Twin Tiger Hooks

Few years ago I watched the show The Deadliest Warrior (Shaolin Monk vs. Maori Warrior). In this show they place 2 warrior styles, compare them and simulate a battle using there different weapons to see who is the deadliest warrior. Although the Maori Warrior was very vicious and cruel, the Shaolin Monk easily won the match. Out of 1,000 matches, the Shaolin Monk won 692 to 308. Pretty impressive. But what was really amazing is that 566 of these  wins were using the Twin Hooks.

This seems like the right weapon to get and practice.

Now, it is not the easiest weapon to handle. I think you can easily see imperfections and it is hard to use it at home (I almost broke few things already). However, I like it and I can't wait until I can get some sequences memorize and practiced.

I'm not really good with it but you will probably start seeing me with it in open training from now on. Now that the Dragon/Lion Dance practice is done, there should be enough space for me to practice without causing too much damage.

http://csillag-stars.blogspot.ca/

Here we go

Well here it is my first blog to start the "Year of the Snake", I wish I had great things to start out with but it starts with me battling a flu that doesn't want to go away, or so I thought. I have tried to ride it through but for the last 3 weeks it has hung on with a cocky attitude of "guess who's in control"; just when you think it's getting better and you start to feel ok, it takes you out and brings you down to your knees when you least want it to. When a high moment has kicked in, I pop out a round of push ups and sit ups to keep my numbers climbing. But, tonight I finally caved in, I went to the walk in clinic and got some antibiotics and hopefully this should help as my self diagnosis wasn't what I thought it was; it seems there's a few more goodies in there that have developed that need a little pharmaceutical help to get rid of vs. trying to sweat it out and work it out. More to come in the future, Robert Tymchuk.

Did you know it is RAK week?

RAK being Random Acts of Kindness. 

Kindness.

This challenge is my wall. Yes, more than pushups.

Mentally, I resist it.

Challenge it.

Fight it.

Fear it.

It is too forced, calculated, tallied and recorded to hold any intrinsic value. Besides, I don’t even like people. 

When I expressed my fears to a Sifu, she told me:

It’s NOT that bad (with a shrug and a smile) and if you can’t stand people, that is when you go for a walk by yourself and pick up some garbage.

Her response was both understanding and supportive. It was at that moment that I felt a little bit of my resistance break and I thought… I can do this.

Thanks Sifu. Add this one to your list for me.

http://sharidactyl.wordpress.com/

stomach pains

Hello everyone the big day of the banquet has got my stomach twisting and turning in so many different directions. I know it is not even my black belt day and i am sure the candidates are feeling more pressure than i am, but my social phobia is starting to kick into high gear. I know most likely my demo vision will kick in when i finally do the performances and forms, but the worst part is the waiting for the actual day to come. To tell you the truth i will probably have to watch the recording, because eventually my demo vision will kick in and I won't even really remember want happened. One second i want to puke, the next, it is time to clean up and go home. I am even finding it harder to socialize just with some of my teammates, i will have something to add to the conversation and i won't say a word, because i am frozen in place. I do know the candidates are actually going to be the people who have to say there speeches, which takes a lot of bravery and courage i think. I know i would need some of that to do what they are doing, and someday i really do want to do what there are doing and maybe the pain i feel now might be ten times worse or i will try to conquer my fears. I prefer the second option, but it will  be super hard, but anything easy isn't worth doing. If everything was easy no one would every need to evolve as a human being or as a person. I will get my stomach issues under control, but this is just another stepping stone i will be taking to get passed my social phobia fear.


