Spinning Back Kicks

I feel like I have been making strides with my spinning back kicks this week. This has always been my worst kick so I have been making great efforts to improve them.

I started playing with changing when I pull my kicking foot up mid spin. I believe I am beginning to be able to apply what Sifu Brinker has been talking about lately.

My foot is in a position to kick before I complete my spin. It is farther out as well which helps my balance, allowing me to focus more on the kick.

I'll keep working on this and see where it goes. I hope this is the right approach to this.

Inspiration

I thought a lot about inspiration this week. How it influences your choices and shapes your life. People get inspired by many different things.

What and who you surround yourself with affects what inspires you. I think this is important and is a decision that should not be taken lightly.

Spending more time at the kwoon is a decision I am glad I made. I am surrounded by many people who inspire me to do my best. I look at the black belt candidates and see some very dedicated young people working toward a worthy goal.

Watching them these past months has inspired me to kick my training up a notch. I am seeing in them where I could potentially be this time next year, this is a scary realization. Scary and exhilarating!  This goal of becoming a black belt and continuing my training further is much closer than I thought.

I am aware that I need to keep my thoughts in the present, but I am excited at the prospect of a successful and inspirational year to come.

Bag Work

I thought this weekend about how much I enjoy working with the standup heavy bags. I provides an endless amount of cardio with the chance to try out your techniques full force. I never thought about too much, but it is a valuable tool to change things up in a training circuit as well. I don't use them as often as I feel I should. They are always there, I should take advantage of the fact that we have them.

This made me think of how much we take for granted. One rarely thinks about the importance of the equipment we have at our disposal in the kwoon, how much it costs and what it took to acquire it in the first place.

It is important to treat our belongings with respect, they are around for a reason. The better you take care of them, the less likely you are going to need to replace them. I am beginning to understand this concept.

Support

This week has been great for me. I got a job, not in my new field, but money in the bank is awesome. It was also the restart of classes, which was completely re-energizing for me. I didn't realize just how embedded the kwoon and its members are in my life, how important and vital they are to who I am. This is what I want to write about today, the support I receive from my kung fu family.

The job for instance, I got a big help from Don Bjorkquist. Being someone of influence, he asked around and got me a position at the dealership he works at. This was a huge moral booster, having no job when you need it is quite mentally draining. Now my mental attention can be directed more towards my kung fu and studying for my EMR exam. Which again, if it wasn't for Mike Kohut, I would not where to start in regards to that. 

I cannot express how grateful I am to my fellow kwoon members. You guys have been helping me both on and off the mats for years now. I am so happy to be a part of such a great group of people. This is what it is like to be in a community. This feels good. 

A new spark of motivation has struck me to train harder than ever. I am not just training for me, I am training for all of you. I will become successful, enough so that I can repay all the good deeds I have received. See you all on the mats.

Life at Home

This week has been relaxing yet stressful. Now that my course is done, I need to find work until I can take the official exam. This has been a test in patience and persistance. A positive is I have more time to relax, get things done around the house, and train more consistently.

It is relaxing because I have so much more free time, but stressful because I don't know what will happen next.

With all this time, the mind can get away on you. This is a great chance to practice harnessing the mind, use the extra energy for good. Not something I am always good at, so I am grateful for the opportunity to work on it.