Snow and Kung Fu at The brown playground

Well it is snowing now and it was flurrying when Noah got to school, but Jonah said he wanted to go to the "brown" playground (which is our name for the Kraft Family Athletic center) so we did. I decided I would try to work in a Kung Fu workout, doing stuff at a medium pace but trying to keep it internal. Sort of like what Hsing Yi says it is, except I do moves that I already know of course, plus I'm working out a little system I'm creating out of all the games and stuff I'm teaching kids, and trying to get that to translate right into teaching teens and adults basically with the idea that while I'll teach forms, the focus of the class won't be on forms or Woo Ching White Crane forms per se. That way when people who are part of other systems join the class, they won't really feel like outsiders in terms of system. They might feel like outsiders because of the culture of this class (that is only in my head at the moment and not a reality). The culture will be the games I've been teaching. I might take out the singing if there are no young children present. But I say might because every school, even modern ones, seem to have a testing period. In the traditional way it was having to kneel outside the school for days. Then there was schools that made you do horse stance for a week. We just made everyone do chores. But in a once a week kind of setting what can be the test? I think making adults get over themselves by requiring that they do Kung Fu to wheels on the bus is a good one. It actually serves a teaching purpose and there is nothing difficult about it. But you have to trust the teacher. If you can't trust me to follow along for 5 minutes in exercise that appears to be childish, but in reality is a quick way to learn a ton of deadly moves, How can I trust you?

Anyway, while Jonah frolicked in the snow I did my Kung Fu workout mainly because when I performed at Saint James, a woman who is my "auntie" in a way that there is no actual blood relation (this is common among Chinese) pulled me aside and said she was concerned for my health because of my heaving breathing after my Kung Fu performance. It is true that I could be out of shape, but I did lion dance and then Kung Fu immediately afterward, and I performed Woo Ching's Fu hok song ying kuen, which is a physically taxing form to do. If I were to just walk through it, then I can do it while talking and explaining each move and smiling and not be out of breath. But that's not how you PERFORM a form when the drums are going and your adrenalin is pumping. I have seen other people perform like that. More power to them. They are relaxed and seem to not be out of breath after the form. Good for them. But they didn't just do what I did. Now I do strive to take the good aspects out of a more internal way of doing a form and not being tired out of it. And I wanted to prove that I could still do that sort of workout in the snow today. And I could. It was easy, and my punches and kicks were still validly powerful enough to do damage. But it's hard to do the Fu Hok song Ying Kuen form like that. Now I can do it like that too, when practicing in the park, and run through the form 10 times in a row straight. But when the drums play and you are in front of other people, it's different. You aren't going to mark your form, your going to perform it for real. And that takes a lot out of you. It's like the difference between  jogging a few miles and a sprinting a few feet.

Anyway, it seems I'm in the same shape as always. After a while I stopped and Jonah asked me to chase him around so I did. Then the snow was enough that we could build a little snowman, so we did that. Then his hands got cold so we are home now and have eaten lunch. Soon it will be nap time.