Train More. Think Less.

While having lunch after training today, we buzzed in two of our long time Shaolin brothers - Hannah T. and Chris E. Chris came to say goodbye before moving to Ohio. We had a mini Buddhism class talking.

We discussed how most injuries happened when you started thinking. How your body is smarter than your head. The conclusion is that while training - don't think - just do it.

But is this true?

Training is action meditation. But what's meditation? I think it's being present and focusing on the action, and the surrounding. Thinking about a meal after training isn't part of the meditation. I understand that. How about thinking about the space between the person in front of me and behind me in the line? Or how I should always keep my weight on the standing leg while kicking? What does that count as? Is that part of meditation? Is the goal here to have nothing in your head at all or some sensible things are OK?

I think it is. I think any positive thoughts involving the present is my meditation.

Roll with it, baby!

Tonight's class started awkwardly for me -- a last minute trip to the toilet at 6:59pm (I had to pee!) ensured I missed the opening Amituofos. I washed my hands and dashed out quickly to get in line only to experience a moment of fear -- Han started off class with somersaults galore. Ever since tweaking my shoulder sometime last summer, I've been loathe to do anything that might injure my shoulder further. But with the rushed start, I didn't have much time to deliberate. I knew I didn't want to begin by chickening out and going to the side, so I went for it. I rolled and rolled and rolled myself into dizziness. Wheeeeeeee! It was kinda exhilarating, doing one after another down the carpet. We kept doing different versions of somersaults, and I kept pushing myself, and by the end (or at least until we started the next basic), I was delighted.

We maintained a good pace throughout class, doing all kinds of combos that Han seems to favor. Then she threw the pork chop pads at us and told us to partner up. Everyone quickly formed pairs, leaving me and Jian as the last couple. I have to admit, I then experienced my second moment of fear that evening. Well, maybe not fear, but definitely hesitation. I instantly recalled one time when some of us dorks decided to go on an outing to a fencing school, and being paired up with him and getting clobbered! If you don't know Jian, he is built like an ox in stature and sometimes in temperament in that he will persist and not let up. =)

So, Jian held the pad first and we had to futotui our way down the carpet. He proved to be a most excellent partner despite the height differential, encouraging me and giving me helpful pointers all the way. He coaxed me into audibly injecting chi with every kick, and I went with it, yelling and kicking hard. It too was great fun, especially hearing the others call my name. Thanks so much, Jian, for your chi!

Sometimes, you have to just shrug off your inhibitions and Roll with it, baby!

Absence makes the blog grow duller

While I searched for an old post for reference in my last post, I found this lovely poem from Heng Cheng. And since we haven't been keeping up the chi here, I thought I would republish it:

Oh KFD Bloggers! Where did you go?!
Your posts entertain me and work is so slow.
I know that you’re busy. You all have real lives.
Boyfriends and girlfriends and fake baker-wives.
But I know you’re still training; I saw you last night!
Yet no posts appearing? Now that just ain’t right!
I’m sorry; forgive me. I shouldn't complain.
But there’s something so lovely in sharing your pain.
So turn off the gchat, and turn off the phone,
And come back to blogging, I feel so alone!
It might not be pretty. It won't need to rhyme.
Just mention caijiao and we'll have a great time!

Fresh Wave for my Sweaty Uniforms

I don't know about you but I have been battling this mildew in my training gear especially the t-shirts.

My latest discovery is Fresh Wave - odor neutralizing all-purpose cleaning additive. Thanks to Heng De's Mom.

I used it twice - adding a cap to my normal laundry. I think it works! My uniforms smell noticeably less. The thing is quite pricey. But I will do whatever it takes to smell like roses.

New Daoxiaomian place!

Another guest entry from Heng De.

Ok for those of you who don't know, Zhou found a Chinese noodle place on the South corner of Doyers and Bowery that's fantastic. They have hand-pulled noodles, knife cut (daoxiao), and even pan fried. I don't know if they have any vegetarian broth but the pan fried gives options for vegetarians (Leo was asking about this).

Their Daoxiaomian is better than the one on Eldridge I think, but I haven't tried their hand-pulled noodles yet. The restaurant is a lot cleaner than the other hole-in-the-wall daoxiaomian places, and the service is also extremely friendly. The first time I went with Shifu, they went and got beer for us from a place around the corner. They also offered cilantro without us even asking for it. They even serve you tea, I think it's jasmine (it's sweeter than what you normally get at restaurants).

I went there Saturday and the girl recommended I try the soup with tendon and tripe instead of just beef. It was like number 1, but with the different broth and daoxiaomian. I liked it a lot more. And it's only $5!

I asked, and she told me the place closes at 10:30, so I suggest we add it to our list of after-training dinner spots.

