Huff and Puff the Wheezing Lion

Two out of the last three Lion Dance Practices I have experienced an asthma attack.  Given the Lion Dance is strenuous on my lungs, but with medication I have been able to strive off the asthma attacks. But lately I am having less success. Both times an asthma attack has occurred have been during the evening practices, and I am thinking there has to be another contributing trigger to them, since it has not happen at every practice. I keep playing back the events of each day trying to figure out what I had encounter, ate, or did that was different then on the days I did not have an asthma attack. I need to figure this out.

Where am I? What am I doing?

Gut Check Time

The last few months have been tough for me. As I've found out, my shoulder injuries were not themselves the problem, but a symptom of other underlying issues. I'm not very good at explaining it but suffice it to say that I have issues with my skeletal alignment and, over time, this has caused several problems for me, including the stress on my shoulders, tendonitis on my left side, and severe migraines, the latter of which has severely affected my sleep to the point where there have been a few instances where I didn't sleep for a few days straight and the only relief I got was from drinking half a bottle of Nyquil and essentially knocking myself out. 

I've had limited success with my physiotherapy but the limited part is because my work schedule hadn't allowed me to go to physio even semi-regularly and so I would start from scratch every time. 

This has changed now as my employer is allowing me to stay at home for several weeks to get treated. To be honest, between my shoulder injuries, tendonitis, insomnia, and migraines, I'm tired (no pun intended) of thinking about all of this. I'm also tired of writing about all of this and I'm sure everyone is tired of reading about it. I hate to admit it, but when you never feel 100% physically, it weighs on your self-esteem and motivation. Negativity creeps in. My attendance in class has become even worse, not just from work but because I just didn't want to attend, and my training has suffered too. There's also a bit of guilt from perceiving myself as a bad teammate, which I posted about earlier. My physiotherapist is quite confident that regular treatment for several weeks combined with homework will take care of things. I'm really hoping that's the case. 

I guess these are the kind of situations that build character in a person. I was recently watching an episode of "Chopped" on the Food Network and one of the contestants was very confident, stating that she knew she would win because she had never failed at anything before. I laughed when I heard that, knowing from personal experience that failure is what makes a person stronger. This is something that I need to remember. It doesn't matter if you get knocked down, as long as you get back up again. 

Cory Smid
http://kungfucory.blogspot.ca/

Where Am I and Where Am I Going?

My first year in the I Ho Chuan is coming to a close in less than a month. The year of the Horse has filled my life with great experiences with so many people from and beyond the kwoon and I have pushed myself harder than any year prior. Although I have hit a wall, although my health is still unsure, I have still accomplished so much.

It's hard not to compare yourself to others. The leaps and bounds of progress my teammates are making is so inspiring but at the same time make me look at my apparent lack of progress. I feel like I do not deserve my teammates but I know that the I Ho Chuan is not about judging others lack of involvement.

I will be returning to the I Ho Chuan for the year of the Monkey. During my year away from the program I will be restructuring and strengthening my foundations. In March I'll be seeing an ENT specialist and am hopeful that I will get the answers I need. I feel that my lack of balance has been the largest hindrance in my training but I know my inactivity is just as much of a liability.

The year of the Sheep will be a new starting point along a trail of milestones, how I proceed will determine the path before me.

Pyramid rebuild

I have recently been completing a great deal of review of previous curriculum and am really unimpressed with what is not coming to me second nature.  We speak of training as a pyramid in which a strong established base leads to a successful uprising of the training pyramid.

Call it neglect of the pyramid base, but I think it has led to some bad habits.  I think that at times when we train we sometimes get a little ignorant of what makes the pyramid….the pyramid.  It is not something that can be established and forgotten, but has to be revisited, practiced and re-polished more often than we realize.

For the time being the focus is going to be reworking things from the beginning, rebuilding the blocks that have been neglected.

Ramping Up the Practices

As Chinese New Year draws closer, we start to ramp up the practice days to prepare for our banquet where we celebrate the Chinese New Yew and the promotion of our newest Black Belts. At this time our practices are three time a week, as we get closer and closer to our banquet date we will add to the practice days until it feels like we are practicing every day of the week, which we very well could be. This is one of my favorite times of the year, spending days upon days, and hours upon hours with like-minded individual’s preparing for one goal “Perfection”, or just not to make fools out of ourselves on the day of the banquet. Either way a person looks at it, it will be an experience that is worth every ounce of their effort that they have given.

