Where I'm at....

Last weekend I was going to blog like I always do, but then received a jolt if you will about where I am mentally and physically to date. I decided not blog because well, I was angry. Very angry would be more truthful. My anger was solely generated at myself. I had reflected on what I had accomplished to date and what I would need to do get some numbers up and so on but I was only looking at a small part of my “numbers”. I took a step back and looked at my life as a whole. My wife Judi and I had a long chat about where I was and where I should be….we were worlds apart. I was looking back at my numbers and saw them dip in April, now why was that, oh yeah twin boys were now home and sleep and time was immediately erased. Oh, numbers were up at the end of July and early August…oh yeah I was on holidays and had an awesome time getting in the work I needed to push to the next level. So on and so on. Problem is I’ve been too busy looking at my excel spreadsheet to miss my life around me passing me by. During my holidays I had gotten into a great routine but it didn’t involve my family as much. I mean I was still doing family things and duties around the house but something always had to fall off to meet my selfish requirements. I use the word selfish, maybe that’s a little harsh but its how it feels. It took me being on my holidays for my one son to actually recognize me and bond with me for the first time….he’s now five months old. That’s what hit me last weekend. Now again I can hear people saying reprioritize and time manage a little better but here’s the deal, I do that. Everyone has excuses why they can’t do this or that, and I respect everyone’s life and routine but mine is different. I was doing a lot of what we are undertaking right now last year leading up to this. When I looked at my spreadsheet over the past year I saw a battle. I have to fight for spare minutes to get pushups and situps in while I try to get my boys to nap for fifteen minutes. I fight fatigue to get up and run on less than five hours of sleep – one to two hour increments at a time to jog before running to work and so on. I have to fight to get time and most often it has taken me away from my family. I’m not home on Monday nights, Thursdays for practises, Fridays for class and then try to get out on Saturdays for open training/sparring/ practises. My wife spends the entire day at home with the boys, when I am not at home for the evening that’s a lot of strain on her. Many of us don’t have to fight for time, some do, but my other challenge has been a lack of sleep. After all these months my body has not been able to get the rest to maintain itself and last weekend just seemed to shut down. I hit the wall and it has taken me a week of minimal physical work to feel some energy again. I asked myself one important question last weekend, what am I doing this for? Is this for my ego to have that second stripe on my belt? To prove that I can do this all? I already know I can. Was it to prove I can do it with a new family during the year? When my wife and I were in our prenatal classes we spoke with families with multiples and they all agreed on two things. One, your life will dramatically be altered and revolve around the twins. Two, don’t even think about taking on any new courses, challenges, teams, activities for the first year. Yeah, didn’t catch that one. So now what. Well, first my family gets more of me; it’s my priority first and foremost. Second, I will continue to do all my UBBT goals and improve myself as a whole. I really have made great strides with the UBBT and am proud to be where I am. One thing that was lacking for myself, and I can’t stress this enough, to all of us on the team and people thinking about joining this team in the future, make this YOUR UBBT. This is your challenge, your journey. The numbers are the same for all of us but that’s not the point, this is your life to change, challenge and improve upon. If you look at it as just numbers or a set of hoops to jump through, look again. This is your masterpiece to build for you. There is only one you so live it. Find your passion in whatever it is you do and realize you CAN accomplish anything.

Sifu Bryant

Keep running

As I was going for a run this afternoon I began thinking of the elusive runners high. This happens rarely even with people who run all the time. Basically it means as you are running you feel lighter, faster and less fatigued. Usually you end up running farther because you can cover more distance without getting so drained. Roughly fifteen years ago I experienced it for the only time so far. I remember the day vividly and as I was running down the path had this great sense of calm come over me. I ran a good 2 km’s farther than before and was running in full strides all the way. I finished my run and just sat there, hardly breathing heaving wondering if I should just go and do it again, a great feeling. It’s something special doing something pure without effort; of course the secret is repetition leading to enlightening experiences. I always remember Sifu Brinker talking about his one great hip throw so many years ago; it happened in a split second and was pure as can be. We can only hope to experience these moments and relish them when they happen. Sifu Bryant

