way too many commas

 In this weeks Blackbelt class we got to do a choke escape application and I felt WAY out of my depth. Part of it is definitely because I have let a fair bit of dust collect on my choke defence skills as I haven’t practiced them in quite a while. When we work on sections of forms I have been able to apply the insights and skill from when I am practicing forms outside of class so that when we work on new things in class I can do them at the same level. However since the opportunity to do applications in class is fewer and further between, and my practice time outside of class in these areas is pretty non-existent, I can’t do them in a way that matches the level of my Kung fu in other areas. The rest of the blog is going to sound negative, but I am not writing it with the intent to point out how far behind I’ve fallen, but instead to highlight how much further I could go! In blackbelt class I want to apply my intent and do things at a level 10, but tonight feel closer to a level 4,...

Last Saturday the stars aligned and I was able to make it in for open training! Sidai (S) Csillag had offered to work on some lion dance stuff with me and towards the end of our practice I made a connection while practicing my “throwing the lettuce” section that I wanted to explore and document in a blog.  As we started integrating lion dancing in our classes at the school I would hear instructors justify to students why it was part of our curriculum. The explanations I heard the most were variations on this idea: There is Kung fu in our lion dances, so we practice the dance to strengthen our Kung fu . I would hear this and take it a very surface level, there are Kung fu stances in the dance: cat, open-x, low-back, etc.. As I thought about it more I thought I was taking it deeper by thinking that the same lessons we stress in our forms can be found in the dance: intensity, engaging the eyes, adding a snap to the end of your movements, but a new layer clicked for my on Saturday: Kun...

 A few weeks ago I had a one-on-one, the night before I realized that it was coming up the next morning and I had no questions prepared and nothing I could think to about or talk about. Grasping at straws I thought I would talk about my requirements and see if I could get help working on my sparring numbers to see if there was a good way I could work on it and develop my sparring skills without a partner since I feel like I haven’t made great progress with that particular requirement. I didn’t think much was going to come from asking a question like this but the more I dug into the answer I received, the more I realized how deep this rabbit hole might go!  I’ve heard many times, need to work on fitness: do forms, need to work on timing: do forms, need to work on footwork: do forms, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when the answer to my question was need to work on sparring: do forms but I never thought about how I should be doing my forms with the intent to improve my spar...