Friday, May 14, 2010
You Would Think. . .
Once, in a conversation with a friend about communication, my friend said, "You'd think he'd have figured that out a long time ago." I responded, "Why would you think that, did you tell him a long time ago?"
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Tournament Training
I've officially started training for the tournament. This is unusual for me. Although I've gone to one or two tournaments a year for the past several years, it has been a long time since I actually decided I was going to play to win. In the recent past, I've picked my competition forms the week of the tournament, sometimes the night before the tournament. Not this time, this time I am preparing my sets starting now, two months ahead of time.
I'm also preparing for the continuous sparring. I have changed my cardio from two minute rounds with a one minute break, to 45 second rounds with a 15 second break. It makes for a different workout. It is more intense action over a shorter period of time. The last time I sparred in a tournament I was doing long cardio sessions, and long sparring sessions, this trained me to pace myself for long periods instead of pushing harder for the two minute rounds in that tournament.
The truth is, I still don't care if I win or not. This time, I am going to enjoy the training a lot more.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
If ADD Were the Norm
If what we call ADD were the norm, and those who didn’t have those attributes were rare, we would likely still call the condition of the few ADD. Those people who had ADD would be the unfortunate ones who were unable to tune out the background noise of life and focus on the task at hand. They would be the ones who were unfortunate enough to have to stop typing, reading, or solving a puzzle to have a conversation. They would be considered unfortunate in that they could not quickly jump from what they were thinking on to a new, more interesting, and probably more important topic. Intolerant people would be frustrated with the inability of those so afflicted to leave a task for later, their inability to jump to another task, then back to the one at hand. They would seem slow, unable to adjust to new situations, unable to start preparing for a task until after they had completed the first one. We would be surprised that they didn’t have the multiple channels of attention, having to get through life only thinking about one thing at a time.
With patience and tolerance for those people, however, we could make the most of their uniqueness. We would need someone to go behind us and turn off the stove, to remind us of the unfinished projects, to organize the wonderful piles of work we created into meaningful and manageable conditions. We would need them for those boring jobs like analyzing data and doing research. Basically, if we could just be patient with their shortcomings, they could serve an important role in our society.
We need to remember in life, that just because someone is different from us, doesn't mean there is something wrong with them. We all have our place and purpose and our uniqueness should be seen as an advantage.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day Fair
Don't forget to go check out the Earth Day Fair in Franklin this Saturday.
Don't forget about our Project Based Leadership Training this Saturday.
Don't forget Ten Tigers workout Saturday.
Don't forget I'm not answering my phone on Sunday.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
A New Mission.
When I first decided I wanted to teach martial arts, I had a mission. I wanted to transfer the martial art Hung Gar in as authentic and traditional a way as possible. My dedication was to the art.
My mission changed.
After a while, I realized that the art was a means and not an end. My mission became to better myself through practice of the martial arts and through applying the skills developed in martial arts to the rest of my life.
My mission changed.
Now I am reaching out to others. I want them to improve themselves through whatever means is available. Since I see martial arts as a powerful means to that end, I teach people through Hung Gar.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Lunging to Bow and Arrow Stance
I just ran through some of my Hung Gar forms and discovered that In Sup Yin Kuen you shift to bow and arrow stance 60 times, in Fu Hok 55, in Gung Gee 68 and in Warrior Palm 42 times. Warrior Palm has 74 stance changes total, I hadn't thought ahead of time to count the total stance changes in the others.
This high incidence of shifting to that one particular stance shows the importance of that movement in the Hung Gar system. To create a powerful punch or strike, we use the full mass of our bodies, and the muscular strength of our arm, shoulder, latissimus muscles, and our quads and glutes.
Many styles rotate the back foot away from the punch, moving some of the body mass out of the punch, and disconnecting the power of the leg from the power of the strike. In Hung Gar, we root that back heel to the ground and drive forward.
It's obvious to me from the prevalence of that movement in the forms that it is something we are intended to master that one small movement, to do it until it is automatic. So when practicing your Hung Gar forms, root that heel in and drive forward.
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