Looking Back on 2013

With 2013 wrapping up I thought it would be a good idea to really think about some of the things that I've learned over the past year.

I've learned not to take anything for granted and gratitude is important. I have a great network of family and friends that always support me, I have a great job that affords me the ability to live a good life and always have food and shelter, and I have my health. I am grateful for all of these things.

I have learned that you get out what you put in. Over the last 4 months, in Kung Fu, when I put in the time to practice, help with adopt a driveway, ask questions, and do my pushups, etc, I notice the difference. It feels great. I also notice the difference when I skip workouts, eat poorly, and neglect practice. It doesn't feel good. Life is about balance and when you put in the effort at work, in the gym, in kung fu, and in your relationships, life has a way of paying that effort back. It might sound hokey but I truly believe that kung fu has taught me the secret to being good at life. Now it's up to me to do it.

I have learned that you really can get too much of a good thing. In the last year or so I've had a hard time doing things that I used to be able to do with no problem, like recovering from a night of excess drinking, or trying to workout after eating nothing but pizza or fast food the day before. I guess that's life's way (and my body's way) of telling me to make better choices. I'm not going to give up drinking alcohol or eating junk food completely, but I listen to my body and make much better overall food choices now. I still have a way to go but I'll get there.

I'm looking forward to an amazing 2014. I have a lot of goals to accomplish this year but for the first time ever, I really feel like I have the tools to meet them. I'm going in with a greater sense of purpose and a plan. Happy New Year!

Last Class of 2013

Last class of 2013 was last night. There were only a few people there so Sifu Playter asked us what we wanted to do and we ended up doing some bag work. I really enjoy bag work because of the practical application. It's also a good way to release some pent up aggression that I seem to have from driving around at this time of year. Whenever we do bag work my legs are always really tired the next day. I need to get used to the impact of kicking something physical. I also need to toughen up my hands as I break the skin on my knuckles every time. I'm not sure why, but I seem to be the only one in class that ends up bleeding. The positive is that I can see where on my fists I'm making my impact and it's on the first two knuckles only, which is correct. I'm going to have to get a heavy bag for use at home, although I'm not quite sure yet where I'll put it. 

Sifu Playter also had us go through some volume exercises with our kicks and she was telling us about some kick requirements for black belt grading, just to get us thinking about it. After hearing this I was glad that I made performing 25,000 kicks one of my I Ho Chuan requirements for next year. All in all it was a fun class and a good way to end 2013, although practice will continue as usual.

Kindness

One of the requirements for the I Ho Chuan is to log 1000 acts of kindness. I have an uphill battle to complete this requirement. I’ve started going over my days to think of any acts of kindness I have performed and I draw a blank every time. And this isn’t a case of just forgetting them; I’m truly not being kind to anyone. Sifu Playter logs her acts of kindness on her blog so I started reading through her posts to see what kinds of acts she’s logging. Her acts are mostly little things like making lunch for her husband or spending extra time with her family or pets. I don’t have a family at home who I can make lunches for or spend time with or anything like that. All my kindness has to be directed at strangers if I want to meet this requirement. This is going to be tough. I don’t feel like I’m an unkind person; in fact, I feel the opposite is true. I’m friendly to people for the most part. But what I’m realizing is that I let “life” get in the way of being kind.

For example – I am an awful person when I’m behind the wheel. If you’re not in the car with me you’re my enemy. I’m impatient and aggressive when I drive. If I changed my driving habits I could probably knock out the 1000 acts of kindness in a month or two. I understand that I choose to be angry when I drive and that I can choose to not be angry. I don’t know what it is about driving that sets me off because I’m not like that in any other facet of life. I think maybe it has something to do with control. I can’t control if someone else is driving slowly in front of me so I get angry. I can’t control if someone speeds past me and cuts me off so I get angry. I need to try to have empathy toward other drivers so I can be kind when I’m on the road. I have no way of knowing why that person is driving like they are. Maybe they’re rushing home because their wife is having a baby. Maybe they just got laid off and they’re distracted. Who knows?

The point of this requirement is two-fold. I’m quoting from the SRKF website: “Mindfully recording your daily acts of kindness will make you more aware of the impact you are having on others and also make you aware of the opportunities to make a difference that you are missing.” It’s painfully obvious that I’m not currently having a very positive impact on others. The upside is that I have a HUGE opportunity to turn it around.

