Keep on Working the Basics

Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.     

- Buddha

When we are new to martial arts we begin to learn the basics. Stances, core principles, conditioning. As we advance we begin to learn more advanced techniques. We begin to fancy ourselves as little masters. We strive to learn more and more complex forms and combinations. We learn to perform trickier moves. We leave the work of basics behind us.

No longer do we seek to learn more from the basic building blocks of our discipline. We become a lesser student.

It is important to continue to learn from every aspect of our martial arts, not just the shiny new techniques. The true student continues to deepen his or her knowledge of even the little things. If you seek to learn from them they will continue to teach you. There is ALWAYS more to learn. If you believe otherwise, you will learn nothing.

We are back! Training in person.

If you would like to train with us, call:

(253) 268-2874

Flexibility

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

- Dolly Parton

One thing I do like about self defence / application training versus traditional is the ability to adjust and adapt the techniques. It is folly to get beat up using ineffective techniques - because that is what has always been taught. Just as in life we walk a balancing act between respect and an understanding of the past and a willingness to analyze how we can improve what has been passed down.

Traditional training is like an ancient tome that we read and commit to memory. It is never changed and handed down, being careful to preserve it as it was long ago. Self defence is us taking what we've read and memorized and applying that in the real world.

I personally watch for improvements to our self defense techniques, and if they are good enough, update our curriculum. However I will continue to teach the original as well, explaining why we've replaced it - how the new variant is an improvement.

We are back! Training in person.

If you would like to train with us, call:

(253) 268-2874

Cards of Doom

We do not stop exercising because we grow old - we grow old because we stop exercising.     

- Kenneth Cooper

Even when we are pushing ourselves, I think that we subconsciously 'protect ourselves'. I love to push myself yet I know that in the back of my mind I'm weighing just how rough a drill/exercise is going to be.

Some of the best workouts my Kung Fu school has done in a long time have been what we lovingly call Cards of Doom. What is that you ask?

We take a deck of cards and, going around the school, take turns drawing two cards. The first gives a guide to the amount / duration that we will be doing. The second determines the type of exercise. Spades are legs, clubs are arms, diamonds are abs, and hearts are cardio.

If a joker is drawn in the first draw - the student can choose any amount / duration and exercise they want. If a joker is drawn in the second, they can choose any kind of exercise they wish.

This has repeated resulted in us choosing counts / durations and exercise combinations we would have NEVER sanely chosen! It has been amazingly brutal. Just what our conditioning workouts should be! 

Sweat Now

What you don't sweat out when you're young will turn into tears when you're old.

- Japanese Proverb

We are all huddled and trapped right now. And even though some of us are still training via video conferencing it is difficult to keep our physical activity up, at the level it usually is. Now is an excellent opportunity to build skills that will not only keep us fit but will benefit our Kung Fu training as well!

I believe that the biggest benefit of formal martial arts training is actually the accountability. Every A day of the week you have class at B time. It's fixed, there's no flexibility. That's when it is and it doesn't matter if you are feeling tired etc, that's class time. On our own it's easy to let our training time migrate around, it's easy to get lazy. And - at least for me - once I end up skipping one or two home workouts/practices I end up not doing it at all. My home workouts just stop.

What I've been doing is picking one area focus per day. For example one day would be abs, the next arms, and so forth. Throughout the day, any time I have a moment, I work exercises in that area. This way, even if I end up too busy to set aside a decent amount of time, I at least got SOME exercise in.

If you are interested in learning Kung Fu call us - we are currently training via Zoom, while we are forced to isolate:

(253) 268-2874

Freedom Martial Arts Academy, 2908 Meridian East, Suite 107, Edgewood, WA 98371

Flaws

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.

Chinese Proverb

Perfection is interesting. We strive for it in Kung Fu, as well as other areas of our lives - other areas of ourselves. We strive for it knowing we will never achieve it. And even if we did achieve perfection, what does that get us. It doesn't change us. We have simply polished the flaws out of the surface. If we are rocks, we have just become perfectly polished rocks.

We can strive for a deeper kind of self improvement. Like folding metal or applying enough pressure and heat (Not to over-simplify the process) to transform coal into diamond. This changes the metal itself, changes its properties, its nature. This is the kind of self improvement we are after.

If you are interested in learning Kung Fu call us - we are currently training via Zoom, while we are forced to isolate:

(253) 268-2874

Freedom Martial Arts Academy, 2908 Meridian East, Suite 107, Edgewood, WA 98371

Free to Move

Traditionalist - the best approach is no approach, simply draw back to the middle of the road. There we can move in any direction.

It is said that martial arts is learning to react. We react to situations as well as attacks as well as unforseen situations and troubles. Our goal is to remain centered. Balanced. Able to pivot in amy direction.

In sparring this manifests itself in keeping our weight balanced and keeping our knees bent slightly. Such a stance allows us to shift left and right or to shuffle forward or back without shifting our weight first.

Be like this in your techniques as well. Always be ready to abandon the technique you are attempting and pivot into another technique. Be fluid and flexible yet rooted and unmoving.

Be like this in every aspect of life. Be like smoke yet rooted like a tree.

If you are interested in learning Kung Fu call us - we are currently training via Zoom, while we are forced to isolate:

(253) 268-2874

Freedom Martial Arts Academy, 2908 Meridian East, Suite 107, Edgewood, WA 98371

Timing

You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing that the enemy does not expect.

- Miyamoto Musashi

Broken rhythm. When working our sparring drills this is the common thread. Be an unpredictable moving target. When we work Escrima stick counts we work a steady rhythm so that we learn to move in harmony with our partner. We learn to read and adapt to our partner's timing and rhythm. If we can read our opponent's timing and rhythm, we can exploit it.

When sparring we can use rhythm and timing to mislead opponents. Lull them into thinking they know our pattern then we use that against them. It is all a strategy, a game of chess, played out in fractions of seconds.

If you are interested in learning Kung Fu call us - we are currently training via Zoom, while we are forced to isolate:

(253) 268-2874

Freedom Martial Arts Academy, 2908 Meridian East, Suite 107, Edgewood, WA 98371