GrumpyGriz's Xanga

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:18:47 GMT

On Tuesday night we started out loosening up with a bit of Tai Chi and then we worked with sticks for a while, sort of a continuation of our class from last week. Mostly we worked on defense against sticks, what to do if attacked. I think this makes a lot of sense. Personally, I don’t really need to learn how to hit someone with a stick as I'm pretty good at that already. What I need to learn how to take them away from some A-hole who is trying to whack me with one. And that is exactly what we did. I was working with Leroy and it is cool since we are just about at the same level, I might be just a tad a head of him but I have never sparred with him so I’m not sure where he is at in that regard.

So I now can take a stick away even using only one hand.

I was late to class on Thursday night because I had a gig at one of the local health care centers that was opening up a new wing for childhood psychological treatment and of course they wanted crazy old me to be the background music for the reception. I must say that I was really impressed with the new facility and really glad that I was able to play for them, and not only because it paid well.

When I got to class the second hour had already begun and they were working on Sword Hands and I jumped right in and started working with Jeff. Jeff is a nice guy, he started out at the same time as Jim and I and would be a Black Belt now except that he had to take some time off to take some career related classes. What is really cool is that he came back and when he did he brought his son with him.

Bruce asked me if I would like to help him with his next video and of course I am pleased to be able to do what ever I can to help. It is going to be on healing techniques so that should be great. That is one of the things I have been looking forward to the most since I learned that Quan Li K’an had a healing aspect to it.

The Kata Video I have been working on is coming along, I now know where I am going with it so things are moving right along. Bruce gave me an Apple G4 loaded with video (and audio) software so now what I have to do is learn how to use it. A pretty steep curve for me but once I get into it I think it will be really useful and much more versatile than the Windows program that I have been using, if slightly less easy to use.

Well, we have the next week off as the Public Schools have Spring break.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

Friday, February 22, 2008

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:41:09 GMT

Feb. 14^th 2008

Dang have I been busy lately! I didn’t quite realize how much work was going to be involved in putting out this video. We shot the katas from two different angles and through the magic of digital video software I was able to stitch them together and do a front view with a side view inset and vice versa. It is really neat what I can do compared with what my options were 20 years ago.

ON THE OTHER HAND… everything takes time especially when I have to teach myself as I go. But I’m getting some great results and the video may not be quite as slick as if I had been able to tape it in a private studio but it is going to be somewhat close to professional quality.

Keeping in mind that this video is geared toward younger students trying to learn the katas, here is the format. There is a 12 second “title” at the start of each kata/segment and then while showing the front view of the kata I voiceover a short introduction with a few mentions of what is new in this kata, some pointers on technique and perhaps why this kata is important… basically filling up time while the student sees the first view of the kata. Then I go to a slideshow of all the individual moves and stances with a verbal description. And then a front view, then a side view and then a view of the front with the side view inset.

I have considered adding a “critic’s corner” to the end of each segment, with a brief analysis of how the performance could have been improved, but perhaps that is getting a bit to into it and should be left to their individual teachers anyway.

All this with original background music.

But it is really eating up the memory on my computer so now I am transferring a bunch of stuff from my hard drive to DVD and storing it. It is probably a good idea just to do it anyway since I haven’t backed-up my files for a while.

Tonight at class both Bruce and John were absent so it was up to Paul and Ashley and Adam and Jim and myself to take care of business. I was teaching two young gold belts with Adam supervising and jeepers! Those kids were all hopped up on Valentine’s day candy and squirrelly as can be. But since I’ve been working on the video I didn’t have to go back to look at the paper and see how the kata is supposed to be, I was able to go right through it with them on the first time through.

During the second hour we worked on our own katas and we were introduced to Po ‘en, one of the 4 katas that I will have to know for testing in about a year and a half. Adam talked us through Quan Ga and then showed us Po ‘en and it looks like there is some really handy stuff in it. Quan Ghe is being phased out for the adult levels but we still have to know it to be able to teach it to the junior Black Belts.

At the end we worked on ground fighting skill which was cool, it has been a couple of years since we did that, or at least when I was at class. Because you’ve gotta figure, in a real fight how often does it happen that you might get knocked down, shoved from behind or loose your balance? ALL THE TIME! So what to do if you are on the ground is really important.

I had a bit of a brain fart on Tuesday. My daughter’s school had a two hour late start and I dunno, for some reason I equate 2-hour late starts with Mondays and so I went through the whole day thinking it was Monday, which is why I missed the Tuesday night QLK class. But there ya go, the ravages of age have left me crippled.

