way too many commas

Sifu Rybek said something during Monday's class that as soon as she said it, I wanted to run and grab my notebook so I could write it down accurately. After class I was trying to remember as best I could and once it got filtered through my brain and my memory here is what I had.  "Stances do not become stances until they serve you."  Meaning, you can stand in a perfect bow stance, meeting all the "requirements" (hips facing forward, knee over ankle, shoulders ahead of hips, etc.) but if you're settling into it before you throw your punch that is not a bow stance you're just standing in a specific way. Stances ARE transitions.  They don't exist as a snapshot; I've always thought of them as a static thing , the tiny pause in movement that happens in the flow between techniques, but now I'm realizing that the "transitions" between moves are not a separate thing from the stance, the stance is motion! And then I start thinking oh that ...

On Tuesday I heard the exact same phrase repeated in both the young dragon class and in our blackbelt class ("turn with your whole body") and the deja vu of it hit me like a ton of bricks. In that moment the differences and the similarities between our two classes were laid out so clearly in front of me.  How regardless of age, or rank, we are all  striving to improve our lion dancing, we are all receiving the same lessons, we are all working on our kung fu. That idea that "there are no black belt level techniques, only kung fu" was staring me in the face. And it was such a beautiful and serendipitous moment that I wanted to remember and record it in a (albeit quick) blog.

I have been thinking about my lion dancing, how I am approaching it and what intent I have. I want to get better and I usually have fun doing it, but I also noticed somewhere along the way I started just going through the motions during our practice time in the blackbelt class, or even feeling apprehensive or anxious when I would hear sifu Brinker say "pair up" at the start of class.  Thinking about it and trying to analyze my thoughts in preparation for this blog I realized that I was training like I was a greenbelt again. To be clear I have seen many greenbelts with drive and intent in their training, but I was certainly not one of them. I remember showing up to class and listening to the instructors, but consistent improvement and ah-ha moments were few and far between. Most of the time I was only maintaining what is was that got me this far, I didn't understand how important it is to push yourself in every single technique you do. Most of the time I was ok with being ...