Status Update

Training here has been pretty intense but I do feel like I'm getting used to the demands being placed on my body. I still feel really tired sometimes and fall into bed exhausted at night, I still get sore muscles and strange mystery pains, and I still feel discouraged when I can't do something but I can see the progress I've made so far and it pushes me to keep trying my best.

The other day we were practicing stances and I know that I've improved a lot but it seemed like all of the teachers were pushing me to go lower, punch faster, take bigger steps, etc and I was getting really frustrated. I was wondering why they were being so picky when I've already gotten better. It made me start to think about the way I train at home, have I just been pushing myself to reach a certain level of skill and then just staying there instead of continually striving for more? It really gave me something to chew on. I don't think I always did that but I do believe that in some cases I did. Here the teachers push us to always go harder, better, faster, stronger (like a Daft Punk song!) and I'm having to adjust my style accordingly. It's interesting.

We started learning a new form; Xuen Gong Chuan 1. I only know about 4 moves but it's really cool. Up to now we've only been practicing taiji and the basic form; Ji Ben Chuan. I already knew these forms but I wasn't very good at them so I've just been working on making them better but I was starting to get tired of doing just those forms over and over again. I was really excited to start learning something new and I really like Xuen Gong Chuan a lot, it reminds me of some of the hung gar forms I learned at home. I still have lots of stuff to work on with the other 2 forms too but now I can mix it up a bit more. sweet.

My Ubbt requirements are all over the place. The things that are a part of our daily training here like running and sit-ups, I'm way ahead on. The other stuff like grappling and such, I've made no progress on at all. I was hoping that I'd be able to train in that stuff outside of class but I pretty much just eat and sleep when I'm not training and I really don't have the gumption to ask someone to spar with me after a 10 hour training day. Maybe once I adjust more I can work on that stuff. We also found out that our month break starts Dec 20 so I can try to finish some of that stuff while I'm back in Canada. I'm hoping that others will be playing catch up too so we can help each other out. I'm really looking forward to coming home for our break.

Today is our day off and I'm psyched to just sit around, watch a movie, and slack off. YESSSSS!