I'm Feeling Good

I feel extremely fortunate to train at SRKF. I have to admit that it wasn’t easy taking the first step to come in the first time and the first couple of classes were a little tough as I was trying to learn the ropes and figure out who everyone was and so on. But from day one, everyone was friendly and very supportive of one another (and of me also) and the instructors are all great. My instructor in particular is an amazing teacher. She is patient and is great at explaining things and breaking them down so someone like me can understand them. As a student, I have a ton of resources available to help me learn. We have online message groups for questions and there is a wealth of knowledge there if you actually look for it. Everyone is happy to answer my questions (I seem to have a never-ending supply unfortunately).

I had another great class last night and it’s a testament to the quality of my instructor and my classmates that even though I feel like I struggle with the techniques that I’m taught, I didn’t come away feeling discouraged, but instead I felt good about my progress. I think it also helps that I’ve been noticing improvement in myself again. I feel like my flexibility and balance are coming along (albeit very slowly) and seeing the improvement is extremely motivating.

More Takeaways From Class

Last night’s class was a good one. It reinforced two things for me:

1) When I practice, I need to spend double the time on my left side that I do on my right. My right side is extremely dominant and I learn pretty quickly with it. We were working on spinning back kicks and I felt like my right side was pretty good. I was able to spin and make eye contact with the target before kicking, and then when I did kick, I made pretty good contact. On my left side it wasn’t very good. My balance was worse, my timing was off, and my kick didn’t make very good contact. I hadn’t really practiced spinning back kicks much up to this point so it was obviously just a matter of natural dominance on my right side. My goal is to make my left side equal to my right so I’ll have to shift my training focus a bit to allow for this imbalance.

2) The hardest things are usually the most important. We worked on horse and open x stances last night and my legs are pretty sore today. I work on my horse stance regularly but I still dread warm ups when we’re in a horse stance for what seems like forever, blocking, punching, etc. It’s clearly very important since we do it pretty much every class and there are so many applications for it. The point is that your stances are one of the most important things to master (at least that’s what I’ve been told) as they are the base for all techniques. If you have poor stances, you’re going to have poor forms, and probably poor overall kung fu. They are also, for me at least, the hardest part of learning kung fu.

What Have I Got Myself Into?

Today has not been a good day. I’ve already had a few “what am I getting myself into?” moments as far as the I Ho Chuan is concerned, but today has been the worst. I don’t know if it’s the cold weather but all I want to do is stay inside, lay on the couch, be lazy, and eat; preferably something that isn’t good for me and tastes great.  I have no interest in kung fu or pushups at all today. Between work, all my requirements, my regular workouts, regular class and practice, and I Ho Chuan meetings/classes, I’m envisioning zero free time for myself. My weekdays are already so busy and I’ve agreed to make them even busier. The logical side of my brain tells me that I’ll be fine and I just need to stay organized with my time. I’m already seeing that distractions are everywhere. Invitations to hockey games, adopt-a-driveway, cleaning my house. The list goes on. Everything conspires to keep me from training. Obviously not all distractions are bad, but the point is that you have to make training a priority over almost everything else. Hopefully going to class tonight will help. I always feel pumped up when I leave the kwoon.

On a side note, these are the personal requirements that I have set for myself:

1) 25,000 kicks – this will give me 90 kicks every day (6 days a week) for the year. As a beginner, this seems like something that will help reinforce the basics for me and help me develop a strong base for my kung fu.

2) Give up all single player video games for the year – At times video games can be a pretty big waste of my time. Even though they’re a source of leisure for me, I can get caught up in them and I find myself wasting time and putting off housework and workouts to play. If mastery is all about consistent effort and utilizing the opportunities presented to you every day, video games aren’t going to have a place in my life. The reason I specified “single-player” video games is that I have friends that play and when I visit them, we often play a game or two of hockey. I see no value in giving up an activity that I share with friends. This is not a waste of time to me.

3) Include fruits/vegetables in my diet a minimum of 6 days per week – my diet is often lacking in vegetable/fruit consumption, even though I can feel a physical difference when I eat a lot of veggies. My problem is that I just plain don’t like most vegetables. With the structure that I will need to have to succeed in the I Ho Chuan, I should be able to better plan my meals. If I plan my meals I will be able to find creative ways to include vegetables on a regular basis. My goal is 6 days per week and not 7 because I feel like having a “cheat” day will help me to have balance in my life and will allow me to enjoy my days off and as a result , my goal should be sustainable.

