Holiday Schedule & a peek at 2009

Hello Everyone. It's been a while since I've posted here, and I thank you all for your patience & dedication. Luckily, I won't be travelling any more for the rest of 2008 aside from a long overdue drive to San Diego to train with one of my mentors - Prof. Roy Harris. No more LAX until 2009..... YES!!!!!!!!!

Depending on whether or not I can coordinate schedules with Prof. Harris, I may or may not be teaching on 12/20. I WILL, however, be teaching on 12/27/08 at the park.

2008 has seen me travelling more in one year than I have ever before. In my life, I never imagined that I'd see so much of an airport, never mind the rest of the world.

2009 will hopefully bring greater prosperity with less absence from my home... LA. To that end, I'm planning on bringing my Krabi Krabong and Muay Boran master here from Thailand in January. And I've curtailed my travelling somewhat to avoid some of the extended overseas trips that I originally had on the table.

Also, the 6-person instructor corps of the California Martial Arts schools, founded by my friend, Sifu John Cheng of Irvine, CA, will be training more closely with us in both Yang style Tai-Chi and Combat Shuai-Chiao. They've been training with me on Tuesdays for a few months now, but now they're going to be interacting more closely with my West LA/Santa Monica instructors. So far, two of them have earned their RKC certifications, and they are all training in Krabi Krabong, Combat Shuai-Chiao, and Yang style Tai-Chi with me. Please extend your warmest welcomes to them if you see them in class or in workshops.

It's about time that some of you work on finalizing your Tai-Chi instructor credentials. Some of you are not far from Black Sash ranking, making you a fully authorized instructor on your own under my authority. Others of you are very close to higher rankings as well.

Let's try to make 2009 a year for great achievements and great improvements!

Best always,
SIFU

Happy Holidays

Hi everyone,

I will be missing tomorrow's class in my attempt to join the Venice 5K/10K Christmas Run.  I used to participate every year, and I have decided to renew my effort.  However, I think it will be a 5K fast walk instead of the 10K jog.  Oh well....

I wish everyone the most festive of holidays and a happy and healthy new year. I will look forward to seeing you for our Saturday class, January 10th.

Mary

Let's start using this blog again. It is a great tool.

Perhaps we can get together for a 2nd group practice during the week sometime soon. I am still OK with Wednesday at 6PM. Can anyone else make that time?

Also, Sifu, are you in town this Saturday? What is your schedule for the holidays?

Group practice

Last month there was discussion about group practice Wednesday evenings at 6:30. Unfortunately I was never able to make the practice. Has it continued? With it getting dark by 6:30, any type of group practice would need to be in a well-lit area. Has the group practice continued? Any thoughts about continuing, changing, etc.?

Insert & Pull

As reviewed in today's advanced students' class, we spoke about the strengths & weaknesses of different weapons traditions in Asian martial arts. East Asian martial arts (such as those in China, Japan, & Korea) are usually quite strong about logarithmic systems of fighting. Southeast Asian martial arts are less about codifying and concealing and more about drilling the fundamentals of movement in the format of a partnered drill.

The partner drills in Filipino Kali & Thai Krabi-Krabong help the combatant better understand distancing, timing, placement, line-of-sight, mindset, and rhythm within the undeniable framework of efficacy. If it doesn't work when you're drilling with practice swords or dull sticks, it won't work on the battlefield.

This morning, more than once, I had to remind a couple of the students to concentrate.... and what gets my goat is that the ONE person I had to remind the most about concentrating probably won't have it register in that person's head. Violence, while socially anathema, is a great teacher when it comes to showing you when you're not concentrating to your fullest potential.

Today's swordsmanship lesson was very simple, taken from the side-to-side slide & slice. Instructions were simple: attack VERY slowly, and the defender is to insert the sword and slice to the side. Yet it's incredible how readily many of the advanced students reverted back to swinging erratically, looking off into the distance, and doing almost anything other than what I outlined.