Last Thursday I taught the young White belts for a few minutes with Ashley and then Bruce called me over to pick my brain about Bassai Dai, which I had to do as a green belt. He was teaching it to Lucas and was having trouble getting started. So I ended up working on that for both hours and we got all the way through it. It is amazing that some of it comes back so clear with just a little reminder and other things are just like hearing it for the first time. I think that my brain was so occupied just trying to keep up with all the changes that Bruce kept making and the pressure of having to earn such an advanced kata in just 4 months. But most of it is still there, and it is a constant dance of death. One neck break after another from various positions; a great series of options. The kind of kata you could spend a lifetime on and still discover more.

The Tuesday before that was Caucus night here and so there was no class.

The Thursday before that I worked with Ashley and the White Belts, and during the second hour Bruce, Paul and I shot some retakes for the video. I felt that it was worthwhile getting a better version of the first kata, Chun Ji, since it is so important as a base for all the other katas to build on.

______________________________

Feb. 21^st, 2008

Geez, I have hardly been online this month. I have been really remiss in answering my Email and keeping up connections. But life offline has been really busy.

I have a guitar student now, someone who heard me play at a local venue asked if I gave lessons and I told her what lessons would be like with me and she was still interested.

You see, I don’t like teaching guitar. I taught myself how to play and I think that anyone can do it if they put their time and energy into it. So my lessons are geared toward getting the student to the point where if they REALLY do want to play guitar, they can take off on their own.

I know it is bad business but I really aim to get them to be able to teach themselves rather than trying to teach them note-for-note renditions of songs and coming for a lesson each and every week month after month, year after year.

So, a few months and they are outta here.

I also play at least twice a week at some of the local coffee shops, delis and various other places.

And the video is coming right along. I got together with Master Bruce Miller yesterday and we took a look at what I had done and he had a few suggestions but seemed really pleased with what I have been doing. He thought it was at least as good as some of the so-called “professional” DVDs for sale out there. He thought that the idea of a “critic’s corner” was a good one, to offer a few suggestions of how each performance might be improved. But he also said that no kid he has ever seen has been able to pull off a “perfect” performance and it is a bit different for each student, no matter what their age. (I don’t know if this is true in other styles or not but I Quan Li K’an we take into account that everyone has a slightly different body and also that they are individuals and will want to stress some aspects of a kata more than others. We try to get them to the point that they know that this is okay and can pick and chose what they want from a kata in the senior ranks, eventually designing their own kata.)

Now that I know where I am going with the DVD I should be able to finish it up in a few more weeks.

On a sad note, my Brother-in-Law has died and we are traveling out to Green Bay this weekend for his funeral. He was a carpenter and did really good work, took his time and did a lot of it by hand. But he has been sick for some time now, his second kidney transplant had gone into rejection and he felt terrible all the time and didn’t eat enough and just got weaker, had to go into a nursing home and finally crashed on Tuesday night.

So we get to make a 7 hour car ride with the kids and stay at my father-in-law’s farm house with another family with kids. The place is nice… during the summer when I can get out and away by myself if I need to. But it is just one of those things in life that one has to do so do it we will.

At class on Tuesday night we worked on Tai Chi for the first 20 minutes and then worked with swords for the rest of the class. It was one of the first times we have done anything with weapons and it was really quite interesting.

Really what we were working on was defense against swords and by extension, all clubs and sticks. There was only one attack that Bruce didn’t have a defense for and he showed us what it was and said that in that case, just get the heck out of the way.

A couple of interesting facts. The tip of the sword may have a lot of velocity but it is difficult to develop a lot of force- physics- it is the end of a lever. It is much easier to push around the end of a lever than nearer to the fulcrum.

Also- the baseball bat looks/seems like it should be a good weapon but it is really quite slow and clumsy. If you stand there and get hit by it you really have earned it. The principles used to turn aside a sword are similar and applicable to staffs and sticks. The use of Sword Hands is the key.

Thursday night during the first hour I worked with my daughter Maura and Jeff, they are both Low Green belts. Jeff is an adult and so I got to go through both versions of the kata. John was supervising and it is always great when he teaches. He doesn’t say much but when he does it is something that matters. He has a great store of knowledge and experience is also a really cool guy.

During the second hour we started almost before the students from the first hour had left the gym. Maura started fooling around hiding behind my back and John and Ashley and Adam started trying to get her to use some “Mouse” techniques to take me down and of course she (age 7) was really hesitant and afraid of hurting me but it didn’t take just too long and she had me on the floor and was kneeling on my cheekbone while bending my small fingers the wrong way. And John kept adding new and wonderful little painful bits for her to try out. She really didn’t hurt me but she could have and I explained that it was okay when we were in class or if someone was trying to hurt her.

You see, that is why I started all this in the first place. I want my girls to be able to take care of themselves. Shortly after we started my niece was raped and it made it all the more important to me that my girls be able to handle some situations. Certainly it doesn’t protect them from every situation but it can’t hurt.

