Captain's Blog, Stardate 2012.11.15, Starship U.S.S. Enterprise - The Kung fu effect

So I didn't attend monday or tuesday class this past week, as I was in a knee splint to let my knee tendon recover. I also did not attend open training this past saturday. Which meant I went a full week without going to kung fu, or working out.

Most of the time, it is not so obvious, the growth and results of your investment in yourself through your kung fu. This past week, after taking a whole week away from kung fu, I found myself getting edgy, stressed, and the things on my mind were going nowhere. I didn't realize how much I needed the recharge every time I train, until I went yesterday night, and when I left, the world took on a whole new shade of colours. Weird description, but most apt.

During my forced "rest week" I still thought about my kung fu, visualized my forms, thought about all the things I needed to work on, which is good at first, but after that, without doing it and letting that motion generate new thoughts, it stagnates quite quickly. So I guess what I am trying to say is two-fold:

1) It's not always easy to be aware of the benefits and the mental recovery that your kung fu provides, but it is there, and even after just one week of forced rest, I left the kwoon a very rejuvenated person.

2)Consistency is key. Consistent training, but also consistent reflection, and when you are training, to be engaged, to be present, to be focused, not to just phone it in, going through the motions. And upon reflection, to do the things you have thought about and apply them, to find what it feels like and to improve from there. One is insufficient without the other.

This probably seems pretty obvious and straight forward, but sometimes seeing how it applies in your specific scenario might be a bit difficult. I am a little stressed recently, and was considering taking yet more time from my kung fu to push at these other things that were bothering me. But I realized after, that it is because everything else is closing in on me that makes it all the more important that I do go to kung fu, injuries aside.

Captain's Blog, Stardate 2012.11.07, Starship U.S.S. Enterprise - YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME AND KNEES ARE THE WORST WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE THEM!?!?!

SO TODAY I HURT MY RIGHT KNEE AND I'M TYPING IN CAPS LOCK BECAUSE I'M YELLING. THIS CANNOT BE REAL LIFE. IF THIS DOESN'T STOP HURTING TOMORROW MORNING I'M GOING TO BEAT MY KNEE TILL AN INCH OF IT'S LIFE. GRRR.

So if those in the blogocyberspace wants to know what happened, well I don't exactly know. But I will tell you what I did on this day.

Workout (pre kung fu) found I couldn't do pull  ups because the tendons in my elbow/forearms were on fire. I'm not kidding. It felt like I had burning thermite in my arms when I tried to do a pull up.

So 3x5 Squats, 185#
and 3x5 Bench press
and 1x5 Deadlift 255#

Then I went to the beginner class at kung fu. Which went well, until we did jumping jacks in the warm up, when my right knee started pinging me in the pain centre of my brain. not really pain full, but just a ping. Horse stances hurt. power of the instep hurt more. and I ignored it all thinking it was just whatever. I don't know what I thought it was, but I didn't think about it.

Then I practiced a lot of left lead projection stepping jab - reverse.
Somehow I got an idea to try jab-projection step-reverse times two, followed by, jab-slidestep into horse stance- vertical punch.
Did that a few times. and then I caught my foot on the mat and stopped and leaned on my knee really hard. and it seemed fine. Then I ran around and couldn't. I hobbled.
Went to get tensor bandage and icy hot patches to put on my knee. Fraser happened to have advil in his bag, so he gave me some.
And convinced me that I was in no shape to be in the intermediate class given that my knee has already started swelling. I listened. And a half hour later started considering that I could push through it. Until 2 senior students again reinforced that I shouldn't.

So I sat on the side ( this is progress, as I did not do this last time.) As I sat my knee got steadily more painful, and so I left while I could still drive home.
That didn't work. I had to take a break every 10 minutes of driving. and braking with my left foot. lucky it's an automatic.

Anyway, now I'm home, and my knee is the size of 2 normal knees. And I plan on getting it looked at in the next week. Not a month.

Took more pain killers. Icing and elevating knee. Can't compress, hurts like your first heartbreak if I try.

I guess this is progress.

GAH.

EDIT:
So the doc said most likely I strained the tendon from my knee cap to my shin bone. He used bigger words though. Now I have a splint for a week. and he said if that doesn't fix it, then I should book an MRI. well, let's hope in a week I'll be back to kicking and screaming.

Captain's Blog, Stardate 2012.11.04, Starship U.S.S. Enterprise - Forms Seminar 2012

WOW!

So I experienced my first Silent River Kung Fu Forms seminar yesterday. I have the sore legs to prove this. I chose to work on my Kempo and my goodness it was the best thing ever. Also, Kempo II has very few bow stances. Very few. hehehe

Before I go any further, I would like to thank all the powers that be and sifus that put this seminar together, and took the time to make it happen. It was incredible, and very much appreciated.

Just like with boot camp, and kung fu overall, an opportunity like this will give you what you put into it. I could imagine that if you as a participant do not give it 100%, then you will gain less than 100%.

I went into this thinking it would be an opportunity to learn another form, or even kempo III. But I didn't. AND I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER. I spent the last 1.5 weeks (the time I've been an orange belt) leading up to the seminar pestering every Sihing and Sifu in sight to help me memorize the parts of Kempo II, and as they patiently showed me and guided me, I achieved this. I can't stress enough the patience part, as Sihing Robinson could tell you, I'm not that easy to be patient with :P
My original thought was that if I memorized all of it, then I could learn the parts of Kempo III at the forms seminar and play with it. Like a child reading the new toy r us catalogue (which just came out and yes, I did go through it with uncontained excitement. Some things don't and shouldn't change!).