In the future, please look for the simplest possible solution to each & every situation. If the framework or the logic for the martial system is solid, look for ways to implement it at every occasion possible. With the slide step & side slice (and with most applications), go back to the way the technique is performed in the set itself and try to understand the where, why, what, when, and how behind it.

We're going back to the point of gratest simplicity until the end of '08, so let's learn to get every cell of your body and every molecule of your blade to work as one fluid, total whole.

Sifu in Irvine - Saturday, October 4th

I'll be with Pavel, helping him teach at an NSCA event all day in Irvine. You guys know what to do.

I have to say... While I'm so slammed with work right now, there's not a whole lot I could do with it aside from just looking them over, part of me is dying to see Big Steve & Ros's notes put up on this blog! :-D

Tai Chi Evening Practice; Confirming Wednesday at 6:30

Confirming for Wednescday (tomorrow): 6:30 at the Palisades Ave. roundabout... I'll be there...

This Saturday's Fut Ga & Tai-Chi classes

While they say it's going to cool down, dress in layers, folks.

We're going to do some serious work, I hope. I have high hopes. Let's turn them into realities.

Thursday practice

After the last class, some of us discussed getting together for group practice Thursday evenings at 7:00, at the small park on Palisades (north of Montana) just west of 7th. I plan to be there this Thursday, and hope some others can be there as well.

Thank You!

Thank you all for making this birthday exactly the kind of birthday weekend I'd always wanted... low-key, productive, enjoyable.

The generosity that each of you displays on my birthday astounds me, and I can't begin to thank you enough. The monies you've given me will go directly toward replacing the dilapidated fence surrounding my patio so that Squealie will have somewhere to actually play.

My Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor, Roy Harris, just bought me TWO huge training mats that I have no place to put, so with a rebuilt patio, I should finally have some space to roll them out. I just need to figure out how to store them. :)

With love and gratitude,
SIFU

Saturday August 16th class questions

In today's class, we reviewed statics and symmetricals of a few more moves that are repeated throughout the form -- namely, the paw down, back fist, poke, grab, twist, pull, punch up, punch down sequence (!) and "Driving Miss Daisy."  We then went over the end of Section 4 in some detail, starting with Spear Hand. There was some discussion about how far the spearing arm moves away from the body as it extends out. Would the "no more than one fist away from the body" rule apply here? Some thought not.

The second question concerns what happens immediately after Spear Hand.  While you shift back, pigeon toe the left foot and then turn and sit back - in preparation for the right heel kick - do the hands that are crossed at the wrists a) actively extend out during the turn before they are pulled in close to the body? -- or b) do they stay fairly close to the body and then rest right on the body in preparation for the kick? These were the main questions. 

We finished by going through the entire form without verbal cues.

For the second hour, we reviewed the 12 Cuts and Defense Moves and, in addition to going through the form, also focused on a few specific areas.

We are looking forward to Sifu's return next Saturday.

Brilliant

This Saturday, although a painful lesson in sleep deprivation for me, was also incredibly inspiring as far as witnessing the progress that my students have been making in my absence.

The recap...

Fut Ga Kuen - Strong... Chris has been making solid strides with the Staff, while Kate & Anton have basically gotten the entire Kwan-Do set down pat.

Tai-Chi - The focus was on fundamentals again, as I had the class focus on statics & symmetricals... mostly on statics. I did, however, rotate the lead from one senior student to another. It turned out to be quite an eye-opening experience for all involved, as even the instructors found out that there were more than a few times when they were giving the correct verbal instructions while their physical demonstrations didn't always match. Anton, as usual, asked several excellent questions regarding application.

Tai-Chi Sword - After watching everyone run through the set once, I paired everyone up such that a junior person was working with someone more skilled in the finer points. This turned out to be the coup of the day! Kate worked with Ellen, Anton with Chris, and Ros with Dave (whom I had to tell to look at his sword something like 8 times). The verbal cues and the physical demonstration of the techniques and the corrections really impressed me on a variety of different levels. I have a feeling that this sort of paired instruction format is going to be the standard for a while to come as regards the Sword portion of class.

