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.