Catch-up

This weekend I was away on a trip with a group of friends from work. The days were filled with driving and photography. Every day we woke up before 6am to catch the twilight and sunrise. Then drove the whole day between Jasper and Banff, stopping once in awhile to take more photos. Then getting to bed around 10pm. Long long days.

Although I was thinking of my plank challenge and of other KF exercises, I did not have the time or energy to do them. Maybe also an issue with doing it outside of my regular training areas - home, kwoon, gym.

I have to catch-up with the plank challenge but I also have to deal with a bigger challenge I have - to be able to exercise and do my Kung Fu where ever I am.

Leading (where?)

Sometimes innocent remarks can be taken the wrong way. As an instructor I'm always careful with what I say. Sometimes it is limiting. I'm not going to lie to someone but at the same time there is always a good and a bad way to say something.

Even a positive note can be taken the wrong way by someone else. For example, if I say that "all students that signed up for forms seminar are great",  does it mean that the students who did not sign up (for whatever reason) are not great? No of-course not. But it might seemed that way for some students.

Anything we say and do as leaders has an affect on our surrounding. It is no surprise that leaders lead by example. We do what we want others to do.

Not just another day

Yesterday in our IHC meeting there were few of us who talked and made me feel this is all worth it. Hearing Mr. Kirkman and knowing how much the group support is important to him, to hear about Mr. Kohut success story - wow, hearing about Mrs. Tomie feelings towards the kwoon and how she is enjoying quality time with her daughters (and smoke free for a month!). There were more stories and I think this was one of these meetings were I felt - there is a purpose for all of this. Not just for me but for others in the team.

Then there was today...

Early lion dance at the Rotary Run for Life. What an event - full with powerful emotions. I hope that I will never have to deal with something like that with a close relative. It felt so great to be part of the lion dance (even if my part was minimal) opening the event ceremony.

Then later in the afternoon, a demo at the seniors lodge. The team did great. We had multiple demos going on including the lion dance, weapon forms, hand forms, fight choreography, board breaking and dragon dance. It was awesome! Everyone who was there did a great job! I think the seniors really enjoyed it. What a great community service from our team.

I'm so happy to be on the IHC team and feel privileged to know each and one of you.

Plank Challenge

This year was and still is very challenging in the physical aspects of my requirements. My back is not cooperating, to say the least, with my routine and my plans.

I've been working on some back exercises routine and also mobility routine that I hope will get me on the right path for full recovery but it has been bumpy in the last couple months due to vacations and other stuff.

I decided I want to improve my core strength and chose the plank as my go to exercise. I am going to challenge my self to do 1,000 minutes of plank by the end of 2016. I will keep a weekly tally on SRKF Google group to keep me motivated and to try to encourage others to join me.