February 2010
1 post
Gung Hei Fat Choi!
Happy new year everyone! We’re gearing up for a busy season of Lion Dancing and are looking forward to ringing in the year of the tiger.
If you’re interested in booking a team for a lion dance or kung fu show for your Chinese New Year celebration, get in touch!
January 2010
1 post
1 tag
“First ten years, very difficult. Next ten years, even more difficult.”
– Hungarian weightlifting coach
December 2009
7 posts
'The Karate Kid' Remake Trailer →
Is this remake really called ‘The Karate Kid?’ Despite taking place in China? Despite Jackie Chan acting as the master? Despite the fact that it’s clearly wushu? Is nothing sacred?
1 tag
“The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure...”
– Marcus Annaeus Seneca
1 tag
“Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the...”
– Lao Tzu
1 tag
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
– Leo Tolstoy
The Front Door, The Ultimate Milestone →
“In reality I think the most important milestone, one that goes unnoticed by most, is getting in here in the first place. It’s much easier to make excuses, stay home, sleep late, make dinner, cart the kids around, take care of the day-to-day which weighs on us so heavily. The challenge is getting up, getting here, getting through the front door.” Word.
November 2009
15 posts
Top 10 Training Scenes →
Nice to see some real kung fu flicks in the mix here, but it wouldn’t be worth linking to if they didn’t include Rocky IV!
1 tag
“To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true...”
– Al Oerter
1 tag
“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give...”
– Randy Pausch
1 tag
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot
Martial Arts and the Way of Peace →
“If you’ve been training for a while, look at the difference within yourself between who you were when you first walked through the doors of your training hall and now. Ask yourself, ‘am I a good representative of my art? Can I defend myself according to the definitions and philosophies set forth by my art?’”
1 tag
“Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have...”
– Edward Stanley
1 tag
“Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close...”
– Hesiod
1 tag
“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in...”
– Benjamin Mays
1 tag
“Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not...”
– Alfred A. Montapert
1 tag
“Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat.”
– Hakuin
1 tag
“Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my...”
– Lance Armstrong
1 tag
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
– Aristotle
1 tag
“Once one learns to quit, it quickly becomes habit.”
– Vince Lombardi
1 tag
And we're back!
You may have noticed that the blog has been running on auto-pilot for the past couple of weeks. Rest assured that we didn’t abandon it, I was just offline because my wife gave birth to our first little one! Everyone’s doing great, but I was a little wrapped up with baby things for a while.
We’ll be returning to our regular programming of training-related content (more than...
1 tag
“A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a...”
– Bruce Lee
October 2009
33 posts
1 tag
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always...”
– Unknown
1 tag
“Pain is simply weakness leaving the body.”
– Navy Seal saying
1 tag
“Those who work the hardest tend to complain the least.”
– Unknown
1 tag
“I hated every minute of training but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live...”
– Muhammad Ali
1 tag
“Stick to the basics and when you feel you’ve mastered them it’s time to start...”
– Greg Glassman
1 tag
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of...”
– Helen Keller
1 tag
“You must not only aim right, but draw the bow with all your might.”
– Henry David Thoreau
1 tag
“Many of life’s failures are people who had not realized how close they were to...”
– Thomas Edison
1 tag
“I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it...”
– Michael Jordan
1 tag
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
– Beverly Sills
1 tag
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that...”
– Winston Churchill
1 tag
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow...”
– Bruce Lee
1 tag
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks...”
– Thomas Edison
1 tag
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
– Winston Churchill
1 tag
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
– Stephen Covey
What is Shugyo? →
“Shugyo (or Xio Xin 修行 in Chinese) is deep mind-body training done in the pursuit of higher levels of consciousness, as well as the refinement of an ability. Buddhist training is typically referred to as shugyo… and it is usually quite demanding, requiring unlimited amounts of effort, mindfulness, and refinement.” I think Shugyo can also take the form of Hung Ga kung...
1 tag
“A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.”
– Unknown
1 tag
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
– Lao Tzu
2 tags
Goal-oriented training
I’ve alluded to the importance of training with goals in mind before, but what sort of goals should martial artists set for themselves? Some common long-term goals are to get fit, to learn practical self-defense, to win medals in tournaments, or to earn jo gow (black belt) rank. The problem with all of these, and many other common goals, is that they’re vague (how do you define...
1 tag
“Those who say it cannot be done shouldn’t interrupt those who are doing it.”
– Unknown
1 tag
“Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.”
– Unknown
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“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.”
– Horace
1 tag
“To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and...”
– Sydney Smith
1 tag
“He who sweats most in training bleeds least in battle.”
– Chinese proverb
2 tags
Congratulations!
Sifu just announced the results from our fall testing and several students earned a new rank:
Ariel - Yat Cup Junior
Antonio - Yat Cup Junior
Adam - Yat Cup Senior
Vijay - Yat Cup Senior
Brian - Yee Cup Senior
It was great to see these guys come out and do us proud. Keep up the hard work guys!
1 tag
“Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow