true of me. I was going to ask for some suggestions on how to work on this in class on Friday, but once again, Sifu Brinker must have read my mind and I didn't have to ask; the class was dedicated to it as we partnered up and punched and elbowed eachother in the ribs. It was a good session of practicing being mean, and it gave me some direction on how to practice this aspect at home.

5. Leadership: I had been stalled on the leadership seminar assignment of researching my project in preparation for a presentation. Last week I managed to find a chunk of uninterrupted time to plunk myself in front a computer for over 2 hours, and research my topic. I just hope I haven't lost my notes, which I have totally lost track of. With that thought, I will end my journal post here, and go look for them.

2009-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes journalling becomes a responsibility. I'm not referring to this kind of journalling, which has its own set of values in one's life. I am referring to the type of journalling that is kept in a small (pocket-size), sturdy little notebook, is written in note form and is kept close at hand for quick retreival so that one can capture the thought, the lesson, the solution, the record, the plan or the inspiration before it is lost.

I have a little red book that I don't leave home without. It comes out throughout the day as I track my training ( number of completed pushups, kicks, situps, forms), find some useful information in the newspaper or in the book I am reading, hear a great tune on the radio, add items onto my 'to do' list, note an important item to pick up at the grocery store, and jot down notes after a sihing or I Ho Chuan class. These type of notes help me stay on track, assess my progress, and accomplish day to day, week to week and longer term goals and tasks efficiently. Combined with my little daytimer, in which I keep track of appointments, tournaments, classes, no-school days and other social events, utilizing the little red book becomes a very useful life-skill.

Recently, I have noticed the need to use the red book in order to fulfill my responsibilties to the people that support me at Kung Fu. The lion dance team is made up of Sifu's Brinker, Playter, Playter, Frietag, LaRoque, and Wilson. And my co-team members are Mr. Tymchuck and Mr. Emery. These people support me and have entrusted me with representing Silent River at a number of Lion Dance functions this summer. They have also invested a considerable amount of their personal time to teach and attend extra practices. In order to hold up my end (or the head), I feel that I must learn everything they take the trouble to teach me, within a reasonable amount of time and perfect the moves to an acceptable standard in time for the performances. I don't want to forget anything they mention, but there is so much to learn, that I have to take actions that will enable me to remember and internalize the learning. My little red book has helped me with this responsibility. After each lesson or practice I have repeated the key points back to the sifus, and then bee-lined it to my red book to write everything down. Even the act of writing things down helps me internalize the lesson. Before the next practice or performance, I will go through the dance routine in my head and study the notes I made from the last lesson. Only by doing this, do I feel that my progress is at a pace that honors everyone on the lion dance team.

2009-05-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, this week was an amazing week at Silent River Kung Fu, with so much going on, including Master McNiell's visit, training, lion dance practices, classes, training for black belt, cane forms to perfect, knitting preemie hats for sihing kichko, training, and the Leadership seminars (which I was unable to attend, but the notes from sihing kichko were excellent once again. Its really quite difficult deciding what is the one most important thing I learned this week; but I put a fair amount of thought to it today, and realized that the one most important thing I need to embrace is very simple, and was touched on by one very quiet, unassuming, dedicated sifu.

Sifu Playter mentioned last week, in the leadership seminar, the 100x theory. From sihing Kichko's notes, I gathered the following:

- The one hundred times theory should be used everyday - pick one thing each day to work on;
- Don't play the numbers game - make each one good, perfect so that you don't develop bad habits;
- Practice slow at first to develop good muscle memory and increase speed once technique is good.

I've heard all this before many times, from many of the sifus, but Sifu Playter doesn't speak up as often as other teachers, so when he does, I can't help but feel that every word he says is something to be considered very seriously. So I've been considering his comments quite alot for the last week. I know it works, because I used it alot to work on perfecting my round house kick, the inside outside spinning cyclone kick, the cross stepping kicks, Lao Gar(100 in two weeks), and Cane(100 per two weeks). Recently, I used it to correct some techniques - the downward foot block, and stepping into bow stance with intensity. I've also started to use it to increase leg strength, by doing hidden leg technique, thrust kick from horse stance, and combination kick. As I move forward, I plan to use the one hundred times theory extensively. This next month I already have some ideas from the critiques received from Sifu Brinker (crescent kicks, spinning kick), I Ho Chuan Class (Cane form), strength training needs (sit ups, chin ups, kicks) and in Lion Dance practice (jumping from horse stance for the stack, projection step).

How will I get from where I am now, to where I want to be when I test for black belt? By using the one times theory to correct, and perfect.

2009-05-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

This week, instead of journalling and then reading everyone else's journal, I read everyone else's journal first. Everyone has their ups and downs. It's nice to see the ups which follow the downs in other people's journals. It keeps one motivated. This week is a down week for me. It's down because I feel way, way overextended and losing the follow-through on things I need to be focused on.

For kung fu, its the realization that IT IS TIME to put in place a serious training plan - one that has me peaking at the right time. I read some parts of 'The Fighter's Body', which Sifu Prince reccommended a while back. I saw what I needed to do, and I'm sure Sifu Prince followed that part about macro/meso/blahblah cycle-training. I'm excited and overwhelmed at the same time - because it is a struggle to find the time to properly think and plan out and organize my life over the next few months based on what's in the book. I have this feeling of standing still in my training, and I shouldn't be.

Personal life is challenging me too. It's as if all the transitions required in my life, are required right now. Jill needs my firm hand as she loses her way - priorities suddenly shift from school, getting a job, pursuing her badminton to being a social butterfly. Janet is in positive transition, which must not be missed by me - as she finds her strengths, her passions, like-minded friends,and looks for my support in pursuing her dreams. As a family, we are contemplating transition also, as our needs change and our current lifestyle (giant tract of land, far away from everywhere, with all sorts of animal units here,there and everywhere) runs counter-purpose to our future aspirations.

An enormous effort is required on all fronts.

Project Based Leadership

2009-05-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Its time for an update. The last time that I posted an update on this project, (of helping to promote lifelong physical activity by providing more opportunities for physical activity at Onoway High School), I summarized what I was able to accomplish for the badminton season. Since that time I have had the opportunity to participate in the first two Leadership Seminars organized by Sifu T. Playter.

The first seminar was presented by Master Brinker, on the topic of public speaking. The parts that I found most helpful for my project related to the concept of recognizing that you have to convey your passion and knowledge and inspire others to participate or buy in to what you are trying to do. Previously, I had not considered this as an important ingredient in succeeding. However, I now see that part of the reason for some of the obstacles that I experienced when organizing the badminton activities was that no-one really new what was motivating me to provide these opportunities. The teachers at the Onoway High school may have assumed that I was merely excited about the wonderful sport of badminton. Even if that was all that was motivating me, they had not been given the opportunity to be inspired or to buy in to what I was hoping to contribute to the community. So looking forward to the remainder of the year with the track season, and to the new school year, I see that I need to address this and have some sort of presentation and acquire some sort of audience so that I have a bit of backing when I offer up more little opportunities.

The second seminar, presented by Sifu T. Playter, was on the topic of research. It had already been stated that to succeed, we must really know our topic; what the issues and objections are and what the arguements are for and against whatever you are passionate about. Additionally, it is important to know what has been done previously, what support is out there and so on. I found the latter to be what surprised me. When I first embarked on the project of providing more opportunities for physical activity, I had no idea that others in other communities may also had the same concerns and reactions as myself. My project is unique in that I am drawing on my personal experience and resources in the badminton, volleyball, kung fu, and running to provide the opportunities. I have not started my research yet, but already I am newly aware that there are community leaders in B.C. (Silken Lauman focusing on playgrounds) and Ontario (a group providing running buddy/mentorship opportunities to youth) that are concerned with the same things that I am and are also endeavoring to do something about it in their own communities. Dialogue with these groups will surely be helpful.

The Leadership seminars are proving to be a huge boost and guide to the momentum of my own Project Based Leadership. I feel more confident about what I have accomplished so far, and not so bad about the obstacles I have encountered because I have a better idea of why and how I can adjust as I move forward. I feel that the Leadership Project is a wonderful growing experience for me as I learn of rewarding and meaningful ways to act on my beliefs, thoughts, concerns and passions.

Looking forward into the immediate future - I will be helping the track coach. I had approached him a few months ago and found that while he sincerely agreed with the fact that the students lack physical conditioning and the girls are in particularly bad shape, he also seemed to view the situation as hopeless. He has, in the past tried things himself, and it seems that he has lost his passion due to the long term poor response to his endeavors. I've decided that the best thing to do is simply to get involved ( help with the practices, if there are any, and with the track meets, both of them) and see what opportunities present themselves. In the meantime, there are the assignments for the leadership seminars (research my topic, and prepare a presentation) and all the helpful ideas provided by the seminar leaders.

