A short bit of commentary on the SRKF curriculum

When I did my black belt, I screwed up my stick form. It was during stick three, and during the open-x stance and sword blocks I forgot how many I was supposed to do. Oh no! So I did an extra one, deciding that more was better than less. As expected, it was noted by Sifu Brinker, whose comment in response was, "The extended version...I like it."

Why am I telling you this? Simple, it's to illustrate that it when it comes to a grading, any grading from your first striping, to the black belt test, it is the how and not the what which is important. If you can't remember which is the reverse hooking and which is the inside, I don't see the issue as long as both are done right. It is the same thing with combinations; we'd rather you memorize them, but that's not what the stripe is for. If you take nothing from this post, remember this:

The only stripe for memory is Theory, all else is skill.

Granted, you won't get far with forms if you don't remember them, but the memorization is such a small part! It's about your techniques, your footwork, your centering and about your ability to adapt when things go awry. If you falter once during an otherwise beautiful form for any reason, you died. The invisible ninjas got you. We'll remember you in our hearts.
When doing combinations, it isn't imperative that you know every little one on your curriculum. Why? Because those combinations are only a few of the infinite possibilities that are open to you! If you focus too much on the finger, you'll miss all the heavenly glory (thank you Enter the Dragon for being so very poetic)
Can you shadow box? If I do a combination you've never seen, can you replicate it perfectly on the spot? These things should be your concerns!

In short, don't get caught up in the words, focus on the kung fu

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

Nothing but the Wind

I'm sitting in a dark room, eating stew whilst surrounded by surveillance screens. Don't worry, I'm not neglecting my duties to type this.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, since I got back from crossing something off my bucket list by seeing Rammstein and Apocolyptica live in Quebec city. We also visited Manhattan on the trip. I'll write a post about how awesome the trip was, but not tonight.
What concerns me upon my return is that in retrospect, one of the things I loved about the trip was leaving everything, everyone, behind. Now I'm back, back in it all and wondering why my life here is how it is. Why have I made it so? Most importantly, why do I let it stay this way.

A couple days before I left, my girlfriend dumped me. She went from sending me lovey-dovey text messages to dumping me in favour of her drug-abusive ex-boyfriend in less than 24 hours. I did my best to think about her as little as possible while I was gone but now I'm back and can no longer help it. I keep on wanting to see her, call her, or even just email her, but why? What am I going to say?
"Ya, we haven't talked since you crushed my soul...how's the family?"
Why am I afraid of the idea that she might not want anything to do with me anymore, or am I more afraid of the prospect of her wanting me back now? Most of all I wonder why I give a rat's tail about what she, of all people, thinks of me.

The tone of my writing, I hope, is not coming off as angsty (though I'm sure it is). I'm done being sad and I'm done wasting my time. How fitting that I'm listening to Tool right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to Kempo on a rooftop 10 stories up with nothing but the wind, the night, and the Edmonton Skyline to keep me company.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

Wow...Life is fast

Everything's been moving so fast lately that I didn't realize quite how long it had been since I updated. Tonight I had a student ask me what was up, had I quit?
Ahhh! No!

So, I'm working security at the Royal Alexandra Hospital now, which is fun. Plus I've still got a lovely girl named Jazz. Life is looking up.

One of the interesting things about my job is that it forces you to be the agressor at times. You can't just run away when Joe Drug Overdose needs to take his meds or when some rambling drunk is making trouble. You've got to act, and sometimes get physical. At the same time, you're not allowed to hurt them so you have to get good at joint manipulation and using pressue points.

Funny story though, and a good, humbling, learning experience was on one of my first shifts equiped with a stab vest. Two of us got sent to assist with restraining a patient, whom shall be named "Steve". Steve had a nasty headwound and needed to get freezing injected to kill the pain before they patched him up. This is done via needles, which hurts. I can see why he was having trouble holding still. We didn't end up having to assist, though, since he managed to tough it out like a champ.
The nurses asked us to stick around, just in case, and so we did. Having nothing to do other than chat or watch Steve be worked on, we chose chat and the subject was injuries. We went over what injuries we've had and eventually came across to the worst ones we've ever seen. I really haven't seen many, but my partner on the call has seen a bunch. She began telling me about when she was first on scene of a car accident. The last part of the story I remember is something about a car grill and a girl's chest before feeling really odd and then waking up on the floor.
I had fainted, and even broke a table on my way down. Woo, tough guy! My partner didn't poke much fun at me, but the nurses did, and so did I. I'm sure Steve would have chuckled too, under different circumnstances. Why? Because it was funny.
Now I know what it feels liek to faint, so I can avoid it.

I'm leaving in a few days for a trip around the east coast and to see Rammstein in concert. I'm excited.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

Ack!

So, life has been a blizzard of insanity lately. Here's a situation report:

Hair is buzzed
Still no job

I buzzed off my long hair in order to make it easier to get a job, since most people judge based on appearance. I have an interview for a job on Monday, but I won't be hired unless they can also find a more experienced person to train me.

Swyc is preparing or a big fundraiser performance, the planning for which is going horribly.

So, in short, life is proceeding poorly.

