How much practice is too much?

As I continue on my journey being part of UBBT 8. I have been noticing a change in how I have been doing one of my forms. At the beginning of UBBT one of my goals that I choose is to do 1000 reps of a form called Lao Gar. Now that is approximately 3 repetitions min per day for 365 days. To date I am happy to say that I am on track of meeting that goal. But as I continue to do these reps and strive to improve, it seems or feels to me that the more I do the worse I seem to be getting. Or is it that I am just starting to notice the other things that I have been doing incorrectly, like a hand position not quite right, a stance slightly off, or the flow of a technique feeling a little out of sync. As I continue on practicing this form daily and make corrections I wonder. Am I developing an eye for detail or am I just becoming so sloppy in my forms that it has become blatantly obvious that a blind man could see my mistakes?

Can you ever practice enough?

Have you ever had one of those weeks??

Sunday I must admit was a good day but when Monday rolled around let me tell you it was not pretty. I will not go into any graphic details other then I was sick, really sick.

I did manage to keep up on my UBBT goals and even dragged myself off to Monday’s class in Onoway. Tuesday I was no better, I struggled to keep up with my goals and I even force myself to go and put in extra practice time on my forms in the evening. When Wednesday arrived I was bond and determined to go back to work no matter how bad I felt, but instead when I woke up in the morning I discovered that my furnace was not working and the house temperature was at 15ºC (59ºF) with the outside temperature of -22ºC (-7.5ºF). Through out the day as I checked, tested, retested the furnace, called a repair man to check, test and retest my furnace. I did push ups and sit ups to offset my frustration on why my furnace would not run and also to try and stay warm, it had dropped another 5ºC. In the end the culprit was found. It happened to be the gas meter and the gas company had to come out to replace it. The heat was back on and the house was warming up, but I was not doing so well by then. Either I had over done it or it was the cold, but I was defiantly not doing so well. That evening I did not go to class or even continued working on any of my goals. I just crashed in my cozy bed in my warm house.

A person must rest and let the body recover sometimes.

Thursday I woke up feeling better, went to work finally. I think my week is back on track.

Working Together

Like some I also have been having a tough time, trying to write something this week. Most times I just let the weeks events since the last time I have written dictate what I write about. But I hate repeating what my fellow team mates have already spoken about. Yes you most likely guessed it; it would be about our Chinese New Year celebration. The celebrations, the demos, the food, the speeches, the awards, and the Lion Dance were all excellent as a person has come to expect from Silent River Kung Fu. But what a lot of the other students didn’t see or have experienced yet is the sense of team work and family camaraderie that you get from helping out with set up preparations before and the clean up afterwards. This is my third year helping out with the banquette preparations and I wouldn’t miss it for anything. I implore those of Silent River Kung Fu that haven’t experienced this before to step up next year and be part an experience that you won’t regret or forget. It will cement in you a sense of family and team work, which a lot of us at Silent River have come to know and cherish.

Ok this may not have had anything to do with my UBBT 8 journey but I had to write it.

Until next week

A Pebble in the Pond

When I chose to become a student member of the UBBT, I did not realize at that time that what I was doing would affect those around me.
A few of the goals that I set for myself was concerned with a change to my diet, one of them is to consume 1000 liters of water in a year, the other is to eat a fruit a day, and also to top it off I will cut out all soft drink consumption for the year. For the last month I have been finding while I have be following these goals that my eating habits have been changing. I am becoming more conscious of what I am eating and feeding my family. There is now fresh fruit in the house for lunches and snaking on instead of prepackaged fruit that the kids took in their lunches to school. I am preparing meals using fresh vegetables instead of frozen or caned; I also have been cutting down on the amount of processed meats/meals (the quick dinners) that enter the house.

I must remember that as I make changes in my life, these changes will also affect the people around me.