Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

 Sihing Bjorkquist brought up an interesting question last night in class: what to do when you mess up a move and it throws off your mojo for the rest of your form?  Sifu Brinker's answer was a good one, improvise if you can, and make it look like it was all part of your plan.  

It made me think of 2 things. First, in teen/adult class a couple of weeks ago, I was working with Todai Vogt on Lao Gar, and Sihing Tymchuk (I'm guessing wildly at the spelling of his name, my apologies) gave me an excellent pointer.  There were a lot of groups practicing all around us and I had to keep scooting away from people to continue my form.  Sihing said, don't scoot, do a move, any move.  Thrust punch and a downblock, or a spinning back kick and an inside hooking block, whatever.  Get clear of the people/things encroaching on your space and then continue with your form, but do it all with style.  Great advice.

And I thought back to high school, I was in the Drama Tech program, which ran all the lights/sound/stage managing/set building/etc for the drama programs, dance shows, school assemblies, sports events, etc.  It was a great gig, and was sometimes very hard work and long hours, but did come with some great experiences.  One of the things we would do for drama shows, close to opening night, was to have a special rehearsal where the Techies would try to mess up the actors during the run.  We would intentionally screw up the lighting or sound, talk loudly in the audience seating, heckle, throw popcorn, misplace props.  Once one of us even popped up through the trap door in the middle of the stage during a scene, threw confetti around, and popped back down.  The idea was that the actors had to stay in character and deal with whatever we threw at them, gracefully.  It was a fantastic learning experience for the actors and a TREMENDOUS amount of fun for the techs.

So, why not apply this to Kung Fu?  I'm sure I could convince my 4 year old to introduce some chaos when I'm practicing forms.  After all, the best way to deal with any possible situation is to practice dealing with the worst scenario.  Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.


Song of the Day: Jammin by Łąki Łan

https://open.spotify.com/track/1KmK9UEMbuuleSFdrNthcO?si=e9f2c78bd4144e83

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