Tao of Life: Synchronicity

So I'm in the middle of starting another post when I find myself in the bathroom, kind of absent-mindedly thumbing through Journey Into Power, a yoga book by Baron Baptiste. I landed on crow pose (aka crane pose) bakasana. Here's the spiritual advice Baptiste offers for this pose "Letting go means giving up attachment to results. When you understand that you don't have to try hard, you can give up the fight for results, because you know that ultimately things will work out as they should. Desiring a certain goal in a pose and working to achieve it is different from trying to control the outcome. Just be willing to relax and let go. Know that if one door closes, five new doors will open up. That is true faith: trusting the natural ebb and flow of life."

Sounds like exactly the advice I need to help me not only achieve push-ups but to do my best in class. Sometimes I really do get caught up in wanting to do well and look good when I should be letting go!

The Perfect Push-up

I have been training for so long now and I am quite embarassed that I can only really do 3 perfect push-ups before my arms give out. Last week I bought some hand weights to help strengthen my arms while I am doing other activities such as forms, punching, blocking, and even sit ups and yoga. Still I am impatient with my progress.

So I ran a search on the internet "I can't do push-ups." The first article I stumbled across was Why Girl Hockey Players Can't Do Push-ups. The article sites poor posture and incorrect form while attempting push-ups.

To do the perfect push-up:

Your body must be in a perfectly straight line through the entire movement. In order to maintain this position, players must be able to keep their core tight (think about tightening up as though someone was going to punch them in the stomach), squeeze their butts (that one usually gets a few giggles) and squeeze their shoulder blades down and together (like they are trying to squeeze them down into their back pockets). When girls are able to maintain this position as they lower themselves down towards the ground, they take the load off of their "weaker" arm muscles and rely more on their "stronger" chest and core muscles to perform the movement.

I didn't know all that! I'm going to have to try that and get back to you. My core feels like it is getting stronger every day, but I didn't know I could use it to help my push-ups.

I guess ultimately I just have to face up to my push-ups. I try to do them every day but it doesn't feel much like I'm accomplishing anything by just doing three. Another website I found said "Just do 3 in the morning and 3 at night and add on one more the next day." That's what my instructor said to do...but I haven't forced myself to really stick to that routine.

I have a feeling I'm going to be asked to do at least 10 push-ups at my next belt test. At the last one he said to do 5 and I think the adrenaline of the testing atmosphere kicked my body up a noch because I actually did them!

What Is Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu?

According to Wikipedia:

The Bujinkan (武神館) is an international martial arts organization based in Japan and headed by Masaaki Hatsumi, it is best known for its association with ninjutsu. The system taught by this group, called Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, consists of nine separate martial arts traditions. According to the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten, the head of the Bujinkan organisation, Masaaki Hatsumi is the lineage holder of several ryūha taught in the Bujinkan...The training is generally referred to as taijutsu (body arts), and is composed of both armed and unarmed methods of fighting...In training, students are encouraged to always use any available weapons, including the environment. In some dojos, students will practice hiding training weapons in their uwagi or somewhere on the mat, and surprise their uke (training partner) during technique. While in many other oriental martial arts this is seen as dishonorable, the emphasis Bujinkan places on stealth and deception makes it a valuable exercise when practicing awareness.

Our instructor refers to Taijutusu as a "soft" martial arts style. The techniques that we learn do not require any muscle, we simply use energy and balance against our opponents. Often our teacher's teacher comes in to assist us in class. He never ceases to amaze me with his grace and subtlety. I just want to cry out "Watch carefully, kids this guy is a REAL Jedi Knight!" You can't even see him move when he dodges a kick or a punch. He told us that he had seen Grandmaster Hatsumi throw somebody over from three feet away! Also, no one can take his picture without his express permission...he's just a blur...talk about the Jedi mind trick!

