Change and no excuses!

I have been quite on the blogging front for far too long.  I can go into details as to why I feel I am justified in this but there is no justification for not blogging.  I dropped the ball and this is 100% my fault.  It only takes less than 20 minutes to write and post my blog and I can tell you that I have wasted many more minutes than this recently.  I have no excuses and I know I better, it’s all about routine and sticking to it.  I have struggled with this in my past and I recognize that it is a weakness that I need to improve upon going forward.

This takes me into the change portion of this blog.  I have made a monumental change in my working career.  I have been a professional baker my entire adult life and I have made a decision to move out of this area into a completely different field.  I am leaving my comfort zone and leaving everything I have ever known.  However I am going to adapt to this new industry and work really hard to apply the things that have made me successful in my baking career into this new venture.  I am extremely excited to be joining one of the best companies in the world and I get started this Monday.  I am going to take everything I have learned from my kung fu and apply it to my training in my new role.  Things like “eye for detail” will be very important as I am starting three months of training before I even touch my own territory.  This “eye for detail” is critical to our kung fu as this is essential to improving and achieving not only our black belt but must be present and developed in order for us to continue to improve for the rest of our lives. 

I am going to take what I have learned in the Kwoon and will continue to apply it like I have never done before. 

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

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

Crossroads

All of us have been here before in one way or another.  There are many reasons that we come to a crossroads in our life. 

Well I am at one right now, I am at a crossroads and I am unsure what to do.  I have done the “pro’s and con’s” thing and still I can’t decide what road to take.  You see I have been on this same road for years and I am comfortable to an extent with what is on this road.  I am familiar with all the bumps and curves in this road and this gives me comfort.  If I choose the other road, it is filled with many unknowns, potential pot holes, blind curves and other hazards that I may not be expecting along the way.  This new road is something very different to me in many ways and in some ways the same.  So why is it such a difficult decision to make?  Why can’t I seem to make up my mind what I want to do?  I have had many people give me advice on what they think I should do yet this isn’t their life and any decision I make has no affect on them.  I appreciate all the advice, but I think maybe I have been getting a little too much of it and perhaps some of these people are giving me advice to push their own agenda in some small way.

I think what is needed is some quite time along with some meditation.  This has always helped me focus my mind and focus on what I need to do.  Thanks to my Kung Fu training clearing my mind and calming my mind has become easier. 

Mr. Ian Repay

Student Of Silent River Kung Fu.

This is too cool.

This just happened yesterday and I have been thinking about it ever since then. I was meeting my friend for lunch at a restaurant on Whyte Ave. He was outside waiting for me and when I walked up he made a motion toward my nose with his fingers. Now here's the cool part, without thinking and just purely reacting I blocked his hand motion and immediately struck to his face with a vertical punch that I pulled just millimeters from the tip of his nose. He was shocked and moved back almost a foot as he thought I was going to punch him in the nose. What I think is soooooooo cool is that my body reacted without me thinking!

I have always wondered how what we are learning would apply in real life. It has been something that I have pondered for quite a while now and wow was I amazed how my body moved and reacted to what I have been taught. To me this was one of those "a ha" moments and I think it's pretty cool to see how my training has integrated itself into my life.

Mr. Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu.

No Excuses

I have not been blogging for a couple of weeks now and I have no excuse for this.  I know that I needed to be doing this and I know that I am letting not only myself down but also my team mates.  I have at times struggled with laziness in my life.  Not sure why, not sure why I let this happen?  However I have known that I struggle with this.  In my mind I tell myself “don’t worry, you can do it tomorrow” or “not that urgent, deal with it when you want to” not when I needed to.

I realized and have realized for some time that this is an area that needs improvement in my life.  I have improved upon this greatly over the past couple of years and I attribute the UBBT process for that.  However there is lots of room for continued improvement.  I am going to keep working on this and will use this process to continue to improve.  Blogging every week is the most critical and easiest measuring stick to see how I am doing.  As Master Brinker says to us over and over “if you’re not blogging, you’re probably not doing the rest of your requirements”.  All I have to say is Master Brinker is 100% correct!  However, that doesn’t mean that I give up.  That means that I have realized where I have failed and I will pick myself up, dust off my back side and get back to it!

Mr. Repay

Student of Silent River Kung Fu

Stony Plain, Alberta