Wednesday 30 March 2016

Creating habits to support your training...

Every time someone new walks into our school, I celebrate. Sure it means a bit more stability for the school, but more importantly it means another person has found their way here to experience something I love. When push comes to shove we don't need a building to train in, though it does make it easier for n00bs to feel comfortable. It's also useful not being blinded by rain or catching our death of cold.
Before I got my shit together, kicked depression in the nuts for a while and delved heartily into WC again, my brothers were training in a few different locations. They were at each others houses, in car park buildings...anywhere they were protected from the weather. They spent a few years doing this...just they three.
A building is only important a) for protection (it gets really wet and cold in winter in our southern climes, and b) students and prospects expect it. There's a misconception that the better the location, the better the kung fu will be. The regular occurrence of McDojo's proves this isn't always the case.

My brothers created a habit amongst themselves by training at least once a week when they could all make it.
It took me a long time before I was able to temporarily change a habit that lead to my attendance improving, resulting in a sudden rise in skill. I had a habit of getting home, lying down and having a bit of a snooze. This would often lead to my not waking until after class.
I wasn't doing very well at improving, and that reinforced the idea that missing a class or two wouldn't make any difference. I knew I was wrong but depression and lack of motivation allowed me to look the other way and ignore the obvious. Thus I created the habit of not attending classes.

I don't remember how it happened. I'd spent weeks thinking about WC, how much fun I'd previously had learning it and just how hard our simple system really was. I like to think that I realised I love to be challenged, that the cognitive requirements I needed to move forward were available to me and that my aptitude was merely...sleeping. I eventually woke up to that challenge and met it face on.
I've since created a new habit, though it's still not locked in, of not going home first.

My routine began when I would head home from work.
I'd get home, lie down, set my alarm, and snooze. The reward was sleep. I love sleep and yet I starve myself of it at times during the week.
It took me a while to realise what the cue was and I thought it was many different things before the truth hit me. It was boredom. Sure I was tired but that wasn't driving my habit. I was bored. I finish work at 5 pm and we don't start class until 8pm. I'm usually not hungry so I don't bother with food. So I'm left twiddling my thumbs.
I broke this habit my interrupting the routine.
On my way home I stop off at a local mall, grab a coffee or a little nibble, and generally just walk around for about 10 mins. Then I go back to my car and have a snooze.
The only changes are that I might eat and I don't go home. Instead I find myself waking up every few minutes to make sure I haven't missed the alarm. This simple change in routine had a huge impact on my drive and perception. I get enough sleep to be alert in class and I'm eager enough that I don't sleep through the alarm.

My reasoning behind sharing this overly detailed experience is that we, (and I'm sure most other schools do too), have new students regularly who are all keen and ready to learn. However after a couple months they tend to drop off, always promising to come back, but only dropping back in from time to time. (This is excluding folk who just don't dig the class for whatever reason).
Admittedly some of them are scholastic students, some actors, some do shift-work...there are many legitimate reasons for their not being able to make it.
We've looked into whether its a quality issue with our classes and the typical outcome isn't an issue with our teaching...its time. A lot of people are just too busy. Kung fu is still seen as a fun pastime. Its up there with, swimming, going to the park, going to the gym...or learning a new language. It's either a bit of fun, or something which is Really Interesting, but something to be taken up later.

In the end people look at WC as a hobby. I guess for most people it has to be just a hobby.
The limitation with this thought frame is that WC is a skill-set. If you don't use it or practice it regularly, it will cease working as well as you want it to. If you're new to WC your progress will be stymied by your limited application of time. How many of us wouldn't have learned to write if we hadn't spent so much time at school learning?
Some folk may have a natural aptitude but they'll always be the minority. The greater number of folk will always have to work hard to improve and its up to us to create the environment to grow our WC.

After all...don't we value something more when we've had to work hard for it?

Gawwdamn I'm getting lazy! And stuff about Lat Sau Jik Chung

I need to update this thing more. If only for my own review...

I've had a lot going on and I've got plenty of excuses to explain why...however, they're only excuses.
I've committed myself to my WC...perhaps I need to commit myself to this blog equally.

Monday night I missed my first class for close to a year. This is pretty good of me, and it was due to a legitimate reason. I get Gout. I don't drink, I don't eat that much meat and I don't eat seafood...it seems sugar is my devil. With Easter just past...I delved into a few eggs and ended up on the punishment side of the interaction. What's more is the gout is in my Ankle! Damn my genetics!

It's all merely motivation to improve my health, my diet and all this will lead into my WC improving.
For the last year or two I've been concentrating on getting my Bong Sao sorted, and executing it in a way that doesn't require strength and won't further damage my Rotator Cuffs. This worked and after visiting Melbourne for the WSL Border Incident, and training a little with John Smith...I've found my skills have improved heaps! Having said that, my arms have become heavy again...I'm using too much force. While I don't have the downwards force which would slow any of my defenses or attacks, I do find myself locking my muscle a bit too much (both in Bong and other manouvres) and thus I end up to stiff, slow and unresponsive by comparison to where I believe I should be.

As such my current goal is to work on Lat Sau Jik Chung.
I realise many other schools of thought/lineages also apply LSJC, however I've noticed the WSL schools are particularly dedicated to the idea. So I feel pretty fortunate.
The last school I was in (a Lo Man Kam/Leung Ting bastardization) talked about forward intention, but there was a distinct impression that no-one really understood the application, or how to train it.

I still don't fully understand the concept and I expect its something I'll be trying to understand for quite some time, however I comprehend enough to concentrate on building my experience with it.

Why do we train it? To answer this I'd have to ask back, Where is my opponent?
As I understand it, the purpose of training LSJK comes back to three important concepts of WC. Directness, Simplicity and Efficiency.
My opponent should be directly in front of me.
The simplest form of defense in this application is to attack.
The most efficient way to do this is to allow your attacks to commit themselves without conscious thought. The moment you have to think about doing something, the moment will pass and you'll miss your opportunity. Merely thinking the thought will be too slow. This is one reason why we train with Chi Sao, building a sensitivity so as to react in an habitual manner. LSJC is an extension of this idea, or perhaps more accurately...LSJC is the engine which drives the mechanism.
It's not merely keeping a constant forward pressure, as this can evolve into using too much strength, over-committing to a particular attack or defense, and result in either or both of your arms becoming a lever to be used against you. When your arm isn't malleable and has to deal with oncoming force, the resultant forces can change your positioning and attack vectors. 
As such I want all of my defenses to become attacks as soon as possible.
I want all of my attacks to be in line with my oppontents.
And I want this to happen as soon as possible...oh, did I already mention this point?

Our system isn't about looking flashy. I perceive it as being about smashing through your opponents defenses and doing a great deal of harm in a short period of time.
I see it being about my survival.
For me it's about having to be honest with myself and acknowledge that it doesn't matter how strong I am...physics will always win. If my structure isn't supporting my strength, or if my opponents structure diffuses my strength, then I have a problem. If my strength slows me down, I have a problem.

I certainly don't understand enough of the specifics pertaining to LSJC yet, so I'm going to have to spend much more time training it. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.