Saturday, July 23, 2016

Away for a bit.

I have been on holidays for this past week and took some time to go down to Drumheller for 3 days hence not being around much last week. I will be on holidays next week as well but should be around for most classes.

I have been keeping up with my training and exercise program which has helped keep me engaged.

See everyone soon.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Boot Camp

What is boot camp and why should I go? These are the questions I asked myself for years and I always came up with the same answer. Its just a day where people will judge me and I will get nothing out of it so I wont go. I told myself this right up until I was a Sihing.

At Sihing I started to realize what it would take to become a black belt at that boot camp was an opportunity presented to me that I never took advantage of. That first boot camp was amazing and I got so much more out of it than I expected. The biggest regret is that was my first and only boot camp as a student. If I had only gone before that, who knows where I would have been in my training.

I have gone to boot camp after but now as a black belt. there is still a lot of value in it for me but not as much as when I was going for black belt. I have also instructed some seminars at boot camp and my goal is to try to pass on knowledge about what helps me in my training or what am I passionate about. I believe that anyone putting on a seminar is doing it for these same reasons. We want to pass on something that will hopefully inspire the students or make them want to pursue something further.

I have a couple of ideas that I have put out there for seminars at boot camp so hopefully we will see you there.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Is it worth it?

I have a lot of people ask me what's with the sawhorse? This starts a long conversation beginning with its not a sawhorse it's a horse bench. From there it's why I have a horse bench to Kung Fu to the I Ho Chuan.

Then people ask why would you want to do that? There are so many reasons that I stumble over my words as they all try to come out at once. I usually have to focuss for a second and gather my thoughts before I answer.

The single biggest reason is because it has made me a better person. Before they ask how, I continue with the how.
It has taught me how to structure my life and stick to a plan. It has taught me to focus on the important things in life and don't sweat the small stuff. It has taught me the importance of family (my own family and my Kung Fu family). And it caused me to evaluate where I was physically and made me make changes to inmprove my eating habits and my improve my fitness level.

Most people look at me like that is crazy that I would do all this but some say they wish they could do something like this as they would like to make similar changes in their own life's. This makes me happy that I am part of the I Ho Chuan this year as I think I am actually embracing the process this year for the first time since my black belt grading year.