Olympic training

The Olympics have been underway for the past while and I always love watching the games. I especially love the athletics (why not just call it track and field) since that is what I used to compete in. I am always struck by some of the elite athletes competing and winning almost effortlessly. Like we say at the school - effortless effort, they make it look easy because of all the time and energy they have put in to get to that point. As I was running this morning, I have to say I didn’t feel like doing this at all, I mean I could always put it off till the evening or maybe even tomorrow, but no I ran my eight km’s and felt great. This is our Olympics right now that we are training for and it just feels good to keep putting in the effort and seeing the results each and every week. I have always said that a true test of someone is when adversity is thrown their way and they continue to push through to the challenge, attitude is everything. This motivation towards our Olympic calibre training puts a smile on my face this time of year. Sifu Bryant

Versatility

Yesterday many of us met and did a few rounds of sparring again. I'd say it went well for me personally but I'd be lying. I felt ok, but into the second round I really banged up my right shin, I know I need to build up some strength in my shins but this one really did some damage. Problem was after that I was totally useless. I had lost one of my main weapons and couldn’t compensate with any alternative forms of offense and defense for some reason. I know I’m still trying to get my sparring up to speed again but yesterday was really frustrating; everything I did was off – my timing, my precision. Going back to work on this for the next week with some shadow boxing should help some. Need to work on my combinations and again not just always relying on my right leg for my bulk of the work. Guess this is as good a time to fix these flaws that have crept in the past few years and see it as an opportunity to widen my versatility. Thanks again to all who came out yesterday and a special thanks to Sifu Lietz for the smack to the shins and another with a stick to the shins for good measure. Next time let’s have the bleeding stop on my shin before building up my conditioning on the leg...kids... Sifu Bryant

T-E-A-M work

Yesterday many of our team met at the Kwoon for open training. For us it was a chance to work on our sparring and any other requirements we wished to tackle. For one full hour we trained together through sparring and it felt great. For me it made me pause and think about our team and our mindset. Think about it, most of our requirements are personal in nature – forms, pushups, situps, acts of kindness, etc. I do most of this away from the Kwoon since this is how I like to train and go about my day, yet we are a team and some of our requirements need other people to be involved. I mean I can work on my combinations and such by myself but sparring requires another person in front of you (my wife doesn’t count I guess). It was nice to know that for that one hour there were over a dozen like-minded people working toward a similar goal – great stuff. As for the sparring, it went great, I need to work on a few things – a few bad habits have crept in but again another step in the right direction. This could turn into another good weekly habit I think. Sifu Bryant

Another chapter.

So these past few weeks I have been tackling my other form, being the spear. It has been going slow, but again that is to be expected. One thing that has been the same as my other weapons is the feeling of the connection with me and the weapon itself. Sometimes I will force the weapons movement and be working against it instead of with it. It just takes some time and patience. Another good week of good progress and of course I have the blisters to prove it. Still feeling like each day is another step forward in my progress which tends to make me want to tackle the next day and see what lies ahead. Sifu Bryant

How do you eat an elephant....

Thinking about the goals that we have set for ourselves and how we approach them. I know the numbers that we strive to achieve can be a heavy weight if we let it be. Each week I never ever look at the total numbers as a whole, I look at the numbers I have put up the past week and adjust accordingly. Maybe I’m up on some and down on others so I make small adjustments when needed. For me if you had a bad day or a string of days you need to have a short memory – wipe that off the slate and start the next day like you’re right on track. I have been focusing on only small aspects of my training at a time, if I try to do too much it all gets lost in the mix. I may be doing a lot of things as a group but none of them well. So another week in the books, time to call it a night. Tomorrow I will hit the reset button once again and hit it harder once more. Sifu Bryant