Fashion Do - Feiyues When Not Training

I saw this picture in The New York Times Travel section this weekend. The article was about how affordable Portland is. The picture was to point out that Portland can be easily navigated by bike. But it's not the bike that caught my eyes, it was the shoes.

From NY Times

Most of us have more than a few pairs of Feiyues at home - probably a good pair for training and multiple holey and raggedy pairs. I wear these old pairs sometimes on weekends when I knew I would be doing some kinds of Kung Fu (almost every weekend). I once wore it to a physical therapy session and got a compliment ("They are cute!")

So as a self-appointed fashion guru, I say wearing Feiyues casually is a DO.

Post-Testing Speech

I like the speech we got after the testing session this year. It went something like this.

• Our basics improved. (Yay!)


• But we need to train harder on the Level 2 basics especially the jumps. We need more air and jump higher! (More Chi!)


• Confidence is the key in life and training. Be relax and slow when you need to. Be fast and explosive at other times - just like doing forms. If we go at the same pace all the time, we either get out of breath or no Chi.


• Mistakes are bad and good as long as we know what they are and learn from them.


• Keep training what we know when we learn new things. We got two analogies here. One was bricks in buildings. If we don't have bricks, we don't have buildings. The other was syllables in sentences.


• Something about "I am handsome"....

Ceshoufan Craziness!

Sometime last summer, I somehow tweaked my right arm/shoulder rotator cuff area. I'm not entirely sure how I did it (perhaps practicing kung fu, carrying luggage, or monkeying around), but it's one of those nagging injuries that keeps hanging around because it's pretty impossible to avoid using whatever muscles/tendon(s) are inflamed, kinda like the infamous Shaolin Butt Sword. Anyway, pretty much at the end of last year, I decided to put a personal moratorium on ceshoufans, figuring it wasn't the best thing in the world putting all my weight on a gimpy shoulder while doing a cartwheel.

My progression through learning the Level 2 basics since the beginning of November finally came to a point where I could no longer avoid doing ceshoufan. I had put off learning Bawang Zhaikui (jump with backwards punch and cartwheel), but it then became the last one on the list. So, after a few times of awesome Eric working on loosening my arm muscles and being faced with having to learn Bawang Zhaikui if I ever wanted to start learning Xiao Hong Quan, I bit the bullet. I then did my first shaky cartwheels of 2009 this past Monday. Scary!

And it paid off -- at the last part of class, during forms practice, Shifu sent Lukas and then Carlos to start Xiao Hong Quan. Emboldened by having done Bawang Zhaikui earlier in line that evening, I asked Shifu if I could join them. He first asked if I had finished learning the basics, and I could honestly answer yes! So he allowed me to join the new Xiao Hong Quan-ers, and I triumphantly ran across the carpet to start the new form.

During last night's energetic Level 2 class Han had us do Bawang Zhaikui as well. But she added a nice challenge, which the competitively friendly bunch ate up -- if we did the ceshoufan with both hands, we had to do 10 v-ups (kinda like sit-ups, but you're lifting your legs too). A one-handed one required only 5, and if you did the holy aerial, i.e., no hands, then no v-ups! Man-oh-man! People were giddy, trying to avoid doing all ten v-ups. I found the chi so infectious, I went right into it without too much thinking, figuring my gimpy shoulder wasn't really doing all that much in terms of weight distribution anyway, so I kept that hand off the ground. And it worked! I did my first one-handed cartwheel (albeit wobbly) ever! I tried it again, and succeeded once more on my third try.

This is probably the first instance where I can think of an injury actually helping me achieve something. Maybe I'll have to screw up my other shoulder just to get the aerial. =P

FIRE!!!

I've been thinking a lot about how every time I tell Shifu about an injury he just says "no problem. train harder." I know that we are supposed to work through the pain, accept it and use it to make us stronger but most times it still distracts me.

I'm still dealing with my shin splints. They're getting better by the day but there are definitely days where I don't warm up enough and they really hurt. It's the kind of pain that seeps into my subconscious and affects my confidence. The other day I got sick of the pain holding me back. I was so frustrated I felt on fire! It was my turn to do Xuan Feng Jiao. I took a deep breath took my strides and launched! I have no idea how well I did the kick but I felt on FIRE!! I could feel my Dan Tian pulsating! I had energy in every part of my body! I was relaxed but had an incredible desire to move! My turn came again and again and again. I didn't want to stop. Then we stopped jumping and moved onto the next move. At that moment I realized that my shins didn't hurt anymore. Shifu was right!! I trust Shifu's advice implicitly but I don't usually understand it until much later. In the immortal words in Rick Moranis in Spaceballs "when will then be now!?", I wish I got his lessons a bit faster. Now when Shifu yells "FIRE" at us I'll let loose the nitros and CaiJiao until I puke!

Everybody Hurts