Long time, no chi.

In spite of my best efforts to ignore it, and the wonderful enthusiasm of my fellow dorks, I have been feeling low chi for the past several classes. I don't know if it's work-related stress, lethargy from the heat, or being thrown from my regular training schedule, but I have had a hard time feeling motivated. Last night, finally, the chi returned. I admit I had a little coffee before class, which I'm sure sparked my initial energy, but the anticipated crash never came. Instead I felt awesome all the way to the end. It was a big group, several new/trial people, and everyone was constantly clapping and yelling more chi! etc. I had a great time and it helped me remember how much fun training is. I mean the physical act. I always have fun with the people there and after class I always feel a winner, but lately being in class itself had taken a lot of strength to make it through. Last night was still hard (i.e., erluquan feels so long and I'm like 1/3 through!!), but I was enjoying myself again.

Also, since my mom is visiting this weekend, I knew that the next time I train she will be watching, and that inspired me to train harder. I haven't seen her for over a year, which is a lot for me. We're really close, so I'm very excited to share with her this thing that has become such a big part of my life. I think I'm bringing her Sunday since that seems to be when more people will be there. I can't wait for her to meet all you crazy dorks!

Vote for Zhong!

Heng Zhong aka Rick Seedman, who teaches the kids' classes, is auditioning for cable channel G4's America Ninja Challenge as part of their Ninja Warrior program. Check out his super-impressive audition tape here:

If his tape gets selected by G4 as one of their ten favorite videos, it will appear on their website this Friday, August 3rd, whereupon the top 3 vote-getters will have an opportunity to compete to represent the US in Japan.

Support our Temple brother by checking out the site and voting for him here on FRIDAY, AUGUST 3RD. You'll have to register on the site first to participate.

CHI!!!

Update: From the Ninja Warrior message board -- "Users will be able to vote for the contestant who they would like to see compete on 'Ninja Warrior.' Users may vote beginning Friday, August 3, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. PT through Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 5:59:59 p.m. PT. Voting times subject to change in Sponsor's discretion."

SO THAT MEANS STARTING 3PM ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 3RD...

Update #2: Unfortunately, Zhong's video didn't get selected this time, but we are still proud of our Temple brother and his effort. He is amazing, and we are confident he will return even stronger next time. CHI!!!

Shaolin Kicks

By now, you are probably familiar with our trials and tribulations for learning the sweep kick. Lately, as I've been able to make somewhat full circles (yay!), I decided that my beat-up, well-worn pair of training shoes have been a plus due to their smooth bottoms which allow me to spin around somewhat easily on the carpet. I imagine that a new pair of feiyues with their grippy ridged bottoms would render rotations more difficult.

Saturday, however, I hit a snag, quite literally. My right shoe dragged at one point (probably during fanyao or pubu chuanzhang lunbi zaquan) and ripped, connecting the hole that was at the tip of my shoe with the hole under my big toe, resulting in a gaping hole with a flap. I also noticed that when I did pubu to that side, especially during yiluquan, the lack of any grip caused me to slip even deeper into the stance. Owie!

I imagine I'll have to retire this pair very soon, as I doubt training with a monster opening on my shoe could be a good thing. The dork in me loves it, however, when I've managed to wear out another pair -- it's like a kung fu milestone, or some badge of having trained harder.

PS -- Saturday, I noticed Gombulla had some awesome magenta/pink feiyues on. At first, I assumed he might have ordered them from somewhere, like from this European feiyue website (which is bloody expensive), but then he revealed to me that he dyed a white pair himself. Awesome!

Run!!!!

Today was a day of running. Running in class, running out of class and trying to get to work on time. The question is, was the former worth the latter? Was showing up to work late and not having a chance to eat until after 5 worth getting to go to temple and being made to run for not doing ceshoufan fast enough and sweating in humidity that felt practically solid? Honestly, there was a moment (when I thought I was going to fall on my head) that I wasn't so sure. But even when I was at work, sweating and STARVING, I had to conclude that it was.

I spent a lot of time trying to follow through with my resolution to slow down my movements. And miraculously, things did feel a lot smoother, more balanced, better (except my cartwheels, which were harder than ever). And I also worked at limiting my water intake, not AS successful as I wanted but much better. Altogether, a really good challenge for me mentally and physically, I only wish I had time to wind down instead of bolting to a very hungry afternoon at work. The question now is, will I do it again tomorrow?

You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)

Made it to class tonight after an entire week of not training. Mercifully, Xu taught so I didn't have to endure any special coaxing from Shifu. Felt the effects of the humidity again which made training a little woozy. At one point during forms practice, I went to the changing room to retrieve my hand towel so I could mop myself in between turns on the carpet. Heng Jian recommended I not do so because he believes that removing the sweat results in your body perspiring even more, and causes you to get dehydrated even faster. Whatcha think?

A week off from training might have done me some good, at least in terms of practicing the all mighty sweep kick. I guess because my head wasn't entirely in it tonight, I just slashed through forms and when I got to the gongbu right before the sweep, I dropped down and just went for it. And to my delight, I managed to make it around a number of times. The no-think method of approaching the hump served me well tonight. I ran out of gas a little by the end of class, but I avoided rebruising the inside of my right knee that kept slamming into the carpet last week. Yay!

