Sanshou class

Today in Sanshou we had a rare opportunity. There were 3 of us que belts and 6 sifus. It was great opportunity to spar with so many sifus (and the other 2 que belts are pretty good too). Each opponent present different challenges and lots to learn from.

The sad thing is that it is actually common to have a very low participation in this class when this is a great class to learn and to get better in martial arts.

Try it out few times and I hope you will see the benefits of attending this class on a regular basis (and you might be able to catch up with the sparring requirement).

Blog

Work is still very demanding. So many things to learn and so many more responsibilities. I'm trying to manage all clients and it feels like juggling. I always prefer to have some solid time focusing on a task rather then being interrupt all the time. People say they can multi-task at work but it is not really multi-tasking as we are only doing one thing at a time and we just switch from one to another all the time. This has proven to be not productive in terms of work.

This is also taking a toll of my personal life. I'm extremely tired when I get home and I cannot find the energy nor the mental capacity to learn for my Microsoft certificate. After 8 hours of work in front of the computer at work the most I can do is to read blogs (and write some).

That brings me to another point. Some of us are late in blogging. If you are reading this blog and you haven't blogged for more than 7 days, write your blog NOW. Tell us how your day/week was.

Sparring Night

I think that in the last year I became more relaxed while sparring. Realizing that I can protect myself and deliver counter attacks. Today I was nervous sparring. Today I was sparring, for the first time, with sifu Brinker. I was trying really hard not to look into his eyes and focus on his chest. I knew his look will melt my guards down. I probably was more rigid than usual and I did get hit a lot but I think I learned from this match as I did from all the great matches I had today. During the round with sifu Brinker, he kept lowering his guards and giving me some openings (false openings I presume). I was very anxious but survived (beside a sore nose) to blog. 

I was feeling down today. The stress at work is pounding hard. Then the drive home and strait into class, with a horrible headache. But after few rounds of sparring I felt much better. I guess this is what happening when I get bunked in the head too many times...

Scrambling

This weekend I was scrambling. l took a scrambling course in Canmore. This weekend I learnt lots about scrambling, path finding, evaluating risks and leading a group of hikers. I also learnt about myself - what can I do and how far I can set my limits.

On both days when the instructors showed us where we are going, my initial response was - no way, I cannot do this. At the top I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I did it in-spite of the fear and anxiety.

Can I do it again? Yes, with support from a team.

Happy Canada Day

I'm so happy. I broke all 4 boards. This was a a learning process for me an d I kept changing my sequence until I felt I got it right. Practicing with real boards in class makes a huge difference as real boards are different from shields and from the re-breakable boards. I want to thank my two sifus - sifu Bryant and sifu Masterson - who help me getting to this sequence. I want to thank my wife who helped me practice. And I also want to help everyone else for the encouragement and support.

The rest of the day was great as well. First with the Parade, then the Dragon Dance and the demo. I felt we all did a great job. I could hear the spectators and I think they really liked it.

Happy Canada Day everyone!!!

(and than you sifu Masterson for the photo I used for this blog)