Aviva's Blog

     I put myself out there! When I thought of the tiger challenge, I was thinking of doing a hand form and weapon form. The bare minimum. Just enough that I could check it off the list. But when I was signing up for my events I was imagining how fun different things could be. Even though it was scary and I might not do great its a learning experience.      that night in class I went up to my friends asking them if we could do a team form. then I went up to Ward and Ferris and asked if I could join their fight cerography. For me the hardest part of it all is completed.      I am so excited for the tiger challenge!

 I have made a ton of progress with my beta form and have been extremally proud of it. But when I look around the room at people who have been doing this for many years saying, "we are running out of time" or, "we have a lot more work to do on the beta form." Personally I felt good with where I am now, what is making me stressed is the people around me that have been doing this for a long time getting worried.  What if it needs to be longer? What if it doesn't look good? Maybe I'm not as prepared as I thought I was?  My questions for you are: How long should the form be? How did you feel the first time you made a form? Do you have any suggestions for me approaching my beta form?

For my hand form this year I chose a school form that I have been doing my whole life, Da mu hsing. I chose it for many reasons, some being that I never learnt 5, others being that we haven't focused much in class on it. But the main reason was that it was my least favorite form. After I chose it I deeply regretted it, but that doesn't matter I couldn't go back, I would just have to live with it or change my perspective. At the start I just let it be because it was to much effort, instead I was just doing it for my numbers, not going any deeper then surface level.  One day after class I was watching people do their forms, and the way they did it was mesmerizing. it inspired me to make my form a better bit by bit so maybe one day I could feel that way about me. I was focusing on the first one and started asking people to watch and critique my form.  Now my favorite form is the first Da mu hsing. All I have to do is do it again 4 more times.

 In school we have been learning about biodiversity. In particular adaptation within animals and how only the ones that change to fit their circumstances survive. At the moment when I think of how I'm doing with my kung fu the word adaptability also comes to mind. I have been struggling with moving over to WhatsApp and have yet adapted to the way everything is being run. I need to push through the hard part (change) in order to reach success. This blog is my first step.

The last week I haven't felt great, I did something to me back and wasn't able to do much kung fu. I didn't do my push-ups and sit-ups.  Now I am pretty behind. Even though my back is feeling better, I still haven't been able to get back into my schedule. I know that its not hard, but starting is a mental challenge not physical, and I keep on putting it back on my list. I know when I start again it will all fall back into place, but how long is it going to take before it slips to the back of my list again.

Learning a new weapon is always nerve racking for me. It feels like a totally new language, so much you don't know but at the same time you want to learn it all. This year I picked the Tonfa for my weapon. The first IHC class was when I started thinking about what I wanted to put into my form. Mostly I was just forming moves and practicing those. I didn't really know how to use the Tonfas since most of the videos I found on YouTube were going very fast. I knew of the basic idea of Tonfa and had fiddled around with them for the last couple weeks. When I went to open training, Sihing Bjorkquist gave me two books on Tonfas. It showed me different moves and techniques. I went through them and learned different strikes and then worked on some of the flips.  Now I'm actually very excited to make my new form! I can't wait to see what other moves I will learn through this next year.

I started going to the level one adult class this week. Before I went, I was extremally nervous, I had no idea what I would do. When I was there I felt very awkward, I was just standing in the back. Then someone needed a partner and was available. Both of the adult classes are basically the same concept. It helped me notice things that I haven't before. Its like reading a book twice. For the first time you just go along with the story but when you read it the second time you see things that you hadn't seen before. After the classes I felt like I had learned so many new thing when it was only review.