Blog Challenge

Blog Challenge from Sifu Wonsiak

Narrative on one Basic requirement and one Personal requirement

Sparring requirement – this requirement is way off from reaching the 1000 mark for the year. Its unfortunate because even from the numbers I did accumulate I noticed a difference in my approach from the beginning of the year. The more often you are on the mat to spar, the more familiar you are with the situation. The more familiar you are, the more comfortable you get. When you are comfortable in your surroundings that’s when the magic begins. You recognize and react better. You find time to try new things. I love sparring even though I am far from proficient at it. This years I Ho Chuan program has shown me the math. Mat time is proportional to your comfort level. Comfortable = Improvement. It s not a difficult concept but sometimes the obvious is overlooked.

Personal requirement – one of my goals was to encourage the female students to embrace the grappling skills from a self-defence perspective. My plan was to try and get the message across through classes and the boot camp seminars. You see, from a female point of view being pinned on the ground is your worst nightmare. I have focused on grappling this past year to build the basics of escaping and fending off an attack from the ground. I am not sure that I was so successful in spreading my passion, my point of view and my opinion of the importance of the grappling techniques but something else interesting is happening instead. I am starting to recognize the commonalities between stand-up techniques, ground techniques and everything in between. It’s the body mechanics that are essential no matter what name you put on the technique or martial art you are training in. Its made me realize how connected the martial arts community is or at least should be.

No matter, the discipline, the fundamentals will always be the same. The human body is the human body and all human bodies move and react the same way, more or less…(there are those gifted rubber people).

I guess what started off as trying something new has in actual fact made me revisit lessons taught to me back in 1999 (that’s not a song, its when I was a white belt).

So both of these requirements will no longer be requirements when my I Ho Chuan time is up but both will be permanent and valuable components to my ongoing training.