NEW: Suggested Reading List

2009-05-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was going to report on my progress in my personal black belt requirements this week. But two things prompted me to delay until next week. The first is that I attended the first of the Leadership seminars organized by Sifu Playters. The point of these seminars is to help us carry out our project based leadership goals. Next week we are to submit our topic and a quick blurb explaining why we have chosen it. There will be discussion and help provided in a structured step-by-step format over the course of the seminars. At the end of the five weeks, we are to present our project to the class. I've decided to delay my blog about my progress on the project based leadership for week while I reflect on my submission to the leadership seminar. The other reason for the delay is that I have been encouraged to start some sort of a reading list highlighting some of the books I have read and would like to reccommend to others. I think the goal is for there to be some sort of exchange of reccommendations between everyone. Ideas included starting a thread on Kwoon talk, having a segment on the Silent River Kung Fu site, or just starting a list on my blog. So this week, to get things started, I have decided to blog about the NEW feature on the side panel of my posts, the 'Suggested Reading List'. Already, I find this tool inadequate because it is just a list, with no room for a quick synopsis or comments. Nevertheless, I need to start something, and then work with that.

The list is in no particular order.

"The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963; by Christopher Paul Curtis. I read this book to my daughters when they were in Elementary school, and to some of my younger students at a Junior High Outreach school when I was an Education Assistant. The book profoundly impacted both my daughters and my students. And of course, I ended up crying as I read parts of the book both times. I was reminded of this book after listening to Mr. Tymchuck talk about his visit to Alabama last month to help build a house for one of the local citizens. He spoke of his visit to the church where the two innocent young girls died when the church was bombed - an act of racism and hate. His comments reminded me of how important it was for us to know our history, how we got to the place we are at now, what things we should never take for granted, and why there is still some hate and resentment in some parts of our world. This book is reccommended for students age 9-12, but is a good read for adults also.

I Didn't Do it For You; How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation; by Michela Wrong. I commented on this book a couple of posts ago, so I won't repeat myself.

An Illustrated Short History of Progress; by Ronald Wright. Sifu Laurie reccommended this book to me about a week ago. I highly agree with her reccommendation. Wright reviews our history of civilizations (Easter Island, Sumer or modern day Iraq, Mayan and Roman) and points out that, for the most part, they have dissappeared because of human's habit of using farming practices that destroy our environment, and our propensity towards destroying our natural resources. A really easy read, and incredibly impactful at the same time.

Diet for a Small Planet; by Frances Moore Lappe. I've just finished reading the introduction to this book. The introduction was written a few years ago. The book was first published twenty years ago. Frances Moore Lappe is a great antedote to the gloom and doom I was left feeling after reading Ronald Wright's book. She has an optimistic view of the possibilities for change that are required if this present global civilization is to be saved from collapse. In her introduction, she speaks about something called 'citizen democracy'. I believe that we should all be reading this book.

Collapse: by Jared Diamond. He is the same guy who wrote "Guns, Germs, and Steel", and an article that I had recently reccommended, called "What is Your Consumption Factor".
Same theme as the the last two books. Very informative.

Well, that's it for now. I expect that a better reading list will have categories, like 'civil rights', 'environmental issues', etc.

2009-05-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

April is done, and it is time to take stock of my progress towards the black belt requirements.

Daily training requirements: The forms marathon, april 1st pushup/situp challenge, performing a form at the spruce grove trade show, and preparing for the tiger challenge have all helped me progress and focus on my daily training. Unfortunately, I was also derailed somewhat by some injuries. As a result, my pushups and situps and forms are going well, but kicks took a beating. Looking forward into May and beyond, I will be making some adjustments to my daily training goals. First, the goal of 27400 or 100/day of round house kicks, will be adjusted to include a number of different kicks. This allows me flexibility to decide which kicks are appropriate for me to be repeating more often. Initially, when I had set my goal, I had felt that the round house kick was a key kick and should be repeated more often than others. Since then, I have discovered that I have osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles, and the doctor has sent me to some specialists to help prevent further rapid progress into my hips. Decisions as to what types of kicks I should be practicing more often than others will now be dependent on what is best for my future health. High impact kicks like flying kicks will have to take a back seat. So far I have found that kicks that work strength and centre, like hidden leg, cross step kicks, combo kicks and kicks from horse stance are less painful. I am sure that eventually, I will be able to resume the round house with intensity, but for now, I have pulled back from it because it seems to put some strain and pain on my left knee as I return to the bow stance. Flying kicks, though I had been very pleased with my training and progress in this type of kick recently, results in alot of pain in my knees. This is extremely dissappointing, but I have to resist the temptation to continue through the pain now that I know that I am irreversibly dammaging my joints. I am worried about my cardio vascular strength and stamina because I have had to stop running also. There is now some urgency to replacing this aspect of my training with a cycling program (Cycling and swimming are reccommended replacement activities for running: I hate swimming and I love cycling). This week I plan to put together a cycling program and some intermediate goals. The first step is to pull out the old Peugot 10 speed bike which I had rigged up with a computer that reads revolutions per minute, km, etc etc (the type you can purchase at Mountain Equipment Coop) and set it up on the stationary trainer. Then, referring to the books I just checked out of the library, I will put together a training program for the stationary bike and some goals for road cycling during the summer - like x number of km per week, or x number of road trips by August, or a charity ride like the MS one from Leduc to Camrose. I'm actually kind of excited about this change of plans. I love cycling.

Memorization of Mastery requirement: Done

Personal Requirements: 1000 repetitions of a Loa Gar: The forms marathon, and the public performance this month has resulted in some major progress towards perfecting this form. It's amazing how many layers of details are inherent in this form. Just when I think I have perfected something, a sifu comes along and points out a finer detail. Last week I looked up some videos on the internet, of martial artists performing Lao Gar. Their interpretations of the style, the speed, the actions were inspiring and intriguing. I have completed 386 repetitions of lao gar from Feb to now, and I am confident that I will hit the 1000 mark by the end of August.

Personal Requirement: Public Testing Performance: Specifically, my goal had been to enter the Tiger Challenge. When I found out that it was scheduled for May 2, I contacted Master Brinker to explain that Jill had the badminton provincial tournament in St. Paul, and Janet had the volleyball provincial tournament in Calgary that very same weekend. Both tournaments required overnight stays, and parents were expected to provide the accomodation, meals and transportation. I was, however, encouraged to find a way to make the Tiger Challenge my priority. So I signed up for the Tiger Challenge. In theory, Bert would accompany Janet, and, at 17 yrs old, Jill should be ok under the supervision of her coach. Then I started training for the competition. For me, preparing for the Tiger Challenge pushed me to the next level on a number of fronts. The competitions in the Tiger Challenge mirror the challenges on testing day. What better way to focus, train with purpose, and increase intensity. The Lao Gar form took off for me and my team forms partner. I took time to put thought into board breaks and practice them. A few fight sequences were coreographed. I focused on the cane form as a weapon form for the competition. I identified my weak spots. I got worried. My training became more intense.

Its unfortunate that I did not benefit from actually being in the competition though. But I just couldn't bring myself to put myself ahead of my daughters this weekend. By Sunday, before the competition I came to a decision; this particular weekend, it was more important to me that each of my daughter's have one parent with them to witness and support them as they challenged themselves and tested themselves in the events that they had spent so much time and dedication preparing for. So, as far as this Personal Requirement is concerned, it was not fulfilled as planned. However, I have performed lao gar at the TLC, and I am hoping that this, and future perfomances this summer will satisfy. I will have to run it by Master Brinker.

I will review the other Personal Black Belt Requirements in next week's blog.

2009-04-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Its been 2 weeks since my last post. Life has been a little frenetic lately, and will continue to be for the next 2 weeks. It was expected; Bert and I had looked at the April/May calendar and shook our heads. Jill is at the peak of her badminton season- in the last 10 days she has won a gold medal at each of the three school tournaments she competed at. Next week are the school provincials- in St. Paul, and then right after that (the very next day) its the Canadian Nationals all week in Sherwood Park. In between all this, she's job hunting, and practicing her driving, training, doing her homework and I'm ferrying her around. Janet has her provincial volleyball tournament in Calgary next weekend; her honours band trip the very next week, and in between practices for both, she and I are battling it out as she hisses and screams over her trigonometry, and the french past participle. Bert has an out of town trip scheduled next week; and we're busy with painting and flooring so that the house can go up for sale in May.

