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Broadsword II

My weapon for this year is Chinese Broadsword… again. I have decided that every time I have a grading year I will choose this as my weapon, and I will add a new section to my form, so this go-around it will be Kayley-Broadsword-II (definetely need to workshop the name). I think it will be a really cool way to measure my growth in between each grading, to see how the way I build forms changes: what motions am I doing, where am I generating my power from, what things am I paying attention to during the building process? Additionally how has the way I’m doing the form changed (especially when doing the older section): How has my timing changed, how am I doing the transitions, has my intent changed?  I started building out some of the sections and already there is a huge difference compared to Kayley-Broadsword-I. When I made that form, it was my first year on the I Ho Chuan team and my first time EVER making my own form.  It took me ages to try to string together sections and I ...
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Changes

I’m not sure how to start this…  I am so out of practice in my blogging, and everything that I want to start off with is either negative, or an excuse. But I want to use the changing of the Year of the Horse as a clean slate, a way to leave behind the guilt from last year, from the last seven months, from yesterday, from 5 minutes ago. In the absence of my blogs last year No. The past is trying to slip out again, and I said I wanted to use this as a clean slate. I need to shift my focus from who I was, to who I am, and who I am trying to become during this upcoming year. I am very excited to be on the very first Kao Shi team, I am also daunted by the weight this holds. I know that I want to really strive to push myself this year and that brings the same feelings of anticipation and fear. Those two feelings are so similar, a quickening heart rate, shorter breaths, that buzzing feeling at the base of my rib cage, vibrations in my bones, but they stem from different perspectives. My e...
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As Promised

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I was SO sure I was going to blog after Sifu Rybak’s last prompting for us to write something  over the weekend, or to even at least check when the last time we posted a blog was, but I did not do either and somehow all that time has slipped by me without my notice of how long it has actually been or how many ideas I have lost because I did not capture them, explore them, or share them. But that’s not what this blog is going to be about, a blog about holding myself accountable, about what I have been doing wrong in my approach to blogging this whole year, and what I am going to do to fix it. That blog needs to be written, and soon, but the thought of writing that big self-critical and completely honest analysis of my year sounds daunting, and when compounded with the guilt from missing the last prompt, and having not written anything in that time, writing that blog right now would be detrimental to my progress. The pressure would stop me before I could even open my laptop. So inste...
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Tonight’s Class

 Things I learned in blackbelt class tonight: 1) it is valid to have your intent be “to have fun” while running through a form! For so long I have been working on always having a reason or some focus when I’m going through a form, I’m working on my horse stances, I’m working on this particular technique, I’m trying to understand this motion, I’m trying to feel my energy, but tonight Sifu Hayes reminded me that every once and a while I need to do my forms for the sake of enjoyment. To remind myself why I love them so much. To feel the joy of movement that inspires me to do each form again and again in the future. I have been too focused on developing knowledge, and skill and I have been neglecting deepening my passion. 2) I have been doing the high-rising-block-palm-heel part of Mlong Kuen AND LAU GAR WRONG THIS ENTIRE TIME?! So, it’s nice to have that straightened out. 3) I also had my arms reversed (left hand was on the bottom, right hand was on the top, and it’s actually meant to...
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