A Parent, Not A Friend

When I returned from my holidays in Saskatchewan, I was greeted with enthusiasm by the Young Dragons students.  One, in particular, was even more excited to see me back than the others.

“You’re back!!”

“Yes I am!”

“Where were you?”

“I was in Saskatchewan visiting my mom.”

“I’m glad you’re back. I missed you!”

Any kid noticing my absence would have made my day.  But this one in particular had greater meaning.  This particular student is one that has required a lot of my focus and efforts.  And I don’t mean that they are a bad kid!  Not at all.  They are smart and kind and quite talented.  But they crave attention and they tend to do what it takes to get that attention.  And so they are one that requires a lot of redirection and I have to be on them constantly in order to keep them from derailing both their own learning and the class as a whole.

So to learn that they not only noticed I was absent, but that they missed me and were excited to see me return…well…it was hard proof that we are developing a report and that they recognize that the reason I am on them so much is because I care.  It reiterates how I approach being a parent with my own kids.  I’m their parent…not their pal.  And that’s exactly what they need from me at this stage in life. So even when we argue…or there is a need for discipline…they recognize (even if it’s later and not in the moment) that I do it because I want them to grow and to learn and to be successful and to be happy.  I do it to maintain structure and to establish boundaries so that they can eventually establish and maintain these things themselves. And although I’ve known this to be true intellectually…and that all the experts say that kids need a parent, not a friend…you still always wonder and question if you’re doing the right thing for them. Having this student value my presence, even though I happen to also be the hardest on them, shows me that I’m doing the right thing and taking the right role in the relationship we are developing.

This also opens my eyes as a student myself.  When I am being corrected again and again. When I am being advised to do this or try that.  When an instructor always seems to be pointing something out. When I am being told again and again to blog, to do my pushups, to utilize the tools set out for me…..they do it because they have a vested interest in my success.  They want me to improve.  They want me to progress.  They care.  And I am grateful.

Ouch

Things have been a little slow the last couple weeks.  My quads have prevented me from doing too much.  Although I’ve stayed fairly safe in class (probably thanks to being forbidden to do certain things…lol), small day to day things continue to sabotage my healing.  Kneeling down to take a measurement at work.  Tripping over the door threshold at Safeway. Hopping up on to the back of the truck.  Things that I typically wouldn’t think twice about.  But unless I wanted to lay in bed and do nothing, I’m doing the best I can and hopefully I will find things back to normal shortly.

IHC Numbers

Pushups = 18478

Sit-ups = 17445

Long = 287

Fan = 376

Kms = 571

AOKs = 450

Sparring = 221

Injured But Still Learning

Since I’ve been dealing with an injury the past couple weeks, I’ve shifted my focus to a couple different things not requiring the ol’ quad muscles at 100%.

The first is the initial move in Long, with the tiger strike and thrust punch.  These two techniques have always felt really awkward “side-by-side”. I say “side-by-side” because I know they are moving at the same time, but are completely separate techniques.   I’ve worked on driving the tiger with my hips as I turn into my cat.  But my punch tends to come out at a curve as well, kind of following the path of the tiger claw, rather than its own trajectory.  So right now I’m working on the tiger strike as a circular motion and the punch as linear.  It makes sense as an application, but I still can’t quite get it right in the form.  This move sort of reminds me of the “knife/punch/open roundhouse/spinning back kick” in DMH2.  These techniques also go from circular to linear.  Different techniques following different trajectories, yet flowing together.  I just haven’t quite been able to make these things click in Long yet, but I will continue exploring.

The other thing I focussed on this week was getting centred and staying centred in my forms, even when not able to get as deep into my stances as I normally would.  This was interesting because my initial thoughts were that I simply wouldn’t be able to ground myself with my injury.  But I didn’t feel that was the case.  I have no idea what I looked like from an outside view, but I felt surprisingly good.  Again, this is something that will need more time to explore, but so far I’m finding it very interesting.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

As part of the July 1st event in my hometown, there was a slopitch tournament.  Ball is big where I’m from. Basically because it was the only sport available to us growing up. lol.  The population when I moved away in 1997 was about 475 people.  That number remains fairly close to today’s.

Anyhow, my mom is a councillor for the town and the planning fell to her.  She asked my sister and I to form a team, and so we tracked down some old friends and put one together.

I never gave it a thought.  I joked that I’d be rusty…not having swung a bat for probably 12 years, but I was still confident it would be like riding a bike.  Skills-wise, yes.  It all came back.  But what I failed to plan for was how I’ve changed physically.  I’m not in terrible shape, but I’m certainly older.  And I realized too late that I haven't run, in any capacity really, since my surgery.  And when I say run, I mean full on sprinting around those bags. After game 1, I could feel that I tweaked my left hip and pulled my right quad.  But, with age does not always come wisdom, and I continued to play and push myself well beyond my limits.

In the following days I was struggling pretty good physically.  But again, I took for granted I could keep going and started digging in my garden as soon as I got home.  I had brought lots of new plants home from moms and needed to get them in the ground.  They can’t wait that long out of the ground.  And so all that up and down eventually resulted in a re-injury of that pulled muscle.  It took my breath away and it was many moments and some creative movements before I could stand up.  I made it into the house, took a bit of a break and did some massage work to try and ease the pain.

Sadly the story doesn’t end there.  Again, wanting to get back out to my garden, I told myself I’d take it slow and easy.  Which I did!  Until I witnessed Nathan hit a bump on his quad and took a good tumble.  On instinct, I launched into a run.  That quad muscle screamed, but I kept going until I reach Nathan and could see he was okay.  Once I knew all was good, the pain exploded almost beyond coping.  I hobbled inside, and with Dans help, was able to get onto my bed and start icing.  

I still have plants to get into the ground, but they will have to wait.  I have already made too many errors in judgement. 

I’m struggling with recognizing limits that come with aging.  I don’t feel old.  I still have the same drive and motivation I’ve always had.  More even.   But when I hurt myself, where I could once push through, knowing recovery would be simple, it now takes so long.  And I just don’t have that kind of patience.  There are so many things I want to do.

On a positive note, we won the tournament.  lol.