Vacations are good for you

I am looking forward to our annual family vacation this year as I do every year.  It is a tremendous opportunity to recharge and to spend quality time with family and friends.

There were many times when I was working in the coporate world a few years ago that I passed on the opportunity of vacations.  There was never a "good time" to be away from work, there was always "the most important" project for the company, there was tremendous corporate pressures, time away was often viewed as letting the corporation down, the time before and returning from vacations were loaded with catch up, etc......  As you can tell, I am not a big fan of the corporate world and all of the things that go along with being an employee in this setting.

Things are very different for us the past few years and vacations are my most favorite time of the year.  This year for me will be a little different, in a good way.  My vacation will have 2 hours every morning planned for kung fu training.  I will be keeping up my daily requirements for push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and stretching.  I will also be spending an hour each day on forms practice, which I will be recording daily and blogging when I can, and some time running, swimming, biking, etc.  I have great support from my family as they are very active and will participate along with me for some of the training.  I will also be reading the book suggested by Sifu Brinker "Peace is Every Step".  Last Saturday at our UBBT something Sifu Brinker said made great sense as there should be no excuses for not training.  "If you do not have enough time in the day for your training set your alarm clock to go off earlier."  I may not have the exact words, but it was something like that.

See you all in two weeks, enjoy your training.

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Mindful Partnership

I have been in the process of developing my five personal techniques in preparation for our October Black Belt grading.  For my fifth technique I have been developing my version of a flying armbar technique/application and have the technique broken down very specifically, in my mind.  I spoke with my son and he agreed to be my partner for practicing this technique.  Here is my learning.  I spent a significant amount of time reviewing the process in my head, but gave a vague description to Mr. Gamble.  I jumped up and landed flat on my back and head, and did see a few stars, which was very funny to watch.  I will be more mindful of working with a partner in the future.  We practiced a little more, both on the same page, and Mr. Gamble is getting pretty good at this technique, and I am developing a different one for myself.  "What was very clear in my mind, was not well explained to Mr. Gamble".

Have a great training week!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Horse Stance

We participated in a great Sihing class on this past Friday night.  I seem to learn best when we take a specific technique or form and repeat the process many times.  Reprition is a great learning technique for me personally.  One of the messages from Sifu Brinker was to listen to what we were being told and incorporate the information while being "in the moment".  Specifically, we were to focus on the perfect horse stance throughout the kempo form.  When I inserted this gift into my personal kempo form the results were tremendous.  I now feel centered throughout the entire form just by paying particular attention to the horse stances within the form, even while swatting mosquitos when practicing outside.  I am also gaining confidence in the kempo form and I needed to do this.  Perfect horse stances will be the theme of this week's forms practice.  Have a great training week!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Daily Tracking

I would like to share my experience with daily tracking.  So far this year our SRKF team has participated in three months of daily tracking challenges:

March - daily diet tracking
June - daily two hour training tracking
July - daily forms training tracking

For me personally, this daily regiment has definitely helped me stay on track.  There were a couple times in early July that I was very busy and was not able to participate, however as soon as I saw others posting to the site, I was immmediately motivated and back on track.  I will be using this tool as my family will be away on a two week vacation at the end of July.  I will be posting daily, as well as documenting other personal goals, for these two weeks as I am very focused on this 2011 year.  Just my two cents on what is working for me.  Have a great week!

Testing Your Limits

I had a great opportunity to participate in our annual "boot camp" this past Saturday and had a tremendous time.  Throughout the day I was concerned about how much fuel I would have left for the two and a half hour physical test, at the end of the day going into the evening.  To my surprise, my numbers were still strong, relatively speaking.  I learned a lot about myself going through this process and I am proud of the accomplishment.  The team concept has been engrained into me from participating in team sports for my entire life.  With this in mind, the highlight of my day was the motivation and energy surrounding the entire team of students and sifus, throughout the physical testing.  The synergy and encouragement was strong.  Congratulations to all of my team mates, and thank you to all of the sifus who made this day exceptional!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Active Listening

I feel that a great characteristic to have as a person is to be a great listener.  We have had several consistent messages from our sifus lately pertaining to the "four phases of kung fu".  The consistent message is we need to focus more on the first phase of kung fu which is "form", or "technique".  This is especially evident in my forms.  When I think of this personally, it is a tremendous opportunity for me.  When practicing or performing forms, my focus has always been demonstrating the aspect of power.  I always consider each technique as crashing through a cement wall.  This has been my comfort zone. 

I need to change this to focus on the first phase which is "form".  I am going to challenge myself starting today to mindfully practice forms focusing on the first phase of kung fu.  The benefits will include centering, flow, quality of moition, effortless movement, and the connection of the six harmonies.  I look foward to the benefits of this direction with my forms practice.  This will align my path in making kung fu an art for me.

I will also listen to the advise from Sifu Brinker on Saturday.  Today I have stopped breaking boards, partially because I have broken all that I have, and also because the advise makes sense to me.  I will focus on the specific techniques within my board breaking sequence.

To keep this front and center for myself, the four phases of kung fu:

Form or technique
Speed and power
Accuracy
Realism

Have a great training week all!!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta

Gaining Momentum

A group of us have been recording our kung fu training for the month of June.  We have been very focused on our conditioning, and it has become the focal point for our kung fu training.  I am finding that as my conditioning level increases, all aspects of my kung fu training are improving physically and mentally.  Our challenge for June is to record two hours of training per day.  Personally, I am going to strive for three hours per day and will add more endurance and quickness training with more distance running, wind sprints, and the P90X training program.  I am also going to record my daily weight as I seem to be successful when I document what I am doing.  I will strive to be at 175lbs by the end of June and I am starting at 184lbs today.  Daily documenting has helped me a great deal with my physical training, but has not stopped me with stuffing chips in my mouth in the late evening.  Have a great week!

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta