From my Journal Sept. 20-26, 2008

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.