I feel uncomfortable doing the techniques sometimes. Somehow punches and kicks seem a lot more straight forward than imote and ura gyaku, a self-defense technique against a lapel grab in which you grab their hand and twist their wrist in such a way that they fall to the ground. But Ninjitsu is all about the "feeling" and that is where my strength lies. You can explain the technical aspects of something a thousand times but when my mind, body, and energy come together the "feeling" is there and I know I have it! Maybe that makes me slower to learn certain things but I believe that in time, after many years of practice, that feeling will make me more agile and able to react in real situations that someone who simply focuses on the technical aspects.

Kyosa Nim Tried to Kill Us Today

Sometimes class feels like boot camp, and today was one of them. It started when he put his wife at the front of class in the middle of our stretching warm up and she made us jump up and down for a couple minutes. Jumping is incredibly difficult for me (and my husband admitted it was really tough for him too). Then when the instructor was back in front he had us stretching again. I could barely breathe and having done yoga on and off for 9 years I knew I needed to calm my breathing in order to get a good stretch.

The next thing I knew we had our legs spread wide and he wanted us to do excruciatingly slow push ups. The fact that I could do a couple made me feel really good but my muscles started screaming so loud. If I did another one something would snap! "You shouldn't be on the ground right now!" he instructed and I tried again but the pain held me back. Luckily he didn't single me out but frustration filled me because he always notices. I want him to notice that I'm doing push ups every day...not that I still can't keep up. Later I spoke with my husband and he admitted that he couldn't do them all either. This from a man who can do 50 push ups in one session. After that I felt like a little less of a wimp.

We followed that up with squatting all the way down, touching the floor, coming up for a front snap kick (ahp chagi) with the right leg, going all the way back down and coming into a left front snap kick. That was ONE count. I think we did 1o, I lost count about the same time that my legs tried to stop working. My brain would say "Okay, legs, stand up," and they wouldn't move. I wanted to do it so badly but my body just wouldn't concentrate. I finally manged to move in some kind of corny slow motion but I refused to quit!

Despite the fact that I was unable to keep up with the physical exertion, later I marveled at my body's ability to recover. Even though I doubted my ability to move my legs after that, we went right into practicing other kicks and by the time we got to the jumping front snap kick, my legs were back to business!

The day was capped off with a little bit of sparring. I faced off against a skinny tall 12 year old orange belt. I thought I could get him but his technique has improved considerably in the past few months. He got me with a kick right on my temple, I'm still not sure why I couldn't block it. I got in a couple punches to the face (we don't make contact, of course).

My son did a lot better in this class as well. We were threatening to pull him out because he hasn't been practicing or applying himself but today he got two compliments from the instructor and his performance seemed better overall.

Ups and Downs of Home Training

A few weeks ago our instructor gave us a sheet of paper and told us we needed to have it completely filled out by the next belt test, sometime in February. It consists of five types of training routines, each with 22 blanks to check off. The categories are:

• Strength Training- Sit ups and push ups or weight training
• Flexibility/Stretching- 15 mins
• Forms Practice- 20 mins of forms practice
• Kicks- 25 reps per side of at least 3 kicks
• Hand Techniques- one step fighting techniques and other punching/blocking practice as well as conditioning against targets

I get up in the morning and take my dog for a walk, then do 15-30 minutes of Stretching, usually a yoga routine and Strength Training. Sometimes I do as many sit ups and push ups as I can but others I do a more challenging Yoga or Pilates workout designed to strengthen the body. Variety is the key for me, if I get bored I won't do it. Right now I am getting frustrated because it seems like my lower body is getting stronger a lot faster than my upper body. I still can't do that many push ups with proper form-straight legs, on my knuckles. I know I just have to keep doing them and I let myself get frustrated too quickly.

The good news is, I noticed my arm muscles are getting tighter and bigger already. I had my husband measure me yesterday so that I can get a baseline for my fitness level. I don't have a scale and I don't believe in them anyway. I was wishing I had gotten him to do it a month ago because I can already tell a difference. My thighs hardly jiggle any more and I can tell my abs are tighter. Still, I felt a little sad because my thigh measurement now is about what my waist measurement was at my ideal size 15 years ago. The good news is, I didn't work out then, I was just naturally curvy. Now I may never get back down to a 26" waist but I will be stronger and leaner than ever before.

