Father's Day

This past Father’s Day I took some time to reflect upon my own father and what he has given me over my 35 years of life.  What my father taught me over all of these years are things I have used and will continue to use for the rest of my life.

My father is a great man that taught me the value of hard work.  He taught me to work hard for the things I wanted most in life.  My father was a man that worked hard his entire life to provide for his family.  Growing up I was never without anything that I needed.  There were things that I wanted but those things were items that really didn't matter all that much. 

I learned from him the values of dedication and an eye for detail.  You have to understand that my father loves collecting all sorts of things like coins, hockey cards, baseball cards and various sports memorabilia.  Now back to this eye for detail, my father will spend hours looking through his coins, looking for imperfections that most people wouldn't even see.  You see my father has an incredible eye for detail and I can relate his expertise in his field to Sifu Brinker in his.  They both have spent many years developing an eye for detail that is so far ahead of their peers. 

This eye for detail is something that is not inherently in my character.  It’s something that I have to continue to work toward developing in my kung fu.  Everyday when I am training, I am starting to look for things that I never looked for before.  I am starting to develop an eye for detail that my father has had for so many years.

To Father, thank you for all that you have done for me.  I know I wasn't the easiest on you over some of those years.  However, I love you very much and I so appreciate all that you have done for me.  My only wish is that I can be as great a father to my children as you have been to my sister and I.

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu.

Stony Plain, Alberta.

Demo & parade #2 and BBQ!

This past weekend was our second parade and our second demo and for me my very first lion dance.  The parade was much shorter than the previous one in Stony Plain the week before.  I am grateful for that as it took my legs a number of days to recover.  I have come to realize that I need to be in much better shape than I am right now.  I used to look at Kung Fu as a way of getting into shape when I first started.  Now I feel that I need extra conditioning to get the most out of my Kung Fu.  The lion dance this weekend proved to me that I have a long way to go in regards to my fitness level but I am very grateful that I have realized this now and have time to work on improving it. 

The demo itself was very very good and I think it was a shade better than the one we did in Stony Plain.  Now for me personally it was not as good.  I lost my way half way through my double chuck form.  However I did recover, improvised a bit and I think I finished strong.  I know that no one in the audience knew that I screwed up but the thing is, I knew and that bothers me… 

I will keep working on my form and will be adding the rest of it from here on in.  I am looking forward to the Canada Day demo and will be step up if no one else does.  I know that there are teammates that have yet to be in the demo so I would step aside and give them an opportunity. 

I want to continue with the lion dancing as I really enjoyed it.  I was extremely nervous as I didn't want to screw up.  However I pushed that aside and did the best I could and I am very pleased that I stepped up and did it!  Also to improve my leg strength and cardio I have added biking to my exercise routine.  Yesterday I tuned up my son’s bike and pushed through about 3 km.  I will keep adding to this total every time I take my bike out.

Last but far from least, thanks to Sifu Lindstrom for the great BBQ at his company's shop.  It was really great meeting up as a team after we were done.  A great way to just hang out and continue to build the team comradery.

Mr. Ian Repay

Student Of Silent River Kung Fu.

Stony Plain, Alberta.

Parade,demo,kids class, WOW!

What an amazing weekend!  The parade was a ton of fun and I spent most of it starring at the ground and hunched over!  My quads are stil sore and it has been three days after. I now totally understand Sifu Lindstrom when he tells me that lion dancing will improve my stances, no kidding!!!!  Also I now understand when he's says "your pretty much blind in the lion head" he wasn't kidding as I almost ran over numerous kids along the parade route.  I loved the lion and I can't wait to do it again in Onoway this weekend with Sifu Lindstrom.

I thought the demo went pretty well but I feel my Lao Gar sucked pretty bad. I have lots of work to do but this demo has helped narrow my focus a lot.  My double chuck form is a long away from being any good but I am happy I didn't drop any or accidently have fly in anyones direction.  Great job team and let's do it again this weekend!

Mr.Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta