Old School Pain

It’s been a couple weeks, at least, since I last posted an update here on the blog. With the intense Spring Term underway at my college, and the courses I’m teaching being mainly field-based, my time management skills are really being put to the test (as those of you who are friends with me on Facebook can probably surmise). I’ll be glad when July rolls around and there’s at least some slow down

For me, the last couple weeks – with a lot of travel and road time – have been a period of reflection. A camping expedition with my students in Yellowstone National Park made some significant impressions on me, which I hope to compile a video about soon.  Also, with Todai Jun having made his decision to leave the Kwoon official, this period has also been one of new creativity. I had grown accustomed to attaching music to my progress and practice videos, to make them more entertaining. Faced with having that option rescinded, I became curious about that little guitar icon at the bottom of my computer screen, leading into the Garageband program I’d never attempted to use before. Turns out, composing some half-decent music electronically isn’t all that difficult… and it’s my own artistic expression, which is better in a sense. So I’m going to keep working at it

This morning, at the park, I had a little epiphany that I thought worth sharing. Actually, it’s what prompted me to finally write this new update…

I walked to my trees clad in a 20lb weight vest, with an additional 3lbs on each ankle, 1.5lb gloves on each hand, and 3 X 1lb iron rings on each arm, altogether adding 35lbs to carry while practicing forms. Out of all this gear, it’s been the iron rings that always prove the most challenging. I bought them a couple months ago because of nostalgia. They look and sound like kung fu. But are they the best investment? Each ring is about $20, making the six of them I wore worth $120… more than my vest (which can load up to 40lbs), and certainly more than my ankle and glove weights. And what do I get for the extra investment?  Mostly, I get pain

Pain…

Pain…

As I move my arms, the rings come crashing forward and back, bruising my wrists and forearms, sometimes pinching skin or pulling hair. It’s a lot of ouch that one doesn’t need to endure in order to get the benefit of weighted training. There are plenty of comfortable wrist and glove weights on the market. And yet, I’d still recommend the rings. Why?

What hit me this morning was that the pain caused by the rings was actually prompting memory issues. I was having some difficulties remembering how to move through the combinations in my forms. And I was relaxing my postures and techniques as well, not going as deep into my stances as I should, or throwing a punch as quick as I might otherwise. The rings were a considerable distraction. But is that a bad thing? Actually, I would propose its part of their purpose

The martial arts involves training of the mind. Discipline, yes. Analytical skills, yes. But also, an important aspect of the mental training is for brute survivability. What happens if someone is in a life-threatening situation, and his survival requires the ability to ignore significant, if not excruciatingly painful, distractions? Will he be able to maintain a calm mind, focused on the important tasks at hand? Or will he allow his attention to be drawn away from life? Will he give up? To tell it honestly, I see this quite often, among my students and others… once something does not go as expected, once a significant obstacle presents itself, there’s a strong tendency to quit. Now I’m not saying that a guy should be so stubborn that he fails to respond to important environmental cues, and change plans as appropriate. However… if you’re dangling over the precipice, hanging onto a little finger-hold of rock with one hand, and an ant bites your knuckle, this is not the right time to allow the distraction in

There’s a saying in Blackfoot… Iihtsipaitapiiyo’p Isstsskimaanitapi (The Source Of Life Whips Us In The Face). The origin of this phrase hearkens back to the days when people would hunt bison in groups, and try to corral or direct them. If some of the bison saw through what was happening, and decided to move in a different direction, they would be whipped in the face. Those who kept moving toward their escape despite the face-whipping would become survivors. Those who cringed and allowed themselves to be redirected would become food. So too is it with us in our lives. Those who are easily discouraged will, at the very least, fail to accomplish much of their potential. In the event of a life threatening situation, they might also die

The way I see it, the iron rings were always meant to give a little pain. Otherwise, those Shi Zu of the past would have almost certainly designed comfortable, sandbag-variation arm weights. But by opting to keep that little bit of pain, not only were they promoting the more explosive delivery of techniques developed through weighted training, but also they were hardening their forearms and wrists, making music, and sharpening their survival minds. The challenge, when using the rings, is to ignore painful distractions that aren’t important in the grand scheme. That little bit of pinching, pulling, and bruising does not comprise serious injury. The pain is just a tool for our kung fu training. In the same way, we can utilize the minor discomforts of being outdoors in various conditions. The rains, winds, snows, sands, waters, mosquitoes, heat, and cold, all of it is there to help train us… body… and mind… and perhaps even spirit, if we approach it as such. Shy away from these elements, opt only for comfort, and we are doing ourselves a disservice