Kung Fu, however, is supposed to be my number one priority, because I am testing for black belt in October. It's not really in my ilk to put anything much ahead of family for priorities. Master Brinker has really tested me on this, and I believe that I have given it my very best shot. I missed all three of Jill's last tournaments, Jill's teacher interviews (Bert went alone), Janet's practices, and the visit from the flooring guy so that I could practice and perform in lion dancing and a demo, participate in the forms marathon, attend regular classes and open training, participate in the pitch in clean up, and get ready for the tiger challenge. For the most part, I have to say that fiddling around with my priorities has really produced some positive overall results, for my kung fu progress, and for my perspective on what my family's real needs are and aren't. There's the stuggle with guilt too; will my daughter's hold it against me for not being there; will I have overlooked some aspect that I should have been there for them?etc, etc.

I haven't been able to shake that guilt feeling, and I'm feeling a little frazzled - I feel I need time to think and regroup. Because as the priorities have shifted towards Kung fu - the pace of progress in that department has sped up. Performing in the demo last weekend forced me to practice Lao Gar with increased intensity, so I'm farther ahead with that than I had expected - it got me thinking about everything else that I next need to turn my attention to and that has been a bit overwhelming too. Preparing for the Tiger Challenge has produced similar results with respect to the coreographed fight sequences, weapons practice, etc, etc etc. My daily home training has lost its rythm. Rather than methodically execute the kicks, hand forms, agility work, pushups, situps etc that I have selected for that week, I am reworking the musical form, practicing the traditional form and the cane form, board breaks, and trying to find time to work on the coreographed fight sequence. The end result of this is a feeling of frazzlement, unfocus, loss of direction, failure. More than once this week I've asked myself what the heck am I doing, at 47 years old, tossing family priorities to the wind, leaping around in lion costumes, swinging a cane around at imaginary assailants, doing forms at the kwoon to 2am.

But Master Brinker insists repeatedly that it is one of the most important things we will do in our life. I really do believe him because of what I've experienced so far. But right now, I'm mostly feeling frazzled.

Empathy

2009-04-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a book that has helped me understand more about how the rest of the world has been living. It's called, "I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation.", by Michela Wrong. (2005) I came accross this book because I had been reading about South America, Cuba, Che Guevarra, Fidel Castro and revolutionary history. Of course, once I got onto revolutionary history, the choices of current and recent struggles and countries to read up on unfolded - in South America, Africa, and Asia. In all these instances, the momentum for revolution was provided by the destabalization created by imperial and colonial powers (USA, Europe). In the case of Eritrea/Ethiopia, which is the country of interest in the book I am reading, the Italians, British, USA and the UN have had their hand in the region within the last 100 years, to devastating effect. That was the first thing that impacted me. The second thing about the book that impacted me was gaining an understanding of what drives a nation of people to desperate and ongoing acts of revolution and guerilla warfare. Thirdly, I realized that if we want world peace, we need to understand that countries that seemingly 'can't get over past wrongs' are probably expecting those past wrongs to be repeated against them by the very people who are entering their country to 'help' them. After all, those nations that are calling for peace, are the same ones who have repeatedly committed the abuses that have devasted their country.

Another thing that I got from the book is really totally unrelated to the topic of empathy. But it may relate to our curriculum - intensity perhaps. The following paraphrase is taken from a chapter where the author is discussing the details and the life of the revolutionary soldiers who lived and fought in the mountains of Eritrea for 30 years (1970' onward).

The weapons that count:

- a sense of destiny
- a momentary forgetfullness of individual needs
- the belief that a cause is worth dying for.

Claire Finnamore

2009-04-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

I think the present group of students in the sihing class is going to achieve something that has not been achieved often in the recent past. It sounds like we are all going to test for black belt - has that ever happened before? But that's not the special part. The special part is that slowly but surely, we are all coming together, rooting for eachother, helping eachother and getting to really appreciate how we can help eachother out through our individual strengths and weaknesses - each and everyone of us.

I think as a school, we have been a little hesitant to explore what we can achieve as a group of students. The 'personal journey' is emphasized and we tend to overlook the fact that groups of people can do alot more than isolated individuals. Master Brinker has often said that the road to black belt is a lonely one - I don't think that is neccessarily true.

I would like to quote something that I read a while back and got me thinking about how, as a group, the present class of sihings can make a contribution to what we learn and experience at Silent River Kung Fu.

From 'The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation' the following excerpt was written by Kabir Helminski and is entitled, 'The Premises of a Sufi Education'.

1. The soul itself needs to be educated and trained. The soul needs knowledge and practice in the areas such as self awareness, attention, will, relationship, service and worship.

2. This education and training is best conducted together with others - not just for the sake of convenience, but because of the opportunities to know ourselves through relationship and because the quality of energy that is generated and shared in a group.

3. There are people who have experience and knowledge in this area . . . to provide wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. We resist the idea of such a relationship because relationships demand something of us; honesty, commitment, change. Even if we consider ourselves on a spiritual path, we would rather commit to a technique, such as meditation, which preserves our imagined autonomy and freedom, than to a relationship and a spiritual family.

Its something worth mulling over. However we interpret the above, I believe that the present class of sihings can provide an example and leadership in the area of working together as a group.

Project Based Leadership

2009-03-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-08T13:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

" 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.

2009-03-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

Home Training: The months of January and February have been a huge struggle for home training. Its the time of year. Luckily, the challenges that came up during these months (the 1000 pushups and situps on Jan 1 and 26, and the recent squat thrust challenge) have really helped me stay somewhat within reach of the ultimate goals. This is the time of year when I need these challenges the most. I wonder if its the same with the other sihings. I see that Sihings kichko, lilienskold and regier have started a morning running group going now, and they are incorporating some of their other training into the running intervals. Maybe there's a momentum taking hold and the challenges will just keep building.

As springtime nears, I feel more encouraged. Over the years, I've noticed a pattern about myself, and that is that Jan and Feb are tough on me psychologically and emotionally. Motivation, as a result, takes a nose-dive. I've also noticed, that my state of mind improves steadily over the early spring months, and that things that seemed insurmountable melt away. So I'm looking forward to March, April, etc because I know that my home training will gradually improve to the levels that will result in success. And although February is not yet over, I am digging deep to get that process started early. I have got my home journal numbers in order so that I will have a clear picture of how my actual totals for pushups, situps, round house kicks, and squat thrusts compare with what my goals are. At the end of next week, I will publish those totals and move forward into march from there.

Open training: This has been going extremely well for me. Sihing Langner has taken time each Saturday to teach myself and Sihing Lilienskold the Lao Gar form. As of yesterday, we completed the whole form, and now only have to work on perfecting the details. With sifu's available on Saturdays, we will be able to get someone to correct us on something each week.

Personal Black Belt requirements: I never finished blogging about this. I had summarize one each week. There are nine of them. I first talked about the community project of helping to promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High school. I will revisit this at the end of march, because by then, the first stage of this project will have been completed. Next, I talked about my home training requirements of pushups, crunches, roundhouse kicks and squat thrusts. I mentioned that already hear - I will post my February results at the end of next week. My third requirement is to do 1000 repetitions of a Lao Gar. I guess I just talked about that under 'open training'. I first needed to learn the form and Sihing Langner has helped me with that. As of this week, I can start doing the repetitions. My rough calculations indicate that I need to do the form 5 or 6 times per day, or 38 times per week until Sept 1, 2009. My fourth requirement is to maintain my goal weight of 146-148lbs with the support of weightwatchers. As with everthing else, this has been a struggle during the months of January and February. Half of the problem is my sweet tooth, and my tendency to indulge more in 'comfort eating' during the winter months. The other half of the problem is my lower motivation with home training - the number of times I visit the gym to do the 2-3k run has fallen off dramatically, and there are also my struggles with the daily home training goals which I have mentioned above. I am currently weighing in at 149 lbs and rising. Again, with spring around the corner, and my diligent attendance at weight watcher meetings, I expect this trend to reverse itself. My fifth requirement is to blog and to kwoon talk. Both of these things help me to maintain my commitments to home training and to many other aspects of preparing for black belt testing. I will talk about the last 4 of my personal black belt requirements next week.

Home reading: Currently reading 'The lost Massey lectures'. There are 5 or six lectures in this volume. The first one, which is what I am reading right now is by John Kenneth Galbraith (distinguished liberal economist and diplomat) and is called 'The Underdeveloped Country'. this lecture was presented in 1965 and in it Galbraith analyzed the causes of poverty and barriers to advancement in the 'underdeveloped' countries of the world at that time. As the editor notes in this 2007 volume, the issues in 1965 are 'depressingly familiar' today. I am finding that Galbraith's comments about our (developed countries, specifically Canada), responsibilities with respect to the poorer countries are depressingly valid today. So far, definitely worth a read.

The Travis Panasiuk Memorial Award

2009-02-09T21:13:00.001-08:00

Without a doubt, had Travis been with us today, he would have recieved the Student of the Year Award on February 7, 2009. Everyone who new him at Silent River Kung Fu will have in their minds, at least one or two reasons why this it true. For me, four reasons come to mind.

