WOW!

    It's been 2 days, my face is sore from the giant smile plastered across it since Saturday evening. Congratulations to my fellow candidates, to Sifu's Regier, Vantuil, and Csillag and also to Mr. Sollinger for a well earned student of the year.

    Having watching from the sidelines, and being part of and performing in several ceremonies I have to say this was the most emotional that I have experienced.

    I huge thank you to everyone for all their efforts for the day not to mention all of the time spent in the days and weeks prior planning and preparing for the day.

   It's been 2 days and I'm still excited, feeling more and more that this is where my training  really begins.

See you on the mats!



Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

     What I've taken from this year is immense. As I reflect on all I've accomplished this year it appears that I've done more than I originally thought, I guess that's the point of keeping track.

    One thing just came to me today. I was in a Lion since before I was in the I Ho Chuan, but not this year, which is disappointing. Although I'm no busier than I was before, the timing of my schedule is what has kept me from being in a lion this year. Maybe next year it will work out.

     The year is over now, but I'm not going to look at it as an ending, it's a new beginning. I am not going to be on the Monkey team but I'm still going to take advantage of the tools I have received and used while I was in the I Ho Chuan. We will see what the future holds, maybe I will see some of you on the 2017 Chicken team.



Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

     
     During my short stint in San Sou I got the opportunity to train at the Ging Wu in Edmonton in traditional San Sou by a San Sou judge and competitor. I believe it was Sifu Greg, and anyone that was there please correct me if I'm wrong. He came up from Calgary and put a "Training Session" together that was very well done and fun. We went thru the rules, the scoring, the ring  and some basic but effective moves. It was done to hopefully generate some more interest in the sport in the west. We were there for several hours and, at the end, got to compete against some students from other schools.

     Now if you've been in a SRKF tournament and have sparred you know it can get intense and that's with people you know, who hopefully, aren't there to hurt anything but your ego a little. Well that's what I expected when the competing was about to start. There were 2 things that stuck out in my mind, #1 the first 2 people up were Sifu Tymchuk and another guy roughy his size, and I believe Sifu Tymchuk was a Blue belt at that time but I can't recall as we weren't wearing belts so I'm not sure of the other guys rank either. It was supposed to be light controlled contact with emphasis on the clean take downs and getting your opponent out of the ring and scoring points for such.  Well it didn't start out that way, it was like 2 bulls smashing into each other and swinging. It rocked the second floor of the Ging Wu training space and set the tone for the rest of the matches. That was # 1 number 2 was when my 1st opponent, who let me know earlier he was a "white belt", did a flying kick at my head in the first second and was nearly successful. Obviously he had loads of training, after that near miss I didn't let him breath, I just kept moving forward kicking, punching, pushing. At one point I could feel his frustration and considered backing off a little but after nearly having my head kicked off, I just couldn't. There was so much more but those 2 things keep coming to mind.

     It was during this training that I came to the conclusion I don't like going to the ground. If a clean takedown put my opponent on the ground, no problem, but if might end up on the ground with him I let go and kept striking.

    This blog was supposed to go in a different direction but seemed to come easy so I went with it.


To be continued...

   

Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

    So now I'm coaching 2 sports and at times on 2 different teams with much less qualifications than many other parents, you are not allowed to coach either of these sports without being certified, which involves a couple of weekends and or evenings of classroom training depending on the level you would like to coach. You need a record check, first aid, respect in sport(which is different for each sport) and in hockey, a specific sports injury first aid. No wonder it's hard to find coaches. So, no problem I do it all. A lot of time put in before I even hit the ice or a diamond. None of this may seem relevant to Kung Fu but it's part of "My Balancing Act".

    Now after 3 months of training out of the Kwoon I returned, not as polished, but not having to relearn anything because even tho I was no longer registered I kept on practicing. Right back to working hard so I can catch back up to a few of the people I had been training with before my absence. This is the point where I joined the San Sou, and started to attend Tuesday's also. One more evening away from my family. At this point I don't think I'm missed that much because the kids go to bed shortly after I leave for class. Plus I incorporated them into some of my training. They would sit on my back for push-ups and on my feet for sit-ups. Also, as kids do, they would copy me as I did forms.

