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."

     Now the evening class, for me, started off a bitter sweet. My kids were both little so the short amount of time in the evening I had with them before they went to bed was cut even shorter due to the start time of the beginner class. The class itself was fantastic and I felt good about going,  there was large variety of students to work with and new to me instructors. A key to getting really great practical experience and larger base to the pyramid. I worked hard for my yellow belt then to orange so I could move to the orange/green class and have that extra time with my kids.

     Up to this point I only remember missing one morning class and no evening classes. The switching of companies forcing me to the evenings was a great move then and when my story gets closer to being current it will be clear why.

   

     
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 started with the early morning class (6:40) with usually 5 students, the now Sifus Bryant, Regier, Prince and Sihing Choy. At the time, I didn't tell my then company, I just started showing up to work late. They did not notice for 4 months, since I typically worked alone. After about 7 months I ended up switching companies and while I was being interviewed I requested a late start on Kung Fu days but was quickly told no. Of course, I then switched to evenings and a much larger class. Being someone who prefers mornings it was a little tough , I had 2 small kids at home that were still up at 18:30 but not up at 6:40,  so it was hard for me leave home in the evenings and go to 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."

Journey

   




    So I've been thinking about my journey a lot recently. Not just this year but since my first class on the mats. The exact day I don't recall ,but  I believe it was in September with Sifu Laurie. I didn't join with any real plan ahead of me, just , join get in better shape, learn a martial art and maybe, make a few friends. Little did I realize it would turn out to be so much more.

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."