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Spear, and Tigers, … and Blogging

We have been focusing on learning the school spear form in blackbelt class recently and I am having a blast with it so far! I have always wanted to learn more of the school weapons forms, but with applying  new lessons to the forms I already know, and still trying to get Mlong Kuen to be a bit more developed, it never felt like the right time to reach out and try to learn some of them, but now I have the opportunity to focus on it.  I am finding it interesting because so much of it is so familiar because of the foundation I have from the stick form, but at the same time time it feels so foreign because the reach, the center of balance, and the blade of the spear all change how I can use it.  Sihing Yitzik Csillag mentioned that I need to do it “less Tiger, more Crane” and I’m really excited to apply this imagery as I build my muscle memory in the form for the first time. I mentioned this in my sword form break-down blog: I really want to investigate how the 5 animals mani...
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Failure

This morning I was doing my first set of pushups for the day. When I was done I entered them into my tracking spreadsheet and updated the values for today’s date, and my heart sank. I missed a week. My blogging streak was over, and I have failed. I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to take this lightly, this is a test, the requirements are clearly laid out for us, this is a black and white answer, either I do it or I don't, and I didn’t .  I don’t know what to do. There are two trains of thought running through my mind, in some places the tracks cross over each other. 1) I have failed, it is over, there is no recovering, no amount of clever words in this blog will change the objective truth that I have failed the blogging requirement. 2) Failure is part of the journey, I knew I would fall off the wagon, now I need to minimize the amount of time I spend laying face-down in the mud. I can’t let this set back discourage me from continuing to work towards my blogging goal for the res...
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Broadsword II Part 1

I really wanted to write a blog detailing my thought, goals, and intents that went into creating my forms this year. I thought I would write one for my broadsword and one form my hand form, but that would likely get a bit long. Then I thought I might need to split each one in half and do sword part 1 and sword part 2, but that might still be too long. Now I’m realizing I will likely need at least 3 or 4 sections to cover everything while still writing the blog in a reasonable time frame. So here is part 1/? Of Broadsword II: Here are some of the main things I was thinking about when making my Broadsword form: 1) my primary goal was to try to find new and interesting ways to use the sword so that it would look distinct from my previous broadsword form  2) I wanted to utilize the idea of the 5 animals and the 5 elements somewhere in the sequence to improve my understanding of each one and see how they manifested in my techniques/knowledge Ok so into each techniques! (which I wi...
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Oops, a Whole Week?!

Just a check in blog. This week flew by and hadn’t noticed I haven’t published a blog this week yet, need to put something into place so this does not happen in the future. Actual blog coming soon but I wanted to post this to maintain my consistency. Current Total Push-ups 7667 Sit-Ups 5454 AOK 185 Km 515 Blogs 9 Sparring 12 Hand Form 113 Weapon Form 147 Repair Relationship 0
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Coming Soon to a Beta Form Near You

Less than a week until our beta forms are due and I am feeling both excited and nervous. I got a good start on my forms this year and I was having a ton of fun revisiting the broadsword, and working to build a hand form for the first time. Sadly some part of me saw this early progress, patted itself on the back and said ‘ you can ease up a bit, you’ve got lots of time ’ so with me working on them more sporadically, and the due date soon approaching I am starting to feel the pressure of the deadline, especially since I have two forms I need to work on. But I am starting to more progress on them again, and I am trying to not allow my focus on the deadline to influence my creation of them. I don’t want the pressure to keep me from exploring initial ideas, or falling down certain rabbit holes; I don’t want to make something that is ‘good enough for now and can be changed later’. I want to keep making something I’m proud of and can’t wait to show everyone on the 18th, so I am trying to find...
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