At the top of my list is something that I did not realize until he passed, and the entire school was left reeling with the loss. Travis, as member of this school, had somehow relected to us who we were and what we were all striving to become as individuals and as a group. What I saw in the reflection was how much we have come to treasure eachothers' company and common love of martial arts.

As a student, Travis was indeed an 'empty vessel'. His mind, attitude, and senses were pliable and receptive and at the same time he seemed to be developing the ability to think critically about what he took in from his instructors, and from his fellow students young and old.

What I found most amazing about Travis was that he was a mirror and an empty vessel. He made no judgements of people and was happy to share his hat with any one of us. In my books, that is leadership.

As a martial artist, Travis worked hard, putting all of his soul and body into every challenge. From shaolin training, I ho chuan, lion dance, and, I'm sure, in his weekly classes, Travis worked harder than many of us. He truly had embraced the concept of intensity.

It is with a heavy sense of responsibility that I reflect on being the first recipient of the Travis Panasiuk Memorial Award. Can I measure up to the qualities that I believe made Travis such an important student in our identity? The burning question for me is, "What would Travis have done after recieving this recognition?". And the burning answer is, "He would have joyfully increased his efforts 1000-fold". I believe it is my responsibility to do the same, and to encourage my fellow students to do so also.

Claire Finnamore

Where Am I?

2009-01-25T20:55:00.000-08:00

My 2nd Personal Black Belt requirement is to do with Home training. From Dec. 1 2008 to September 1, 2009, I have committed to doing the following;

1. 41,000 pushups (150/day)
2. 27,400 round house kicks (100/day)
3. 27,400 situps (100/day)
4. 4100 squat thrusts (15/day)

The surprising thing about this requirement was that I was the most confident about this one when I wrote it down back in November. I had been doing all of this except the crunches, and also doing a bunch of other stuff, since Sherri Donohue started the 100 day challenge back in September. And I had been doing the pushups since last March. It had all become a fairly successful newly-formed habit. There were a few hiccups along the way, but I was always able to bounce back on track. However, December arrived, and New Years. It turns out that routine is vital to my success in habits relating to exercise.

Now that the holidays are over, I have my routine back, but not all of the habits. It is hard work getting back on track, and I've grasped at every tool that presents itself to me in order to re-establish the good habits. Planning for the Chinese New Year 1000 push ups and sit ups has really helped because I realized that I couldn't possibly expect to succeed on this if I had not been doing daily pushups and crunches for at least a week prior. Speaking out about my struggles has also helped because alot of people have responded by giving me a kick in the pants. Increasing accountability has also helped; and that also relates to refusing to ignore the facts. Here are the facts.

As of January 21, I re-established the daily pushups and situps. Before that date, my routine was sporadic.

My daily squat thrusts and round house kicks are still sporadic.

As of today, I have to make up 4605 pushups, 2750 sit ups, 2650 round house kicks, and 670 squat thrusts.

I plan to make up 850 pushups, and 850 sit ups tommorrow.

For the rest of the year, I will have to do 17 extra pushups, 9 extra sit ups, 12 extra round house kicks, and 8 extra squat thrusts daily.

At this point, doing the extra is not all that hard. The hard part is re-establishing the habit; its where my energy needs to be focused.

Regrouping

2009-01-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

I've taken a good look at the personal black belt requirements I wrote out back in November. There are 9 of them. Its interesting that I've made the most progress on the first 5 of my requirements. When I listed my requirements for handing in to Master Brinker I seem to have ordered them in the order of importance to me. The community project was listed first; daily hometraining in physical conditioning and forms were listed 2nd and third; healthy nutrition and weight was fourth; journalling was fifth. I'm a bit embarrassed that 'acts of kindness', sparring, public testing performance and daily meditation are at the bottom of the list and I have the most work to do on these requirements.

I think it will be a good exersize to summarize my progress with respect to only one requirement each week. So I will start at the top this week.

1. The Community Project: Help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School.

I have already posted the details of the Community Project previously. In a nutshell, I plan to help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School by facilitating some opportuntities for students to participate in some track and badminton. To date:

Becoming part of a community coalition that works to make the Onoway a vibrant and healthy one for years to come:
Nothing has progressed with respect to the formation of this interagency coalition, but I am preparing myself. I have learned through experience about how to start an athletic club, because I just started a volleyball club in Saint Albert for Under 15 girls. (In previous postings I mentioned how this club came about, and why it has contributed to much needed opportunities for girls who so desperately want to play volleyball.) This exercise has allowed me to become comfortable with the concept of doing something like this in Onoway. Along the way I also increased my knowledge and confidence in runnning physical conditioning warm ups for youth as well as providing them with education and mental challenges. I'm quite pleased about my personal progress, but am dubious about whether my efforts will end up benefiting Onoway youth in particular. We plan to move out of the community in the next 6 months to 3 years. We shall see what happens.

Increasing the duration of the practice season for badminton at Onoway High School.
Gym time is the issue here. Jill and I have talked with Mrs. F, who runs the badminton club in St. Albert about having a fun tournament one thursday night for the Onoway junior and senior high students. Its a go on her end, so my next step is to chat with the princial and coaches at onoway about a date and also secure a bus. Furthermore, there is room for a skills and drills night and the principal at onoway high school would like Jill to run that. I'll set it up. In that respect, I also recently chatted with the Badminton Alberta president about my project and he offered to look into providing a coaching seminar for badminton coaches in the school division and possibly have Onoway High School host it. All this stuff should occur in February and March.
3. Help to promote a longer school practice and conditoning season for the track and field team. I have approached Mr. Joines (the track and field coach at Onoway) and 'warned' him that I would like to help with track season. That's not until April and May.

I've lost track of how many weeks until black belt grading.

2009-01-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

I've been way off track with respect to my weekly home training, journalling and nutrition. Christmas happened and I'm still struggling to get back the habits that will progress me towards my black belt requirements. Two people have helped me this week.

Person number one was the lady at weightwatchers who made me get with the program. I knew that due to some indulgences over christmas, which were turning into daily habits, my weight was beginning to creep up. I needed to nip this one in the bud and get back to healthy eating habits to maintain my goal weight. I decided to go to the weight watchers meetings weekly but adapt the program so that I didn't really have to face the music (the scales). I planned to go to the meeting and get some motivation, but only weigh in when I was confident that I was back on track and at goal weight. Quite accidentally, this lady, who works there, found out what I was doing, and she told me that I had to do the whole program or she couldn't allow me to sit in on the meeting - those were the rules and the rules are made for a reason - blah blah. From the look of determination on her kind, grandmotherly face, I knew that I would not be able to slip past her without causing a scene. The police would have to be called, and I would be ejected from the meetings for life. I paid up, got on the scales, took 10 minutes to reflect on my position, and then listened to Norma, the inspirational meeting leader. When the meeting ended, I realized that because I had weighed in, the meeting was more real for me; the accountability factor is a large part of whats needed. I went back to the lady who had stopped me and thanked her for standing her ground.

Person number two was Master Brinker. In class on Friday he had allowed for the fact that some of our personal black belt goals may change 2 months after we set them down. When I mentioned my struggles with training and journalling goals, he commisserated, mentioning his struggles with push ups after the New Year 1000 push up challenge. And then, in no uncertain terms, he said that we have to get back to the good habits we had before the Christmas. I could tell by his tone that he wasn't going to let me adapt my physical training goals.

I'm feeling that I am two 'kick in the pants' closer to getting back on track.

So tonight, right after getting home, I journalled. In one or two days I will journal again after reviewing the progress I have made towards my Personal Black Belt Requirements and setting out a plan for moving forward from here.

2008-12-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

"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

2008-12-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

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?

Not from my journal at all

2008-11-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

What a crazy week - job interviews, offers, teacher interviews, excellent report cards, nasty report cards, volleyball, badminton, presentations, submissions, sickness. I barely had enough time to keep up my home training, and this weekend I was in Okotoks for Jill's Badminton tournament. I think I will write about that.