Where am I? What am I doing?

A good dose of support

 I just returned from field camp in Red Earth yesterday.  It is awesome to know that things are really going to turn into full on Kung Fu mode for the next few months anyway, as nothing seems to be on the horizon for field work.

I just want to give a great thank you to all the support that the students and Sifu's have offered to me in order to get my kung fu feet back up and running.  Mostly though, I want to thank my wife and family for the support they have shown in the last little while.  The picture is what I came down to find in my Kung Fu laboratory tonight.

Support is so grand when you embark on a program like the I Ho Chuan.  I am fortunate to have a wonderful supportive family, and furthermore a great group of people at Silent River.

So on another note, I found an excellent way to practice rearward break falls.  Sitting on a large exercise ball, roll backward for a controlled type fall to the mats.  I noticed the Kwoon had a couple of these balls as well.  I find this is a great intermediate transition method for people trying to make the jump from a rear break fall from the squat position, to a full on airborne rearward fall.  The ball allows for a slower descent that is more controlled and easier to time, helping to build confidence to a fall that might be required in a throw for instance.

Anyway, hope to see you all the Kwoon this week.

Vince.

Lion Dance Practice Jan 17th

Its somewhat crazy having 5 lions with 10 dancers and senior blackbelts with multiple opinions and hordes of questions and everyone trying to fine tune the lion dance performance.  Despite the chaos I think the last practice put alot of really cool things in place.  It was noisy but productive.  Although my legs were pretty tired and it looked like everybody else was in the same boat, swimming in sweat and exhausted we ironed out a bunch of kinks in the performance.  The stack and roll happened successfully a number of times.  The wave has had a change in orientation I think it looks better.  The polka step feels ridiculous but looks neat, and with the tail action of the lions adds some serious cute factor to the performance.  We are so going to WOW everyone with this performance.

Natural Talent

People throw around the term "natural talent" all the time and it often refers to an athlete with extraordinary ability. But does that athlete actually have natural talent? Are people born with certain athletic abilities that give them an advantage over the average person? Traits such as a person's height can play a part but I now believe that what most people refer to as talent is actually the result of hard work. If you want to excel at something you have to practice.

Take any professional athlete and you can trace their success back to 1000's and 1000's of repetitions of whatever they do. Throwing a football, hitting a tennis ball, shooting a puck; it's all the same. This is a comforting thought because I definitely don't have "natural talent". When I started at SRKF, my flexibility was terrible, my balance was worse, and I couldn't do a set of 10 situps. Fast forward 16 months and all of those things have vastly improved. Was it natural talent at work? Nope. It was practice.

 So what does this mean? It means that it doesn't matter if I'm short or old or anything else. If I work hard enough, I will get better and better. The only limitations I have are the ones that I set for myself.

Cory Smid
http://kungfucory.blogspot.ca/

Time Passes

So time passes on, whether on not a person notices. Time does not care if we are busy, or we are not ready, it not going to wait for any of us. It is going to to continue with what is does best, “Time Passes”.
We must make the best of what time has given us and not let opportunities pass by. We must take a chance and learn what we can, for that opportunity may never come by again. We must also remember to give back what we have learn’t when an opportunity presents its self, for that opportunity may never come by again. 

Where am I? What am I doing?

Pondering

I've been thinking a lot lately about my contribution to the team or the lack thereof. I'm starting to wonder if it's unfair of me to continue as a part of the team when I know from the get go that I can't fully participate due to my work schedule. If there weren't a limited number of spots on the team, maybe it wouldn't be an issue since at that point, any contribution would be worthwhile. But there are times when I feel like I'm taking up a spot that could be taken by someone who could attend all classes and practices. I feel like I take more than I give. 

At the end of the day, if everyone on the team could only contribute as much as I have, we'd have no lion dance and no demo. I'm not writing this to garner sympathy or feel sorry for myself; I'm truly trying to figure out the balance of teamwork and selfishness that the pursuit of mastery seems to require. 