Sihing Langner 

Snakes and Ladders

I guess in some ways last years kick at the I Ho Chuan could be compared to this game. For me and the many great people I met on this journey. You ascend up the ladder, feeling good about things and getting that much closer to your goals. The excitement of looking down at how far you climbed. Seeing the carnage of all the challenges you have beaten, only to move ahead farther than you thought you could. Growing into a smooth steady climb and making all the right turns and avoiding those snakes. Pulling off huge accomplishments and starting to pick up momentum in your goals and increasing the numbers in a steady almost tranquil frame of mind. Forms are looking good, getting in some distance, really starting to become one with your weapon. Push up reps and sit up reps increasing everyday. Achieving that state of organic humanity by evolving more and more into your empathy and rolling back to how things should be by focusing on doing the common good for anyone that is within your kindness radius. Then an injury occurs, whoosh down you go. A few more rolls and you discovered something cool in your form. Back up you go. Getting in good reps and a fairly descent routine. Life came into play and yep, down you go. But this time your back at the bottom of the board only a few feet from where you started. So next roll you take a different path, thinking that way didn't work so lets try with the shorter ladders. Thinking that if you play it safe you will make it to the end. Confidence is back up so you take a chance and shoot for that long ladder. Two moves later you drop down half way, then back up, and down. Pretty soon you have a melt down and toss the board in the air and punch it in two. Thinking to yourself this is a dumb game anyway and who in their right mind puts themselves through this mental and physical yo yo of success and failures. Just to give good measure you give it one last kick and move on to something you know you can win all the time, every time. Like the alphabet or counting backwards from a 100. Then you and your brain are becoming boarder line moosh. You think to yourself I need more, I can't let a challenge beat me. So you go back and find all those scattered pieces. Dig out that darn board and duct tape it back together. Find your favourite color and give it to your most challenging opponent. Life. Find your second favourite color and give it to your other opponent, training. Take the color you hate the most and roll with focus. This time you are going to make it to the top because you have an idea of what to expect and what it is you need to do for recovery. What you don't know, you take the risk and accept the outcome. Because its the risk takers that prevail and learn from failing. The challenge becomes the addiction and losses are another form of challenge not defeat. The balance of it all that leads to the accomplishment. Being one at the top of your game.
Brian Chervenka

Goals

So my I Ho Chuan year has begun! I am glad to be back on the team, I felt a little lost last year not having set goals to work towards. As we all know those casual goals that we say we're going to do but then don't because we're not accountable to anyone but ourselves don't really happen, well, at least not for me anyway.  I am nervous that I'm going to like a chicken with my head cut off, but we'll see how it goes. I'm a little behind on being organized for the year. Adrien found a good website for tracking my goals that also has an app for my phone so I can easily log stuff when I'm out. It's www.42goals.com and it gives me a total count and how many I need to do every day to achieve my goal. I know that staying organized is going to be a big part of making this year successful.
Andrea Prince

andnowlikeyoumeanit.blogspot.ca

Feel the Power

I am a glass artist and even though I am, sometimes it's easy to lose connection about why I'm a glass artist. This week I resolved (so far) an ongoing issue with me and glass: I hate custom orders. It's not that I can't do them, it's just that my shoulders tighten, and I literally drag my feet at getting to them. Not good for profitable biz. What's up with that? I had a friend do her work on me and what was revealed was the "not good enough", "can't do it right", "never amount to much", "get a real job (had one of those, thanks)" crud that I took on from parental adults in my much younger years. Basically I was banging my head against a wall that wasn't mine to begin with. I wasn't seeing the opportunity within nor the "wow, I was picked to do this project" and long term, not the income potential. Time to shift and move that junk out.

On Tuesday I did my energy work and decided to make the dragon for the auction. Before I go on the torch I meditate and connect in with the Creative Spirit. When I touched the rods that would determine the colors in the dragon, I felt a surge of energy. I knew that the dragon's owner had been summoned. (Work with me here, think Avatar) When I lit my torch a big fireball exploded from my torch. A first for that. (Okay yes, I am now on propane instead of natural gas and has a higher pressure, but again, work with me here). Whoa!! This dragon has intensity!! My type of dragon!!

The creating process went well and took 2 hours. I used my new, and much bigger, kiln discovering that it's hot!! I love my Kevlar gloves because now my hands don't smoke like they did with leather when I am holding a hot piece of glass that's at about 1,000 degrees F. I did start to doubt myself in the process, but I thought of last year and how Sifus (then Sihings) Kichko and Lindstrom strong-armed me into putting my dragons in the auction and the result of that night. Back to the Creative Spirit connection and flow. In that moment I realized why I'm a glass artist and what happens when I'm in the zone of creativity and the feelings I have as a result. Some say it's Nirvana, but whatever the word, it's a state I want to be in more often.

The next day. I took the dragon out of the kiln and I liked him. Then I started to see my mistakes, hence: slide back into my old patterns. I realized that this dragon is perfect as he is and he's gorgeous. Yes there are things I can improve on or do differently, but that's for a different day. I now want to practice making dragon heads to improve the teeth and tongue area. Plus I want to make eye canes and get more "realistic" with the eyes. Side note: if I ask to look into your eyes, I want to see the color formation. Consider that a compliment. Wow, can you imagine if I can make a dragon to match the owner's eyes!!

So now I have a dragon I am proud of, a dragon that's full of power, grace, and intensity. He's an original, one of a kind, and unique. Look into his eyes and see if you too can feel the power.
Meet Dragon 8.

Sherri Donohue
Hot Torch, Room Full of Glass, and a Kung Fu Kwoon