As for training:
It's not going as well as I'd like, but my frustration with every other aspect of my life is being funneled into my kung fu...so I'm getting a lot better at syncing up my hips with my punches to get into that little sweet spot of timing. On the downside, although I'm practicing more, being stressed is also very distracting and is taking a toll of my focus. All told, this is stacking up to having each technique either better or worse than usual...I'd rather have them consistent.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

Got laid off today, so tomorrow will have lots of kung fu.
Despite this, my life seems to be really looking up. I'm really excited to see what happens in the coming days and weeks.
New Girl
New Roommate
Soon
New Job
New Car
New Laptop

Chinese New Years is next weekend. Awesome sauce! I'm really excited for the Candidates (those about to be promoted), who will finally be able to show the world their skill and we all get to see what they've worked so hard to do.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung fu
Stony Plain Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

So, funny story, I'm getting laid off, again. Bright side: more time for kung fu. Down side, obvious. Hopefully a new job will be forthcoming.

I've been trying to get to kung fu more often, and on friday I would have made class but for my car breaking down en route. I did, however, make it out on Saturday.

I've been working on my thrust punches lately and on Saturday a new visualization occured to me. We're always told to let our fist pull our arm, but I'd rather view it in terms of, for lack of more appropriate terms, inhale and exhale. By which I mean the taking in and projecting out of power, not of air (side note: fists don't deal with air). Most fists, attached of course to most people, want to exhale during the entire punch. This is wrong, all the force you exhale on the way to your target is wasted, having of course only so much breath. If one inhales, however, then one can mass their power for a pleasant, if exclamatory exhalation upon their arrival at their target. And rather than pulling with your fist, you can let the suction of your fist's inhalation pull it, and your arm by association, to the target, and then let the exhalation blow it back.
*Disclaimer: the above is intended to be treated as metaphorical, rather than metaphysical.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com

Ok, so things are on the way up. Good job, check. Money, check. At least so far, which means that soon enough I'll have myself nicely caught up, proper technology, and the ability to get more things done. Still no webcam yet, but I'm going to radio shack tomorrow to buy one since my repeated attempts to borrow one from various places have failed, and I don't really feel like recording it at silent river if I don't have to. Besides, usb cams are pretty cheap nowadays.

Anyway, training is going pretty well and I'll be back in the attendence groove this week. Right on.

Chinese new years is coming up, gotta grab a ticket now that I have monies.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung fu
www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain Alberta, Canada

So great news: New Laptop!...is going to be bougth eventually and hopefully soon.
My laptop died you see, and it is only tonight that I have managed to connect my interim computer to the internet. It's an old laptop which, quite frankly, I'm suprised is still kicking.

My life has been a hail of horrible-ness lately in almost all respects. Currently the good points are that I'm still in one, gently-used, piece and that some excitement is coming in the form of a spoken word festival in Calgary (side note: this is the part where the audience is expected to clap; this means you) and Swyc has been invited to perform. Swyc is the Spoken Word Youth Choir of which I am a part. The thoroughly creative acronym was a product of us being unable to settle upon a name, and so when one was needed our director just chose a generic one....that'll teach us for trying to think up something clever.

I was intending to do a video blog this week but my lappy died and so did said plan. I've been planning on buying a new laptop for a while now and this is speeding that plan along, but in the meantime I'll have to find a webcam to comandeer. Worst case scenario, I'm sure Sifu Brinker will let me use Silent River's.

I'd like to say that everything is going peachy, but that'd be a lie. Hopefully it's better next week.

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung Fu
www.silentriverkungfu.com
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

New Year 2.1 Patch!

So, we're ten years deeper into the holocaustic, post Y2K apocalyptic world where black is white, up is down and nothing is as it seems...oh wait, no we're not, but it's fun to pretend [Side Note: Drive throughs are faster with Mel Gibson in a semi truck]. But it's only a matter of time until 2012 when big bunch of nothing hits the fan and the doomers are disappointed again.

Fun times are afoot lately. My phone is down and my email has been having troubles. So my requirements are taking a long time to finalize. If you could see me now, I'd be striking a Fonz-esque pose and saying "Ayyyy!"

I was hoping to have something relevant and inspiring to say as my first post of the new year, but I've got no desire to post an entry talking about how great this year is going to be for me and my kung fu and my work and my family and my friends and so forth and so forth. That'd be like saying I plan to breath and maintain my heartbeat, oh and maybe even eat and sleep this year. By being in the Ubbt I think it just goes without saying that I'm gonna be active. So what to say?

I suppose I'll talk about a webcomic. I've been thinking of starting a webcomic based off a little 2 page comic book [Side Note: maybe I should call it a comic pamphlet] that I did last summer. It was a week in the life of the main character whose life had stagnated and was seeking excitement in the form of things such as his tea-kettle hat. The humour was some of the darkest I'd ever done, even though I was more cheerful at that time than ever before. The humour was dark because I just like dark humour; just ike the old saying 'Humour: once you go black you never go back' or something to that effect. Surprisingly, the worst two reviews I've ever gotten for it were people who just didn't find it hilarious. Everyone else seems to giggle incessantly which I take as a good omen. Maybe I'll write a few more and see how it goes before starting anything though.

Happy New Year and good luck to all of us in the Ubbt 7!

Ben Davies
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain Alberta, Canada
www.silentriverkungfu.com