Saturday, September 24, 2016 - 10:05 - Two person forms practice with Mr. R. Goldend leopard vs tiger. Which surprisingly did not go to well. We both kept changing sides mid form. Weird as I just practiced it with Ms. M and did better. We were going slowly, which I think messed me up. But that just means I need to know the form better. I should be able to do it any speed and not have that mess me up. Then we did the two person staff form, which went smoother. 11:00 - Sparring class. At one point Tai-Sifu said I looked more nimble! That was awesome! Mind you more doesn't mean great, but it does mean I am making some improvements. I credit the other sparring class with the instructor Mr. W. As footwork has been a focus. This is just evidence that the footwork drills are helping me. 12:00 - Fixed and moving step push hands class. Just an awesome class! 1:00- rested way too long. Chatted. I need to at least stretch or something if I am going to take breaks, and this one was definitely too long. 2:15 - Solo practice. Annoyingly, I can't remember what. This is why I need to not wait several days to log it. My practices all run together and it is hard to remember what I did a few days ago. 3:00 - School closes (3 hours and 40 minutes) Sunday, September 25, 2016 - rest day
Monday, September 26, 2016 - 3:50 - Stretching and warm up 4:30 - TCC hand forms practice. 40, Fajing, 105, first half or so of the 48 combination. Also, 32 Gim on both sides. 6:30 - Stick Fighting Class 7:00 - No Private CLF lesson. My instructor is out of town. Solo practice. Techniques. Brown sash 3rd degree (about 10 minutes?) Brown Sash 1st degree. (about 10 minutes) Started dagger techniques. Did 4 of them and then got a nosebleed. Took about 20 - 25 minutes to stop enough to practice more. REALLY annoying! I get nosebleeds easily in hot dry weather. 7:50ish? - Techniques practice with Ms. B. Double Dagger and Cane. Continued techniques practice solo. Finished dagger techniques. Also stick, and Purple sash ones. Kicking practice. About 20 - 25 minutes. Purple sash kicks. Then, just beat. Dabbled in a couple of TCC moves. Then stretched a bit, then did some leg raises. 9:45 - Just done. Tired! (5 hours and 30 minutes)
Tuesday, September 27, 2016 - 6:37 - Stretching 7:00 - Techniques practice. Yelllow, Green (14 min) and Blue (10 min) sash techniques. Focus on recent corrections given by CLF instructor. I would stop after timing workout and focus on a couple of techniques where I was particularly having issues. That isn't counted in the time. TCC Weapon forms practice. Both Sabre forms. Stick, Double Gim and Wind Chasing Fan. Kicking practice. About 20-25 minutes. Green sash kicks. Also a few yellow sash kicks. 9:00 - School closes (2 hours and 23 minutes)
Oh jeez I am way behind! Going to put in dates first, then go back and fill in over the next day or two. Just to keep the order of my log in place. Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - Evening Shift/ Rest day Thursday, September 29, 2016 - - It was my sister's birthday, so I took the evening off to celebrate it. Rest day. Friday, September 30, 2016 - 6:30 - Weapons class. Stick, Dagger, Cane and double dagger techniques. 7:00 - No advanced TCC class. This seems so intermittent that I am just going to say when we do have the class from now on. Ran through all forms in formatting style. Did so in under an hour (my goal), but I can't remember exactly how long. Stances were high and I had to cheat a couple of moves due to my hip flexor issue. Saturday, October 1, 2016 - work day. Rest day Sunday, October 2, 2016 - Rest day. Trying to heal weird hip flexor issue going on.
Monday, October 3, 2016 - Reconstructed later on. Estimates for this entry as I didn't enter them until a few weeks later. 6:30 - stick fighting class 7:00 - CLF private lesson. Can't remember what we did. Either techniques or kicks, can't remember what or what level. 7:30ish- can't remember. 8:00 - techniques practice with Ms. B. Can't remember which ones 8:30 - solo practice. Again can't remember what. 9:30 - estimate of when I left. 3 hours est. Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - - Evening shift/ Rest day Thursday, October 6, 2016 - Friday, October 7, 2016 - School closed early. Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong is in town for our Grandmaster Seminars. And we had our annual Banquet at Jasmine restaurant tonight. 8 course meal. I almost didn't make it as I had a tire blowout on the way to the banquet. but the roadside assistance people came in time and I only missed the lion dancing. It was nice. This year, they let the instructors sit and intermingle with the students instead of sitting at their own table. So my CLF instructor sat at my table. Good time! Good food! Good company! No workout. Saturday, October 8, 2016 - School closed due to seminars. I didn't go to any two day seminars this year. So I decided to still rest my ailing hip flexor and took the day off entirely. Rest day.