However, working with Sifu Wonsiak, kempo III was not mentioned at all, and it was the best thing ever. What actually transpired at the seminar was way better than I could have imagined. I left with a much much better understanding of kempo I&II and it was really awesome. I don't just know the the pieces now, I am starting to see the form itself instead of just a series of moves. I don't know how to explain that. But it's different, and it's something I can apply to my other forms.

So I guess without getting too wordy and writing an illiad length blog about this, I learned:
-Forms seminar is a "must attend" for anyone.
-Like boot camp, if you put 100% into it, it will give you more than you can dream of in return.
-Sifus are geniuses. Seriously. They know everything. Like gods.
-Breath. When you're really nervous, breath. and don't ask yourself "what's the worst that can happen?" because if you're like me, your mind will find the worst possible time to be snarky and reply "well, you could pee yourself in front of all these nice people, that'd be pretty bad" and then you'd be even more nervous.

So I'd like to finish off by thanking all those that made this seminar and experience possible for us, and to thank the sifus for taking the time to do this for us, and to Sifu Wonsiak for her patience with me.

I'd draw a card with crayon and write in bad writing, and colour outside the lines with bad stick figures and all, but I figure as an adult, writing is better suited :p

Captain's Blog, Stardate 2012.11.02, Starship U.S.S. Enterprise - Lugnuts and fluffy things and glittery goop

Lugnuts.

It started one day when my car started vibrating at speed. This could be due to many things, and as my many years spent under and around my various vehicles with wrenches, I had pegged a few things that could be possible, including bearings, tire issues, wheel balancing, rim damage, warped disc, and on and on went the list.

I determined, even, that the vibration came from the rear of the car, and so I jacked up the car, and rocked each hub individually, to check for play, checked the bushings under the car, really went through it with a fine tooth comb, but none of these things really fit with what I felt and what I saw under the car.

I discussed it with a friend of mine, and the conversation went thus:

Me: " I checked everything, yada yada yada (long list of things)"
Friend: " Did you check to make sure the lugnuts were tight?'
Me: "I have not once taken the wheels off the car. And there is no way the dealership let that car off the lot with mis torqued lugnuts. And therefore, since the torque specifications work, judging by the lack of wheels flying off this model of car around the world, I would not possibly believe it is even remotely possible that it is something that simple."

Which after this perplexing me for a while, I met my friend again, a few days later, and we had the exact same conversation.

So In order to allay his suspicions, I agreed to check the lugnuts, thinking it was 30 seconds I could have been twiddling my thumbs anyway.

AND I FOUND THAT 5 OF THE 10 NUTS ON THE 2 REAR WHEELS WERE LOOSE. Not loose enough that you could wiggle them by hand perceptibly, but loose enough, and way under torque specifications.

I found that I can also apply this lesson to kung fu!

Check the lugnuts. Maybe that little technique or combination that hasn't been thought about since white belt should be looked at, as it has gotten loose, even though it could be a really simple technique that gets scoffed at and say "Nay, not me. I know that little thing"

I oughta Consistently review the things already know.

Though it may be too much to go through everything constantly, make sure the most important things are taken care of. An analogy - Check the brakes first if there's only time to check one thing. My personal example would be that after I learned Kempo I, I told myself that I had to practice Da Mu Hsing at least once every two times I went through Kempo. I chose forms as my "brakes". Kinda because I have heard a rumour that forms are sorta really important in kung fu. y'know.

Right now as I write this I remember something that happened recently in one of the previous open training sessions that I found really inspiring. I didn't think much at the time, as I was rather confused, but I found the situation really made an impression on me.

Even though this is all super positive and everything, I'll keep the details to a minimum anyway, respecting those who may wish to remain anonymous :)

I was sparring with a group, all senior to myself, and as usual, learning and incredible amount during these sparring sessions when I'm lucky that everyone continues to be patient with me and teach me things. During one of these breaks between matches, one of the group asked another Sifu, who was by the mirrors, if he would like to join the sparring rounds; to which his response was " No thank you, I am working on slide stepping today." (not verbatim.)

This is now weeks after the situation, but it is still on my mind everytime I go to practice. I found this situation incredibly inspiring. If Sifu is practicing and going through one of the very first things everyone is taught, then that example is proof enough for me to also get into the habit of going back and checking the lugnuts on my kung fu. Which means maybe putting aside some of the new toys and techniques and shiny stuff for a bit to keep the things I learned previously nice and sharp and polished.

Months ago, I over-enthusiastically exclaimed to Sihing Robinson that I thought it was so cool that as I keep up practicing da mu hsing even as I go through learning kempo I, I keep trying new (to me) things in da mu hsing, that I could only get to by continued practice and repetitions of focused practice where my mind is on only what I am doing at the moment. And all these tiny little improvements I've made to my da mu hsing ever since I learned it, I can then also apply to kempo I. So then my kempo I gets the benefits of my having been practicing da mu hsing for 6 months longer than I have kempo I. Building off the shoulders of the practice time and effort before it. And then I can find things in kempo that I can bring back to da mu hsing.

But alas, looking at this has made me realize that this great discovery has lead to another. As it seems to me that my practicing of forms are a very macro level of checking my lug nuts. Such that those with much experience and kung fu knowledge also go back and polish the basics regularly  but at a very detailed level. Which really shows ya that it's really all in the details.

I hope I get what I'm trying to say across. It's hard.

Anyway, I suppose that it is really as simple as keeping our eyes open, watching, and learn from the actions of those around us, and if we are open to it, every moment is a gold mine of things to learn from.