This coming weekend is the RKC weekend at UCLA. Both Anton & I will be teaching during the entire weekend, so the Fut Ga is cancelled, but the Tai-Chi will go on as usual. If Kate's available, she's at the helm, as I believe Chris will be out of town. Otherwise, it's Ros's show.

The following weekend, I'll be in St. Paul, and the weekend after that, I'll be in town tied up with an all-day seminar.

My suggestion for the next 3 classes - statics!!! Lately, I allowed the focus to shift towards entire sections, as well as occasionally doing the entirety of the long form. Let's swing the focus back towards the component parts that make each section shine.

Questions? Drop a line. I'll get back to you post-haste.

I'm teaching this Saturday

That should tell you all you need to know.

Since I'm actually here in L.A. this weekend, I didn't want to miss a chance to spend time teaching you all personally again! See you on Saturday!

For 7/12/08

My dear students,

I can't tell you how eager I am to have most of this busy-work off my plate. I will continue to be slammed senseless for July and most of August, but then look forward to being back in full, regular teaching mode in September. I will likely be travelling in October and almost definitely in November, but these will not be the half-month trips that I was taking in the springtime.

That aside, let's get back to what's on tap for this week.

Open Class: Structure, structure, & structure!!!
I'm seeing too many people emulating the form without the most essential points of Tai-Chi. This is why the ancient masters used to make students do stances, statics, and symmetricals for YEARS before they ever got to learn the sequence of the actual form. These days, students are focused on the carrot and can't see that the stick keeping the carrot away from them is actually tied to their own backs.
Spend the ENTIRE time on statics and symmetricals, including the walking drills. Why? Because most of you need more strength in your legs, hips, and spines to be able to do the form properly.
Is it drudgery? Perhaps, but if you see it that way, please find another group. The Chung-Hua group is all about finding the little details in the basics and mastering them to get the most out of the sciences and arts we practice.

Advanced Class: Sensitivity
As I looked through the rankings for the class, I noticed that sensitivity was a major factor missing from many of your understandings. There's too much muscle, too much speed, too much force. We've been through push hands practice enough that you guys should have an idea of how to do it properly. So like the form practice, let's distill it down to fundamentals.
Practice the single hand push VERY slowly, VERY softly, VERY smoothly. Be concerned more with sensing you own tension before dealing with each other's movement. Then respond to the other's movement with posture and softness.
If you're a paragon of perfection with the single hand push, add in a bit of competitiveness and try to uproot each other before you go on to the double hand push.

It's fine if you run through the sword set once before doing the push hands, but I REALLY want you guys to focus in on pushing hands this week. Please make sure to rotate around as much as possible and get some work in with everyone, ESPECIALLY the people you're least comfortable with. If you can relax with them, you can relax!

As usual, leave your questions & comments with this post.

6/28 Tai Chi recap

Applications of Stroke Peacock Tail:
Elbow lock: warning, run them into something, break arm
Block, to:
solar plexus smack
liver smack
underarm push
lip smack
under chin push

notes: melted cheese; 3 sections: base, shaft, tip

Swords:
practice the "12"
mindful of transitions between end points, blade awareness
body moves the sword, not the wrist
stay low & rooted to the ground, no bouncing

Agenda for 6/21/08 & a few insights

Well, the Travelling Sifu is going to be on a plane again this weekend. Luckily, it's just a quick domestic trip.

A vignette for you guys...
When Prof. Daniel Lee was travelling or tied up and I had to teach the Tai-Chi class at Caltech on my own in his absence as a 19 year old, it made me realize a few things: a) I could really demonstrate his technique with precision, b) I could LEAD & ADMINISTER the class properly (calling out the movements and organizing the students into level-based practice groups), and c) how I conducted myself (from word choice, to posture, to tone of voice, to inner confidence) played a crucial role in whether or not the students would follow and respect me.

