Moving forward

We had a good meeting with Laura, the lead lady at WREN. We're all agreed on the times and running of the program. John and I get keys this week. Laura even gave us some good advice on branding the program. We've shared some ideas on the new school logo, and we're going to simplify it, kind of cleaning it up and making it instantly recognizable, while conveying the tone of the program.

The practice sessions have been going well. That box of puzzle pieces is slowly but surely coming together. We've been going over old material, and then I'll be treated with "brain candy" as John puts it; some practical use and extensive training on various techniques.

One mildly discouraging thing: no students lined up! We're hoping to promote as much as possible. I'm hoping for 6  regular students to start, but we'll see. On our facebook page, the only real interest I've gotten is from parents wanting to enroll their kids. I feel bad telling them the age limit, but for now an adults only class (14+)  is the best way for us to go. We'll visit the kids class option if all goes well over the next year.

Hopefully next month while we start up the program I'll also get back to doing Aikido, although just one day a week.

I wanna ride!

Took my bicycle out this past Sunday for the first time this year. My Jamis Explorer1 that I bought last year needed just a minor tweek on the seat and some air in the tires. My friend Lincoln and his wife own a small bicycle shop in the next town over, so I brought my wheels down to get set.

Once Lincoln was done and closed up shop, we took to a light easy walking/cycling trail down the road, he on his brand new Jamis mountain bike. His last mountain bike is still in good order, but has been passed down to his pre-teen daughter. Some hand-me-downs are pretty good!

It was good to enjoy the spring ride. Now my other set of wheels, the motorcycle, will have to wait a few weeks. Some people are already out on theirs, but I find the roads still a bit too sandy for my comfort, after all that was used when the roads were icy. I figure a couple more weeks and a few good rainstorms and I'll get the motor running again....

could go either way...

Practice with my Ninpo Chuan Fa  teacher has been going well. Sluggish with my kicks, particularly with my high side kicks, but they're getting up there. It's been like looking in a puzzle box trying to piece together the old forms and combinations. I remember steps in various forms and combinations here and there, but it's still a jumble. However, over the past ten years John wasn't available to help me piece  it all together. John's getting me up to speed starting from the bottom, so as we teach new student's I'll have the foundations secured again to teach.

The self defense stuff we go over is the easiest to remember. It's familiar, flowing and practical. John also has an appreciation for the Aikido I've been taking, and in a sense it helped get me back in a martial arts rhythm.

We had a chance last week to practice in the space at WREN where we'll be holding our classes. We'll be sitting down with Laura, the lady in charge of the Berlin WREN building this Thursday to go over paperwork stuff and get keys. That day John's wife is also supposed to have the new draft for the revamp of the logo ready.

Things are looking like we have a chance to make this work. I'm cautiously positive however. This is a space we're sharing with other groups, with limited space to store equipment. Also, 40% of what we make goes to WREN, which is a double edged sword. When we found out the 40% aspect, i was kinda taken back by it. Thought it'd be around 20-30% at most. It also doesn't help my mindset that a friend of mine that has been teaching a yoga class there over the past six weeks doesn't plan to return to WREN due to that percentage takeaway.

We'll see how it all goes. As is, I'm mentally giving this a six month trial basis to see what interest we can foster, and if successful, search for a space that's possibly better. However, a lot of this is dependant on John and I being able to hold our classes consistently.

In the meantime, I'm going to attempt to go to Aikido once a week, which my instructor Jack was very happy to hear about. I have missed those classes too. So in the meantime, with all the uncertainty on whether the revival of Ninpo Chuan Fa gets off the ground, I can still keep up with what I put into Aikido over the past year.

Hello world!

Every once in a while I'll check the viewer stats to see who might be reading my blog. It doesn't tell me who, but it does tell from which country they are. That's kinda neat. Who would have thought something I'd be typing as kind of an online journal could be read by people from the UK, France, Germany, South Korea, to name a few.

Most of my friends don't know I have this blog, but it's not like I tell everyone about it. Not looking to become any famous type of blogger. Just thought this would be fun. Something that would be really fun would be to get some comments about my blog, especially from anyone outside the US.

With that said, I hope everyone out there is enjoying this Easter holiday, whether Christian, Pagan, or any other religion with a holiday right around this time of year!

Kick it!