During the second half of the last hour Bruce worked with Jim and me on Empi, the kata that is being substituted for Bassai Dai at the adult High Green Belt level. Bassai Dai is being moved up to 1^st Dan level and while I won’t be tested on it we are still going to be working on it. Empi has some really useful stuff in it!

DEFENDER!

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:39:32 GMT

I am not ashamed to admit that I really enjoy reading young people's literature! The Underland Chronicles are pretty cool!

I am also reading "Wuthering Heights" (Shudder!) but I am ashamed to admit that!

Tuesday night class didn’t happen, which was a disappointment since my friend from Tennessee was in town. I called the community education office just to make sure that there would be class and they said their would but when we got there the person who was supposed to be there to open the door never showed up. But my friend and I went west to visit with another mutual friend and it turned out to be a good night anyway, with a fair amount of talk about Martial Arts and other subjects as well. Master Bruce was out of town anyway but it would have been nice to have one of the senior belts give my friend a bit of an overview of what Quan Li K’an is about. Bummer.

Last night I got to lead the stretch and warm-up. The seniors said I did okay since I remembered everything. After break I got to assist Ashley in teaching the white belt kata and one-steps to the kids. Ashley has a lot more patience than I have. She corrected me once when I was suggesting a more adult version of a move but I guess it was just the way I learned it. So there is one thing I learned! It all went pretty well.

During the second hour John started out asking us first Dans about teaching and what we thought about the reasons for the way things are done. One question he asked was “Some styles have their new black belts go out and establish new schools and then have to send their old school 10% of the profit. We require ours to teach under supervision for a minimum of one year (and usually longer) before they test for their second Dan and if they pass they are free to teach wherever they like and get to keep any and all profit they make. Why do you think that is?”

There are a few correct answers but basically it boils down to the fact that we are knowledge-based, not profit-based. We want to make sure the material is taught correctly and we want to make sure that the style continues to improve.

After the Q&A session we worked on the kata that we started last week, Kwang Gae. It will still be taught to the junior black belts and so the adults have to be familiar with it. The adults will be learning Po eun and Bassai Dai for testing and besides Kwang Gae we must also familiarize ourselves with Empi since it will be replacing Bassai Dai as the High Green belt kata.

Jim and I are already familiar with Bassai Dai since we were the first Green Belts to be required to do it and I totally agree that it should be moved to the Black Belt level. We started learning it two months before we tested for our Low Green belts and still just barely made it through when we tested on it. That is six months of fairly hard study on one kata and I think it helped me to better understand everything that came afterward but is too much for a 4 month testing cycle. I have been through Empi and I think that it will make a suitable replacement and has some things in it that don’t necessarily have to be lethal, while Bassai Dai is just one neck break after another. Bruce has also improved his understanding of Bassai Dai since we learned it so there will still be a lot to learn.

At the end of class we had two people spar in the center for 30 seconds (Kevin and I started) and then the others watching had to pick one good thing and one bad thing that we did. So it was a lesson in critical analysis. Then we played one round of “Defender,” a new game that John wanted to introduce. We pretended that the inner circle of the gym was surrounded in hot lava so you couldn’t step out. My eldest daughter was the princess and Lucas was the bodyguard. She stood behind him and kept her hand on his shoulder so he would know where she was. First he had to defend my daughter from Kevin and keep him from hurting her and not let her or himself step in the hot lava. Lucas could defend or attack, whatever it took. Then he had to defend them against Kevin and Ashley, which didn’t go so well and he eventually threw himself into the lava to save my daughter. Very noble but not terribly effective. It was an interesting exercise in what it might be like defending someone who has no experience in Martial Arts.

All in all it was a good class.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

Catching up on recent events...

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:41:41 GMT

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 3^rd 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 8^th 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 10^th 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 17^th) we worked on katas again for the 1^st 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 1^st 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 8^th 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

A New Belt!

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:59:03 GMT

TUESDAY NIGHT- We worked a bit on the Yang Short Form and concentrated on the “Grasp Sparrow’s Tail” sequence and once again I was paired with Brent. He is good to work with and has a great sense of humor. But often we spend time figuring out what Bruce is talking about and I don’t feel that I get to practice the applications enough once we have got the gist of what Bruce says. Bruce doesn’t mind repeating the instructions and demonstrating but then he goes off to help other people and we find that one or the other of us hasn’t quite got it or misunderstood. But at any rate, it is starting to sink in and I am beginning to remember more of the moves as the year goes on. I wonder if I will be able to get through it by myself before the school year ends.

Then we worked a bit on some Dragon style sparring techniques. I may be reading a bit into it here but I think that perhaps Bruce wanted to give me an edge in my sparring with Jim at the testing on Thursday. Whatever the reason, it was interesting and I hope I can incorporate some of it into my performance on Thursday night.