 

   
         
To be continued...

   

Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."


     

     Rewind back to classes, at this point, I am really wishing that I would have kept better track of what I was doing and when. So I'm working thru the Orange curriculum and enjoying every second. I'm getting lots of time at home with family, life is good.

     When you have kids, you want them to have fun, be active and hopefully find something that they are passionate about.  Anytime you have to push them to do something they don't want to it becomes a struggle for everyone involved. They are still little at this point point so you put them in activities you think they might like, the majority started by 18:00 and were done by 19:30. Kathryn started dance and T-ball, James just T-ball. None of these activities interfered with Kung Fu because they were early or were on opposite days. Worked for me so still didn't miss many classes.

   That quickly changed, the next fall hockey needed an assistant coach and that conflicted with my classes  but only occasionally so still good, just more rushed. That spring tho while still running around with hockey, baseball starts and they also need help and coaches and that spring I left Kung Fu for 3 months. There was just no way to coach and make it to class in time, they were on the same days. Sifu Brinker was not really excited about that fact, probably believing I wouldn't return. Well...still here.

         
To be continued...

   

Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Happy New Year!!


    Now, I have been writing a lot, trying to get things as accurate as possible. I'm not sure that my time line is going to be 100% accurate, I may have it mixed up a little but not intentionally.

     At that time there seemed to be a pattern of training, sparring one night forms the next followed by techniques/combinations on the third night. Except for that summer, and now I may remember it wrong, but it felt like we sparred every night. Again for those that haven't sparred or are new to sparring,it can be quite intimidating. For me their are 2 reasons; 1. I don't want to hurt anyone and 2. I don't want to get hurt. Only being able to speak for myself, the feeling I get from sparring is sometimes overwhelming, but that's the point. Being overwhelmed and panicked but maintaining a certain level of calm and control. Not as easy as it may sound, while getting punched or kicked, the feeling of pain can sometimes leads to panic and confusion.

    Fast forward to my first tournament. I was terrified to enter as I assume most people are. This happens to be the first time I met Sifu Rybak. She was centre judge and it was myself sparring Sifu Tymchuk, we started as we always do, all D-8 as Sifu Frietag calls it. Sifu Rybak quickly broke us and told us to ease up, which of course only happened for a second, and after exchanging a series of blows the 2 of us had these huge grins, unusual for most most but common for us which had Sifu Rybak shaking her head at us. Who won? It didn't matter because I was there for the experience of a tournament.

   

     
To be continued...

   

Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

     I have to rewind a little. Just to mention someone, who before I went to the orange class, joined with his friend. His excitement and focus was contagious. Travis Panasiuk was as inspiring off the mats as he was on the mats. If not for a tragic accident there is no doubt that he would have surpassed my training. For those reading that never had the pleasure of meeting or training with him his picture is on the alter in the Kwoon.

     There's an excitement, I assume all of us feel, when we achieve the next belt level. It is multiplied when we have to change classes. Definitely different than when I went from morning to evening classes. On how to describe it, I'm not sure of, a nervous excitement is the closest thing. You enter the Kwoon just like you have many times before but with new partners (some are the same) to train with and, for me, Sifus I hadn't yet met.

     I'm going to start with sparring in this class. I met with Sifus Tymchuks fists and feet here early on, even before I knew him. One of the first sparring classes, I think my nose was squished to the right side of my face by a punch, then quickly flipped to the other side by his kick (or the other way around) and he had this huge grin on his face easily seen thru my watering eyes. It was quite the introduction and one of my most memorable. It made me all the better because I worked that much harder after that so as not to have that happen again. Then Sihing Krebs came in and would hit me 3 times before I even knew he was throwing a single punch let alone a combination. Between those two I felt like the Kelly Buchburger of the Kwoon, protecting myself by blocking with my face, but not afraid to try. This may sound terrible but I thought it was awesome. This was just the start of sparring in the Orange class.

   

     
To be continued...

   

Scott Fuhr

http://scottfuhr.blogspot.ca
http://flavors.me/scottfuhr
http://www.silentriverkungfu.ca

Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."