I'm not nearly as flexible as I used to be! In the past year while studying Aikido, I've let my kicking skills diminish, along with my leg flexibility. Years ago I could do a split, and do decent side kicks to my height (5'10). Now I can barely kick chest high on my sidekicks. My body opponent bag is a good measure for the height stuff. At least I can still kick head high with my roundhouse and front kicks. I can blame Aikido all I want, but it's really on me to keep up with the kicking skills.

In Aikido, there's no kicking. None, zero, nada. Aikido's focus of being in control of your center focuses on keeping your feet in proper alignment for your center. Kicking can take you off your center, or so Aikido's philosophy goes. In Ninpo Chuan Fa, kicking is a decent part of the self defense stuff. Not necessarily kicking high, but kicking consistantly with effect. The high kicking aspect of martial arts like Ninpo are mainly for exercise and flexibility, not so much as to be effective in defense.

So here I am, doing rounds of hundreds of various kicks after lots o' stretching, and I am tired! Doesn't help that I'm a pretty heavy guy these days. Not the heaviest I've been, but definitely not slim. Working on slimming down. Still continuing with the weights, and now yoga and my exercise bike have become steady fixtures in my workout routine. Right now the only movie martial artists I can be compared to are Sammo Hung and Kevin James (see "Here Comes the Boom"). If I'm going to be teaching this stuff soon, I've gotta get comfortable again with all aspects of the art. Maybe then I can look more like Bolo Yeung as far as physique goes

Gonna keep on kickin', kinda like a Rockette  :)

-Peace and Balance

Progress, and a tough conversation...

John and I have met a few times, and with his wife Mona we've had some good discussions on how the revival of Ninpo Chuan Fa will go. We settled on two evenings a week 6-730ish depending on the schedule at the WREN building we'll be using, with a "free practice" class that I'll run every other sat morning.

I've created a Facebook page for the program(gotta love free advertising) and have gotten some good feedback from old students and potentially new ones. Mona is using her artistic talents to update the former symbol of the school. We'll be discussing the schedule aspect soon with Laura, who's in charge of the WREN building. She's excited for our program to be a part of WREN.

With all this planning, I had to make a decision on whether to continue with my Aikido training. Ninpo will take the bulk of my time for enjoying the martial arts, and with the drive to Aikido being an hour away, it is more out of my way with the time I'll be commiting to the new program.

I sent an email to Jack, my Aikido instructor, explaining the situation. We talked on the phone not long after. He was pretty bummed out that I was leaving his Aikido program. He had been hoping that I would test for Shodan someday, which might have been within a couple years. It's a small program too, with only a few of us. I'm also the one running the facebook page for Mt Washington Aikido. We'll find a way so that Jack can take over the page. I'd been taking Aikido for a year now, and have enjoyed becoming friends with Jack and the others in the program.

While I've enjoyed it, I'm more excited about training in Ninpo again.

Silent Warrior Martial Arts

John, his wife Mona and I checked out the space at WREN we'll use to teach the program. The space will suit us well, with space for a class up to about 12 people. The ceiling is also high enough that we can do work with long weapons like the bo staff or three section staff. John commented that he thinks the space is actually bigger than the old school's.

We've settled on a few things. First, age range is fourteen and up. Starting off with this, we should hold back on a kids program until things are well established.

Also, an update to the old logo would be nice. The old logo consisted of a monk, sitting within a dream catcher, surrounded by the seven animals of Ninpo Chuan Fa: Dragon, Tiger, Snake, Monkey, Crane, Leopard and Praying Mantis. Mona's a good artist, so she'll show John and I some of her ideas. I'm hoping the theme will stay similar to the former symbol. I always liked the dream catcher as an ode to John's Lakota heritage.

We're slightly changing the name, calling the program "Silent Warrior Martial Arts", to acknowlegde the new chapter from the days of "School of the Silent Warrior", which was an established school and business. Our program is part time, after all, since John and I are both too busy with full time jobs to fully open up a new school.

Last thing, we take the next month and a half to train together before we start teaching. This will give us time get up to speed and time for me catch up again so I know all my forms, combinations and techniques. It'll also give us plenty of time to decide on other aspects: uniforms, our schedules, time and days of class, promoting the program. I'm sharing all my ideas, but ultimately it's John's art, and his decision on the direction it goes.

Once we start training this week, I'll have to let my Aikido instructor know that I won't be attending classes anymore. I've been training in Aikido for almost a year now, and it's an excellent martial art, with a unique philosophy that I still find fascinating. And while I've enjoyed my training in Aikido, I'm really looking forward to training again in Ninpo Chuan Fa.