3.42

 This week we continued to do more Triangle Stepping pattern in class, but I got to work with Mr. Bauer instead of my dad for one class. Working with someone else really helped me get a feeling for how a technique needs to be applied differently on different people. my dad and I are basically the same size and shape so it was essentially like doing techniques on myself. Mr. Bauer on the other hand, isn't the same as me, so I was "blind" to what was going on. I had a difficult time finding the locking point for the legs, getting the arms in the right position, and taking him to the ground. Taking him to the ground was probably the most weird part for me because I'm used to gently helping my dad to the ground so that he has an easier time getting back up. I think that switching up my partner was a great idea and learning curve for me.

3.41

 This past week in class we worked on the triangle stepping pattern. I liked this for two reasons. One, I got to throw my dad to the ground multiple times, and two, one of my five techniques is based off of the triangle stepping pattern. It really helped me understand the flow of the original technique, which I then applied to my technique. This made my techniques feel so much better and a lot more natural. I also did an actual hip throw with my training partner for the first time, and it is definitely something that needs lots of work. This week turned out to be very beneficial for my training.

3.40

 Over the past couple weeks I have been working lots on my 5 techniques, and I think that they're getting fairly good. I started working on them a bit late, so I'm kinda impressed with the amount of progress that has been made on them so far. I still have lots of work to do before grading, but I'm comfortable with where they're at for now. One of my biggest troubles with them was going away from the curriculum. I found this difficult because that's what I've always practiced, and what's on the curriculum was mostly my first instinct when it came to defending against and deflecting an attack. I was going over the Knife defenses in the curriculum today, and when I got to the "defense against knife slash" one I realized that the beginning is nearly identical to one of my techniques, but the end is completely different. That's when I realized how much the curriculum influences my techniques and how I think abut defense in general.

3.37

 Mental training vs Physical training is something that I might've blogged about before, but I've been thinking about it a lot recently.

They're two sides of the same coin, but they can be very different from each other. Physical training can't happen at all times, such as the middle of an exam in school, but Mental training can. Mental training doesn't necessarily mean thinking about Kung Fu, but more thinking in a Kung Fu way. It's about the approach you take when thinking about something. Instead of just doing something, you could do something and ask yourself why am I doing this the way I am? Is there a better way? If there is, why am I not doing it? Looking for an improvement to something your doing is what I think Mental training is. Physical training is a bit more simple, it's forms, techniques, cardio, push-ups, sit-ups etc. They can be put together too, if you're practicing a technique and you find that it's working but it doesn't feel good, you can ask yourself why. Thinking about this topic can also be a way of Mental training, as it makes you dive deeper into your mind about what Kung Fu is to you.

3.36

 Today was our second round of preliminary grading for Black Belt. This was the round that determined if we are going to grade or not this year. We'll find out what the results are later tonight, but I'm not really sure what's actually going to happen. If I get to grade this year, I'll be happy and I'll continue on with my training, but if I don't get to grade, I'll be a little bit disappointed but I'll still continue on with my training. One thing that is making me think I'm more likely to pass is that I feel like my forms have improved lots since the first round. On the other hand, my fitness doesn't feel much better, so I really have no idea what the outcome will be.

3.35

 Ever since I started going to the kids classes again, my confidence in my training has improved greatly. Before I started, I was questioning if I "deserved my spot" in class. (Blog 3.27) Since then, I started to see what my Kung Fu was like six years ago as an Orange Belt in the Level two Black Dragons class, compared to where it is now as a second degree Brown Belt in the level two Teens & Adults class. The amount of growth and improvement that has happened in that amount of time is surreal to me, seeing as Kung Fu has been in my life since I was two, and the change between two and ten is nowhere close to the change between ten and sixteen. I can't wait to see what kind of changes the next six or so years bring to my Kung Fu!

3.34

 Today my family went around some parts of Stony Plain and put up door hangers for Mayor Choy's re-election, and it took most of the day. There was around 11 volunteers, so there wasn't a lot of people to help us cover all of Stony Plain, so it took most of the day. I walked over 16 kilometers, which is about double the amount of kilometers I average in a day. I got to see lots of parts of Stony that I haven't seen before, so now I know the town just a little bit better. Reading the maps for which houses we were going to took almost all the map reading skills in my whole family, which made us slow down a bit to make sure we were in the right neighborhood. We didn't get to all the subdivisions, so we'll have to find some time to do that during the week. In the end, I'd have to say that was a pretty good and relaxing way to spend my last day as a 15 year old, as I turn 16 on Monday.