There have been so many good things happening! So many that I need to jot these all down so I don't forget. Hopefully this will be enough to come back to another time and expand. And apologies if these little tidbits don't make much sense for the reader, but they are just snippets for myself to return to.
Here we go...
1. I love teachers that are able to just sit back and let you come to all the wrong conclusions. To some, this might seem like an uncaring teacher...but I see this as someone who really wants you to work through it and figure it out on your own...knowing that this will then stay with you, rather than jumping in to make every little correction, and ending up with a student that really doesn't understand why they are doing what they're doing. I want to try and do this more in my own teaching.
2. The biggest thing that I took from the kindness project is awareness of how connected (or not) I am to the individual members of the IHC team..and vice versa. It made me wonder how I can get to know some of my team-mates better and how they can better connect with me. And that's through my blogs. We don't otherwise see each other in the same social circles, nor work circles. This was an eye opener for how important my blogging is for both my team mates and my instructors.
3. Working on progressing with my 6 Harmonies has been difficult. I think I've gone from one extreme to another, both, oddly enough, resulting in the same chunky effect. But working on a particular part of DMH (step into open X with snap punch) I suddenly found myself expanding my "vocabulary". I was doing a "1. 2. 3." But then I started doing a "1 aaaand 2". The "aaaaand" was my transition. Why this verbalization helped, I don't know. But it suddenly felt like I was doing the techniques, flowing through to the next, feeling harmony, etc. Finally, a blue belt, and I think I maybe figured out 1 single 3 step section. At least for now. I'm pretty sure it will break again at some point. Hahahahaha.
4. I want to stop saying "I've been doing it all wrong". I haven't been. I've been doing it just fine for my level, ability, understanding, brain capacity, etc, etc. It's just that now, for whatever reason, I can see how to do it different. This is progression.
5. Demo Prep. I'm calling our fan form attempt on Thursday a "delightful disaster". 🤣 Working as a team with a partner has really brought with it many challenges that have been really beneficial. Thursday brought some new ones. Walking onto the "stage" on your own can be difficult enough...trying to find a spot to start where you have enough room to finish...not running into anyone or having them run into you. Add a partner and you suddenly can't enter how you normally would want to. I can't speak for my partner, but I felt like what I thought was good, wasn't, because I hadn't really considered my partner and where they would end up moving. At times I recall feeling like everyone was right on top of us for some reason. Lol. I also didn't consider the fact that all these people moving around, with weapons swinging, would cause all kinds of breezes and winds....that we've learned are not conducive to a successful fan toss. Even while at the Kwoon, as soon as the furnace kicks in, we need to be mindful of where we are because any little current will sweep our fans away when we are tossing them. Hahahaha....well...lesson learned. We can only improve from here.
6. Lion dance in the cold. This was today. The stick did not slip out of my mittened hand, to Sifu Rybak's great disappointment. But I did learn that mittens are actually kind of heavy when thunder drumming and they got in the way of my clicks at times. And don't ask me why, but drumming causes your touque to slowly slide off your head. Just food for thought to all the drummers. But a fun dance as always!
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