Jill had a struggle because she was so sick. But she dug deep, put her body in competition mode, and won her first two matches on Friday night. The fellow sitting beside me, was the father of Jill's second opponent. He did not like it when I encouraged Jill to stay in the zone (Long story to that, but in a nutshell it's about allowing the adrenaline to kick in, letting the body forget about how sick it feels, and focusing all energy on winning the next point). The other girl's father jabbed me in the ribs and told me "no coaching allowed!" Oops, he was right; coaching is only allowed if the match goes to a third game. I tried to calm him by explaining that I'm not really her coach, I am her mother. Still, he frowned very hard at me and repeated his admonition. Jill won against this man's daughter easily. The next day, he sat beside me as Jill played her semi final match. I figured he was keeping an eye on me so I stayed quiet. When Jill won that match, the man leaned over and said "Your daughter is very good, I'm happy for her". So we got to talking and I apologized for upsetting him and explained that Jill is quite sick. He figured out which badminton club Jill plays at, and I asked him what club his daughter is at. He said "Ging Wu club of Calgary". I said, "but isn't that a Kung Fu style?". Yes, he said, Martial Arts and Badminton Club. His brother runs the martial arts, and he coaches the badminton - they have one court at the Ging Wu club and they also do Lion dance. Oh!, I said, I do lion dance, but I'm not very good. At this point the man got very excited. His accent thickened, he talked faster, and I practically lost all track of what he was saying. I was forced to nod and smile, and agree. He was happy with our conversation, and when we parted I encouraged him to look up Silent River Kung Fu on the internet.

Jill came in second place in the tournament. Exactly where she should have ended up if she hadn't been sick. She learned so much about herself this weekend. As her 'not really a coach-just her mom', I don't think I could have told her what I did, had I not spent the last 8 years listening to Master Brinker go on and on about pushing oneself against arbitrary limits, and then having to test his theory with exercises like the pushups and other testing requirements. Through Kung fu, I am a better mom/coach, and Jill can learn more about herself. There's also the possibility that the Ging Wu Club of Calgary might check out Silent River Kung Fu.

From My Journal November 16-22, 2008

2008-11-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

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.

From my Journal November 9 - 15, 2008

2008-11-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

My problem this week is that if I actually sat down to write about everything that is worth writing about, I wouldn't have any time left for the other important things I need to accomplish. I'll have to go to point form, to save time.

1. I am way behind on my training commitment of 2.5 hours per week, and this also means that I am way behind on my committment to the 100 day challenge on Kwoon talk. I will document my numbers on the 100 day Kwoon talk thread because I will need the encouragement from others to catch up, and the others will benefit from witnessing my struggle. I fell behind because of the next 3 points.

2. My career, or lack thereof. It was ironic that one of the 100 day challenge participants mentioned that he was struggling with his challenge committment because he had been focused on his career goals. I had been thinking for the last few months, 'If I applied the same sort of focus that I am putting into the black belt test, into my career, then my life wouldn't be such a mess. In a nutshell, I'm in a transition period. My kids are becoming independent, and its time for me to start thinking about what I need. Until last week, I had been flip-flopping. Was it too early to make a change, or pursue the schooling, or was I making the needs of my daughters an excuse rather than a reason? Then suddenly last week, a friend got me going and on Thursday I was revamping my resume, applying to a job, and preparing for the career fair in Edmonton. As a result, I got behind on my training that day also.

3. The challenges of being a mother. So on thursday I decided that it was indeed time for me to focus on changing my career and attending to my own needs for the future. Then on Friday Janet's math teacher called. I remember when she was and infant and I was rocking her to sleep in my arms. My mother, noting that janet had been asleep for a good 1/2 hour already, said 'Janet is an easy baby for you'. I said, 'its almost as if she comforts me'. Jilly and I had struggled through all this stuff, but Janet was indeed an easy baby. Then, my mother said, 'she'll probably make up for it when she's a teenager'. Prophetic words. Silly of me, on thursday, to believe that I was on the home stretch with Janet. Anyhow, all spare time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, was spent dealing with the janet issue. Training moved way down the list of priorities.

4. Giving back. One of the best teachers that Jill has ever had is her badminton coach, Mrs. Folinsbee. She is 63 years old. She and her husband (who is 79 years old and in poor health) singlehandedly run the Red Willow Badminton Club. They do it, not just because of their love of the sport, but because of their belief in what it does for the lives of the people in the community. For Jilly, badminton has taught her many things about life in general, and given her many skills for her future. The club has been a place where Jilly socializes with other like-minded kids, and gets the support, advise, and encouragment from many adults from all walks of life. Mrs. Folinsbee has acted as a surrogate grandmother, knowing what to talk about, and how to encourage her in matters of friendship, life goals, dissappointments, struggles, school, boys, difficult decisions, self respect and much more. This month and next month, Mrs. Folinsbee is hosting two major events at the club. The first was this weekend - a masters tournament. The second is next month - the 20th anniversary of the club's existence. Both events are long, huge endeavors. Mr. Folinsbee is frail, and Mrs. Folinsbee compensates for that. It was time for Jill and I to give back. So we committed to 5 hours each on Friday and Saturday of helping at the tournament. Jill ran the draws, the shuttles, sold the snacks, answered queries and phones and anything else. Later on, when another lady and myself were running dishes for the banquet up and down the stairs, Jilly helped with that too.

5. It's ironic that the UBBT challenge was presented to us this weekend. I read up on the Acts of Kindness requirement. At first I thought, well I do that stuff anyway, I don't need to log it. Then I thought about the challenges of this week. Janet had not been very kind to her math teacher, and my challenge is to teach her why this is a problem and why she needs to redeem herself. Jill had been hesitant to commit her friday and saturday night to helping her coach: my challenge is to teach her to see the importance of recognizing and honoring people who are important in her life. Last night I wrote down my first tailored black belt requirement - I will use the Acts of Kindness challenge to teach my daughters - they will witness, and sometimes participate in this challenge. It turns our that nearly everything on that list of requirements has relevance to my current struggles in life.

Well, I must finish here. I have so much to do yet.

From My Journal November 1 -8, 2008

2008-11-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

Home Training:
Drop kick back shoulder roll - 60
Say shen - 10
Long I&II - 10
Sit ups - 140
Pushups - 1050
Squat thrusts - 140
Cross stepping kicks - 560
Round House kicks - 700
Side heel kick concentrating on speed, above waist, and no bounce - 304

Shaolin Class with Sifu Laurie: We worked mainly on the side heel kick and also the flexed arm hang. For side heel, we started with dynamic stretching and I would like to continue this to improve the height of my side heel thrust. We worked on each component of the side heel; getting the technique right and then focusing on doing each component of the kick with speed. Each of us in the class notcied something that was wrong with how we execute our kick. For me, it was that from horse stance, I had eliminated having to pivot my foot and this is incorrect. Finally, we did the fitness test for side heel kicks. I was disappointed with my performance as I only got 32 on each side (though I did notice that I usually score at least 5 kicks less on my weak leg and this is not the case now). I was aiming for 40. Sifue Laurie wants us to remember our scores (mine was 4) so that we can compare our results in four weeks. In the meantime, she has assigned some home work for us that will help progress in our kicks. We must do 20 kicks per side each night, focusing on proper technique. We reviewed 10 things that need to be perfect and she wants us to write these 10 things down so that we can focus on them when we do our nightly kicks. Sihing Lilienskold and I wrote them down right after class, as we knew we would forget. They are:

1. pivot on the ball of the foot when executing the kick
2. start and end in proper horse stance
3. 2 crane stances should be evident in the complete kick
4. Power
5. Look at the target
6. Keep arm guards up
7. Kick should be waist high
8. The hip, knee joint and heel should be in alignment when the kick is at full extention
9. Kick with the heel, and the toe should be pointing down, the foot properly bladed
10. Chamber properly

Everyone seems to be improving for the flexed arm hang, especially Jon and sihing Langnor. Sifu Laurie assigned us home work for this week to help improve our progress. We have to do a modified plank (arms in narrow pushup position and body low to the ground) for one minute and the do 10 narrow pushups each night. We will test again for flexed arm hang next week.

Home Reading: I read something in the Edmonton Journal this week that caused my Luddite heart to race. The article, "Exergaming Touted for Getting Kids Moving: All Limbs used in New Video Games", begins by stating that 'after years of being blamed for contributing to obesity in children, video games are now being used to promote physical activity.' Linda Carson, a professor of physical education at some university in the united states states that exergaming (thats things like dance revolution and Wii sports) is a wholesome activity and should be recognized as an exciting alternative to traditional physical education. Someone has even done a study, that shows that obese and overweight children who play exergames don't gain weight and improve their physiological funtion.

There's alot I can say about that, but I will focus on one aspect - which is how readily the masses will 'embrace technology' to the extent of expecting it to solve the problems caused by technology. What a crazy vicious circle we are in! Let's just focus on physical fitness for a moment and its relation to the looming energy crisis. I'll try to be breif here. Technology, which has made possible such things as cars, labour saving devices in the home, central heating, and home entertainment, has caused two problems in our society.

The first, is that we have all become increasingly reliant on fossil fuels to produce energy (oil for our cars and homes, and coal to produce electrical energy). We all know what that is doing to the environment and that if the other half of the world began to live the same way as we do, our planet could not support it, due to the lack of sustainable resources, and the environmental dammage it would do to our planet. We all know that we must seriously consider alternative forms of energy production and reduce our present levels of energy consuption. Instead, we are happy to stick our heads in the sand, and 'embrace technology'; technology will solve our problems. Indeed, it will, if we focus on having it do just that. Albertans in particular don't want to focus on solving the energy crisis, or even reducing the damage we are doing to the planet. Oil is king here- we just want to keep producing it to make our money and maintain our lifestyles, no matter how it affects the boreal forest, water fowl, the air quality, global warming, sustainability of resources and our own physical health. While European countries support the installation of wind power and solar power systems in buildings, and the concept of credits for unused energy, Alberta practically bans alternate energy producing infrastructures.

The second problem that technology has caused in our society is our physical fitness. Technology has caused us to become inactive. Our kids have become obese, overweight, and muscularly under-developed. We battle weight issues because our jobs are sedentary, and free time is taken up operating labour saving machines such as cars, and filling the saved time operating machines for our entertainment such as tv's, computers, and cell phones. What's craziest about this whole picture is that we expend even more energy produced by fossil fuels as we attempt to battle our fitness and wieght issues. Go to the local gym for example. Hundreds of us, who wish to reverse the effects on our bodies produced from a technologically driven, energy consuming, inactive lifestyle at home, school, and work, drive to the gym which is in a very large building requiring massive climate control and lighting systems, to operate machines such as the treadmill. It takes energy to operate the treadmill, so that we can expend our own surplus energy stored in our fatty tissue. Now we are expanding this whole crazy concept to include our kids - get them exergaming.

Where does all this energy from us operating treadmills and exergaming etc go? It goes into thin air. When you think about all those treadmills at the gym - 20 of them going most of the time - you would think that the energy expended by the people operating them, if captured, might be converted to the energy required to light the room, run the little tv attached to the treadmill, or chill the water in the water fountain. And the kids at home, exergaming - could their expended energy be stored up to operate a 2 hr movie? Like I said before - technology will solve our problems if we focus on having it do just that.

"If we keep on doing what we're doing, we'll end up where we're heading".

From My Journal: October 26 - November 1, 2008

2008-11-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Home Training: I was unable to go to shaolin class or open training this week, though I had planned to go. On Saturday morning I realized that I was stretching myself too thin and trying to be everywhere at once. So I took priority number one and two (Get Jill to training with her coach, feed her a healthy lunch for recovery and brain power, get her back home to complete a major essay assignment, speed off to Janet's volleyball tournament and watch her afternoon games) and ditched priority number three (myself; that would be my training, and a lovely cup of coffee with Julie).

I took the opportunity during Jill's training session at Servus place to do my training and run another 3km. I saw a triathalon club member training there too - really nice guy. I got to thinking how my participation in the triathalon club last fall and winter, though short-lived, really pushed me. The people at the club were highly scientific and intense about their training. It rubbed off on me a bit by redefining what intensity is: the component of pushing the body's capacity in a scientific and methodical way was added. Losing the weight started there becauseby being around these guys I felt more motivated to get the darn weight off.

Now this guy reminds me of the transformation I have made since I last trained with him last March. I'm down 45 pounds, I have a set of pipes due to all the pushups and home training and
100 day challenge, my core strength is way up. And I can run for longer distances and faster. So as not to feel too proud of all these acheivements, I did happen to notice how this club member was doing. Nice as ever. All cyclists have the nicest looking legs - his are shapely but for aero and hydro dynamics he shaves his legs and I find that kind of freaky in a guy. Ididn't think he was running all that fast compared to me - he was faster but not amazingly faster. And then I noticed that he went missing for a period of time at 1k intervals. I soon figured out that he was doing 5 minutes of stairs, then running a km, then stairs, then running and so on. I think he did that about ten times, and still managed to say hi to me as he passed - not only that but he remembered my name, and I can't remember his. Really nice guy all the same.

Back to having to miss the Saturday class and open training. I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be when I anticipated this time of year. The last two years I was completely abscent from kung fu at this time (October and November) with no home training and no Kwoon talk or diary or sifu and sihing journals to read. Kwoon talk keeps me connected; the journal keeps me focused and assessing; home training keeps me on track for physical conditioning and progressing on techniques; and reatding the journals of fellow students and sifus keeps me motivated. Missing class and open training causes me to lose ground but I am trying not to let my attendance drop as badly as it has in the past.

My journal has to be short and less thoughtful at this time due to volleyball and badminton season. And I'm having more difficulty finding the time to get to a computer to enter the blog, so I'm actually trying to squeeze it in during my lunch break at work. I am officially 10 minutes over by allotted break time so I'll have to sneak away now.

From My Journal: October 19-25, 2008

2008-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Home training:

Weekly totals

Drop Kick, back shoulder roll: 92
Sit ups: 140
Pushups: 1050
Squat Thrusts: 140
Cross stepping back kicks: 560
Round House kicks: 700
Inner quad repetitions from sifu Laurie's Shaolin fitness: 12 sets of 8
Slide stepping stretches from sifu Frietag's Friday night class: 100
2.5 km run: 1

As I perform my nightly kicks, I find myself analyzing what I'm doing. Thoughts this week were:
1. Board breaks: I'm thinking that for the test, a plain old side heel kick is an easy shot. But its not my most spectacular kick. Why should I not try to break the boards with my most spectacular kicks? By aiming to do this, then I am forcing myself to work on my strengths with same intensity as I work on my weaknesses. So I'm thinking that I should start home training in January with the reverse round house and spinning back kick: by doing 100 of these kicks per night, and then later I should start breaking a few boards.
2. Perfecting the kicks: I feel myself improving alot of techniques that go into each kick. But I also wonder whether I'm starting to incorporate some bad habits into my nightly repetitions. Is my timing correct on the roundhouse, what should a high rising kick really look like, what should I be doing with my guard as I move in and then move out from a cross stepping back kick? I need to get a reality check by having a sifu watch me perform 10 repetitions of the kicks in question. Then I can be told what I need to correct. I also had one crazy thought - cross stepping kicks performed on the balance beam: I wonder if there's any advantage to be gained by doing this?
3. Drop kick back should roll: This is a struggle. I know the repetitions are improving my ability to perform this technique - but so far, my progress is marginal. There must be something fundamentally wrong. I'll need to demo this kick to a sifu as well.

It was hard this week because I was unable to attend any of the classes. I managed to keep up my nightly training, but it led to alot of introspection and no input from outside. I can see that it would be very easy to get off track, or go in circles.

Home reading: I've made my boss my reading mentor right now. He doesn't know this, and, eerily, he is sitting right behind me as I type this in the St. Albert Library. So I'm in the middle of reading '3 nights in Havanna' which is about Fidel Castro's and Trudeau's relationship leading up to and following Pierre's historic diplomatic visit to Cuba in 1976. There's another book about Castro that Alex highly reccomends, and it will be next. Its hard keeping up to my boss - he's reading Gwynn Dyer's most recent book, "Environmental Wars" and I want to read that too.

From My Journal: Oct 11-18, 2008

2008-10-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Home Training, Thursday October 16, 2008: Today I got home at 9:30pm, knowing that I had my regular nightly training to do, and that I was behind in my round house kicks for the 100 day Kwoon talk challenge. I needed to do 150 push ups, 20 sit ups, 20 squat thrusts, 80 cross stepping back kicks, 200 round house kicks, and 20 drop kicks. I also needed to throw a load of laundry in, see about the girls' homework, start the dishwasher, pack the girls off to bed, and chit chat with the husband. But I also wanted to be in bed and reading by a decent time, because I get up to go to work at 5:30am. There were so many reasons not to train, and I was tired, but I said to myself, "I will do this", and I got started as soon as I got in. Two things surprised me. "First, that I was confident that I could get my training done within the hour, when only a year ago, it would have been a struggle to get 150 push ups done within the waking hours of my day. The second thing that surprised me was the level of intensity that I achieved during my training. I pushed myself to get everything done in good time, so when I was catching my breath from the kicks, I was doing my push ups. My kicks had power, and I did them at a good pace. I got to wondering, "Does intensity take care of itself: is it a natural result of prolonged, focused, disciplined training with a purpose?". Furthermore, "If I am able to apply some of my energy to thinking about this question, whilst doing the round house kicks and the squat thrusts, is this really intensity?".
I think I got everything done within a half hour and this got me worrying - it's an achievement worth posting, but I run the risk of sounding full of myself, and so those I would hope to encourage by posting my observations may not even appreciate the message - it may even alienate the readers. I remember when Mr. Prince posted his 1000 push ups challenge - he stated that he got them done in 15 minutes. I thought, "Whatever". Unfortunately, his message was the exact opposite of inspiring or encouraging for me. One is tempted to think that he was exaggerating, he was only doing ladies push ups, he was born with special talents, or that his youth or maleness made it easier to do the push ups than for the rest of us. I'm sure that Mr. Prince was just trying to raise the bar, and push his fellow students but his message did not do that for me. Now I find myself in the difficult position of falling into the same category as I put Mr. Prince into.
My parents taught me, that people who achieve amazing things in life such as in sports, music, academics, career, or leadership, are talented. The rest of us can only hope to achieve mediocre results. I started to rebel against their message in high school by expecting to place high in academics and sports and by setting goals like going to university. As a parent now, I teach my girls that the difference between average, and amazing is merely the work, discipline, and dedication you put into your achievements. I taught this through their piano, homework, badminton, and volleyball. As the girls get older (14 & 16 yrs), and their goals become more long term and complex, I find that I often have to point to my current actions and achievements to make the message believable to them. The girls are both at an age where immediate gratification is the driving force. How to keep them focused, disciplined, and continuing to work towards their long term goals? I'm finding a measure of success in the fact the Jill and Janet see me in the basement, doing my kicks and push ups, they watch the progress that I am making, they join me when I run and train at Servus place, they ask for pointers and tips on training, nutrition, staying motivated, self discipline, and they apply what they see to achieving their own goals, in sports, school, and life.
This is why the 100 day challenge is so important. Different students at different stages and with different goals and hurdles share the details of their current struggles as they unfold. By witnessing each others' methods, pitfalls, progress and achievements, and by asking each other for pointers, support and motivation, we will all get a lot further than if we remained ignorant of the details of each others' endeavors.