Bruce has been asked to return to England for a seminar on healing and I really wish I could go with! But there is no chance of that this time, my finances are stretched to the limit and we just had a $1500 car repair that broke the bank. Fortunately I have some gigs coming up that will help pay for it. What a terrible time of year to go broke, but the cold weather here in Minnesota really takes a toll on any equipment that isn’t kept in a heated garage. And then there is the cost of gas, food and everything else that seems to be going up, up, up! And of course the holidays mean buying a few odds and ends for the kids. But such is life.

THURSDAY NIGHT- All right. I’ll start out by not keeping anyone in any kind of suspense. I got my Black Belt.

Here is a rundown of how things played out. I did my kata and thought it went okay, there was no questions from the panel which means they all understood what it was that I was doing. I felt that one or two of the moves may have gone better in practice but under the pressure of testing things always go a bit whacko.

Sparring with Jim went very well. I don’t think that I actually did any Dragon techniques but I was certainly thinking about what Bruce had said Tuesday night and I did seem to dominate the match. One thing that really worked well was moving into him when he was trying to set up a combination therefore taking away his momentum and destroying his attacks.

Sparring with Adam was a short serving of life in Hell but we got through it okay. I got in a few good shots but he kept making me aware that I was leaving my groin unprotected; he must have tapped it 4 times in the 2 minutes that we sparred. That being said, not all of those groin strikes would have had any sort of force behind them that would have found crippling enough to make me stop and I did get in a few shots at him and so I didn’t look like a complete loser. But on the other hand, a few of those strikes would have been really bad if they had had power behind them and it really showed one area that I need some serious work in. But it wasn’t enough to keep me from passing.

Adam is really good at sparring and been at it for a long time and is a third Dan, not to mention half my age. Let me see, did I leave out any other excuses? Oh yeah, I didn’t sleep well the night before and the dog ate my homework, the sun was in my eye and my allergies were acting up.

Okay, so what is true about that is that Adam, a third Dan, IS really good at sparring and HAS been at it for a lot longer than I have, IS half my age and I DIDN’T sleep well the night before. But other than that I really don’t have any excuses. But like I said, it wasn’t enough to keep me from passing.

For my board breaks I did a hammer strike and an axe kick and they both sailed right through and since two breaks was all I was required to complete the panel more or less suggested that I not bother with my other two, mostly since we were running out of time. But that made my daughters happy as they wanted to break a few boards when we were finished.

My two youngest daughters both tested and passed, although my middle daughter (11) only got one stripe due to her lack of power. But at least she passed. For her next level she will really have to develop some power if she wants to pass. My youngest daughter (7) did really well considering that just yesterday she was still not doing her kata right. But we worked on it a bunch before the test and got her doing her turns in the right direction and she pulled it off with only the slightest hesitation. Actually she did it better than the adult that was testing at the same level and didn’t get his turns right. Her sparring was really good for her first time and she remembered all her one-steps.

Bruce said that there was no question that I had done well enough to pass, so I guess that everything was okay. He kept the promise that he made to me almost two years ago when he said that he would see me through to getting my Black Belt. I do feel that he has given me a lot of personal attention that other students didn’t get but I also feel that he has been honest and wouldn’t just let me pass because I am a friend. He has a vested interest in making sure that QLK keeps getting better and better and wouldn’t let personal friendship get in the way of the style improving itself. And by that I mean that by “getting me through” he made sure that I was good enough or better. And I did work really hard on it so I really feel good about earning my rank.

My parents really enjoyed coming to watch and were able to see why I enjoy doing this so much. We all went out for a treat afterward. They were pleased with how their grandchildren did and I think they understand my feelings about having daughters learn to take care of themselves if they are ever threatened physically.

SO… Jim, Kevin (9) and I all passed and became Black Belts tonight. It was quite a feeling to have all the other members bow to us and the applause was really great. One of the comments that I liked the best was right after we all bowed out I heard Master John say “just think how many new teachers we now have!” Because that is one thing I have really been looking forward to, I really want to pass some of this stuff on.

I am really looking forward to the next year or more of student teaching and working on two Katas and getting ready to spar two opponents. Then I will be licensed to teach Quan Li K’an anywhere I want to. I don’t have any plans to set up my own school; I would like to keep helping out in St. Cloud as long as they keep it going there.

Have a great Holiday Season and If I don’t write anything until then, have a wonderful New Year.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

The Ultimate Week!