As I'm travelling and tied up far too much this year and just as much so this Summer, this is your chance to see how much you will shine the light that I've put into you. How will you shine as individuals and how will you shine as an instructional team?

A view into my motivations...
I travel to do all of these things now for one simple reason - They'll make me a better, more complete Sifu, allowing me to bring out the best things in the arts that I've loved for so long. Sometimes, a particular spice or marinade can bring out the best flavors in a food. With the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) technologies, the Russian Kettlebell Certifications (RKC), and the Continuing Education Unit (CEU) courses that I have to take, each of these adds to the kind of strength and medical knowledge that gives my view of martial arts uniqueness and power.

There are tons of instructors out there, but not that many who can tell you how to tear down and build up a body with the kind of knowledge and confidence that I can. And that's what I look forward to imparting to each of you! I'm already on the teaching faculty of the RKC community, and by the end of this year, I'll be joining the teaching & certifying faculty of the FMS team as well. By the end of August, I will have been to 3 different FMS training workshops (Indianapolis in July, St. Paul in early August, and LA in mid August), as well as logging in some serious one-on-two time directly with Gray Cook & Dr. Lee Burton.

How does the FMS fit into Tai-Chi or other martial arts? Easy! It verifies all of the little details about posture and joint alignment that you've been learning all along in everything from the Ba Duan Jin Qigong set to Yang style Tai-Chi to Fut Ga weaponry, but it does it in a highly systematized manner. It gives you a template through which to understand this stuff and makes it easier to teach and to emphasize its importance.

I know you guys aren't so thrilled that I've been away so much this year, and neither am I. But this is your chance to take what fuel I've given you, ignite it inside of yourselves, and shine brightly for the newer students and for each other. When I'm back & settled in, I look forward to sharing with all of you the kind of knowledge and discovery that I've been so blessed to be part of.

NOW... that having been said... for THIS Saturday 6/21:

We went through the 4th Section in rote format for 5 reps last weekend, and although I didn't exactly get a lot of feedback from it, I assume it did help Section 4 gel a bit more in the minds of the newer folks.

This week, it's supposed to be bloody HOT, but Saturday AM's forecast is for clouds. So that means that I'd like you to work on the kicking legwork of Tai-Chi.

There are 5 kicks in the Yang style Tai-Chi Long Form.
1. Instep Kick
2. Heel Kick
3. Low Side Kick
4. Rolling Kick
5. Lotus Kick

Notably absent is the Round Kick, however some argue that the Round Kick is merely a variation on the Instep Kick.

Most of these kicks are obvious in the form, with the exception of the Low Side Kick (at the end of Sections 1, 3, & 4) at the conclusion of Cross Hands, and the Rolling Kick (which is embedded in every Strike, Parry, Punch sequence with the simultaneous right hand backfist & kick).

Now some folks will think, "Big f--kin' deal!" More kicks are just drudgery. Not so.

The kicks are a MAJORLY overlooked part of the Tai-Chi arsenal. Remember that ANY Traditional Chinese Martial Art (TCMA) has 4 requisite skills - kicking (ti), punching (da), throwing (shuai), and locking (na). If you have nice, pretty, flowery hands, but your spine starts looking like Quasimodo and you teeter more than I do after a bottle of Crown Royal every time you lift a foot off the ground to kick, then you've got to fix that weakness. The weakness is coming from a lack of coordination between the muscles of your foot, your leg, your hip, and your spinal core. To put it in more earthy Tai-Chiish speak: Your rooting and your center must be one with the Earth, Grasshopper.

So this coming Saturday is your chance to work ALL 5 of those kicks in 2 main formats: waist down isolations/walking drills, and as symmetrical drills (uniting the top & bottom of your body as you would in the form, but isolating a particular movement).

Here's the goal: Hit 50 QUALITY reps of each kick per leg for a grand total of 500 kicks. I suggest alternating left & right and doing 5 sets of 10 reps.