Friday night Kung fu Class: led by sifu frietag. It was about lowering our centre. Slide stepping, horse stance slide stepping, pushed in horse stance, and low back stance with an exaggerated wide stance. This worked the flexibility a lot, and sifu frietag talked about having flexibility with strength. Moving from one low stance to the next should not require a rock or lean to get there; instead it should be smooth and a low centre should be maintained. This can be achieved by working on flexibility with strength, and the exercises we did in class will help us achieve just that. She also mentioned that flexibility with strength is required in Lung I and II. So next week I will practice all this at home.

Saturday morning Shaolin Fitness: led by Sifu Laurie. As promised to the 100 day challenge Kwoon talkers, we worked on exercises that will help prevent and heal knee injuries. Unfortunately, the Kwoon talkers were not at the class, so I will post my summary on Kwoon talk.

Saturday Open Training: Thank goodness Sihing Lilienskold made it this week. She helps me alot, as does Sihing Maitland. And I hope they think the same of me. We worked on Say Shen, in particular, the drop kick back shoulder roll, as my drop kick is abysmal. A lively debate was had over which shoulder we roll over, but Sihing Lilienskold ended the matter by dragging out Master Brinker. It turns out that most of us had it all wrong, and so there is a lot of work to be done here - because my back shoulder roll over the left shoulder is worse than abysmal. So next week I will continue to practice this at home. Sihing Kichko mentioned that she read my kwoon talk post about 'being on track' for the 100 day challenge. She said that she thought to herself, "Whatever".

Home reading: My boss at work is 82 years old and has a pacemaker. He exercises every morning on his stationary bike for 50 minutes, eats grits and a banana for breakfast, and swims once a week. He is an engineer, with a double PHD in economics and political science also. He reads alot (exclusively non-fiction), and so do I, so we are always exchanging our reading lists. He got me onto his favorite prime minister - Mackenzie King. Now he's talking about Fidel Castro. So I will have to get a book out about him - I've only read about Che. I'm in between book lists now. It happens regularly. I'll find a subject and go great guns - can't stop reading and exploring the subject. And then I'm done with subject for a while and there's this gap where I cast about looking at various subjects until something gets me going. Mackenzie King was OK. Fidel might be more interesting, but soon enough I'll chance upon a subject that generates a whole new list of 'must reads'.

From my Journal Sepetember 27- October 3, 2008

2008-10-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

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."

From my Journal Sept. 20-26, 2008

2008-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Shaolin Fitness: led by Sifu Edge, who has just begun a career in personal training. She had us doing a full body workout. We used those balls, weights and other things. We all noticed that while it did not seem like an aerobic class, we were all sweating and puffing away. I could also feel that the core stability and balance were being worked.

Open Training: Did not happen this week. Between Janets volleyball tournaments, and Jills badminton tournaments, there are only a couple of weekends in October and November that I can fit in Open training. I have been struggling with the conflict all week, but have decided that being at the girls events is more important that Open training. I had foreseen this, which is why I had looked to the Kwoon talk challenge, led by Sherri Donohue, for a way to keep the training committment going without open training time.

Home Training: The reason I committed to the 4 cross stepping back kicks (20 of each per evening for a total of 8,000 kicks before the end of December), is because of something sifu Frietag said on Kwoon Talk on August 14. She said, quotes (because this machine is doing this È when I hit the quote button), Perfecting the Open X Stance will corrrect your angles of attack, increase your range and balance, and provide proper alignment to skeleton. All of these corrections will increase your flow while lowering your centre, speed and power of your kicks, over all leg strength, as well as your flexibility and give you a much better foot position. These benefits are not limited to your kicks. The Open X Stance is a major transitional stance for our style of Kung Fu. The accuracy you will achieve will also translate into learning your distance, and will help you to better understand the concepts of under and over stepping. The progress you can make by correcting this stance is endless. Make it one of your favorite stances. End Quote. This seemed like sage advice, so I decided to take it to heart. I checked my stances , stationary and walking, and felt that they were good. The next logical step seemed to be to practice the open x stance as it is used in our kicks. I have been practicing the cross stepping kicks at home since mid august and noticed great improvements in form, balance and power already. As Sifu Frietag promises so much more from correcting the Open X stance, I will keep this in my nightly training routine.

I am on track for the Kwoon talk challenge of pushups, sit ups, squat thrusts, cross stepping kicks and round house kicks. I also practiced round house, spining reverse roundhouse kicks, Kempo with open hands, and 2 combinations from the green belt level. Though I missed open training last Saturday, I was able to put in a total of 2 hours and 6 minutes of training at home. It looks like this challenge is what will keep me on track for black belt training for the months of October and November.

Friday class: led by Sifu Frietag - who had us doing the following 4 combinations
1. Knee block to inside of opposite leg and closing off opponent with double bl0ck with hands (chi sao style), the vertical punch to head.
2. As above and ading a step down with the blocking leg in front of opponent and turning 90 degrees in, then tigers tail to knee followed by forearm elbow break.
3. Knee block to outside of same knee and opening up opponent with double hand block (chi sao style).
4. As above and adding a stepping down on the knee and trapping top of punching arm with second hand in double block, elbow to head and switch the arms, bring elbow arm under the punch in a snake and trapping that forearm and doing a forearm lick by pulling arm against chest and twisting.

I doubt anyone reading this will understand, except for those who were at the class. But hopefully this will help us attendees remember it, practice it, and explain it to the ones who were absent.

During question period, Sihing Prince clarified that the downward hammer fist is two motions, ensuring that the first motion has a snap at the end. When fellow students highlight such details, I find it useful to incorporate the move into home training for the week following - which is why I practiced the round house, spinning reverse round house last week; Sihing Bryant had asked for clarification on this and so I practiced it so as not to forget what was learned from his question.

Home reading: I am still reading about MacKenzie Kings mother. She had a hard life, what with her dad, and then her husband. I am appalled at how controlling the men in her life were over her and her daughters. If their (the females) ambitions did not promise to reflect well on the males reputation, ambition, or career, they squashed the females endeavors. They had the power to do it. I would not have survived in such an era.

But here is a thought provoking tale:

A Sufi once established himself at a cross-roads. At night he set up a very bright lamp. Not far away he lit a candle. Beside the candle he sat and read his books. . . . curious citizens asked the Sufi why he had two forms of illumination and why he had placed them in such a manner. Look, he said, at the lamp. It is surrounded, every night, by thousands of moths. By providing that light for the moths I am left in peace by them, to read by my candle. I please the moths - and keep them away from me.
Thus it is with humanity. If everyone knew where real knowledge was, life would be chaos. As it is, people even become frenzied whenever they imagine, like the moths, that there is something which they should surround, especially if that thing is attractive to them.
From A Perfumed Scorpion by Idries Shah.

From my journal September 13-19, 2008

2008-09-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday Shaolin Class with Sifu Laurie: continued work on agility focusing on pacing only. Turned my push-off around so that it is always from the strong side. 3 steps. Got my time down to below 6 seconds, which puts me at a rating of 6. We also did flexed arm hang-I do not have trouble in this area; 63 seconds and 57 seconds - both double a rating of 10. Others watched my technique and improved their times by doing a few things that I do.