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:57:00 GMT

TUESDAY night we worked, as usual, on the Yang Short form and what was going on was that we were continuing last week’s class where they had spent a lot of time bringing Leroy up to speed on the meanings of the form. We went through the moves we know as “single whip/cloud hands/single whip” and “pat horse’s mane.” I know these names are not what other styles call them but it is what I know them as. I was paired up with Brent and we worked through the entire form up to the point of the moves mentioned above and then worked on the next one and then did the entire form again…

At the end of class Master Bruce opened up a discussion on the F.A.R.T. techniques… Yes, my friends, it seems that the name has stunk… I mean stuck. Bruce wanted to hear about any ideas that we might have for moves that will be fast and effective against various types of kicks. What were able to come up with were knee blocks immediately leading to a strike with the same knee/leg and if it was a higher kick, grabs and twists or throws.

In Quan Li K’an we generally don’t kick above the belt, or at least not in the usual way that people use kicks for, which in my experience is to keep an opponent at a distance, at least with someone who hasn’t been trained. We like to get in close and if we kick someone in the head it is because they have bent over far enough to present an easy target, but generally we do strikes both to and from the knees, the occasional snap or slap kick to the knee or groin but especially targeting the poison points. We do consider anything that is done with the leg/knee to be a kick.

It is really a great feeling to be able to contribute and have taken seriously thoughts and observations on a subject that will be used by future generations of QLK students. I almost feel that I “have arrived” or at least made it to the right train station in my Martial Arts career… almost but with a few reservations, like maybe I forgot my luggage in the taxi. In other words- I still feel that I have much more to learn than I learned yet- every time I reach a new level in QLK it opens up new vistas that reveal that what I had thought was the top of the mountain was only in fact another ridge leading to yet greater heights.

THURSDAY night we started out with Jim and I working with sensei Paul again and spent most of the time talking. We only did our kata twice each and both Jim and I felt that it went better the first time. Paul only had a very few criticisms, keep the hand together for the head strike, twist more on the foot, etc…

I was watching my 11 year old daughter out of the corner of my eye and was appalled to see that she had to go back to the sheet to find out what a move was. She was working with sensei Adam and I talked to him briefly between classes to see what the deal was and he said he was a little surprised as well because he had seen her do her kata well the previous two weeks. But he said that she could still test next week and if she failed she could work on it over the Christmas break and perhaps retest in the new year. My youngest and oldest daughters were off at school functions. I think the younger two will test and the oldest one will wait until Bruce and John feel she is ready.

While talking to Adam during the break I mentioned that I thought that sparring was going to be my greatest weakness (is that an oxymoron?) and so he suggested to Master John that we do floor drills during class if nothing else was planned. So we spent the entire second hour not sparring but working on combinations and approaches and trying not to get hurt.

I was right. Sparring is going to be my weak point. But I do think that the juggling has helped a bit- sometimes it seemed like my hands were blocking without any conscious thought on my part. Now I have to get that to carry on into follow-up maneuvers that change defense into offense.

BUT… the kata is looking great and there isn’t a board that I can’t break, especially if it attacks me in a dark alley in the dead of night. I have decided to do a hammer strike, an forward horizontal elbow strike, a knee strike and an axe kick for my four breaks. For the hammer strike and the axe kick I will use two low stools to hold the boards and for the other elbow strike I will need some of the senior belts to hold the boards for me. For the knee strike I am just going to hold the boards myself and break them on my own. All extremely easy… once you are through the boards.

So this is it… the ultimate week. Loads of air-sparring and work keeping the kata fresh and a bit of practice with the plastic board.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

Just about ready...

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:43:24 GMT

Tuesday night was a snowy day. It was snowing too hard and blowing so I stayed home. It is about 6 miles to class on roads that are not among those that are plowed first when there is snow and it was slippery! So I figured better to stay home instead of risk a night of getting my car out of the ditch. As it turned out I learned later that only one other student showed up and Bruce thought he needed a lot of attention anyway.

Thursday night went well. During the first hour Jim and I worked with Paul and he thought that with just one or two minor details our kata looked just about where he would like to see it. So that was good to hear. And we talked a lot about various things. I did throw a hammer strike into my kata and it didn’t even raise an eyebrow so I am going to leave it in.

During the second hour we worked for a while on our kata with Master Bruce and he thought it looked good and that we are ready for the test on the 20^th. After that Jim and I worked on floor drills, practicing various new approaches in our sparring technique so that we have a few new tricks to show off when we test. What was new was a climbing technique up the arm and some close-quarter knee strikes. One thing that we need to remember is to not throw kicks/strikes from our back leg unless we are within elbow distance. The reason is that anyone experienced enough will either block it or nail us with a groin or midline strike when they see the back leg move. Our philosophy is that once you are within elbow distance there is no back leg or hand; in that close anything is an option.

Master Bruce was very reassuring that we would probably do fine on the test as long as we don’t freeze up and/or completely lose it doing our kata. We do get three tries on our kata and so far I have passed all my tests on the first try with the exception of my high orange belt test when I didn’t gauge the distance between me and the judges very well and ended up throwing a kick right over sensei John’s head and he made a face and I almost started laughing and had to start over and backed up an extra 6 feet and did it perfectly.

Board breaking is no problem; I have the palm-heel strike problem worked out now. It was a matter of angle and posture and I feel pretty confident about it. All the senior Black Belts have reassured us (as I knew already) that the real pine boards are much easier than the plastic practice boards- you don’t have to be quite as accurate for one thing and also we will be breaking 2 inches while the practice board is 2.25 inches.

My parents are going to come and watch me test. They have heard us talking about Quan Li K’an for 4 years now and my sister, brother-in-law and nephews were in it before that. I thought it would be nice for them to finally get to see what it is that we do. My Father is 88 years old and often tells me about the jujitsu that he learned as a part of his basic training and the boxing that he did to stay fit in WWII and I think he will really enjoy seeing that both his son and his granddaughters can take care of themselves if they are threatened physically. My Mother is 80 and I think she would just like to see what it is that we all get up to.

And if they are watching I HAD BETTER PASS!!! Well, all they have ever required from me is that I do the best that I can and that is exactly what I intend to do so I doubt that there will be any problems.

So… next class there won’t be any sparring, we never do that the week before a test so that nobody injures themselves. I wonder what we will do besides practice our kata. I hope Bruce does a seminar or something like that.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

A QLK Christmas...

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:12:29 GMT

Nov. 28^th 2007

At the advanced class last night we worked on the Yang Short Form and then we worked on the arm bar variations and a few other odds and ends.

Before class we talked about the jujitsu exercise and Bruce asked if we thought it was worthwhile. I think he may be having some doubts about whether we want to continue with it. But I think we agreed that it was a good thing to keep up with and I said that I thought that we should but that it was important to keep it simple. Bruce agreed and said that we should not have a huge number of basic moves but get a good solid core of a 10-12 and then explore the variations of those basics, thereby coming up with hundreds of possibilities in the actual application of the core dozen. The core will include reactions to both punches and kicks. Grabs we have covered pretty thoroughly in our study of kata and I agree that our weak point this year has been sparring and I think that this approach will help cover that.

After the Tai Chi we did Sword Hands for a while and I almost felt as thought mine had progressed and while I wasn’t able to really do any harm to Adam I was at least feeling what he was doing and able to deflect… most of it. Then we moved into Heavy Hands and I really need to work on balance and leg strength.

One really useful thing for me that we covered was what to do when someone steps on your foot when sparring/fighting. Until now I had only one reaction to this which was to lean back (more or less out of range of any powerful punch) and let them take their shot and then to move into them and bobble their knee with mine. Now I have four or so that I can use including the old one. One was just to move right into them which takes away their ability to do anything powerful for a second or so. Another is to step in and kick/rake their knee/leg, which either just gets the foot off of mine or spins them away, which gives me so excellent targets. I think that most people who step on the foot think that you will either be trapped and at their mercy or that you will try and pull your foot out which not only gives them a chance to get through your defenses but may also damage your foot. Now I almost want them to step on it!

Then we worked on the arm bar and other things we will be using on the mat. Bruce was trying to think of a name for them, he doesn’t want to call them one-steps or applications. He suggested “Fast Response Techniques” and I immediately suggested “Fast-Ass Response Techniques” so that the acronym would be F.A.R.T.

I thought I would be spending the next few minutes doing push-ups but instead Bruce suggested maybe “Fast Applied Response Techniques” so I guess he is getting used to my twisted sense of humor. Later he said he would probably have to come up with a different term for them.

Now, while writing this, I have thought of a new term- Qu.A.R.T.s “Quick(ly) Applied Response Techniques” and the exercise on the mats would include punches and QuARTS so we would be doing our Ps and Qs as in the old expression “mind your P’s and Q’s.”

Ahhhh… the subtle wit…

Well, I’ll ask Bruce and see what he thinks.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

At the Thursday night class I asked Bruce about the “QuARTs” thing and he thought it was a better acronym than “FARTs.” His back was really bothering him, he was rehabbing his leg and ruptured a disk.

During the first hour Jim and I worked on our kata with Bruce until about the last 15 minutes of class when I went to help my daughter Leela work on hers. My daughters haven’t been concentrating on their QLK as much as they should and it show… and it is my fault. But they have been doing loads of school activities so I do have that much to say in my defense. I doubt that the oldest two will test this time but I think that the youngest might go for it.

During the second hour Jim and I worked on our kata with Paul who said mine was a little weak, and he pointed out a few moves that were the way that we first learned it from Nancy and I guess that they work but something has happened since then which points out to me why I might want to do it in and even different way than I have yet done, I’ll get to it in a moment.

The move, dealing with opponent #2 (of 4) who comes from the right, involves a push-kick, a hook with the foot on the way back in and then another kick. Then a brush (or a punch!) with the right hand to the opponents face to turn the their head, then a grab of the face/throat (hooking the nose, jaw, eye sockets, grabbing the throat… whatever you can get hold of) and pulling them down face up in front of you and then doing a punch or palm strike to the throat or sternum.

I have been doing those last 2 moves as a grab to the eyes or nose to pull them down and then a grab to the throat with the intention of breaking the hyoid bone (or at least dislocating the larynx) and letting it go at that. Bruce was okay with that but Paul thought it was better to grab the throat for the pull down and then smash the sternum. And I think I agree about that much but what I think I might change is using a hammer strike instead of a palm strike.

You see, I have been working with a 2.25 in. practice board this week and have noticed that my hammer fist is much stronger than my palm strike. And while I can generate enough force with the palm strike to break the board it is not nearly as powerful as the hammer strike which just sails right through.

Well, I’ll run that idea by the teachers at the next class and see what they think.

For the last 20 minutes of class we worked on breaking boards. This is not something that we really emphasis in QLK, after all- “Boards don’t hit back!.”

But since it will be one of the requirements of my upcoming test Jim was a bit worried about it and had borrowed a practice board from Bruce two weeks ago and brought it to class this week and gave it to me so I could try it out.

I had done some breaking on my own and never had a problem so I wasn’t all that concerned about it… until I found out that we will have to attempt 4 12” x 12” x 2” breaks instead 2. We attempt 4 but only have to break 2, one with the upper body and one with the lower body.

So we worked on that and I didn’t have any trouble at all. Since then I have had a bit if trouble with the palm strikes at home but now they seem to be fine.

For the test I think I will do an ax kick and a cross step foot strike for the lower body and forward and backward elbow strikes for the upper body. Or possibly a hammer strike.

I bought my pine boards Friday and will cut them to size this week.

Saturday night we had the Quan Li K’an Christmas party, the first one we have had since I have been in the program. It was at Bruce’s house and I made and brought chicken enchiladas which turned out well. Of course, it is pretty hard to mess up enchiladas.

The problem was that we had a snow storm most of Saturday, about 8 inches of snow by the evening. So it took about 30 minutes to get to the party when it usually takes 10.

But the party was fun and it was good to just hang out with the other QLK people. AND… Ashley asked me if I would be interested in playing for her friend’s wedding. So maybe I’ll have yet another paying gig coming up in June. For those of you who don’t know- I am a Musician and an Artist and trying to generate enough income to make this feasible is often a struggle.

At any rate- the driving went well both ways, we managed to stay out of the ditches at least.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:41:37 GMT

Well, since I didn’t get to the class last Thursday (the 15^th) I have been feeling so out of it in terms of my Martial Arts training and I’ve decided that until my test in December that I am going to start exercising more than usual every night and try to get my reflex speed up as well as my endurance.

So… I’ve started juggling again, something that I haven’t done much of for a few months. Not that I am all that great at it but I feel that it really helps with my hand-to-eye coordination. I can do a few tricks but nothing that is all that amazing. I used to be able to throw a ball over my shoulder and catch it again without dropping the other two balls. And I used to be able to bounce one off my knee and just keep on juggling. And there was a point when my girlfriend and I could juggle between two people. But I haven’t done much juggling in the past 20 years and it isn’t a skill that stays very fresh without practice. I can still walk and juggle at the same time but that is about it.

This past Tuesday at the advanced class we worked on the Yang form again. It seems that every week Bruce thinks of some new way to change it. One thing we talked about was the titles of the different moves in the sequence. Bruce was arguing that the titles were rather poetic to hide the meanings of the martial arts aspects from the general public and Nancy and I argued that they were known by those names because there were stances in them that resembled the titles. For instance- the moves that we know as “fair lady works the shuttles” (You may know it under a similar title) to me seem to be rather like someone working at a loom. In the end Bruce agreed that the titles were probably memory aids as much as anything.

After that we worked on the mats, doing some blocks and take-downs, reviewing what we had done in the Thursday night classes and improving it a bit. One thing that I think we have to be careful of is getting into moves that are too complicated, trying to do too much on a split second’s notice. If we have to think about what we are doing, chances are that we will just end up getting the crap beat out of us or worse. So, for now, I am going with mainly the simplest moves, the ones that can be done more or less without thinking, and anything else is purely academic study.

There was a variation on that arm-bar (hopefully using the correct name here!) where I block, pull the wrist or step into them while turning and end up with the uke’s elbow over my shoulder, their palm up, while I pull down on their wrist. Both people facing the same way. The main thing is to turn so that their opposite arm is palm-up on your shoulder, so you aren’t standing right in front of them with a big invisible “kick me” sign on your back. If done right this is extremely painful! (for the uke!). There is a variation with bending their fingers back while doing the over the shoulder thing that is really a treat!

***************************************

And this Thursday, Thanksgiving, we didn’t have class again and so now I REALLY feel out of it! Just getting out of the house is great!

I’ve been reading a few other blogs here at Xanga and am starting to find others that blog regularly about their Martial Arts experiences. I have found a few that really seem to be into it for the knowledge, growth or camaraderie. And even though they are different styles than I am it is really nice to read that they are having some of the same issues that I am even if I don’t always blog about them, and it is just interesting to hear about the different things that they do and to compare different styles.

One thing that I really liked about traveling last month and visiting other schools (I think I mentioned this in an earlier blog) was that even though most of them weren’t Quan Li K’an schools they still treated us with respect and were open to learning from us, just as we were learning from them. So it is good to know that, for some people, the Martial Arts community is more like a family than a competition.

I suspect that when I have been in this for a bit longer I will probably check into some other styles and try to study them more closely. However, Bruce says there may be a problem with that, especially around this area. He has said more than once that if I visit any of the non-QLK schools in the area and tell them that I am QLK they will most likely ask me to leave. Bruce says that the reason for that is that our Green Belts make their Brown Belts look bad. I don’t know if this is true or if that is just professional pride on his part (also known as blowing smoke). Having seen a few (but not all!) other styles I suspect that there may be at least some truth in some of what he says. There was one school in England that really made me wonder why they were teaching such awkward stuff…

On the other hand, there was that Jujitsu school that we visited and I learned a bundle of good stuff just watching!

But in any case, I may just have to not say anything about my previous experience if I want to check into other local MA schools. Jujitsu and Aikido look interesting… as does almost everything else.

But, on the other hand, I’m not sure I can afford to go into another style, at least not yet.

For those of you who don’t want to read back 30 or so blog entries ago, my Martial Arts career started out as a way to get my daughters some self-defense training and since the program that we choose encouraged students to come as families, I went as well. And fell in love with it.

First, I chose it because it was purely for self-defense. In Quan Li K’an there are no tournaments or competitions. And also the price was right for someone like me who doesn’t have a pile of money to spend wherever I like, especially with the 3 daughters. And once I started to get to know the people who teach it I began to realize that this was something that I wanted to be a part of. After the first 6 months or so it became my goal to become a teacher. I really respect the people who teach it because not only were they very kind to my children and me, none of them accept money for what they teach in the St. Cloud program.

So now, three and a half years later, I have been going to class once or twice (or even three times a week when I get invited to a QLK school in a nearby town, which hasn’t happened in a while) and I am about a month away from (with any luck and a lot of practice) getting my Black Belt and then it will be one year of student teaching until I attain my goal of being able to teach. And not only will I be able to teach, if I want to I could even start my own school. But that is a ways off yet and I just want to get through the test and on to 2008!

I feel like I could go on but I think I will save it for another post.

Thank you for the recent subscriptions! I am flattered that you think this worth reading and I hope that you enjoy it in the future! I do plan to go more into what we do in class as time goes on, picking a topic and writing about what little I know about it and maybe we can start a dialogue and learn from each other.

More later-

GrumpyGriz

a few new moves

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:03:18 GMT

Tuesday night we started off with the usual Yang Short Form and almost got all the way through it but Bruce kept us trying the different applications. It really is useful to have so many variations.

I know some people want to have a cut and dried answer for every move and application, it really must be a heck of a lot easier that way. But no battle plan survives contact with the enemy which is why I think it is better to learn principles rather that a million different moves. Yeah, it is good to have a bunch of tools in the tool box but if you know the principles of how the body works and how certain things affect it then you can take a lot fewer moves and expand the range of their effectiveness.

Bruce mentioned that we would be learning a few new moves during the Thursday night class and I said that I wouldn’t be there because I have to go to my daughters’ school music recital. So he showed us what he was thinking of doing so that I won’t miss too much by not attending class. One was a simple arm-bar and another was some snake moves with the legs, which is something that I definitely haven't done before. And a block and then snake the arm around the neck, putting it into a lock with their face up and back arched. It was pretty cool.

I really do miss it when I can’t go. It is like a therapy, exercise and anatomy lesson all rolled into one and I always feel great after class. I was thinking just today about how fast the past year has gone by. I’ve been working really hard on this stuff and it is starting to really pay off. A couple of times when Bruce asked questions I was able to answer before the two Black Belts that were there. I was wondering if it was that I came up with the answers faster of if they were just holding back to see if I really knew it. I don’t know which it was but at least I did have the answers.

At any rate- I won’t be at the class tomorrow night and I will miss it. On the other hand- I am looking forward to hearing my daughters singing!

More later-

GrumpyGriz