Here's what you need to really work on: POSTURE, POSTURE, and POSTURE. That's reflected in the 5 judging criteria - hand position (shou), line of sight (yan), spinal position (shen), trajectory/coordination (fa), and stance (bu).

Wow.... this entry's getting to be like me putting a full class into high detail a la Big Steve! OK.... enough! Get to work & keep me posted. I'll be wired, so drop your comments here to let me know how it went.

Also, Chris just left a comment on an earlier post to say that the video of Kate doing the sword form came out beautifully. He's out of town this weekend also following a grueling workweek, but he (and I) will be back the following week.

Single Whip to Jade Lady

Can someone please remind me of the transition?

Actually, I think I need the same reminder for Single Whip to Part Wild Horse's Mane.... hate that I can't remember this....

Thanks guys. :)

This Saturday's Training 6/14/08

On the agenda for this Saturday...

Section 4

Since it seemed that the majority of the questions that came from the group were oriented toward that section, maybe it's best to really dive into it and discover more about that section.

Here are the concepts that are involved that I want you all to concentrate on:
Endurance: Unlike the first 3 sections which are 18 combos each, Section 4 is equal in length to the first 3 combined! In practice, if you were to focus on each section as its own form, Section 4 would clearly be the most demanding athletically. To that end, I'd like you to focus the entire class on Section 4.

That means using the appropriate walking drills & statics: straight, diagonal, lateral, backwards, & kicking (including Lotus Kicks on both sides).

When it comes time for you to practice the sequence, do this...

Section 4 begins & ends with Cross Hands. So go through the entirety of Section 4 all the way through to the final Cross Hands, but instead of separating your hands and standing up as your palms float down, continue straight away into another repetition of Section 4.

Since Chris is the most practiced at calling out this Section and it's going to be a serious endurance exercise, I suggest that he call out the sequence. Someone else, perhaps Ellen, should remember which repetition you are on. At the end of 5 CONSECUTIVE repetitions one of two things will happen...

a) You'll feel like every stabilizing muscle in your body got the workout from Hell and you're looking for a place where you can disrobe and wring out your T-shirt.

and/or

b) You'll have figured out a way to maintain a deep, strong, solid stance with great posture throughout the entirety of each rep. Regardless of the amount of sweat, you'll feel like you're taller, more aligned, and rooted in a way you've never felt before.

You guys should know by now that I'm one for pushing the envelope gently. This highly traditional format of training should DEFINITELY push the envelope while also giving the newcomers a way to practice by rote.

Ah, which reminds me... Rote training is a way for people who are new, especially the control freak types, to be so in-over-their-heads that they have to learn to adapt, relax, drop the facade, and absorb. If they're too focused on performance, they're not focused enough on learning. So just because it's someone's first day, it doesn't mean that they can't take part in training like this. They just have to be told that there are times when the class format gives them a "big picture" view of what they're learning. Going through big chunks of form gives them a chance to introduce their bodies to this stuff without allowing them to fixate on detail. While I'm a great proponent of paying the utmost attention to detail in martial arts, I'm also a firm believer that people have to be able to learn through many different methods.

If you have questions, post comments. I look forward to hearing from you!

Saturday's Questions

There were a few we wanted to check with Sifu about...
One was re: the right hand in snake creeps down... and another was: the left hand during the right heel kick to kick-with-punch.... whether it goes limp....

Oh, the gouge, which I haven't learned... but I know was a point of some questioning.

I believe there were others. Anyone care to address?

Also,

As Anton pointed out, each move or position is either a yin-style or yang-style... so that will be helpful to keep in mind; we are expressing either small & tight or more extended movements.

Handholding

This is the first blogpost where I'll talk about some of the issues that you'll face while teaching. This particular issue is fresh in my mind, so instead of letting my insights on this sit inside, I figured I'll allow myself 15-30 minutes to type as fast as possible and get this on the blog before trying to get more work done.... or maybe rest up some more and try to kick the remainder of this damn cold.