I Ho Chuan Meeting

Our I Ho Chuan orientation meeting was last night and it was cool to put faces to some names. Sifu Brinker mentioned a few great points regarding our approach to the I Ho Chuan. A few takeaways that I got were:

1) Approach the requirements as tools, not as hoops to jump through. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of this concept and it’s easy for me to see the value in all of the requirements. The tough part will probably be remembering the value when I’m tired, or injured, or having a tough time putting in the time, six months from now.

2) Journaling is important. I can attest to the value of the current team journals because I have got a lot of information and insight from reading them and I am not even on the team. From reading the journals I’ve learned a lot that will help me on my own journey and I need to remember that you never know where people will find inspiration, even from a white belt.                  

3) Stay ahead of your pushups. After doing the math, I had budgeted 160 pushups/day, based on a 6 day/week schedule. Planning for the inevitable hiccups and ensuring I don’t get behind is going to be really important and I’ll need to up the ante each day to stay ahead.

Overall, I’m really looking forward to getting started. My plan is to start logging my pushups/situps/acts of kindness over the next month so that when we officially start, I’ll have already begun and I can hit the ground running.

Lessons Learned

I had a really good class last night. We did shoulder rolls again but it was definitely a lot better this time around. I still have problems with my right side and I think it’s going to take some more practice to see if my right shoulder needs to be looked at, or if it’s just my form. Hopefully it’s the latter. What made the class great was that Sifu Regier pointed out for me that I was rolling too slowly and this was affecting the force and area of impact on my shoulder. Once I adjusted a bit I had a much easier time. I was also able to better understand the practical application of shoulder rolls and break falls when Sifu Playter was talking about potentially being thrown by an opponent.

I had two takeaways from this class:

1) Understanding the practical application of a technique is important and I should ask if I don’t get it right from the start.

2) The more I dislike or struggle with doing something, the harder I should dive in and tackle it. I think it was beneficial to do shoulder rolls again this week after having a hard time with it last week. Instead of having a negative feeling about shoulder rolls for weeks and weeks, dreading doing them again, I did much better the second time and now I don’t have that negative feeling. Lesson learned.

Personal Comittment

So, now that I have officially committed to joining the Year of the Horse I Ho Chuan team, I’m starting to think about my personal requirements. There is a team meeting scheduled for next week and at that time I expect Sifu Brinker will lay out the guidelines for our personal requirements. I’ve been really thinking about it and, although I don’t know for sure yet, it seems to me that a major part of the I Ho Chuan is to get you to strip away waste in your life. That may be in the form of frivolous activities that waste time, or bad habits that prevent you from reaching your potential.

I know that I have a lot of waste in my life. There are many evenings that I sit in front of the computer, mindlessly surfing the internet with no real purpose. I’m not looking for anything in particular; just something that I might find entertaining for a few minutes. There are also times when I have neglected to go to the gym or complete housework because I’m busy playing video games. Video games are a means of stress relief and relaxation for me but I find myself getting carried away on occasion.

The thought of giving up this stuff makes me wonder how you draw the line. I don’t think the intent of the I Ho Chuan is to remove all enjoyment from your life but there seems to be a fine line. Do I give up the internet and video games completely? Is there anything wrong with an hour here or there? But isn’t the point to give up/work toward something meaningful? I remember reading a journal or Kwoon Talk post made by Sifu Brinker about rejecting people’s personal requirements and now I can understand how that would happen. I’m pretty sure if I decided to give up eating broccoli for the year that would be rejected too.

Although I was initially most daunted by the 50,000 situps and 1600km, now I see that the personal requirements are going to be the toughest part of completing the I Ho Chuan. I guess that’s the point.

Shoulder Rolls and the I Ho Chuan

I felt like I was on a bit of a roll (pun intended) coming into class last night. My training has been going really well lately and I've been feeling good over the last week or so. After last night, not so much. I "learned" shoulder rolls and break falls last night. I'm pretty sure I did a lot of somersaults as a kid but it's like I completely forgot how. Plus, my 38 year old body is so stiff and inflexible that rolling around hurts. Lol. Not only that, but I have an old shoulder injury from falling on the ice that apparently hasn't healed. What this means is that I have a LOT of practice to do.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to join the I Ho Chuan team, assuming that there is a spot for me. Two Sifus suggested it to me and, where I come from, if two sifus tell you to do something, you do it. I'm pretty sure that it will be the most challenging thing I've ever done voluntarily, but I'm excited at the prospect of pushing myself to great things. Plus, if I can get a year or two of the I Ho Chuan under my belt before I get to black belt level, I'm guessing I'll be in a pretty good place. I'm not going to say that I'm not also intimidated a bit because I am, but it's a good intimidated, I think.

