This Week

Over the last week the more I train with the Double Broadsword, Tai Chi broadsword, and the Cane. The forms (kata) are starting to get mixed up. Which is kind of cool! I will be doing Tai Chi Broadsword and then right in the middle of the form I will start doing Double Broadsword. Or in the middle of practicing Cane block set and go into Tai Chi Broadsword. This is because I am not fully concentrating on the weapon or the form. If I am not concentrating, my body recognizes this same stance or technique from another form and just goes there, because my body doesn’t care what is in my hand as long as it gets the job done. I just have to try harder to stay in the zone.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain Alberta Canada

Am I An Example?

A story I have to tell. One day at work I was listening to some coworkers and my self in a conversation. Just a normal discussion about politics of all sorts you know the kind, government, the school system, the country, and the world, the usual. I was listening to the conversation and the amount of cursing words that were being used. I listened to the conversation and of course certain words are used a lot. One of the questions to myself was do these people, including me, use such language at home, I know myself the only place I used that language was at work. That day I decided that I wanted to change. At first it was difficult because I associated my coworkers with the type of language that was spoken. After a few weeks, my using of better adjectives became easier and expressing myself was better, just by breaking an old habit. The humorous part was the shop gossip! Was something wrong with me? Or did I suddenly become very religious? I always did believe in the higher power and I always was very spiritual. A good friend told me about the shop gossip, we had a good laugh. But the cool thing was that mostly all of my coworkers do respect no cursing, and for that I am very respectful of them. We can change the world one small step at a time. Thanks UBBT.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain Canada

I am connected

Feels good to be out peddling the bike again. Leg muscles remind me that I have not given them a good workout in a long time, funny how it feels good to get off the bike and the leg muscles are very tired and wobble around to get stability, that always puts a smile on my face. Why does that feel good to some people and awful to others? I guess we know that the tiredness and wobbly feeling in fact is a step ahead, a gain, a progression and if we do this to our muscles two to three times a week they will build strength. If my muscles feel tired after a five mile ride, then if I do this two or three times a week by the end of the month my legs will feel tired after twenty five miles.
My ankles are giving me pain every once in a while not sure what the cause is, weird thing is sometimes it’s the right sometimes the left, a sharp pain then its gone.
I was discussing with some fellow UBBT members the other day and telling them that I have noticed that the one hundred fifty pushups a day is changing my body, my shoulders are pulling back into alignment, my back is straightening, my elbows don’t touch my sides any more. That’s kind of cool. Crunches are firming up the belly. These both have helped my lower back. All in all it fee eels good. Mind and body connected.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain Alberta Canada

New Experiences

WOW this has been quite a week Master McNeill’s cane seminar was a super experience. I learned a lot of new techniques from the In The Shirt seminar so many the old brain went into overload, I think too much info for one weekend. But as I progress, I believe most of the info will come back. The more I play and practice the more I love it; it’s funny how a person learns and loves the feel of our personal canes the balance point and where the grip feels so good to strike. When I pick up someone else’s cane it feels like some one else’s socks, if you know what I mean. Master McNeill thank-you for spending a weekend with our Silent River Kung Fu family.
My next challenge is to learn to fly-fish. I know that it sounds like too much fun to be a challenge. Well I went fishing with (Kylee, Kim and Martin my fly-fishing instructors) this week never caught a fish. I did catch a sore arm and sunburn on the bottom of my arms; I put suntan lotion on the top of my arms, but not on the bottom hmm! It is not as easy as it looks! When I watch someone who knows what they are doing, the line lazily snaking back and forth over their head, then with the last whip of the rod setting the hook in the water thirty feet in front of them exactly where they want it. Me a different story; I catch the weeds behind me and set the hook down in the water ten feet in font of me. I can tell this is going to take some practice.
Sifu Hayes www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain Alberta Canada