Bullying.

People often ask me why I preach about bullying so much when I teach the kids classes. My answer to them is simple,I have been bullied off and on since grade 6. I know what it feels like to by threatened, pushed around, the subject of rumours, publically ridiculed and cyber bullied. I don't believe that I would have the confidence that I still have today if it weren't for my Kung Fu. Kung Fu teaches you two very important things besides self defence... Discipline, and respect.

I cannot tell you enough how hard it is to walk away and ignore someone that is publically humiliating you when you're standing
four feet away from them, and not to mention keep calm. But, Kung Fu taught me the strength and the courage to do exactly that.

Now, I'm not saying that every person that is enrolled in Kung Fu has been bullied. Neither am I telling you that that is the reason that I was enrolled in Kung Fu. There is certainly a good chance that most of us have been bullied at some point, whether it be as a kid, or as an adult. The question, "well sifu, I've never been bullied, or a bully, so why do I have to learn about what to do when you're being bullied?" Comes up once in awhile and my answer to that is simple as well. This is one of the ways that I can teach someone empathy in a very simple way. By learning about bullying, and being educated about the effects about bullying, it's not very hard to put yourself in the shoes of the guy that's being picked on at the bus stop, or excluded from playing a game. It makes it way easier to be his or her friend;
and not be tempted to be peer pressured into becoming a bully yourself.

I believe that this is an essential part of my identity as a black belt, and has drastically changed the way that I approach my teaching in Kung Fu.

For our orange belts in the kids classes, we started the new green stripe requirement of them having to create a multimedia presentation on bullying, which will eventually be displayed on the monitor in the school. The picture I included in this post was one from a project that one of our orange belts handed in. There was my chuckle for the day. =)

Sifu Wonsiak

Making Adjustments...

I had my first physio appointment this morning. I have what's called Patellofemoral Syndrome. My knee cap doesn't track properly because some muscles in my leg are too tight, and some aren't strong enough to create a balance. Also, with much surprise, I have an issue with my lower back putting pressure on a few of my nerves which is apparently a huge contributing factor to this.

So along with some pain, we've got a healing plan worked out, and six sessions booked. He did recommend that because my forms and tai chi cause the most swelling in my knees, that I'll have to take it easy or it might disrupt the healing process.

Although this is going to be very difficult for me (I do A LOT of forms and tai chi) I want my knees to get better quickly. Some adjustments are going to have to be made...

The title of this post pretty much sums it all up.

Last night, I wasn't paying attention and I ended up missing a step going downstairs to the kitchen resulting in me falling down 7 hardwood steps. After lying on the ground for a bit, I realized that I wasn't hurt, and I *thankfully* didn't knock myself out on the way down. I'd like to give a shout-out to my Kung Fu for this. The many minutes of laying flat on my back and holding my head off the ground really payed off for me. I was able to subconsciously tighten my neck muscles and keep my head up while I was falling down the stairs. I truly think that the fact that I didn't even have to think about doing this was awesome. I walked away with only sore neck muscles and what we think to me a minor concussion.

On a lighter note, I've been given an opportunity to develop one of my personal requirements tomorrow afternoon. I was asked to help photograph the dress rehearsal of our school production of Seussical The Musical. This is extremely exciting because I will be able to use one of our schools hi-tec cameras and all of our editing equipment. Since one of my personal requirements for the UBBT was to create my own photography portfolio, I will be able to use some of these pictures to kick start this little project. I am extremely excited as I've never gotten the chance to photograph theatre before, and I believe that there's a lot to be learned tomorrow and I'm excited for every chance that I get.

Cheers! :)

Just An Update

I do have a certain blog post that I want to put up, but I have to think about it for a bit longer. So stay tuned.

But, I felt that It was time to put up another little update on how my training has been going.

First off,

I'm really excited about the get together between all of the I Ho Chaun members tonight after the kids classes. I've missed the last two, being sick and such; but today I feel the best that I've felt in awhile. I think I've finally beat this cold thing I've had for quite awhile. Needless to say I'm back into action.

