Here is a picture of the Black belts who were present on the night I tested. I am in the front row, looking at the camera. Master Bruce is behind me, wearing the black top. 
Thursday the 3rd of January we had our first class after the holiday break. It was my first “official” student teaching, although I have helped out a few times before, unofficially. I worked with an (approx.) 20 year old guy who was visiting named John Paul. He said he liked it and might come back again. Bruce was supervising and went through the adult meanings with us once and then I was on my own, pretty much. John Paul had it down fairly well for his first time and so we went through some one-steps as well. By the time class was over I had him doing his kata and his one-steps. Probably not well enough to pass a test, but at least he was remembering them. The second hour we worked again on katas for about half an hour and then we sparred for about 15 minutes and then we worked on what to do about 4 simultaneous attackers. Bruce has been saying some things about the mentality of a warrior and how sometimes there are times when you don’t really think, you just do. That was what this exercise was about- divide the pack and keep moving. On Sunday Bruce and I went out to a local gym that wasn’t being used and taped a video of my three daughters doing the first 10 Quan Li K’an katas. The idea is to put out a training video for the reference of those trying to learn the katas and also for those trying to teach kids QLK. My girls did well and most of the katas were done on the first or second take. Afterwards I took everyone out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. On Tuesday the 8th we worked on moving in on and then around an opponent. The idea is to move in on the center line and “tie up” their hands with a relaxed but firm hand, and then step around behind them and take them out. We also worked on a really neat relaxed move to use when someone tries to push after you have “tied up” their hands. It was based on our “Push Hands” exercise.I wish the Tuesday class was longer, it seems that we are just getting into something when we have to stop. On Wednesday Bruce, Adam, Ashley and I went 45 minutes north to Camp Ripley, a military base, and gave an overview of Quan Li K’an to some of the people there. There were only 5 people there but they seemed to really enjoy the material we presented. Now they are hoping to start a class there or at least to be able to come down to St. Cloud sometimes. They were all really great guys; I just wish there had been more. Afterwards we went out for Chinese again. Thursday the 10th I got to teach again. John Paul was back and he seemed to remember quite a bit, especially the one steps. During the second hour we worked on a heavy hands exercise that was kind of cool- you start by having one person stand behind another and place their hand between their shoulder blades and they try to elbow the person behind them and the person with the hand on the back tries to sense which way the attack is coming from and respond. The key here is to stay relaxed, maintain contact and not to switch sides before you are sure which way the attack will be coming from- better to go back to the center before committing to one side or the other. Doing it with the eyes closed is even better. We also learned about fa shing (Not sure how that is spelled, pronounced “Fah Shzing”) which is a way of striking that uses wave motion instead of brute strength. It did seem to be me that I was able to generate enough force to really do some damage with not very much effort on my part. Then we learned about combining that with a ji strike and what the implications of that might be. It was an interesting class but they always seem to go by too fast and while it did give me loads to think about I always want more. I wasn’t able to go to the Tuesday night class because on of my daughters had a school music program that she was a part of and I always love to go and hear that stuff. They are very lucky in that they have a wonderful music teacher who is very good at getting the kids to have fun and also maintain a modicum of decorum and not get too wild and crazy. It must be tough to do that year after year and still pick interesting material and not to get repetitive and dull. Tonight (the 17th) we worked on katas again for the 1st hour. One of the guys from our seminar at Camp Ripley named Jim showed up at class and I taught him for the first hour. He seemed really impressed by what he saw at the seminar and was really gung-ho on what we were doing. It is really great to see that level of enthusiasm and it was nice to be able to get him started. I got him through his kata and also taught him my basic repertoire of 6 one-steps. During the second hour. For the 1st half of class we did katas and Jim and Kevin and I started learning one of the katas that we need to know. It wasn’t one that Jim and I will be tested on but it is one that we teach to children at the black belt level.Then we worked on floor drills. WOW! DO I EVER SUCK AT FLOOR DRILLS! But I guess that for my level I am doing okay, considering the lack of practice at it in the past year. Hopefully we will keep at it. During the last 15 minutes of class Bruce had us doing something like what we had been doing back on the 8th of January, where we would collapse into our opponent and tie their hands up while strike with our elbows. Bruce wished he had had more time but we always have to quit just when we are getting going. He wanted to get more into the leg aspects of it. I have been working a lot on the kata video for kids- I have been breaking it down as a slide show at first and talking through it slowly and then moving it into a slow motion version of the kata and then finishing with a real time motion version of it. The only serious problem so far is that my youngest daughter, who did the first kata, didn’t do it very well. It is really an important kata, as they all are. But this one is especially important because it is what all the other katas are “built” from in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately, my dear daughter displayed just about every bad habit you can have in her version and I didn’t call her on it because I thought it was more important to get through as much as we could when we had the gym to ourselves. But now we will have to try to do a retake at class next week. What I would really like to see is her doing proper front stances, punching from the hip and not looking around but at the opponent she is supposed to be fighting. She is only 8 but I know she can do a better job and forcing her to do it might help her develop better habits along the way. She is a bit over confident and it might be healthy for her to realize that she is going to have to buckle down and do it right if she doesn’t want me to give the assignment to he next oldest sister. Playing the sibling rivalry card is playing a bit dirty but I am willing to do it if it gets the results I need and also might help her to learn it right. At any rate, I think the video is going to be pretty good and a really good addition to the videos that Master Bruce already has available. I hope that it will be a really valuable resource for those who are learning and also for those that are teaching, a great reference to have on hand. I’m happy to say that an old friend of mine who is into Martial Arts will be visiting his family in Minnesota in the next week and hopefully we will be able to get together and hang out and talk about it all, and that maybe he can come to class with me at least one night and see what it is that we all get up to in QLK. Well, that is it for now! Sorry I haven’t been able to get to this sooner but I have been really busy lately with a bunch of projects, both MA related and otherwise. I hope ’08 is going great for everyone and I’ll have… More later- GrumpyGriz | 
) I finally received my copy of our second degree black belt test, and I'm working on doing some cool cuts and clips of the video for here. Hopefully that will be done soon. 
