Following Mat

When you are in training you need to be prepared to follow the lead of anyone. If I learned one lesson I would say that is one of the most important things that I have learned from this project. When you have a leader (teacher, instructor, mentor, etc.) in front of you then you follow that lead.

During the time of Harry's absence I had Mat as an instructor. He asked me what harry had taught me so far and then he decided what we would do for the day. I told him how we did kicks, blocks, punches , the cat stance and s how I started learning the Kata.

I told him how I had been struggling with moving while blocking. After hearing of this challenge Mat had decided that he wanted to show me how to move and block at the same time. That's what we spent most of our time doing.

He had me start off by just doing the blocks and taking a step forward then when we get to the other side of the dojo I would turn around (mata). After he feels that I got that down then he would have me do a block then a strike, both while moving. he did this with all of the blocks.

After we were finished with that he had showed me how to do the Kata. Harry had already taught me the first five movements to the Kata but Mat wanted me to do the movements with not only my feet but my hands also. So I had learned the whole Kata using my hands and feet. It's not too long and I know once I practice I will do it without any issues. For now I have to practice it.

When Harry finally showed up at the end he was proud to hear the things we have done today. Now I have to go home and practice just a bit more.

Winter Training

Every year Sho-Shin-Do has an Winter Training. In this training session you practice with a bunch of other members from different dojos. A bunch of different masters come to this training to participate also and all of the members at their dojo are invited. I’m not sure if every single martial arts dojo is invited to this invite but I would assume that all of them are.

Jose Rivera was the person instructing us during the training today. Jose is the name that Sho-Shin-Do dojo is under. I can't exactly remember what the first style was but it was really interesting. I think it was kyokinshin which Is the style that sho-shin-do originated from. As Jose instructed he made sure to not stay on one technique for too long.

Looking at all of the members that were there at the training, a lot of them are black belts. I was one of only three white belts there. It didn’t bring down my confidence. Actually, it made me want to work harder to keep up. I have something to prove to all that are prestige in their practice. I know I can easily get beat if I was to spar one of the advanced people but my soul purpose of coming was to get a good training and that’s what we did. No one wanted to fight. Just have a good time with the martial arts community.

I felt good that I was able to keep up with everything we did. Rivera had walked us through a few combos. One of the combos that he showed us included: a front kick, a side kick, a back kick then a punch. It was fun learning more techniques.

I love the fact that Harry teaches me on more of a one-on-one basis but now I think I'm becoming fond of learning in a group like the one we worked In for the training. I felt comfortable with them. I know that they are like family to us, (us as in the Sho-Shin-Do community)

Breaking Back, Busting Knees

My knees haven't been feeling any better lately. Actually if you ask me they have been hurting more frequently. I still haven't been diagnosed with anything. At my last physical therapy appointment Jenna (the therapist) had asked me if I have any family history of arthritis. I remember my mom had been diagnosed with arthritis before. Jenna said that she believes that may be the cause of my pain. She thinks that for two reasons: 1. my knees hyper extend by the same amount on each side and 2. The pain hasn’t been going away. My knees are still hurting no matter If I do the exercises at home or do them with Jenna.

We had agreed that it's time for another trip to Strong Hospital. This time I need to get some x-rays and get tested for arthritis to see If there is any other way to get rid of the pain. Being that my senior project is a physical activity it makes it hard to continue on with my project. Even though pain is a obstacle to my senior project, I won't allow that to be the reason why I won't go to practices and continue working out. Since I won't stop training and work I need the pain to go.

Next Steps are those that will lead me to Strong so that I can cure the pain.

College Update

I finally turned in all of my college applications. Talk about relieveing stress. Man, those applications was holding so much stress over my head. I first got my supplement apps sometime in October. It’s January and I just now mailed them out. I feel so behind. Why would it ever take someone three months to complete college apps and turn them in?

Time. Not enough of it for me. I complain about time so much that I’m tired of using that as an excuse. It becomes hard to look at myself, knowing that I could have done better. I know that my time is very limited but my will to over achieve is fighting the will to think logically. It’s impossible to work 40 hours a week right now, but Lord knows I want to be making that money. It’s impossible to stay up for a week straight, but Lord knows I need to get this work done.

With my time constrant I try my best to keep everything at a minimum. I realize that I can’t waste time in college. So I’ve been practicing how to focus for now. One thing that’s hard for me is completing one thing while I know I have about five other things to do also. I get so scared about not having enough time to do everything that I start to panic. It’s something I need to work on. I had a lot of stress that has been holding me back and making this senior project just a bit harder. So mailing out those college apps was a relief for me.

I’ve applied to: RIT, St. John Fisher, PointPark University, Buffalo State & MCC.

Senior Road Show

This was interesting. Today we had to go around to a few other extended classes and tell them what our senior projects are. I can't remember if I originally got my idea for my senior project from the Senior Road Shows I have seen in the last two years but I hope that I gave someone an idea for their senior project. I believe that Senior Road Show is very helpful for both the seniors and underclassmen. I like the fact that we give underclassmen ideas because it is very hard coming up with an idea and following through with it. It's also helpful for us as seniors because it gets you to talk about your senior project in front of people. We have to talk about it to our committee during our final meeting and it somewhat perpares you for it. I noticed that some of the questions I was asked will be asked during my final meeting, "What's the hardest part for you?" Yeah, I think it would be good to start putting those things into words. I already picture myself at my final meeting, "The hardest thing for me during my senior project was balancing my time. I was in a constant struggle to make sure I had time for every part of my senior project and other things in life. This includes school, work, interviews, classes at different dojos, and going to the gym."

Kung Fu

I finally tried out Kung Fu for the first time. I'm happy that I did because it was really interesting. I found that the style is way different than I thought.

I never realized that when you do different fighting styles in martial arts then everything is different. I mean I knew that it was a different style for a reason. But I mean you do everything differently. I'm talking about the way you punch down to the way you walk. I think it's funny how they walk. From the moves I learned yesterday, I noticed something that was familiar to ShoShinDo. When you walk in Kung Fu you walk in Dragon style "90% on your back foot, 10% on your front foot," the same way that Harry had explained it.

I know that I didn't really learn anything in Kung Fu because when we were doing the Matis, our instructor only got me and the other new guy to the 5th move. It was kinda hard to learn the coordination. But after we got through the whole thing once without using our hands then we had to incorporate that part into it. It was a bit harder and every time I moved my hand then I would keep it in a fist and next to my chest as I was taught in ShoShinDo.

Another thing that I kept doing was popping my knee out when kicking forward. In Kung Fu you want you kick to be more like slicing your leg up. The difference for ShoShinDo is that your leg actually goes into a chamber then pop out. The other difference is thst in ShoShinDo you would move forward after kicking forward. But in Kung Fu you don't want to move forward much. I got the impression that you wouldn't move any more forward than you need to.

Overall, I like the class. I like having a instructor aside from the side. It was cool. But that instructor (Justin) is no where as good as Harry when it comes to instructing. Of course Harry has been instructing for years but I love how Harry makes sure that you get it before he moves on. Justin bearly made sure we had it sometimes. I would still go back for a class or two but I love the fact of having a person who works with me directly.