Learning from Others

One of the first things I learned at SRKF was bowing in and out of the kwoon. The white belt theory also has questions that touch on the concept of being in a humble mindset to receive instruction and showing respect for those that have come before you. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is something that is taught to you very early. Over the last couple of days, this concept has really hit home for me when I’ve been reading the Sifu, Sihing, and student journals on the SRKF site. There is so much knowledge there and I feel fortunate to be able to get a glimpse into the mindset and experience of those that have come before me. It’s also great for me to see that no matter what level someone is at, they still experience ups and downs, doubt, and hardships, etc, and yet they persevere. I think I’m slowly starting to wrap my head around the idea of what it takes to achieve a black belt and what the idea of mastery is. So, to all of you that journal on a regular basis, thank you.

Training

Last night I came to the realization that I need to do a better job of pushing myself. I’ve become a bit lazy over the last week or so when it comes to my training. I’ve got to the point where I can easily do my training each day and instead of ramping up the difficulty and/or adding more, I’ve become complacent. Sifu Brinker answered a question I had last week about training – whether to narrow my focus to a few things or broaden it to try and hit many things. His answer was that, as a beginner, I should narrow my focus and work on mastering a few things each day instead of watering down (my words, not his) my training. I did this over the weekend and it felt good to really feel my form improve from my first kick to my 30^th.

I’m writing up  a new training plan this morning and I’m going to do a better job at focusing on a few things only and pushing the volume instead of being happy with my 30 reps only.

Frustration

I’ve been told that if I attend classes and put in 10 min at home every day that will be enough to achieve my black belt. After two months of Kung Fu, I can honestly say that there is no way that 10 min is enough. I’ve been putting in about 30 min every day on average (except on days with class), somedays over an hour, and I still don’t think it’s enough. I practice kicks, forms, stances, and centering, as well as general fitness like pushups, sit-ups, and stretching. My body tires out before my mind does and I wish I could do more. I do feel like I’m making progress, which is good, but I still feel like I’m not progressing enough. The problem I have is that we’re not compared or graded against anyone so it is really all about you. On one hand this is a good thing because everyone is different and everyone learns at a different pace. On the other hand I would love to know where I’m at compared to the average student.

I’ve been told to focus on the journey and enjoy it but I have a hard time with it because, as a beginner, I’m pretty terrible, and I don’t like being terrible. I’m practicing as much as I can so that I can build a solid foundation and improve quickly. I can’t wait to achieve at least a basic level of skill so that I’m not embarrassing myself every day in class.

A Bit of Adversity

I’ve now experienced my first taste of adversity since I joined Kung Fu. I had some minor surgery last week and all went well but the incision broke open while I working out on Saturday and now I have to restrict my physical activity for a little while to give it time to heal properly. My rational mind knows that a few days are literally nothing in the grand scheme of things but I still have a hard time taking time off. I have recently (finally) noticed an improvement in many aspects of my Kung Fu and it’s extremely motivating for me. I just want to keep practicing and practicing. I am going to continue to attend class, even if I can’t participate, and hopefully this will help me keep focused and maybe I’ll be able to learn a few things simply by watching others.

Opportunity

I’ve come to realize that life is all about opportunities and what we achieve in life is dictated by what we do with those opportunities. About eight weeks ago, I was visiting some friends in Calgary and one of them commented that he was thinking about taking a few Capoeira lessons to see if it was something he would enjoy. That got my mind working as well. I had always had an interest in martial arts but I never seriously considered it. It was at this point that I realized that I had an opportunity. I could brush the thought aside, as I had always done, or I could seize the opportunity and run with it while my enthusiasm was very high. I chose the latter.

I believe that life presents you with many opportunities and some come and go many times. If I hadn’t decided to study kung fu that day in Calgary, I might have decided to do it a later date. Or I might not have. Seizing that opportunity set me down a path that I believe will change my life and make me a better person. It also worked to help me to identify future opportunities and also to reinforce the habit of making the most of them.

The Path to Mastery

What is “The Path to Mastery”? It’s two things:

Firstly, it will be the chronicling of my journey to achieve my black belt in Kung Fu (and beyond) and all the trials and tribulations that I encounter along the way. Daily training, diet, personal thoughts, goals, successes, and failures will all be documented here. It will be a great tool to help me remember where I started and to appreciate how far I’ve come.

Secondly, it will be a place for me to write about my thoughts on the process of mastery itself and to help me focus on the journey and not the destination.