Kung Fu at the Hayabusa Training Centre

"Just because they're not on your path, does not mean they are lost"

I really like this quote as it is very meaningful.

This is similar to an individual following their own martial arts journey.  I earned my Blackbelt in Kung Fu officially in January 2012 and since then have left the former school to change the direction of my journey.  This decision led me to the Hayabusa Training Centre where I have been extremely happy with the new direction.  I have been introduced to and train with many "true" martial artists with acclaimed backgrounds in many disciplines of martial arts.  Some with many years of experience in competitive environments, and some who simply train for the love of the art.  This school has the most professional and humble group of instructors that I have had the pleasure to train with.  They all train without ego because each of them prove their skill on the mat every class.  They all have the same characteristic of training hard and talking less.  The synergy and atmosphere is positive and encouraging.  Since I have joined many of my friends and former students have joined Hayabusa as well.  My wife and daughter also have joined.  My entire family enjoys supporting our team mates in Judo, and Jiu Jitsu competitions, as well as amateur and professional MMA events, some at the highest UFC level.  Being part of the process from the beginning of a training camp through to fight night is exhilarating!

I had the opportunity to start my own qualified Kung Fu class at the Hayabusa Training Centre and have developed a curriculum with the focus on having a well rounded practical self defense system for everyone.  I have consulted and worked with the school experts in the areas of  Judo and Jiu Jitsu to encompass throws and ground defense.  I have also consulted with military weapons experts in the development of defense against armed opponents.  I fully encourage all of my students to cross train and try classes in all of the martial arts disciplines at the Hayabusa Training Centre.  I have made introductory Jiu Jitsu a requirement for students preparing for the Blackbelt grading.  I understand the benefits of this type of training first hand and recognize the effectiveness it has in a self defense situation.  For the acceptance of cross training I believe the instructor must release their ego and open their mind.  They must look outside of their own area of expertise and recognize the benefits this will have for their students.  As hard as I have tried there will always be an instructor who will be unable to release their ego and fail to encourage this.  This may be a control issue or a fear of losing students to another martial art, or school.  Whatever the case, it is embarrassing in this martial arts era and community to have an instructor who discourages this, especially at the Blackbelt level.

I always attempt to take the positive from all situations and thank all of the people that cross my path, whether they are students or instructors that I have learned from in the past, and can take the positive learning experience from all of them.  I have learned so much in the past two years and am excited for the future.  The way I see it is all schools should encourage each other as the more people studying martial arts, the better our communities will be.  I don't consider my school or experience to be any better than any other school available.  I believe in leading by example and will spar and grapple with all of my students or other instructors every class to learn and continue to evolve as a martial artist.  I believe in encouraging and positively reinforcing each students progress and understand that martial arts training for most of us represents one part of each student's life.  I consider family first, then school, career, and then martial arts training fits within this scope.  Our student numbers are continually rising and each class I am thankful for everyone who attends and I hope that I have influenced them a little bit each class.

I would like to invite all to come and try a class!  There is a class for everyone in the family.

Sifu Allan Gamble
Kung Fu Instructor - Blackbelt
Hayabusa Training Centre

Team Building

Good morning,

I have renewed "spirit" in kung fu and and I attribute this to being part of the "Dragon / Lion" dance for the upcoming public performance on September 09th.  It has been a kick start for me which I think I needed!

I would suggest this activity for anyone who has not participated before.  It is hard to explain but you can feel a real connection to kung fu during a dance event.  I have been part of this last year, but this year is special as I do not feel any pressure.  This may be related to having experience with this type of event, and also I am not in a grading year and can just enjoy the experience.

The other benefit from participating in this event is you can develop a skillset in team building.  Being in a confined space, connected to 8 other people, and sharing the space with another animal group is a great opportunity to learn how to be part of a team and interact with many different personalities.  You will enhance your development with patience, acceptance, empathy, co-operation, facilitation, leadership, and most of all share in the team success and fun.  It is also a really good workout.

Have a great day!

Sifu Gamble  

Time to Start Again

Hello all,

It is time for me to start blogging again on a weekly basis as I feel that it definitely helped me achieve my goals, and I am also feeling that it is my responsibility as a new Black Belt to blog and share my continuous learnings and experiences.

After achieving the rank of Black Belt in Kung Fu this past January, I needed a little time to heel some injuries that I had masked on the road to attaining the Black Belt ranking.  I need to improve my ability to recognize, heel, and seek professional medical treatment when I have injuries.  This has been a life long issue for me.  Things are much better now and I am ready to now resume full training in my Kung Fu.

I believe that attaining the level of Black Belt was a very challenging process and I recognize that with anything, maintaining and moving beyond where I am at now requires a life long committment to Mastery.  Personally, I need to set goals and write them down (blogging and physout) in order to be successful.  These are great tools, however we must recognize this from within ourselves in order to achieve sucess.  This is where I am at now.  Publically, here are my goals for the remainder of the 2012 calendar year;

150 push ups or ab exercises per day (will alternate days)

400 reps of Mlong Kuen

15 participation in Sihing class

10 grappling sessions

2 mended relationships

1 book read

Have a good week!

Sifu Gamble 

Holiday Season

Hello all,

I would like to wish everyone and their families a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Gamble Family

UBBT 2011 Highlights

Hello all,

2011 has been a very rewarding year and I have improved greatly as a person.  The UBBT process has been a driving factor in progressing in my kung fu and in every aspect of my life.  Here are the highlights for me:

Blogging - this has been a great tool in ensuring that I stayed on track with my personal goals and connected to the UBBT team.  It also took me out of my comfort zone a couple of times, blogging about myself and even sharing personal feelings.  This is new and somewhat of a breakthrough for me.

Random Acts of Kindness - recording random acts of kindness helped me to be mindful of being kind.  Also, I was more aware when I received random acts of kindness.  If these activities catch on for many people, there would be a lot more kindness in the world.  This one was very easy to do and it feels good.

Physout - This to me is the biggest factor in being successful in achieving my goals is to publicly record and manage my progress.  This is a great tool and I posted my progression on a weekly basis the same time as my weekly blog.  It provide me a tracking tool as well as motivation to succeed.  I would suggest that this should be a requirement for the 2012 team, just my opinion.

Have a great week!

Allan Gamble

End of Year Approaching Rapidly

Hello all,

We are nearing the end of 2011 and it has been a very challenging and rewarding year.  Very busy times right now with work, family, christmas, black belt grading process, ubbt year, dragon dance, and some other things.  I plan to blog a reflection of my ubbt journey next week as I am on the run this week.  All is going well and I am very happy!

Allan Gamble

December 2011 UBBT Challenge!

This is the final month for our 2011 UBBT and it is prudent to issue a challenge related to blogging.  We had our final 2011 UBBT progress meeting this past Saturday and Sifu Brinker nudged us to share our experience through blogging.  This is a great way to share our individual journeys with our current team mates and provide our learning for the 2012 I Ho Chuan team.

I would like to challenge all 2011 UBBT participants to blog on this site 5 times in December!

Gamble has 2 blogs today!

Have fun.

Allan Gamble