Sunday, October 9, 2016 - As I said before, Grandmaster seminars. I decided not to learn a new form that wasn't in my curriculum right now. The thing is, I am trying to get ready to test for my black sash in CLF, and I don't have time to practice stuff not in my curriculum. Too bad, as there were some very cool forms being taught this year. But I am focused on a particular goal. After I get past my next test, there will be plenty of years to do seminars. But I DID do the push hands seminar, as it wasn't a form to learn. 9:00 - 10:20 - Push hands Seminar with Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong. It was good, but not great. The information he had was fantastic! And I always enjoy practicing push hands. But his time giving instruction was not enough for me. Too little of that and too much time practicing. Normally I am fine with practicing, but when paying for a seminar, I want more instruction time. Also, the seminar was supposed to go to 10:30 and it was stopped early to get ready for the next seminar. In the past, that hasn't happened, so I wasn't too happy about the seminar being short 10 minutes. What I learned was great, I don't regret going. I had fun practicing with fellow students. And other high level instructors and Sifu's came around and gave great tips while doing the practicing. I just wish we had more tips from Grandmaster than we got, so I was a little bummed about that. Afterwards, I went to lunch with two fellow students and hung out for a couple of hours. I had a great time. One of the things I love about my school are my fellow students. Quality people. The school attracts really cool people overall. 7:20 P.M. - About 15 minutes of stretching and warm up. Then, TCC hand forms practice. 24, 40, Fajing and 48 combination. I skipped the 108 long form to really focus on the 48 combination. Balance was off today, not sure why. 9:00 - 24 Hour Fitness closes (3 hours)
Ok, I am lagging badly. I AM going to fill this all in in the next day or two. Monday, October 10, 2016 - Still catching up on medical issues, so I did not make it in as early as I want to. Also, couldn't stay as late as usual. Since we had Grandmaster seminars all weekend, the instructors had the night off and didn't do their usual training. So the school closed up at actual closing time. Memory is bad, this is the best I can reconstruct. I will be more on it and enter things more promptly. 5:30ish - Warm up. Changing stretching routine to less static stretching. 6:00 - My double gims came in!:banana::banana::happy: Picked them up. Then, I can't remember what I did. 6:30 - Stick Fighting class 7:00 - CLF private lesson. Going over yellow sash kicks. Happily, my instructor said she is seeing improvement. I really needed to hear that, as I have felt like maybe I wasn't getting better and it was frustrating me. Now, she wants me to work on getting faster with my kicks- pushing the speed all the way through them. 7:30 - I think I ended up chatting with fellow students. 8:00 - Techniques practice with Ms. B. Purple and Brown sash 1st degree. 8:20 - Sigh- can't remember what I did 9:00 - school closes (2 hours and 30 minutes)
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - Another weird injury out of the blue. Just walking around at work and got this weird pain winding down from my lower back down and around my leg, ending in the calf area. Like the sciatic area, but the pain was broader in the area. Also duller. But I had trouble lifting my left leg and it REALLY hurt! I think it was some sort of nerve pinch. Out of the blue- for now reason. So frustrating. Still, sometimes weird pains work themselves out when working out better than laying around, so I went to my school. 6:35ish - Stretching. 7:00 - sparring class. Wouldn't you know,. today of all days it was lots of kicks, and not just regular kicks, but hopping/ jumping, running into them kind of kicks. If I had known, I would not have gone. But between not wanting to leave my practice partner with no partner and well, to be honest, the ego of not wanting to quit in the middle of class, I stuck with it. 8:00- Leg hurt so badly. Could barely lift it. Further working out was not possible. So, I chatted with some fellow students. Left early. (1 hour and 30 minutes) Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - Evening Shift/ Rest day. Leg was still pretty bad. Tough to move around at work. But a bit better than the day before.
