Bootcamp 2011

Yesterday was the highlight of my year so far. Despite the colossal amount of time and effort it takes to organize our annual bootcamp, the inspiring efforts of the participants make every hour I spend on this project more than worth it.

I am reminded of the importance of heart in making a black belt. While sweat does not always generate the results one is hoping for, effort is never, ever wasted. If discipline of effort is consistent, improvement of skill is inevitable.

Those students who maximized the opportunity yesterday put before them, have my total respect. You guys are definitely different people today than you were yesterday. Pursuit of mastery does that for you.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” - Michelangelo (1475 - 1564)

Happy Father's Day

My dad has always been a big influence on my life. He has never been a man of many words but his advice has always guided me wisely. My dad has taught me a lot including everything I know about hockey. Many of those lessons have translated very well into my life and how I live it.

I have come to realize that many of the ideals on which I base my life have come from my dad. I’ve always appreciated how simply my dad lives his life and how he always has time and sweat to give to anyone, whether he knows them or not. My dad is not a big man but he has the heart of a giant.

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” - English Proverb

Art vs. Science

I have made a number of observations over the past couple of decades on how students of the martial arts approach their craft. I tend to categorize them into two groups - the artists and the scientists. Obviously there is a little of both in every martial artist but after about three years of training, students tend to gravitate to a dominant approach.

The scientist approach values function over form. This approach comes with a thirst for more knowledge and with an eye always firmly planted on the next step or technique. While every student, artist or scientist, wants more knowledge, the scientist tends to focus on the knowledge but not necessarily the skill required to apply the knowledge. It’s not unlike my approach to magic. I have an intense curiosity that drives me to understand how a magic trick is pulled off but I have little interest in spending the time required to master the trick so I can perform it myself. Applied to the martial arts, the scientist tends to value realism over form and relies upon speed and strength as opposed to technique and timing.

The artist approach values form over function. This approach focuses more on the journey than the destination. To an artist, it isn’t just where your hand ultimately ends up, it is how the hand travelled to where it is. The artist will pay attention to how the body feels during motion and unlike the scientist who performs motion, the artist experiences it.

I often talk to my students about the value of a pure moment in kung fu. It is in those moments where our technique is perfect and all our effort becomes effortless. I have experienced a pure moment less than a half dozen times in my life but with everything I have accomplished and experienced in the martial arts, it is those rare pure moments that I value the most. Only an artist can understand.

“Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where's your river going? Are you riding with it? Or are you rowing against it? Don't you see that there is no effort if you're riding with your river?” - Frederick Friesekes (1874-1939)

Bat Dung + Anything is Still Bat Dung

Dietary supplementation is pretty much a necessity in North America. The food we are consuming is so over processed, over vaccinated, over pesticide treated, over fertilized, and over preserved, that much of the nutritional value has been bleached out. It is no wonder that incidents of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes are reaching epidemic levels.

As difficult as it is to find sound nutrition in our everyday food choices, it can be even more difficult and confusing to find quality supplements. Since supplements are regulated as food, they are ironically subject to the same loose quality standards as the nutritionally poor food they are supposed to be supporting.

There are three things I look for in a quality supplement:

1. The supplement must be manufactured to pharmaceutical grade. Quality supplement manufacturers produce their supplements to the same standards required of pharmaceutical drugs. This ensures that the nutritional information label accurately represents the contents. A supplement produced to this quality will also be guaranteed to have active ingredients that still retain their potency. 
2. The supplement must have an aqueous coating that dissolves easily. Some manufacturers use shellac to coat their supplements so that they can be swallowed easily. Unfortunately, shellac is not so easily broken down in our digestive tract and can result in the entire supplement passing right through our digestive system totally intact without delivering its payload of vitamins and minerals.
3. A supplement produced by a company whose main focus is producing a quality supplement, not a pyramid based marketing empire that sells everything from household cleaning products to cosmetics. While this does not ensure the quality of the supplements one way or another, it does help me feel secure that the premium price I am paying (these things are expensive) is going towards improving the supplement products.

Dietary supplementation may be necessary but it does not replace the need to eat wisely. If you are eating bat dung for food and complementing it with quality nutritional supplements, you are still eating bat dung and that will have negative consequences.

“When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need.” - Ayurvedic Proverb