Cory Smid
http://kungfucory.blogspot.ca/

January 11, 2015

I have recently returned to town and was able to get into the Kwoon for the first time in a couple months.  Running into training partners again has been excellent.  The last two days since I have been home has been an exceptional time of refocus.  It has started with a revamp of my training area, which has been converted from a dusty bowflex with toys hanging all over it, to a dedicated kung fu area.  It is small, but it will provide a good place to study and work on some essentials.

I am starting with a good deal of motivation.  Carrying the momentum is always an issue, but routine resulting in positive habits, accountability, and reflection will aid in success.  Time seems to fly as always, but I seem to have a clarity for what has to get accomplished.  Probably more so than I have in a long time.

In terms of scheduling, I have one more bout of work for a period of possibly a week, starting Friday.  Following that, it is pretty likely work will be buzzing off for a period of time.

Changing Things Up

Today I felt like I needed to change things up. I had been feeling like things were lacking for me physically. My diet hasn't been very good over the last three weeks or so and I've been feeling lethargic with my training, as well as with gym workouts.

My past experience at the gym has taught me that breaking out of a rut can usually be done with something as simple as trying new exercises or changing the music on your iPod (for those of us that use technologically superior Apple products). I applied a similar approach today and had good results.

Doing my forms with footwork only really helped me feel my stances. Dropping down into a bow stance really made me aware that my flexibility has improved and my bow stance felt lower and stronger. I was also more aware of how poor footwork messed up my power vector.

When I was doing crunches I tried to slow down and feel them more than usual and I found that it was a lot harder to do them this way. It's easy for me to let quality slip sometimes when I focus on quantity so this was a good reminder for a lesson that I had already learned. 

Cory Smid
http://kungfucory.blogspot.ca/

January 10th 2015

Really excited about the lion dance performance coming up ... my fear of performing is much less with this one as I am not up there alone and I am somewhat hidden so I can actually enjoy myself.  I think its coming together well although at practice last night we all felt the lack of practice over the christmas break set us back a bit.  Still ran into another lion on the cross over part so our orientation is not perfect yet but now we can start working on the fine tuning of stepping and head movements and although its tough it sure makes a difference in the look of the performance.  As the backend of the lion I have less to worry about with the head movements, however trying to anticipate what your front end is going to do and moving along with that can be pretty challenging.  Listening to the drum can help with that but only if your partner is listening and following that as well.  I believe this is going to be an outstanding lion dance performance at the chinese new year celebration, looking forward to it.

Action Speaks Louder Then Words

The year is coming to an end and the new years demo is at hand. With only a month and a half to get ready the expectation is that we are all as I Ho Chuan members are ready to go and make it happen. I am concerned that this is not the case tho. I see very few team mates at open training and I fore one find it difficult to get quality practice time at home. weapons training requires a lot of space and that space is only really provided by the school on Saturday. I hope as a team we are ready however all the fine words in the world wont make a difference if when push comes to shove we as a team embarrass ourselves with our lack of hard work and disipline. If you are not ready my suggestion is that you start getting ready yesterday. We have to show the new team what it is all about and in this instance like any other action speaks louder then words.

http://michaelplayter.blogspot.ca/2015/01/action-speaks-louder-then-words.html

Forms and then some more Forms

Vacation is over and sadly I am back at work this week. Over the holiday’s I was able to enjoy adding to my daily routine a 10am forms practice, which I am really missing as this week progresses. I found a great benefit in practicing my forms in the morning then at my usual evening times. It had become a time where I could center myself and prepare for the day ahead. I find practicing forms a kind of meditation, where I can get lost in the movements and let the worries of my daily life wash away, leaving me feeling refreshed and vitalized, ready to take on what life has to throw at me.

Where am I? What am I doing?

Back at it.

     What to say? I don't like talking about myself or what I'm doing,thinking,feeling. I'm going to work on that.
      I failed the majority of my requirements last year , but I never stopped trying to accomplish them. My focus was shifted to work (I seen an opening) and family (Father had a double bypass and a new valve put in his heart). That's all for now. Baby steps for blogging.

 Scott Fuhr

http://ihochuan.blogspot.ca
http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.com