One of the weapons that I've decided to focus on are the Sais. I've decided to try to create a 'rough draft' of an original form. I really struggled with this at first, but now the creative juices are starting to flow, and It's finally starting to look like something. Yay!

We have yet another short week at school, and we can all tell that the teachers are starting to stress a little bit. We've been getting tones of homework, but I haven't started falling behind, and I don't plan on that ever happening. So far I've been able to maintain all of my averages at around the 90% mark. Which is really good, considering my personal requirement was at least 80%.

My training has been going really well, and I haven't quite started to badly fall behind on my numbers yet. I've been booked to start physio on the 2nd of March for my knees, so we will see how that goes.

Cheers:)

It's A Juggling Act.

This week is a very short week.

With winter games and teacher convention, tomorrow will be my last day of school until Monday next week. Teachers are giving a lot of homework and such, but I'm finally starting to get settled into a new routine in school. I have taken on a grade eleven honors biology class this semester, and I defiantly have my work cut out for me.

Because I've been spending so much time getting used to my new routine at school, my schedule at home, after school, has really done a bit of a flip-flop. Between homework, my daily training, helping out with the house to get it ready for sale, etc. I haven't been going to bed at the same time that I usually do. So that's been really tough.

My strategy skills have really been put to the test these past few days. I have different alarms set on my phone to remind me when to drop and do push ups, sit-ups and squats; and when to bang out a repetition of a form or two. I've never really planned like this before and I'm struggling with it. My mind doesn't process this way, but I've been slowly training it to start. I'm getting there... but it's defiantly a process.

Everything else has stayed content though.

I get to make T-shirts in my Com-Tec class next week =)

Book 1 out of 5 : To Kill A Mocking Bird

One of my personal requirements for the UBBT was to read 5 books that have an impact on me and to tell a little something about each book on my blog. Reading books for me is easy; I read a lot of books. Each book impacts me in a way, but when I made this requirement, I wanted to make it clear that I would be picking books that I know will make an impact on me before I read them.

My mom ordered this book for me through the Scholastic book order when I was in grade 7. I think her exact words were "I want you to read this. It's a good book." Needless to say, the book sat on my shelf for 3 years untouched, just another dust collector. I didn't pick it up until we did it for a novel study in my English Honours class a couple months ago. But, the novel study was really rushed and still, I didn't get a lot out of it. It wasn't until I recently picked it up and read it cover to cover in about 4 days that I realized the huge impact it had on me.

First of all,
I loved the way this book was written through the eyes of a child. Out of the many books that I have read that shared this perspective, Harper Lee did an extremely good job of bringing out the innocence of a child towards the events in this book, but she also balanced in the more pressing issues that were talked about in a more adult tone.

Second,
Harper Lee teaches her audience about the issues that were faced towards racial intolerance and prejudice in the "Old South." But she also throws in many small, rich lessons in the mix. My favorite part of the book was the Tom Robinson trial. Although it was extremely dark, it definitely brought out the ugliness of racism. This is one of the few books that I have read that have not "turned a blind eye" towards how extreme racism used to be, and unfortunately in some cases, still is.

Lee also shows us the quick and judgemental nature of humans by using the character Boo Radley. We see how easy it is to misjudge and label people because they are different then us. I know that I have done it even though I know that it is wrong, and I'm sure that a lot of others have done it as well. In the book, we see how the impact and the actions of adults rub off on their children. All of the kids are afraid of him because he is different from them. Is it fair that we still do this everyday as a society? No, of course it isn't, and sometimes it isn't something that we can help. We've been doing it ever since we've been in preschool. We just don't see the impact that it has on others.

I loved this book, and it is one that I will for sure be reading again and again because I know that each time that I read it, I will get something new out of it.
One last thing that this book taught me was that you should keep reading a book, even though you don't understand the first chapter... You might miss out on something amazing if you don't =)

(The quote below is important to me because it was the part of the book that made my cry... Yes... I'm a sap for these things...

"When I pointed to him his palms slipped slightly, leaving greasy sweat
streaks on the wall, and he hooked his thumbs in his belt. A strange small
spasm shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I gazed at
him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into
a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears.
“Hey, Boo,” I said."