June 3rd - Chinese Students and Review

Monk Spade - My Motivation

Peaceful Morning...

I woke up today feeling healthy, not sore, and refreshed. To me, this signifies that i haven't pushed myself hard enough this week. Its weird when feeling healthy is an off feeling; now don't get me wrong, during classes I'm pushing myself until I'm tired and sweaty. Being here has taught me that sweat doesn't always mean a good workout. Sore muscles, exhausted body, tired tendons are the signs of a better workout. Being here has also taught me that, along with the ups and downs of life, some weeks will be harder than others, I should just enjoy these "easy weeks" as a time to recover and focus on improving my weaker skills.

Following the trend of last week, this week has been very different every day. Master Bao has been teaching us and... the 5-6 new Chinese Teenagers that are here. Before, I heard a lot about Master Bao's really tough training. How he will test us, how we will be tired and sore, but so far the training has been just like the other Masters with a few changes. Warm ups. They are way longer under his teaching compared to the others and we do the splits multiple times each day as part of our warm up. So it is a little different.

Kung Fu School - 4 Month Reflection - Is it worth it?

Most of my thoughts this morning focus on this place, this Kung Fu School, and how much was different compared to my thoughts and what was on the website. Its enjoyable being here but sometimes when I think about the good and bad things here, I feel a bit cheated.

• No Mandarin Classes
• No Wushu Theory Classes
• No Medicine/Massage Classes
• No Calligraphy Classes
• No School Store (You can only buy Water and broken weapons)
• No Bagua/Liang Yi Classes
  
• When I first got here, No Punching Bags
• Broken Lights, Broken Toilets, Power Outages, Mold in Rooms (All still current problems)
• Very Poor Training Gear (Old Gloves, Broken Pads, Fragile Weapons)
  

Now, no one could've predicted the Corona-virus happening but because of that there is:

• No Baji Classes
• No Taichi Classes
• No Wing Chun Classes
• No Morning Qi Gong/Tai Chi classes

Even with all of this, I've still learned a lot, improved flexibility, and enjoyed my time with the other students and masters. That really is the big factor, the other students. If they were not here I don't know if this place would be as enjoyable, I think the minimal food, tiredness, and other bad things would make me want to leave. Also... I paid and can't get a refund, that's a big motivator to stay too.

I guess you could call this an early draft of my review of the school.

The World that I live in

Evening Wind Down...

There is a reason that I write my posts with this "morning thoughts/evening thoughts" format. I enjoy seeing how my view changes and today, it definitely has as today's training was a bit tougher than the previous days.

Training

Master Peng is back from helping his friend out so he ran Basics Class for us. It was all kicking and stretching, which just made me realize how little control I have over my body. My basic kicks were off and my legs were really stiff... just means I need to stretch and practice some more. Forms Class was also ran by Master Peng but we only reviewed our forms... again. I ended up practicing Baji Quan, Tong Bei and Shaolin Yin Shou Staff. Hopefully our spears will arrive soon so that we can start learning something new.

Most of my free time was spent stretching and doing stance practice as I've realized doing this helps a lot with recovery. Sadly, my flexibility isn't getting better. My body is at some sort of progress plateau but I keep trying. Master Tang told me that flexibility needs a long time to get any progress, if you get injured you'll lose a lot of that progress. These things are what I keep in mind while stretching to help keep me motivated.

Sanda Class was interesting as we had someone new teach us. Master Bao was supposed to teach us but he was busy with something else so Coach Qian taught us. It was a good class, we worked combos on the punching bag for the whole hour. It felt like I was back at Absolute MMA again, just pushing myself, focusing on footwork, movement, and landing hits at different angles. It was also the first time in a long time that I had confidence in my moves again. Coach Qian taught me how to better throw an uppercut and a hook which I'll keep in mind! My sidekicks are still terrible though.

Reflections~

Kung Fu Life. That is what I'm living right now and its something that I want to live for a while. I do miss my other hobbies like painting miniatures and reading. I just have to figure out how to fit them into my schedule here because I do have a lot of free time. Our classes only take up 4-6 hours a day which leaves plenty of time to do other things... like write a blog, stretch, or take photos. Sometimes I wonder if I'm using my time wisely or if I'm wasting it.

Was your Wednesday good?

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