Tiger Challenge 2020 Corona Virus edition

Thank you to Sifu Brinker and all of the SRKF Sifu's that helped maked this possible.  Your vision and passion to see this through is beyond appreicated.

It was amazing to see the students who participated.  I was astounded by how good thier forms have become.  I watched a lot of my fellow students Loa Gar form, which they mostly learned online.  I remember that most of them started learning Loa Gar just before the pandemic shut the kwoon down.  Now to see the same students not only know the whole form but to see them move with flow was amazing!

My hand form I felt was adequate but not great.  I need to continue to practise and hone it through more one on one's.  I also reminded myself that I also just started learning 18 Temple motions before the kwoon shut down so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on myself.  

Some learnings that I want to share about the Tiger challenge.  

- Know your space.  Do your form in the space that you'll be using to be judged in. Do you have enough room?  How's the footing?  Are you too far away from the camera?

- lighting. How's the lighting being picked up by your camera?  If it's too dark or too bright neither is going to be good for the judges to see you.

- Camera.  Know the limitations of your camera both in quality and how wide the angle is.  I saw alot of people go outside of what the camera's angle was able to record.  This obviously  makes it impossible for the Sifu's to see what your doing.

Finally take all of these things into account and record your form ahead of time in the exact conditions your going to judged in.  Watch the recording to see if the lighting is good, do you stay in focus and can the judges see all parts of your form?  I think that this perspective will serve us well even when we're performing in person. 

Mr. Repay

Where and I and what am I doing?

I've been wanting to write about this for some time.

I started to hear about this from Sifu Wiebe a number of years ago.  He talked about it with me and shared that he always internally asked himself this just before bowing in and bowing out.  He said it helped him ground himself and put himself into the moment.  It took me a while to start to incorporate this into my Kung Fu but I've been doing it consitantly at bow in and outs for at least the past three years.  

I started asking myself these questions because I wanted to focus on what I was about to do.  I want 💯% of my mental focus to be on Kung Fu and not what my day has been or what it will be after class.  When we step through the Kwoon doors we're carrying the days baggage with us.  It's understandable that we carried it in with us.  What we shouldn't do is allow it to control us.  By asking these questions we immediately refocus and prioritize what's important.  When I'm in the Kwoon nothing is more important than my training.  I need to forget about what's behind me and what's after class.  When you think about it, I can't fix the past and I don't live in the future so why am I worrying about things I can't change?  That's why this concept is so powerful, it puts us in the moment where we can control things. 

I'm moving to incorporate this strategy into my daily life to go along with some deep meditative breathing.  I've found that when I'm stressed I remember my training.  I take deep cleansing butterfly breaths and bring myself back to the moment.  It helps lower my heart rate and focuses my mind on the moment vs the stress and anxiety of what I think may occur.  

Mr. Repay