Thursday, October 13, 2016 - Leg much better. Whew! Not 100% - but far better. 6:30 - last half of TCC class 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF class. Detailing out Siu Moi Fa. Lots of time spend in the moves at 30 seconds in. Turn around and Gwa followed by a Fu Jow. Tai Sifu is always kind in how he says it, but he obviously was not satisfied with how pretty much all of us were doing this. One main thing is that most of us timed the two moves too close together. I love the super detailed stuff like this. Which is what his class has lots of. 8:00 - Two person staff practice with Ms. M. 8:30 - TCC private lesson. Detailing out the 48 combination form. 9:00 - School closes (2 hours and 30 minutes) Friday, October 14, 2016 - 6;30 - Weapons class. Cane techniques. 7:00 - solo practice. Was supposed to be doing all forms in a formatting sort of style. But I just wasn't up for it tonight. Not physically or mentally. So I just did most of my forms, but spent more time on details. Did weapon forms with Ms. M and Ms. B. My memory seemed bad tonight. I am kind of stressed out about my memory lately, but I think the stress is freaking me out and making my memory worse. When I relax, and say answer a question from another student, I remember things. To be honest, I think I am having an OCD freak out about Alzheimer's lately. My OCD manifests as this sort of hypochondriac obsession with having certain illnesses. Hypochondriac like, but not exactly as a person with OCD usually knows it isn't rational, unlike other mental illnesses. We just have trouble stopping the obsession, even though we know it is stupid. More realistically, my work is stressed, my sleep is bad, I have cut down on coffee, which means I am more tired. And I have read that women my age can have hormonal issues that affect memory. Anyways, this was my struggle tonight. Stopped about 8:45 and was chatting with Ms. M about martial arts stuff related to our training. 9:00 - school closes (2 hours and 15 minutes) Saturday, October 15, 2016 - worked all day. Day off
Sunday, October 16. 2016 - Rested. No workout. Monday, October 17, 2016 - 6:30 - stick fighting class 7:00 - CLF private lesson. Still working on my kicks. Green sash kicks. Feeling frustrated and like I am not making progress on these. Hopefully, tips from tonight will help. 7:30 - can't remember what I did. 8:00 - techniques practice with Ms. B. Stick, Dagger, and Cane. Went really well. Ms, B is coming along with the cane techniques, even though it isn't something she doesn't have to know for two more ranks. She learned them in weapons class and they are really coming along for her. By the time she HAS to know them for her sash level, she is already going to have them down pretty well and will just need some fine tuning from her instructor. 8:30 - I just fizzled out. Going through some stuff right now. I had an upcoming procedure on this coming Wednesday, and a lot of leg issues, so I decided to take it easy and rest and leave early. Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 6:30 - Stretching and warm up. 7:00 - something came up. Had to go take care of a friend. 30 minutes Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - I had the day off of work, but no workout. I had the day off to get an endoscopy. I have a chronic cough, Acid Reflux and post nasal drip issues. So they took a look. Groggy from anesthesia. I have a hiatal hernia, but the lesion I had in my throat a couple of years ago is healed. And they didn't need to take any biopsies from acid reflux damage, nor any other procedures if they found certain things. So it went really well. Now, I need to see my Dr. So that we can figure out how to actually fix my issues. It is good a lot of things were ruled out, but I still need to get to the bottom of how to actually fix things.
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - Still just having a weird pain down my leg. It was better, then I stood in the cold for a few hours talking to someone and it has hurt badly ever since. Sigh- it feels like it is always something and it is frustrating. Didn't get to go to last half of TCC class as the traffic was really bad and made me late. 7;00 - Tai Sifu CLF class. Formal exercise and stick form. Lots pf particularly excellent tips. The main one I got tonight was about how to loosen up punches. I particularly have trouble with circular strikes - being loose enough. Tai Sifu talked about how you slow down the first part and then accelerate the last part. I told him that the whole moved looked fast to me and I didn't see the slow part. He said that the slowing down makes it smoother and the smoothness makes it faster. So that you have to slow down to get faster. I am probably not explaining it properly. Anyways, I tried it and he said he could immediately see an improvement. Not only for me but for the whole class. And honestly, if felt more correct. So, I am still trying to digest this lesson, but I think it is going to end up being one of those pivotal ones. 8:00 - Two person staff practice with Ms. M. Coming along. 8:30 - TCC private lesson. Sill working on 48 combination, coming along too. Slowly, but it is getting better. 9:00 - School closes. 2 hours and 30 minutes Friday, October 21, 2016 - 6:30 - weapons class. Since most everyone starting class is brown sash, the instructor had us run through the previously practiced weapons in a format style. then he went over the last cane technique and a double dagger one. One blue sash kid joined the class late, but the instructor didn't stop the format due to this, which was great. 7:00 - Was waiting to start my format because a fellow student and I were to run through the 9 star two person set first. But she wasn't around so I started after a few minutes. 7:10 - Ran through all solo forms in format style. Ms. M was free, she is usually practicing with another student at this time. So she asked if she could do this with me. I think that was good for me as we finished in the best time I have had doing this- 46 minutes. Also, my memory was better. GOOD night of forms format. Very pleased with it. Not perfect, but it was good. 7:56 - rested a few minutes. Asked Tai Sifu a question about the wall bag. We had differing variations of a couple of moves (where to hit the higher bag vs the lower one) so we asked him. Then I tried out my double gim's that just came in for the first time! They feel very different than the ones I was borrowing. 8:30 - Kicking practice. Green sash kicks. Used the bags some too. 8:55 - a bit of stretching. 9:00 - school closes (2 hours and 30 minutes)
Saturday, October 22, 2016 - This was a GREAT day! 10:05 - Two person staff practice with Mr. R. He is just so great to work with. It is basically like getting a lesson from an instructor - working with him. I got a lot of great tips, which I hope to pass along to my other two person staff partner. 11:00 - Sparring class. Today was all about knife defense! It was awesome and SO MUCH FUN!!!! We have these fake daggers that we use. The first part of the class we practiced how to control the weapon arm and move so that the opponent can't stab you. Then we added actually grabbing the arm when the opponent is going for you. How to block and stick and slide down into the controlling position- than control as we did in the first drill. Third part was disarming the opponent after grabbing and getting control. Fourth part was practicing being in a regular match, then one person would pull out the weapon and then the previous drill. To simulate a person pulling out a weapon in the middle of a fist fight. I reiterate- IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! 12:00 - push hands/ moving step class. Also loads of fun. Basic drills as it is a new class. I need those. Again, super fun! 1:00 - rested 1:30ish? Tried some kicking practice, but my left leg is having that sciatic pain and my right knee started with some weird pains too. So frustrating. I did have Tai Sifu look at my triple front kick, which has not been improving much through practice. He said I am pivoting into the next kick too soon and throwing myself off in that way. So, that should be very helpful. Then I did some TCC weapon forms. Due to various pains, it was a bit sloppy in the form, and I took to a slow pace- even for TCC- meaning resting in between more than usual. But at least I was working on keeping the memory. I haven't been doing enough TCC and the memory is getting a little off. But it comes back quickly. 3:00- The instructor from the moving step class pulled anouther student to help me (he has an injury right now) and he went over a couple of moves I missed from last weeks class. He knows I would be there, but have to work. That was super nice of him to do that for me! 3:10ish? - school closes. 4 hours and 40 minutes
Sunday, October 23, 2016 - Left leg and right knee having pain, so I rested. Day off. Frustrating, but the right thing to do. Monday, October 24, 2016 - Left leg feeling better. Right knee still having issues, but better. 5:15 - Two person practice with Ms. M. Two person staff, Golden Leopard vs Tiger, and 9 star. Good practice session. Worked on speeding it up a bit. More focus on proper distance. 6:30 - Stick Fighting class 7:00 - CLF private lesson. Still working on kicks. Today, only two kicks. Seems I have been chambering wrong for the power thrust kick and it's variation. It seems I took some corrections given in the past and interpreted them incorrectly. Sigh* but it is good I have and idea of how to fix and improve this kick now. 7:30 - Brown sash 2nd degree techniques (14 min) Dahn Do form. 8:00 - techniques practice with Ms. B. double daggers 8:30 - rested and chatted a bit. Then cane techniques. Then kicking practice. Not sure how long. I focused on the corrections from tonight's lesson and the corrections from Tai Sifu on Saturday for my triple front kick. Also, I experimented with starting stance training again. Haven't done so because of various leg issues. So I am taking baby steps back into it. Eh, it's a start. Horse stance - 45 seconds Cat stance - 30 seconts Bow stance - 45 seconds 9:40 - school closed 4 hours
Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - 6:25 - Warm up and stretch. More warm up moves than stretching. Trying to change my routine per my CLF instructors suggestions. 7:05 - Solo practice. Both TCC Fan forms - just standard side. 48 Combination form. CLF Kicking practice- about 45 minutes? Maybe longer? But at a slow pace. Green sash kicks and some blue sash ones. Focusing on recent corrections. Really struggling to fix my triple front kick. Another instructor gave some advice, It seems I was adding an extra pivot back into my knife edge before pivoting into the rear. This really may be a big part of why I have trouble with balance between those two kicks- particularly on one side. Techniques practice- Yellow and Green sash techniques. 8:55 - school closes 2 hours and 30 minutes
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 - Evening Shift/ rest day Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 6:30 - last half of TCC class 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF Class - Still working on formal exercise and Hung Sing Stick/ Flute form. 7:50ish - Two person Staff practice with Ms. M 8:30 - TCC Private Lesson. Almost 3/4 of the way through re-detailing 48 combination form. 9:00 - School closes (2 hours and 30 minutes) Friday, October 27, 2016 - 6:30 - Weapon's Class. Last one this time around for Weapon Techniques. All double dagger today. 7:00 - nada. getting ready for next bit of practice 7:10ish - going through all forms in formatting style. Took about 50 minutes. 8:00 - Solo practice- TCC 48 combination form 8:30 - meant to practice kicks, but too tired. I think I need to get kicking practice in before doing the format style practice. Didn't do much. Feeling tired so I ended up just resting and chatting. 9:00 - school closes (2 hours) Saturday, October 29, 2016 - Worked all day/ rest day
Sunday, October 30, 2016 - Rest day Monday, October 31, 2016 - Took the day off from working out so that I could go hang out with My niece Trick or Treating. Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - Still nursing a lot of various leg and foot issues. I think my new orthotics are messing me up. So, I skipped sparring, even though i wanted to go. 6:30 - Stretching and warm up 7:00 - solo workout. Waited too long to write this to remember exactly what I did though. 9:00 - School closes. Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - Evening Shift/ Rest day Thursday, November 3, 2016 - 6:30 - Last half of TCC class. 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF class. Detailing out Formal exercise. Did a cool two person drill that is sort of hard to explain. It was a set pattern of strikes and blocks with a partner. 8:00 - Two person staff practice with Ms. M. 8:30 - TCC private lesson. Finally got to the end of 48 combination form. By getting to the end, I mean we got through the whole thing in this review we have been doing for awhile. But I think we will still be going over it. 9:00 - School closes
Friday, November 4, 2016 - 6:30 - Weapons class. First class for Stick/ Flute form. Extra cool thing about this class for the next few weeks is it is being taught by my CLF instructor. The regular instructor is on a trip with our GM in China, so she is filling in. She taught such a great class. Makes me proud and humbled to have the honor to be her student. 7:00 - Make up CLF lesson Due to the fact that I missed Monday because I was with my niece on Halloween. All about kicks again. 7:30 - Solo practice. TCC - double gim and 48 combination form. CLF - I can't remember what I did. 9:00 - School closes
Wow, I have really dropped the ball on this log! I have to get back on track! I will be filling in the stuff below over the next day or three. Saturday, November 5, 2016 - Sunday, November 6, 2016 - Monday, November 7, 2016 - Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - Evening shift/ Rest day. I worked a strange particularly late evening shift. My workplace is a polling place. So we had weird hours to cover. I volunteered for the late shift. Sorry to miss a workout, but I am proud to be a polling place. Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - Evening shift/ rest day Thursday, November 10, 2016 - Friday, November 11, 2016 - Saturday, November 12, 2016 - Work all day/ rest day Sunday, November 13, 2016 - Day off/ Rest day Monday, November 14, 2016 - Tuesday, November 15, 2016 - 6:35 - Warm up and stretching. 7:00 - sparring class. The instructor Mr. W filled in as the regular instructor is on that trip to China. He is the one who had us doing a lot of footwork drills. I really like his sparring classes. Although I could not participate in the last 15 minutes of this class. They worked on forward somersaulting, which I just can't do with my knee issues. I watched it though. Wish I could do this. 8:00 - I then lagged. I am spending too much time chatting lately. Some chatting is ok, but not as much and as long as I have been doing. 8;35ish? - Kicking practice. 9:00 - school closes (1 hour and 50 minutes) Wednesday, November 16, 2016 - Evening Shift/ Rest Day Thursday, November 17, 2016 - - 6:30 - last half of TCC class 7:00 - Tai Sifu CLF class. We did a lot of striking solo drills. Working on proper form and energy for some strikes. A lot on the Gwa Choi, which I really need. I have a lot of trouble doing this trike correctly. I think the class the last few weeks is helping though. Also - two person drills based on the Gung Ji Form. 7:50ish? Spent a few minutes talking with two fellow students. One just became a Grand Ma, so we were talking about that. 8:05ish- Two Person Staff practice with Ms. M. Working on getting second side down as part of our practice now. 8:30 - TCC Private lesson. Continuing to work on refining/ correctiong my long Gim form. 9:00 - School closes 2 hours and 30 minutes Friday, November 18, 2016 - 6:30 - Weapon forms class. Stick/ flute form. Last time for it being taught my my CLF instructor, due to regular instructor being on our GM's trip to China. I really enjoyed my instructor filling in on this class. 7:00 - ? didn't do much. 7:10ish - CLF forms done formatting style. I keep having a few forms where I get stuck. It is a little frustrating. Had to cut it short because my instructor moved my make up lesson to 8:00 instead of 8:30. Still I fit in everything except solo golden leopard vs tiger and the wall bag form. 8:00 - CLF make up lesson from Monday. Talked about my getting stuck on some forms while formatting. I had this problem with formatting for my last TCC test too. Same advice was given- to write down where I am getting stuck. We worked on kicks. The next sash level of kicks. I am forgetting where they are in the curriculum though. I think the Brown sash 1st degree kicks? 8:35ish - TCC practice- Double Gim. 54 Gim. And then I am spacing what else. I think the 48 combination form? Maybe? 9;05 school closes. 2 hours and 20 minutes Saturday, November 19, 2016 - 10:05ish - Two person practice with Mr. R. Started with Golden Leopard vs Tiger. Haven't been practicing this much lately and it showed. I need to get more practice of this in. Actually feel worse about this than my two person staff right now. The last few minutes we did the two person staff. 11:00 - sparring class. the knife defense stuff we were doing is over for now. But it was still a great class! Tai Sifu gave me several positive things to say about my matches. I do feel like I am in a growth spurt with my sparring. Able to ever so slowly, improve my footwork. It is still bad, but improving. Landed some good waist level Gwa Choi's and some dot choi's. Couldn't block various opponent's power thrust to save my life today though. I have my usual shoeprint bruise from Ms. R's power thrust. But well, almost no one (excempt maybe Mr. R) can avoid those. 12:00 - Moving step class. This is the third and final week of my CLF (and past TCC) instructor filling in for this class. Much appreciation goes to her for keeping this class going while the regular instructor was on a trip in China. It was a great class. I really really need this class. Apparently, I was leaning a lot. 1:00 - rested- a bit too long though. 1:55ish- TCC Weapon forms practice. Should have mixed some kicking practice in, but I was very tired. 32 and 54 Gim. Working on corrections from my recent lessons. And really understanding the subtle differences in some moves between the two forms. Did not do second side of 32.Did do double gim though. Both saber forms. Regular side of Plum Blossom Fan. Overall, a great day of practice. 3:00 - school closes. (4 hours) Sunday, November 20, 2016 -
