Kick the snooze button

The narrative in this one is really good, I think...

The Hardest Part

I can safely say, at my age, I have years and years of training, working out, sessions in the gym, hi and low moments of physical skill but the hardest part...

Is showing up!

It seems a body at rest wants to stay at rest. Falling off a routine is easy, and whats easier is finding 52 different reasons, why you didn't get up early to workout, why you didn't get off the couch and go to your evening class, why you didn't go in Saturday to pick up a class or spend half an hour in Open training.

Getting up, putting on the runners, grabbing that gym bag.....oh the dread!

I am the worst for this, and I have all sorts of tricks I play on myself to counter the little voice that tells me "I will work extra hard next class I deserve a break today, I will get up early tomorrow and start fresh, I will workout later, I will...I will..."

I find preparation goes a long way. If I pack my gym bag ahead of time , lay things out the night before, tell myself I have to be at class like its an appointment, I don't seem to slip into excuses as easy.
(I also put an alarm clock in the bathroom!..it works!)

I 'm always  glad once I am at class or finish a workout but I always feel worst about myself when I
start down the slippery slope of randomly showing up.

So really, the hardest part is making that routine, that commitment but it all starts first by showing up.

Finding A Religion

I have definitely strayed from my upbringing when it comes to my religion.


My parents are Irish Roman Catholics, actually immigrated in the 60s to Canada, and with that brought their deep faith, traditions and beliefs with them to raise their young family.
  I was raised in a strict catholic home.
No regrets, it definitely has been and is more of a positive influence than a negative.
however, thinking back,  As I grew up, religion seemed like it was more of a punishment at the time .
As a kid, church was boring, giving candy up for Lent seemed pointless, doing the rosary as a family on Sunday nights was torture to us kids and I cant count how many times we were pinched in the church pews by my mother to stop goofing around a pay attention to the Fathers sermon.
Confession was the worst! ...especially when the same priest was coming over for Dinner to the house next Sunday!

As a teenager and young adult I justified not going to Church anymore because of the bad press/reputation the Catholic church was gaining. I could craftily argue with my Mother how it lacked logic and it was nothing more than political platform.  Maybe I was right...but...



I missed the point



You need faith, faith in something, faith in anything, you don't even have to put a name to it or call it a religion.

At some point in our lives we may find ourselves feeling completely alone. Parents pass away, spouses may not always understand and sometimes friendships can feel conditional or you may be the type that finds it incredibly uncomfortable to reach out for help.


Whatever the case, the sense of being completely alone especially during crisis can bring the strongest-willed person to their knees.
I think there is a human gravity and natural attraction to believe in something spiritual that we can source from when our inner strength is tested and tapped out. Something to gives us purpose for, something to set  our lives to a higher standard with, to hold all that is virtuous in the forefront. Something to relieve the fear and anguish of morality.


 ...so where do you turn? What religion is right? what philosophies to follow? Is all religion misleading? Why do we get caught up and argue about the details and miss the bigger message. Why do we fight about our religions?....These are the questions that Centuries have left unanswered, or answered in the individual 's own Faith.


What happens when you don't believe in anything or lost your faith in everything?


I suppose , the  answer is despair waits at the end of that road or maybe complete self-indulgence, which usually doesn't end well either.


As my son gets older, I realize, I need to find my "religion"...for his sake.
 He needs that source of strength and faith when I cant be there to save the day, or help him make the right decisions.





As I spend more time in the Martial Arts, it has become more concrete to me, how the three aspects of body, mind and soul contribute to a well rounded life long pursuit of becoming a Martial Artist and above all at peace as a human being.


What is my religion??...still searching, but I have faith in something...

Built in a Day

Rome was not built in a day, and nor is a Black Belt.

It is natural for people to look forward, look to their next step, want to know what is down the road. When something is laid out before our eyes it is easy to scan it all and anticipate when you can get through it all, plan a finish date.

some thoughts to share...

Short term goals are important for us. It gives us motivation to continue down a longer road, we are able to measure our progress at close range. The sense of accomplishment is more tangible.
What we need to be careful of(and this is my personal experience)  not to get caught up in the quantity of accomplishments but the quality in what you have before you.

