April newsletter
April 2022 newsletter
Welcome to our April newsletter, it’s been another busy month. One of the things we want when we learn something new is to evolve and grow which will cause us to change, our training will change us psychologically and physiographically, in fact change is one of the only things we can be sure is going to happen in life. Some changes are good and some are challenging, so how can we make sure that changes are a positive thing?
C.h.a.n.g.e.s (I got this from a coach Gordon Burcham)
C. Choice, no matter what happens to us we have a choice in how we react. We are a product of our choices, we can choose to react badly or well, we can choose to quit or carry on. (The saying goes “quitters never win and winners never quit”).
H. Happiness, is a choice. As above, our reaction and happiness or sadness is a choice we make.
A. Affection and love, show love to others but especially yourself, give yourself a break. We spend most of our time in our own heads imagining all kinds of bad things that never happen… make your head-space a nice place to be.
N. Never judge, respect that another persons model of the world is different to yours. How nice would it be to live in a world without judgement.
G. Gratitude, the world is crazy at the moment but we still live in some of the safest and most prosperous times, we have a lot to be grateful for.
E. Energy, if you're going to do something go all in.
S. Self development, you should work harder on yourself than anything else.
Fajin (releasing power) is something we work a lot on in our classes, from our 4-6 years developing their coordination or our 7-13s learning to hit using the whole body, to our Tai Chi and adults classes developing reeling silk power and learning to move in the most efficient way. My instructors father LU Zhen Duo was nicknamed “fast hands Lu” for his ability to knock people out with his palm strikes in full contact matches, he was a small man and he couldn’t have done it without his ability to generate more power than his frame should allow, when I was younger I was known to have “thunderous kicks” due to the noise they made when hitting the pads and often had people stop and watch me kicking in a kick-boxing class. Studies have shown that in the animal kingdom there are creatures that can do this to:
It has been noted that Cuban Tree Frogs have a measured jump power of 1,047 w/kg while their muscular power is measured at 327 w/kg. This is three times more than the measured pure muscle power (Peplowski & Marsh, 1997). This indicates that their jump performance is not solely dependent on the muscle power.
All martial arts use waist power but in our kung fu we take it to another level by building corkscrew power from the feet, spiralling up through the waist until we whip it out through one of the limbs. Through these movements we create tension in the opposing muscle groups to build and store, for a short time, an elastic energy before releasing it and so generating far more power than we should be able, just like the tree frog. We use standing post exercises and sit in Mabu (horse stance), great exercises to build strong and springy muscles and tendons and our arm swings to develop whipping power. We also need to develop our type 2 (fast twitch) muscle fibres to get the proper acceleration needed to generate the power (our sneeze reflex training).
Nature has given us these fantastic bodies, martial arts allows us to get the most out of them.
4-6 years
- We have been working through our ninja levels congratulations to:
- Kian, Rocco, Jayed, Rueben, Emilian, Ria, and Josh for completing their level 1
- Humza for completing level 3
- Jeevan for completing level 4
- I’m always happy to see the progression from our youngest age group, happily taking on the challenge of complex and cross lateral movements so that they are building their co-ordination strength and brains! Just by practising the juggling they are increasing their grey matter.
- Several studies have shown a correlation between juggling and changes in the brain's grey matter, the cell bodies responsible for computation and processing within the brain, and white matter, the nerve fibres that connect different parts of the brain by way of electrical impulses on top of this Juggling improves hand-eye coordination, reflexes, peripheral vision and a host of other motor skills. Eric Jensen, author of "Brain-Based Learning: The New Paradigm of Teaching," recommends that students get up and move every 20 minutes. Kung fu makes us brainier :D
7-13 years
- The first section of Mizong Kao is finished so with a little work the white yellow and white orange belts will be ready to grade in May.
- I have been accessing the students basic techniques for their gradings.
- We continue to work on the sword sparring, building timing, coordination and bravery. The ability to stay calm and not panic is integral for sparring but also a great life skill.
- Some have started our one step sparring with bare-hands a great intermediary step to get the students being creative and solving the problem of how to counter the attack they have coming at them in a safe controlled way. This is something we will be doing more of going forwards.
adults
- Higher grades have been working on the 10 step Tai Chi form to really come to an understanding of moving from the centre and Chinese martial arts body mechanics.
- Working on fajin and some useful combinations.
tai chi
- We have looked at various breathing techniques including:
- Belly breathing… really diaphragmatic breathing, learning to use the bottom third of the lungs to increase fresh oxygen intake and calm the mind and body.
- Box breathing, a method used in the military to help soldiers remain calm in stressful situations.
- 4-7-8 breathing designed by Dr Andrew Weils from yogic pranayama to help people fall asleep.
What I’m learning/ reading at the moment
training
Jujitsu for the streets (ground fighting)
Chinese sword sparring
Courses
Jim Kwik - super brain
Journaling – I’m using this to understand my own thought process
Out of body meditations – This is an interesting one, I’ve used similar meditation methods to access my subconscious which is a great way to not only get a better understanding of your true thought processes but to break your programming and conditioning. We all have those annoying habits that we’ve been programmed with over decades that hold us back.
books
kung fu 1560 (general qi jiguangs book on unarmed combat)
Effortless combat throws
Dates to remember
Tuesday June 21st the hall is being used so classes on this day will move to Friday June 24th. Or you can use one of our other days if you prefer.
Our summer shutdown August 1st – August 14th although a part of our monthly fee you can make these classes up before and after August. I’m also working on a plan to keep the classes open.
7-13s grading days:
White yellow and white orange belts = May 9th 10th and 12th
Yellow and Yellow orange belts = June 13th 14th 16th
Orange belt and up = November, December or earlier if you're ready
