All Out Wing Chun Training
In the run up to the instructor’s course that I’ve been invited to attend, I thought I would go all out in my training, just for the hell of it. Motivated by my hours to mastery estimation (just for fun), I worked out that training twice a day I can accumulate many more training hours in a year than I have in the last three years of training. I didn’t realise how half hearted my training was until I detailed it on paper. I recommend you doing the same.
So what I propose to do is spend an hour in the gym before work and then half an hour in the gym at lunch, working on various aspects of Wing Chun. If you add to that three hours worth of lessons (there are three lessons I can attend a week), then that makes a total of 10.5 hours a week I can train. I’ll give myself half an hour off a week and round it down to 10 hours, for the sake of my maths.
A Monk’s Life
If I hope to achieve this goal, one of the things I’m going to have to do is give up booze. I just don’t feel like training the day after a night drinking, so boozing is a real impediment. With Friday night being a popular time for a booze fest, my Saturday class is in a precarious position. Must be strong!
Santa – Motivation Guru
As far as motivation goes, look what Santa brought me! That erudite man brought me three different books on Bruce Lee:
They all look good, but the one I’ve started reading is The Art of Expressing the Human Body. I found even the first few pages very motivating. I think the book is going to turn into some kind of training journal for Bruce Lee, which may or may not be useful to me in my Wing Chun training. I never really knew much about Bruce Lee, but the thing that strikes me so far is his dedication and commitment to his art. He was a real perfectionist. This is just the kind of role model I need so I’ll be reading this book every night.
Vanity
In stepping up my Wing Chun training, something else has to give and that’s my weight training. I’m sacrificing my lunch time weight training session for Wing Chun. Whilst this will accelerate my skill development, I’m concerned about how my body will change.
At the moment, I like the way that my regular weight training makes my muscles look toned, and bigger than they ordinarily would be. This is pure vanity, of course, and I realise it. All the same, I’m going to miss that muscle size and definition. Going back to Bruce Lee for a moment, he strove for functionality in all things. He did weight training himself, but for the purpose of developing speed, power and endurance. Not solely for enhancing aesthetics (though by all accounts he did enjoy the side benefit of looking good). In contrast, my weight training is in no way geared to making my Wing Chun better; it’s just for looks. So what I think I will do is focus on developing my Wing Chun skill and revisit the idea of developing speed, power and endurance through weight training at a later date.
I’m excited, because I’ve not made such a big positive decision regarding my Wing Chun training before. I’ve been weight training consistently now for eight years, so giving that up is a big change too!
I can report that this morning’s session was a doddle. I got up at 6:30 and was in the gym by 7:15. After a 15 minute warm up I did an hour of Wing Chun practice and then went to work. I’m now going to set off for my lunch time practice (yeah, I know I should be working….).