I avoid the kicking practice the most, sometimes I even attempt it and don't complete the 25 reps per leg necessary to get a check mark on my sheet. We do a lot of kicks in class but usually we do only 10 per side and then switch to another kick. Doing 25 in one set pushes me to my absolute limit. I work hard on the roundhouse kick, even though it is an advanced white belt kick and I am working toward my orange belt right now, it needs a lot of work, especially on aiming. A discouraging discovery was made in class on Thursday, I've also been working on my jumping front snap kick. The instructor pointed out that I was kicking at the wrong time. Devastating to realize that I had probably done a couple hundred kicks wrong and I basically have to relearn and retrain my body.

Talking to the Birds

My instructor has mentioned a few times getting the audio series "Advanced Bird Language" and I haven't picked it up yet because it is kind of expensive, but my kids and I have been spending time watching and listening to the birds around the house, particularly the crows. He says that crows watch everything we do and once they see a person they remember them for the rest of their lives.

Apparently "Advanced Bird Language" explains once you understand bird behavior you can move more easily through the woods without being detected.

I never really paid much attention to birds before, I don't know their names or how to recognize their calls. But now I watch and listen carefully and am looking forward to learning more. This morning I caught my 4 year old daughter on the front porch holding a full blown conversation with a bird. The bird would call and she did her best to imitate the sound. The bird called right back. I thought it was cute and also perceptive on her part. I love the idea of being able to connect with nature right in your own backyard.

Mama Ninja

My entire life I had been regarded as clumsy. My mother used to jokingly call me "grace." As a kid I spent a lot of time tripping and falling. So I never considered myself as someone who could one day master the jump spinning hook kick.

A few years ago, I joined a gym to get in shape. I had gained a lot of weight from having children and working a sedentary job for four years. There I discovered an amazing class called Nia, a blend of martial arts, dance, and yoga. First off it was fun and the instructor was very patient with my two left feet. So I began attending the class once or twice a week. I gradually found my balance, using my breath and energy to allow my body to move gracefully and powerfully. I knew I wanted my son, who also had a reputation of being clumsy, to take a martial arts class.

Martial Arts classes tend to be expensive so I procrastinated for a while until we found a school near our house that had very affordable prices. It happened to be Tang Soo Do, which I had never heard of before despite its apparent popularity. When I learned that the instructor was also passionate about wilderness survival I knew this was the class for our entire family. But first my son started January 2008. Then in spring my husband started.

It was an exciting day when they had their first belt test, my son got his advanced white belt and my husband, who had worked so hard and practiced every day skipped a rank and was honored with an orange belt.

I observed the class frequently and learned a few tidbits from my husband and son, but I finally joined the class September 11, 2008. The instructor is patient enough to allow my 4 year old daughter to run around while the rest of us are in class. I hope she will join in soon but right now she just doesn't have the attention span for 1.5 hours of class.

Why martial arts? These are my goals:

1. Strengthen and tone my body, increase balance and coordination


2. Hone my mental awareness and concentration


3. Strive for spiritual stillness and enhance my connection to the divine


4. Learn from nature and to live in harmony with it
   

What is Tang Soo Do?

Tang Soo Do-Moo Duk Kwan was founded in Korea in 1945. Translated as "a brotherhood and school of stopping inner and outer conflict and developing virtue, according to the way of the worthy hand," Tang Soo Do is a hard and soft style, meaning a combination of hard kicks and punches and soft flowing movements. Hwang Kee (1914-2002) brought together techniques from Soo Bahk Do, Tae Kyun, and Kung Fu to create the physical, mental, and spiritual art of Tang Soo Do. Unlike Tae Kwon Do which uses mostly kicks, Tang Soo Do encourages a balance of hand and foot techniques equally.

According to Grandmaster Hwang Kee:

It is not a sport. Though it is not essentially competitive, it has great combat applications. It is a classical martial art, and its purpose is to develop every aspect of the self, in order to create a mature personality who totally integrates his intellect, body, emotions, and spirit. This total integration helps to create a person who is free form inner conflict and can deal with the outside world in a mature, intelligent, forthright, and virtuous manner.