-----

Handholding is one of the most useful and useless parts of the teaching/learning process. For the really self-motivated, it's a very powerful means of walking a student through a process in a very piecemeal, step-by-step fashion with a ton of encouragement along the way. For these self-motivated and strong students, the handholding process is a form of very committed mentoring. It signifies a kind of high-level personal interest, attention, and devotion to the improvement of a particular student or disciple.

But the handholding process should be curtailed as quickly as humanly possible. The sooner a student has the chance to fly on their own (or crash and burn miserably), the faster they will learn the importance of what you've been teaching and how to apply it to their own lives. SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION or PROGRESS is THE deciding factor as to whether or not the student is getting what you're teaching or not. Anything less is fantasy or denial.

For the emotionally stunted, handholding is a crutch that encourages feebleness and dependence. These students will, even after long periods of instruction and detailed coaching, habitually ask you how their performance is. They use words to indicate that your opinion and your feeling about them decides their self-worth, whether they are conscious of it or not. In extreme cases, like one I just had to deal with, you can outline the process for a positive outcome and excellent progress to the nth degree, but they will ALWAYS leave themselves some sort of an "out", a backdoor, or some other means of denying total commitment.

The student I'm talking about had the audacity to tell me that "success is a decision", and angrily defended her inability to commit to doing what I'd laid out in high detail for her. Stifling my knee-jerk reaction to tell her to "Go and F--K right off, then!", I simply said "Enough" and ended the conversation.

The student I'm talking about has made considerable progress during the time I've been working with her, but the energy I have to put out to move her an inch out of her reflexive and defensive inertia is monumental. And for someone like me who absolutely disdains the "kiss my arse & coddle me indefinitely" method of pedagogy, having come from a traditional East Asian and military background, this is irritating beyond measure.

It'd be like having Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora spending months teaching me how to play their hit single "Dead or Alive" from scratch, but I spend a lot of time practicing without a strong intent, without a strong mind, without a strong and focused spirit. Instead of following his instructions and doing exactly what we practice doing together, I decide to waste time looking on Youtube or Wikipedia or somewhere else for shortcuts or tips or some "other" way of doing exactly what he taught me to do. Instead of practicing the way he laid out for me and trusting his experience and deepening my skill, I flounder about like a fish on dry land; flopping from one thing to another and making no real progress. I gain no real familiarity with what I need to, and I grow more anxious because I'm not confident in my ability to perform.

Whenever I try to play the song or a few bars in front of him or his other students, I always do so in an apologetic manner, doubtful of myself or what will come out from my guitar. This is a phenomenal waste of time for both myself as an aspiring guitarist and for my esteemed mentor. Skills practiced in a way that can only be duplicated in total privacy are like babies born into and raised in a sealed Ziploc bag; they die quickly due to the lack of energy put into them.

What you as instructors and instructor candidates have to decide is who is worth handholding, who is worth letting go of, and how much YOU are over-dependent on someone else. When I tell you to do something that's outside of your comfort zone, you have two real choices - DO IT with real commitment, long-term dedication, and enthusiasm, and grow stronger from the experience, or don't do it and tread water for the rest of your life.

Google Calendar & Blog Permissions

Folks, there are a couple of things...all of which are slightly e-mail based for the time being, so please forgive the barrage of messages that are coming in to your mailboxes for the short run.

I sent out 2 sets of permission e-mails for THIS blog (reader & author). Please accept both. It's important to me that all of you whom I've invited have the ability to POST to the blog instead of merely commenting.

Why?

Because for those days that you are teaching, it's YOUR summary of the class that I'm most interested in. We all need to hear about the instructor's goals - what you were trying to accomplish, what you had difficulty with, what you were really excited or happy about in each class. Those thoughts and insights allow us to work better together in synergy; whether to adjust our behaviors so that the instructor in charge for the day encounters less unconscious (or subconscious) resistance from us, or to make suggestions to help with teaching a difficult section.

That said, perhaps I should post a bit on blog etiquette:
- Each blog post should cover its own topic. So if I'm replying to a particular post, I don't need to start my own post, but rather merely just comment on an existing post.
- We're all here to encourage each other in the best way possible, but that doesn't mean we're going to lie either if something is less than ideal.
- Please express yourself here. I know that some of you are relatively private folks, but the more we all practice expressing our feelings in an accurate, polite, and constructive manner, the better we'll all be as human beings, let alone as martial art students & instructors. You'll notice that I make prolific use of the word "please" throughout the blog, since it's those little niceties that make a huge difference in tone.


The Calendar
I'm trying something a little different with the Google calendar embedding so that you can see the details of appointments. Annnnnnnnd, it WORKED! Excellent!

Now, this calendar is a little incomplete in the sense that it doesn't have my training appointments, my teaching appointments, or my clinical appointments on there for the sake of client and patient privacy. I am still in the process of learning what to post and what not to, so if you have questions about the schedule you see up there, please ask.

Also, I'm going to keep entering group classes in the calendar even when I'm not there b/c I'd like those dates to still be in your awareness. I'm thinking of having it such that if you are willing to lead a particular class, you can tell me ahead of time, and I will indicate that you'll be teaching on the calendar.

Again, please let me know your thoughts, Folks.

WELCOME!

For those few of you whom I've invited to join this blog, it's the brainchild of TC Advanced student & RKC candidate Nikki Shlosser.

The blog will be a means where you can all see my Google Calendar, which I'm slowly transitioning to from Yahoo Calendar. As soon as I figure out how to make it such that the details of the appointments are visible only to you guys, you'll be able to see what's up with my time more easily.

The impetus for this latest web-interface comes from my realization of two facts:
1. I have too little time to accomplish all the things I need to accomplish, and therefore must delegate out more of my responsibilities... AND
2. For all of you included on this group, you need to teach to be able to grow. As I was telling Nikki this morning, for me to have achieved what I've achieved so far in martial arts, TCM, kettlebells, whatever.. a great deal of it's from me being forced to teach on my own. Instead of having you guys in my shade all the time, the opportunity to stand on your own as instructors will not only force you to grow, but allow you to develop your own teaching styles and followings.

This blog will serve as a place where each and every one of you who are invited to it can post. So for people like Big Steve who take copious notes, it's a place to put those down for everyone to benefit from, ask questions about, and reflect on. We can all put down what our insights were that day, and raise what we feel are the important points or relevant questions about technique, teaching, etc.

As Nik pointed out, even if I'm travelling, I can be part of the class, and vice versa. Video, stills, and lots of text can make this a tremendous teaching/reference tool for all of us. And I'd like nothing more than to see you all take a bigger share of the sunlight!

What does that mean for you & me?

Simple... I'm going to spend less time teaching the general public. Why? I just don't have the time. I've already gotten squeezed out of teaching the Saturday class for the most part, as many of you have noticed.

So that means that for the select few of you, you'll have access to me before anyone else does. For Saturdays, that'll mean that in a couple of weeks, I'll only be teaching the Advanced class on a regular basis. I'll be checking the "Open" level classes on a more sporadic basis, just to see how you are teaching and what the general level of the students is. But we're at a point now where I trust the people who are in teaching positions to pass on the knowledge I've given them in an accurate manner.

I'll be doing the same thing with KBLA's Sunday workouts in the near future, too. I plan to have a KBLA instructors' blog with the same limited access I have here. Each instructor will have a day on the calendar where they are the "chief instructor" of the group, and will handle the flow of the class, the delegation of teaching duties, and collect the pot. That will rotate among all of the instructors and be posted on a public calendar which will be linked to the KBLA website.

Why am I pulling back from teaching so much? Because I realize that trying to do everything myself is injurious to everyone. It's taking away too much of my energy so that I have less energy to focus on YOU, my advanced students. It's keeping me away from handling more pressing matters of business and family. And perhaps worst of all, it's keeping you from growing as experts in your own rights. The time to change this all is now, and I want to do whatever I can to help you all grow!

Let me know your thoughts!