No open training due to forms seminar. Sifu Brinker is right; excuses of time and money just mean that the commitment isn't there. Its really quite reasonable to set aside the money in advance of all the things that will come up in this next year of preparation for black belt testing. The difficulty will be saying that I am more committed to this than to Janet's volleyball - but next year she will be on the senior team, and like Jill, will suddenly not want parents around.

Lion dances and memorial for Travis at the Moon Festival: Lion dance done by Sifus Clements and Playter absolutely beautiful.
A delay this week in finding out about those 2 combos as everyone was busy with forms seminar, lion dances, memorial/moon festival.

Home training: I've been beating myself up all week, as I can't get motivated to put in the 2 1/2 hours weekly commitment to training. So far, not including Friday, I have done 34 mins. (320 cross step kicks; timed horse stance). (I'm not counting the 1050 pushups, or the 2k run as I don't think Sifu Brinker considers that 'training'. Which means I need to train for 2 hours between now and Friday night. All I had to do was put in a lalf hour each eve. Sun-Thu.
I looked at the Kwoon talk challenge led by Sherri Donohue and I know this group can help me with my own challenge. I need to design in my own pledge that will help me to form the habit of training daily at home.
Went to weight watchers meeting on Wed. Some ladies are having a hard time sticking to their personal challenges. Our leader, Norma, said that negative thoughts like "I know I'll just gain the weight back anyway so what's the point?" or "I've blown it today, so I might as well give up for this week" etc are to be replaced with positive thoughts. Norma is very funny. She said that we should tell ourselves things that we would tell our friends to encourage them. "I mean, you wouldn't say to your friend. . .", and she began shaking her finger at an imaginary friend, "'Oh you're fat and ugly, you should just give up"'. When everyone stopped laughing she contin ued. We should remind ourselves of what we've accomplished so far, how good we feel, and that we can accomplish more if we keep working on forming positive thoughts and habits.
Made a committment to the yellow/orange belt group led by Sherri Donohue. By the end of dec. do:
15,000 push ups
5,000 sit ups
2,000 squat thrusts
5,000 round house kicks
2,000 straight pushing back kicks
2,000 stiff swinging kicks
2,000 high rising back kicks
2,000 low hooking back kicks

Friday Kung Fu class: Shield work; round house, spinning back round house. Sihing Bryant asked about whether the leg should swing out for spinning reverse round house. Sifu Brinker advised that the leg should stay close in and not swing wide as it is hard to adjust distance when leg swings wide. Need to practice this. Also did tigers tail. We should be hitting the target in shield work with top of our foot or the bottom of our shin. I asked the question about the combo techiniques, so will have to practice these next week also.

Home reading: I'm reading about MacKenzie-Kings mother's life, so no good quotes from here, just history. Here's something from a book I read a while back; "The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation" by Kabir Heminski.
The Premises of Sufi Education:
1. The soul itself needs to be educated and trained. The soul needs knowledge and practice in areas such as self awareness, attention, will, relationship, service and worship.
2. This education and training is best conducted together with others - not just for the sake of convenience, but because of the opportunities to know ourselves through relationship and because the quality of energy that is generated and shared in a group.
3. There are people who have experience and knowledge in this area and who may be empowered through a spiritual lineage to provide wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. We resist the idea of such a relationship because relationships demand something of us; honesty, commitment, change. Even if we consider ourselves on a spiritual path, we would rather commit to a technique, such as meditation, which preserves our imagined autonomy and freedom, than to a relationship and a spiritual family.

2008-09-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

From my journal entries Saturday September 6 - Friday September 12, 2008 (51 weeks until applying to grade for black belt).

Saturday Shaolin class with Sifu Laurie. Worked on upper body for chin-ups - lots of work with all the arm muscles and upper back using weights. Also worked on the 20 meter agility drill. This is alot harder than it looks. Land speed and will power alone are not the key to this test. Lots of practice required to get the pacing right to hit the targets and change directions without losing too much time. I averaged 6.3 seconds; that's a 4 rating. Mr. Timchuck was able to shave off 2 seconds from his time by correcting some things we observed. We all need to shave off at least 9 seconds to get to a passing rating of 7. So many students and so few take Shaolin Fitness class. There is so much work to be done to pass the fitness portion of the black belt test. Mr. Timchuck is bluebelt or something and he's taking it. Mr. Panasiuk was taking it. Several of us Sihings have taken the class for a number of years. The amount of progress that has occurred for all of us in this class can be measured in how we progress as we monitor our fitness ratings and the number of comments we recieve from other students who notice our improvements in our regular kung fu classes. I don't understand why this class is not jam-packed with students.
Saturday Open Training: I worked with Sihing Maitland. We really pushed eachother. I had planned to spend time on low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, stiff swing back kick and straight pushing back kick. Sihing Maitland had planned on working on Kempo. If we had worked alone, we each would have put in between 30 and 40 minutes of training. We decided to combine our two training plans. I pushed her to do more kicks than she wanted to. And she pushed me to practice kempo more times that I wanted to. We critiqued eachother's techniques so that we could focus on these things at home during the week. An awesome training session which lasted one and one half hours!
On Kwoon talk on Aug. 8, Sifu Tiffany Playter had responded to Mr. Panasiuk's request for training tips and advice. She told him that one the things that help keep her on track was to work with a a training partner. In her case, her training partner is her husband and she said that they push eachother to get their goals accomplished. I think Sihing Maitland and I did just that and we look forward to more sihings and other belts joining in on Saturday Open Training. Sihing Lilienskold agreed - the more training partners the better, and if one person is absent one week, we have others to keep things going - pushing eachother to get our goals accomplished.
On Fri. Aug 15 at sihing class, Master Brinker urged those of us who plan to challenge black belt one year from now to commit to two and a half hours of training per week.
Home Training:
Saturday: 150 pushups
Sunday: 150 pushups; Janet and I went for a 4km walk and then practiced volleyball
Monday: Went to Servus Place with Janet. Idid 2k run and some of Janets agility exercises for volleyball. I did 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, High rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick. I also did my 150 pushups.
Tuesday: 150 pushups
Wednesday: 150 pushups
Thursday: 150 pushups, 20 kicks each of low hooking back kick, high rising back kick, straight pushing back kick and stiff swinging back kick.
Friday: 150 pushups
Note: I need to find out what counts for the 2 and 1/2 hours of weekly training. Just techniques? or fitness training as well. If I only include techniques and forms practice then my total training time for the week was 1 hr. 45 mins. So I missed off the target of 2 and 1/2 hours for this week. Next week there are 50 weeks left before applying to grade. Good habits take time to form and it will be harder to get the time in next week because open training is cancelled.
Friday Sihing Class: led by Master Brinker; practiced kempo and he urged us to have a sense of purpose. Wanted bigger circles with arms to release chi and have a tail to our punches and blocks. Wanted more flow and to achieve that we should practice kempo with open hands. Question period was detailed: a few things of note; kick before hhelmet crusher is side heel; should practice kicks and punches with bag and strengthen wrists with fis pushups. Sihing Kichko asked about 2 green/blue combinations that involve double hammer fist vs. double punch. I need to follow up on this and find out the difference between the two combinations.
Training plan and questions for next week:
1. Have a black belt demo green/blue combination of tiger's hip-spinning back kick-low hooking back kick-double hammer fist(high/low) turning through. Then practice this combination.
2. Have a black belt demo green/blue belt combination of double punch-pivot outside hammer fist to groin-spin with outside hammer fist to leg. Then practice this combination.
3. Find out what training is to be counted in the 2 and 1/2 hour weekly commitment.
4. Continue practicing the 4 cross step kicks from last week because I'm starting to feel some improvements and I want to keep that going.
5. Practice kempo with open hands.
6. Practice agility run when possible or if not, do a timed horse stance.
Nightly reading: 'The Perfumed Scorpion" by Idries Shah (1978)
". . . the ability to acto or not to act, in accordance with what one knows by experience to be a required mode of action. This is the stage of action stemming from unconcern for superficialities. It is the condistion of doing something, or nothing, not because it is expected of you, but because it is the real thing to do or to avoid. . . . To be at the stage of unconcern for appearances is not the same as the deliberate adoption of untoward behaviour. But the 'contrary to expectation' conduct and words . . indicates the absence of hampering assumption. Inwardly, this condition is that of the sovereign individual, whose perceptions and understanding, not rules or dogma, motivate him or her. . . the student is always encouraged to act in accordance with social norms, but also to practise 'listening' to his intuitive sense in the attempt to perceive whether this or that word or action was indeed correct in a wider context."

2008-09-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I've set up a blog and now I suppose I should write something in it. I find this incredibly overwhelming and confusing so someone will have to help me fill in all the boxes. There will be no further post this week.
Yours truly,
Claire Finnamore