I recall as a colored belt how the stripes I acquired on my belt became exciting! How I looked forward to  my Sifu witnessing where I was at with my curriculum. The stripes seemed easy, I was in good shape, the concepts were basic and I could mimic the Instructors demonstrations... then Blue Belt,... things changed.

This is where I had to go back and really understand the mechanics of what I was taught. Understand and practice the intangible concepts as "flow", "chi", "reaction and recovery", "judgement", etc.
If I was only mimicking what I saw my Instructors do, I could not apply these concepts to my skill set learnt thus far.

I had to go back and revisit my fundamentals and truly understand how my body needed to move, how my body feels when in the right stance, how my footwork might be slightly different then my fellow student beside me, why I would defend in such manner and analysis techniques and forms for their purpose.


What I'm getting at,   be patient with yourself, be patient with what seems to be simple techniques and savour the lessons taught. Take time to reflect after each class and look to understand the purpose of the lesson not just memorize. To be methodical in what you do can take longer...but its OK.


Don't look at achieving a  Black Belt as a race with your peers but rather a challenge to make the time spent of value. Time that counts towards building something solid...not having to go back and spend more time fixing what was rushed through the first time.


This of course, is me speaking from experience. Still fixing details that don't quite feel right. Still fixing bad habits from repeating something slightly incorrectly and now its ingrained in the old muscle memory.
You see, there is no end, just marker points. There is no question you should be aiming for that Black Belt marker point and definitely pushing yourself outside your comfort zone to achieve it.

But  quality in a Black Belt is built from the inside out not the outside in.

If you are a white belt, you are the luckiest person in the Universe! You are starting your martial arts journey and you have no bad habits! Keep that in mind as you move up the ranks...try and keep your training exact as you can. Question that which does not feel right, ask yourself the purpose of your movement and keep not only your physical being challenged but your mental game engaged from an early start.


If only my Future self could have lectured my Past self!:)

The Gift of Focus

Over the years of training in kung fu, one skill I have worked on and continue to work on is the skill and ability to focus on whatever it is I wish to perfect.

This is the time of year I feel excited for those who have put so much work into their goals. It all amounts to concentrated minutes in front of their peers, Sifus,  friends and family.
The hours and hours spent practicing come shining through as they focus on the pinnacle moment.

I admire that and I applaud that.

No matter the outcome, whether its absolute perfection or creative improvising, the Focus in the moment is what I admire most.


Good Luck to the I Ho Chuan team but most of all have Fun!

Get a Grip! or 2

Running on a treadmill is different than running on a track.
Running on a track is different than running outdoors.
Running in the summer is different than running in the winter!


took up running lately, or a least I try and imitate those running people. I thought winter was the down time until I found these little guys.. they just strap on the bottom and away I trudge...

When you run on slushy snow , its like running on a sandy beach..well ...with alot of imagination!

How do I train smarter?

This time of year is buzzing...
In the Kwoon everyone is busy reaching goals and polishing their end product. While others are busy setting goals for the up and coming.
I, as well, have some beastly size goals this year and admittedly, probably more than I can handle but, I have committed myself to them so time to train smart.

We all write down on paper what we want to achieve  but I'm a firm believer in measuring progress if you can.
Record  where you are at with your present skills and write down what you would like to achieve by the years end.
Now the tricky part is the path to get me there. Too often I fly out of the gate, tackle everything in three months then find myself exhausted , bored from the repetition, sore every morning from aching muscles and really not quite sure if I have made any progress.


During class yesterday, I had a quick but valuable conversation with some of the Sihings. They reminded me of a couple of key aspects to goal setting. One is frequency and the other was recovery.
If I want to progress I need to practice something with quality and frequently but also allow the body to recover and rebuild so the next time I train the body has adapted and improved its reaction to the physical stress.


Something like this.....

If the body is put into a situation of overload(physical work stress) its capacity to deal with it decreases. During the recovery period(rest time) the body's work capacity increases to a level greater than the original.
The strategy is not to let the recovery time lapse too much, so as to find yourself starting from scratch again. That being said, not to get back at it again too soon where a person is over-training and defeating themselves.

So here I go...
practice what I preach ,right!

Thanks for the quick but valuable chat, Sihings, Chervenka, Csillag and Tymchuk!!