After class, we headed to Thai Son with a good number of the crew -- almost had a dirty dozen, including some faces who hadn't joined us before -- Ryan, Brian and Raul. On our walk over, Niederwelt, Billy and I entertained ourselves (and made children cry and dogs bark) with our renditions of classic '80s tunes by bands like The Cars and Journey! So in honor of that, and my good sweep night, I'm doing a long distance dedication to all of you dorks with a video by one of the best one-hit wonders to come out of that lush decade. Here's Dead Or Alive singing "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)." Yeah, baby!

Return of the Wandering Shaolins

After spending the weekend delving into the secrets of the fabled sand training technique, the group of us came home once more. It was nice to be back on the carpet again. I am trying to get in as much chi-tastic training as I can because I have work and parental visits coming up that keep me from training the four times a week I've been enjoying. But yesterday my extra chi resulted in extra water guzzling. Which, on top of a very empty and hungry stomach, led to a not so chi-full second half of class.

Where is that self discipline I go on about? Practically every class, by the end, I am groaning about having drunk too much water. But when your mouth is so parched you feel like the Sahara Desert has moved in, how do you resist? But how can I expect to master myself in Shaolin if I can't even learn from repeated mistakes in not mastering my water bottle? I didn't used to even drink a whole bottle. Now sometimes I refill it twice AND drink from the sink. Madness!

Yesterday I was finding all kinds of new shortcuts and sloppiness that have crept into my training that I never realized. My caijiaos are so uncontrolled I am losing balance on every kick. I think also I'm taking too large a step. On waibaitui/zhengtitui/lihetui I've started taking a step between kicks, something I never used to do. There's lots of foot dragging happening in gongbu, my mabu stances are getting super lazy, and I'm not going as far down the carpet as I once did on lots of the basics. What happened?!!!

Here are the remedies I have come up with thus far. 1. Hydrate even more during the day (I already do, but more can't hurt). 2. Make sure I eat enough during the day so that I'm not lightheaded and starving or, conversely, in pain from eating right before class. 3. SLOW DOWN. Chi is good. Sloppiness is bad. 4. One bottle of water max during class.

If I ever want to make Level 2, I need to break bad habits now. Plus my mom is coming next week and I want her to see me doing my best! Hopefully, I can always catch mistakes before they get out of hand.

And Happy Birthday Mo!

Dorks on the Beach!

Last weekend, a bunch of us got out of the City and headed way East for some R'n'R courtesy of Heng De's parents. Xie xie! We spent many hours on Saturday at the beach, and from the minute we got there, we were a whir of non-stop activity. We practiced jumps, ceshoufans, basics, handstands, pubus, forms, etc. We juggled, threw a football and frisbee, bodyboarded, twirled a staff, dug holes in the sand, jumped in the waves. Constantly moving!

At some point in the afternoon a man came over, his curiosity piqued. He wondered who we were and remarked he was impressed with the fact that we spent hardly any time lounging or reclining or doing the usual lazy beach activities. He joked there was a bet going on whether we had all escaped from somewhere. He smiled when we told him we all studied kung fu together in the City. I was rather proud. :)

Awesome Chi!

WE'RE BACK!!!

(Please update your bookmark/feed to http://kungfudorksunite.blogspot.com/! AMITUOFO!)

my kung fu brothers - may I hear you say....

Do people not utter the names of moves before performing them anymore?

I ventured to the side a couple of times today to skip jumping. It was so quiet. No chi. Silent. Tired. Slow. I tried cheering the line up and a few people just smiled at me. I yelled out names of moves to set example and our standard "more chi" from the top of my lung - all I heard back was cricket.

What happened?

I remember when I first started the back was as loud as the front - even more sometimes. It was fun to be in the back. And I trained hard.

Did we not set good example as older students? Did we not make the class fun for newer students?

Should I even worry about this?

Spin Cycle

On Sunday, Heng Xu taught our small class of 21. The line for basics was quickly whittled down due to the large number of newer folks, including this family who started a few weeks ago -- a dad, and his daughter and son. I spoke to the daughter, Alyssa (sp?), briefly in the changing room. She's 15 and her brother is 13, and they're from Staten Island. Her dad works across the street and saw our Temple and thought it would be a good idea for all three of them to try it out. Awesome!

So last Thursday, I decided to try doing the sweep kick on my own without instruction. My historically bad right knee has been a little tight since then, almost like a bunch of rubber bands were wrapped around it, so during a few of the basics, I had to lay off some of the jumps. And I avoided zuopan as well. During forms practice, I continued to skip zuopan when in chujiquantao so as not to aggravate the tightness. When it came time to do erluquan, I debated with myself -- do I practice my improvised version of the sweep kick thus potentially annoying my knee more, or avoid it as well?

I decided to go for it. I reasoned that some of the discomfort I was experiencing was due to building new muscles, and that based on most people's experience, I am bound to feel funny at first anyway. And how else am I gonna do it if I don't try? So I groaned my way a few times through what I've learned of erluquan, and was encouraged by others cheering me on. And being at the same spot in erluquan as my fellow dork, Hannah, was helpful, for the synchronized chi can bolster one's spirit.

Perhaps the best thing about stumbling and wobbling our way through the sweep? It caught the eye of Xu, who gave Hannah and me a mini-sweep clinic in the last 5 minutes before we did pushups. Seeing her sweep is amazing, as she demonstrated her agility by showing that you don't even have to plant your hand(s) down if you throw your hip hard enough. And apparently, I've been incorrectly sticking my butt out.

While my legs were too spent to really give her tips a go at that point, I am eager to try them next time, when my legs are hopefully fresh.