5.5 (February 19)

 About a month ago I injured my shoulder during class. I was holding the bags during the Level II Teen/Adults class and on the very last one I put my arms up a fraction of a second too late and it ended in injury. Over the next few weeks it slowly got better, but it took a lot of effort to not use my shoulder as much. I think it gave me a new perspective on how much I use my shoulders during a form, because as soon as I would put any ‘power’ through it, it would hurt. This is one of the few times where I’d say an injury has been extremely helpful for my Kung Fu.

5.4 (February 12)

 I Am Quiet

    Being quiet is something I've come to develop over time, and it has both it's advantages and disadvantages. Being quiet can come in handy when I'm talking to someone about something serious, as I'm usually able to find the voice that fits the situation perfectly. It also works to somewhat shock some people when I speak up or raise my voice, as they're usually used to me not saying much, and if I do it's very low and somber-like. One of the places that being quiet isn't that helpful is when I'm teaching, especially teaching the kids. Kids get distracted very easily, so to keep their attention on you while teaching you have to make your voice 'fun'. The key to doing that is by changing the pattern, inflection, loudness, etc. frequently to keep them engaged in what you're saying. I really struggle at this, as it seems like my voice only has three different modes: quiet, loud, and louder. Not ideal, but oh well. Every week, I try to work on making my voice better at keeping attention, and it's definitely a slow process. I would like to somewhat move away from being a quiet person, but not entirely, as it's upsides can be very useful at times.

5.3 (February 5)

    Transferring a weapon form to another weapon is something that I've always liked doing, whether it was with the stick form with nun-chucks, or a sword form with a stick. I've just found it fun to do, and a good way to make me think about how a form works. That's what I'm doing this year for my weapon form. I am taking my stick form from last year and reworking it into a cane form. This one has proven to be more difficult, but not in the way I thought it would be. I thought it would be difficult to translate some of the moves over, but that's not giving me much trouble. The difficult part is getting the moves to look like they fit with the cane, as I can do them just fine, but they look out of place with a cane. The biggest spot in my form that this is apparent is near the middle, where I have the "strike-cross step-block" section from stick III. I have been told that it looks weird when doing it with a cane, so I have been trying to find something different to replace it with while still being able to finish off the form in the same way. I have come up with a move, but it seems to end up in a different stance every time I do it, so I'm not too sure if it's going to stay.

5.2 (January 29)

    For the past few months I have been working on involving my hips more in Tai Chi, and it has started to trickle down into the rest of my Kung Fu. The main reason I started working on my hips more was so I could use my shoulders less, and this past week that had really started to show. I was helping my Dad with a move where he was engaging his shoulder and I wasn't, So I told him to turn with the wrist instead of the shoulder. Now, I don't know if it's physically possible to turn your wrist in the way needed without lifting your shoulder, but I find it is possible to do it without engaging the shoulder. Instead of initiating the movement with shoulder, then moving through the elbow and finally to the wrist, I initiate with the wrist, and let the elbow and shoulder 'drag along' without engaging. 

    Being able to do things like that is only half of my goal when working on my hips. The other half is maintaining a low center of gravity. I have always tended to keep my weight high, as I've been told is common with taller people, so trying to bring it down low and then keep it there has been a big struggle for me. With every class that I go to, it gets a little bit better, so I will stay on that trajectory and keep working on it.

5.1 (January 22)

    This is my first blog of the year, and it is two weeks late. Not a great start. If you look at my last blog from last year, it was the blog for the 19th week, meaning I did well under half of the required blogs. Also not great. Roughly 40% of blogs were completed, which doesn’t qualify as a pass at school, and something I definitely believes does not count as a pass in this situation. This doesn’t mean my whole year last year was a fail, but it sure didn’t help. My online presence was nearly non-existent last year, where I only responded to events and didn’t read very many blogs. Again, not helping my ‘record’ for the year. Overall, I see the Year of the Tiger as a pass for me, but a slight pass with lots of room for improvement this year. If I can keep my online engagement up and my blogs consistent, I will have my most successful year so far.

Zhang Fei Most Improved Award

 The Zhang Fei award for most improved is an award that highlights the massive improvement a student can make in a year. Improvement isn’t necessarily something that can be measured in Kung Fu, but it can definitely be seen. Improving consistently can be difficult at times, and to maintain consistent improvement takes a lot of hard work. This award is for the students who worked the hardest to make as much improvement as they can.

4.19 (June 12)

    My personal requirements for next year have been a little bit messy up to this point, which is something that I find happens every year. This year, has been messier than the others however, as it is the first year that I have changed all of my requirements completely. For the first three years in the I Ho Chuan, I had reading the entire 'Lord of the Rings' series, for years three and four I had a certain amount of kicks that I wanted to. This year, those are all gone. 

    At first my requirements for this year were very similar to my requirements for last year, which is part of the reason that they got rejected at first. Once the December I Ho Chuan meeting happened, (After the deadline I know) I decided to revamp my requirements entirely. When I went back and looked at my previous requirements, I saw how they 'helped' me, and just me. They 'helped' me in a very non-meaningful way, as in they didn't necessarily help me advance or secure a specific aspect of my life. The way that my requirements are now (Still not accepted but getting closer) is much more meaningful and helpful towards the life that I want to live when I grow up. I would share my requirements here, but as I stated, they are still not finalized and I don't want the public knowledge to be inacurrate later on.