Wilson And The Headache

It’s been kind of a rough week for me, training-wise. In one of my earlier posts (Meanwhile In Canada…) I mentioned that painful experience of having my ear blasted by wind and frozen while holding a horse stance. Turns out the problem was that one of the tubes that drains my inner ear became somehow blocked. I don’t know what it had to do with the horse stance or the freeze, if anything. I suspect it was mainly the wind’s fault. But in any case, my head has been aching around my right ear ever since. I’ve seen two different doctors about it, and both have told me it’s just a matter of unclogging that tube, and that it should go back to normal any day now, I just have to wait it out. Meanwhile, my training has been… not exactly on hold, but tempered a little bit by the pain. It’s no fun trying to workout with a headache. All the same, I have managed to get in some practice every morning

One of the things I’ve been doing that’s different is breaking up ice at the pond, so that our injured and wintering redhead duck (pictured above) can continue to access open water. I’ve named this duck Wilson, by the way, after the ball who co-survived with Tom Hanks in that Castaway movie. I assumed, since the pond had only just frozen over, that I’d be able to break it up with my knife-hands or palms. Not so. If you’ve seen either of my ice-breaking videos…

…I show how thick it already is, about three inches. So I’ve been using a heavy splitting axe, mostly, which gives me some cardio work. And I try to break it up in a pattern that leaves me with some isolated platforms of ice that I actually can succeed at breaking with my palm. I’d like to find a nice heavy sledge, so that this ice-breaking will be more of a workout. Also, I’m thinking I’ll start hauling the larger chunks that I break off out of the water afterward, and take them home in a wheel-barrel to practice strikes against

Aside from ice-breaking this week, I’ve continued to practice CLF techniques, though not with any perceivable progress, owing that most of my attention has been consumed by the relentless headache. I’ve also pushed through a few good cardio workouts (eight minutes of jump rope with some double-unders, as well as a two mile run), and I’m continuing to test myself daily on feats of strength. My real short-comings this week have been in strength and flexibility training, which I’ve almost completely ignored. Hopefully this ear will drain soon, like the doctors tell me, and I’ll be back to normal

There have been some other developments this week that are very worth mentioning. I’m honored to have begun assisting Shi zu in preparing the Kwoon to begin accepting new online Todai, should we receive any serious inquiries. This has included crafting a more systematic application and screening process, as well as tuition payment system. The work will also involve some reorganization of the YouTube channel (which has already begun), to make videos more easily searchable and accessible. Please give me any suggestions for playlists that you’d like to see in the future, or any other ideas on how to improve the overall system for online Todai

On a final note, a belated Happy Birthday to Shi zu. I really enjoyed watching the videos from Chicago this week, especially FMK burpies (lol Wei), and the multiple attacker scenarios. Wei, I don’t know if you see it, but you’re starting to develop a serious martial artist’s physique. As for the sparring with multiple attackers, I think this is a very important practice, because you really can be taken out very quickly when there’s more than one assailant involved. I was attacked unexpectedly once by multiple guys in Louisiana, while in the Army. The barrage of fists from all sides was so quick, I was down on my knees in seconds. They could have really hurt me at that point but, lucky for me, they ran away. Really though, the multiple attacker scenario is very realistic, something anyone might actually encounter, and extremely dangerous even for the well-trained, as we witnessed with Shi zu. Keep up the good work down there