Countdown

This long weekend has been flying by, and the tiger challenge is big on my mind. I have been practicing a lot, but because I'm signed up for more categories this Year than ever before, it doesn't feel like enough. 

I really like my weapon form and enjoy working with my bokken but there are so many sections that need polishing yet. Same for our fight coreography, it's fun but oh so many things I can see in the video that need to be worked on but I just have to be ok with the fact that these things just won't be at the same quality level this week as at the banquet at the end of the year.

In my handform, I have identified a few techniques that didn't feel right, and I'm playing around with them, which I'm actually quite excited about. That too has been fun, and it helped me a lot to be more motivated to do my repetitions of DMH5, but at the same time, I hope these recent changes won't throw me off on Saturday when my nervous system wants to just revert to autopilot. 

New for me this year are the board breaks, point sparring, team form, and fight choreography. These four take up a lot of my attention now, and it truly feels like all my efforts are spread very thin. Maybe too thin.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it seems ironic that I have never put the same time and energy into my preparation for the tiger challenge before, and yet when I look at each category, I still can't shake off the feeling of panic. 

It's time to adjust how I'm thinking about this now. 

I have worked hard and thought of all my categories. I have tried to improve my techniques, my flow, and my finishing techniques, and I will continue to invest every free minute this week, and that's all I can expect of myself. I can go into this tournament with contentment and confidence, not because I'm certain I'll nail it all, but because whatever happens on Saturday, I'll be fine!


Although I'm worried about the obstacle course or pool noodle fight doing me in!😆

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Confidence vs. Ego

Yesterday’s breakathon felt like a milestone for me. For the first time, I broke ten wooden boards. I was definitely worried, as I knew this meant no wiggle room in terms of difficulty level.  But I did it and it showed me in the most tangible way how much I have grown. Compared to previous years, the difference was significant, and it felt really good to finally see progress that sometimes seems invisible to me.  Before heading to class last night, I wanted to feel a bit more prepared. I decided to test one break at home even though we are usually told not to practice on wooden boards. I had been working on a four-technique combination, which I knew was way over my head but I was curious. Out of those four moves, the knife hand worried me the most and I wanted to see if I could break the board without the pressure of an audience. So I set it up with Leon, took one clean shot with my weaker left hand, and to my surprise, the board just broke. That moment had an enormous effect...
Read more

Processing…….!

Last night’s I Ho Chuan meeting was a bit of a shocker. We have have had several changes and adjustments announced in the past, but this one felt very different and even though „nothing“ changes , it genuinely surprised me. I’m using this blog to figure out how it actually affects me and how I feel about it. So please take it with a grain of salt, it’s still fresh and a little raw. I understand where our master instructors are coming from. I don’t know all the background details, but even in my few years on the team I’ve seen what they’re talking about. The levels of engagement vary a lot, and I can’t pretend I’m above that. When I first joined three years ago, it felt like a mountain to climb. The requirements terrified me, and I’ve never met them all, not even close. But every year has been a little better than the one before. It’s been uphill battle the whole way, but it is progress and for me the direction matters more than the numbers. I’ve only ever known this team as...
Read more

2 minutes I got!

Image
 A 2 minute rundown.  Life is super busy right now and this is really not by surprise. I knew from my previous two years that summer is when things are seemingly completely falling apart. I'm doing better this year over all though.  My blogs of course have not been timely or consistent anymore but again compared to my prior self it's still been going way better as long as I don't get to hung up on my content, I guess. For the next while I will be In and Out of classes more, due to my festival season starting and eventually welcoming my Dad after 11 years back to Canada for an extended visit. Balancing it all is going to be my motto for the next few month but who am I kidding more likely all the way to the end of the year. And as much as I love summer just writing this out, I realize how important the seasons are for me, because the first three month of every calendar year are apparently the only time life slows down a bit and I'm somewhat on top of things.  In any ca...
Read more