Injury Number... Oh I Can't Keep Track

It seems like since our last Christmas break I have incurred injury after injury. I'm at the point where I'm so frustrated I just want to explode. First it was about three or four months of shin splints. Which means I had to stop running and could do no jump kicks for almost those entire months.

And almost as soon as I got over those I hurt my knee one class while we were practicing throws. I had just started running again. I was starting slow, running three times a week trying to make sure I didn't cause the shin splints again. Now at this point I've actually gotten over my great hate of running. I'd actually begun to enjoy it because it was something that I'd been forced to 'put on hold' for months.

I got a solid punch to the jaw in one of our sparring matches and had to get a serious anti-inflammatory from the hospital because I was in such incredible pain. For weeks I wasn't able to open my mouth fully and could only eat soft foods and had to chew very slowly and carefully. (Admittedly this had a positive effect on my eating habit which are generally stuff as much food in my mouth as fast as possible.)

After our trip to Beijing I was hoping for a fresh start. But somehow I seemed to have strained some of the tendons in my foot. I got an x-ray to make sure that the bones are alright and so now I'm baffled as to what I could've possibly done to my foot to cause this much pain. It doesn't really seem to be getting any better but this week is moon festival so we'll have two full days off. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that I will heal.

This is the most difficult training here. Getting past the frustration of injuries and not being able to participate in all the things I want. Arg! I'm sure I'm not the only person who has ever been through this. But this is new for me and I'm struggling.

Eat, Pray, Love

I don't have a lot to say this week. I just finished reading the book called 'Eat, Pray, Love', by Elizabeth Gilbert. (I know that it's been made into a movie but movies sometimes are just missing something...). I really liked reading someone else's perspective on the search for happiness and enlightenment. Her approach to finding these things in some ways is completely different from my own, but in other ways, very similar. I found that it really opened my eyes to the motivation behind a lot of the decisions I make especially in my relationships to other people. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone although I'd guess it would appeal more to women.

And... Just as a side note. Reading about someone spending four months in Italy doing basically nothing except learning Italian and eating a plethora of delicious food (that I of course don't have a chance of eating anytime soon) was torturous and fabulous.

Hopefully next week I'll have more to say about training because I don't think I'll have finished my next book by then. Ha!

Wudang.... Home Sweet Home

Pretty frustrating that I made a commitment to blog weekly and then just actually couldn't get access for 2 weeks. ARG!

It's great to be back to the old and the familiar. I don't want to spend this whole entry complaining about how terrible our trip to Beijing was, so I'm just going to make it brief. We ended up staying for 2 weeks instead of 4 days so we were more than a little unprepared. We spent the majority of our time there waiting for something. Waiting for the bus, waiting to rehearse, waiting for dinner, etc. I'm not a particularly patient person, so I'd have to admit, this drove me a little insane. Other than that, and the fact that our government liaison had to be one of the most annoying Chinese women I've been forced to spend time with, I actually kind of enjoyed myself. I'm a people person, and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people.

There was one in particular (I'll omit names), that had to be the epitome of jerkiness. I really can't remember ever meeting someone that left me so offended at the end of any interaction between us. But I was particularly proud of myself. Despite one outburst after an especially lewd comment, I didn't really let him get under my skin. I just mostly pretended as if he wasn't there. Our Shifu always says that it's a special skill being able to ignore people and let people like this one leave you unaffected. I also met some really great people. Some, I was disappointed to not have the chance to get to know better. We exchanged emails so I hope that in the future our paths cross again. It was really interesting as well to meet people from a different style and see their different levels of skill. Some had just arrived in China, and others had been here for a year or so. Also had the opportunity to meet a Shifu from the Shaolin temple. 6 to 7 thousand students and he's been there for 12 years or something. Definitely some interesting experiences. This for me, was the best part of the trip.

I'm so happy to be back in Wudang. Getting back to our regular schedule, drilling forms, going to bed completely physically exhausted instead of mentally depleted of energy. I don't think I've gotten to the point yet where I can look at Shifu without a huge grin on my face. If anything, this trip really helped put my training back in perspective for the coming months before the break.

Beijing and Jackie Chan

Got some exciting news today. Ten people from the traditional class are going to be in a TV performance with Jackie Chan. So this Friday we will be headed on the train to Beijing. I'm really excited. Not only do I really need a little bit of a rest, our accommodation and travel are all paid. We were also promised a 500kuai bonus for spending money. Sounds a little too good to be true so I'm not gonna keep my hopes up but it's a nice thought. It's about 100 Canadian dollars which can get you quite a lot in China. The chance to eat some western food is definitely an incentive in itself. It will be cool to travel with a group of my team members as well. Hopefully we'll get a little bit of face time with Jackie Chan, but seeing as he is China's biggest celebrity I'm gonna try to not get my hopes up for that as well. Many of the Chinese students at the school are definitely jealous so we promised to try and get a few autographs.

On another note. I've been getting acupuncture for my knee and I seem to be having really good results. We'll see how this performance goes and after that hopefully I will be as good as new. I was hoping to do some editing to my blog but since China's firewall is so strong, I've been mostly unsuccessful. Oh the joys of censorship. Ha!

Here it goes again...

So I haven't blogged since February. I'm not even going to try to fill you in on what's happened in the past 6 months. I don't think I could fit it into 10 posts nevermind one.

So I've set a new years goal for myself and I'm starting early. On September 1st we hit our one year mark since the start of the program so this is my new years resolution. I had a couple of hard months motivation wise. The past month I've been feeling pretty great although it seems I accumulate one injury after another. But I noticed that I've been spending more and more time finding motivation by reading other people's blogs. Today I read Sifu Brinker's message 'the key is right in front of you' on kwoon talk and decided I needed to make some changes. I'm not a big computer person. I get bored sitting in front of a screen typing emails, I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people. But if I can find inspiration in so many other people's struggles and successes then hopefully I can inspire others in the same way.

So I'm blogging. And I will be blogging every week. I have a plan. Now the next step is taking consistent action. I'm actually looking forward to this. I'm going to make it last. Even though I haven't been writing, I've been reading. Thanks to everyone who shares their thoughts and experiences.

So This Is What It's Like To Feel Powerful....

It's really been way too long since I've blogged. I doubt anyone's bothering to check it anymore. I'm a sort of lost cause when it comes to journaling. I love the feeling of picking up a pen and writing down my thoughts, but for some reason typing just doesn't do it for me. It's part of my new years resolution this year so I'm really gonna work at it...

I came back to Wudang and my training feeling completely renewed. I know that I will continue to struggle a lot over this next year, but being back here really reminds me of the purpose of being here and of the commitment that I've made. I've been approaching my training with a different attitude. And I'm not saying that the training isn't as difficult but I've been enjoying it more. Admittedly we haven't started running again yet, but I'm going to try to keep a positive attitude about that as well. I've only been here for a couple weeks but already I've sprained my ankle. It's healing faster than I expected.

Meditation is going really well. I was able to sit through a one hour meditation 2 days in a row. I've never been able to do this before so it was big progress for me.

Today it snowed and so we had class indoors. I don't generally enjoy training inside because it seems to get repetitive, but today we did some weight training and I've never felt so strong in my life. I did about 15 shoulder presses with about 24kg. I recall the last time we did it, I couldn't even hardly do 5 (with assistance from some of my kung fu brothers). This was really exciting for me. I'm already incredibly sore even though it was only about 7 hours ago, but the feeling of success is worth all the pain.

This week we also started a new form Tai Yi Wu Xing Quan. It was quite a surprise to be learning this form already. On the program plan it's a third year form. I'm really excited though. Brandi and I learned this form on our first visit to the school but I'm learning a lot relearning some of the moves. We've also been practicing dragon claw every day. Today after doing all those shoulder presses it was like torture but my hands are noticeably stronger already. Can't wait until I can hold myself up on my CLAWS! Grrrrr............

Brrrrrr!!... Winter Arrives to Wudangshan

This week’s training has been the most rewarding for me so far.
Since the program started our Shifu has been training students for a tournament in Beijing. So although we did get a lot of personal attention, he was only available most days for one class per day. This week though, the tournament is over and done with and we’ve been getting his undivided attention. Which is awesome, but is definitely the most intense training we’ve had. It’s almost like the first week of the program all over again. Friday and Saturday’s classes were brutal, but I loved every one of them. We worked a lot on kicks and sanda (combat) training. Shifu taught us a new punch, kind of like a hook punch, for close range sparring. It’s pretty funny watching someone his size demonstrate close range combat with the biggest guy in the program. You can hardly see him pressed up against Evan’s midsection, but the instruction he gives is incredibly in depth and you can really see the transfer of power when he’s explaining it. I mean he’s about 5’7” and maybe 55kilos so it’s hard to believe someone his size can generate that much power in a single movement. But I’ve felt it, and it gives me hope.
The focus shields that we usually use here are not like the ones at home. It’s like punching a bag of sand. The first time we practiced thrust punches on them, I was really disappointed because I noticed that my wrists were not strong enough. It didn’t seem to matter how good my technique was, or how hard I punched, my wrists continuously folded. This time we were practicing and I really felt like I was transferring power. My wrists held up through at least 100 punches and I felt like I was getting real penetration of the shield. We’ve been practicing using our whole core section for punching and I noticed a huge difference. Because we’re spending so much time training, it’s not like you see daily improvement. It happens slowly, and so I really get excited when I do see a difference. Its small things like this that help me through the plateaus.
This Saturday we also had our first class on Taoist culture and theory. It was totally awesome! I’ve never really been a religious person, but I am a spiritual one. And Shifu talked about the Tao and how difficult it is to understand. He often makes the point that you can learn the Tao, and you can understand it, and you can know everything about it inside and out, but if you can’t apply it in your life then it’s useless. It’s important to understand it, but it’s also important to utilize it. He’s said it’s like practicing martial arts; at first you learn the forms, and you know the moves and the more you practice it the more skill you have. But if you don’t understand the movements, and the reasons behind them, then what’s the point?
The weather here this week has reminded me a lot of home. Friday and Saturday it was really hot. We were all out in tank tops, sweating our asses off. But since then it’s been cold and windy and rainy and this morning we woke up to a light layer of snow. It brings back some nostalgia and makes me more than a little home sick, but in perfect foreshadowing, this week Shifu also told us an old Chinese story that I really liked.
‘A student decides he wants to train and he goes looking for a master and everywhere he goes he carries a huge sack around on his back. He finds a master and when his master asks him what it is the sack, he tells him, “These are things I really love. My parents are in this sack, so they follow me wherever I go. I have food, and games, and my guitar. These things really make me happy so I keep them with me.” The master tells him to come with him and they go to the river. They take a boat and go across to the other shore. The master says to him “okay, now carry the boat with us.” And his student says “I cannot it’s too heavy.” Then his master says to him, “but it’s useful, we might need it, we should take it with us”. And his student says “yes but I cannot carry it around with me it’s impossible.” His master says “yes sometimes in life you have to leave things behind. Maybe even the things that you love.”