All three brothers started taking classes when they were 3 years old. Now here is Jack breaking his board for the highest belt you can achieve in the Tiger Tot program. On June the 10 he will join his two brothers at the highest level for the age group they are in. Connor is a Camo belt in the 7/8 class, Gavin will reach black belt for the 5/6 group on June 10th, and Jack who has reached his goal. All 3 of these students will be starting their new age group this summer. We are so proud to have them as students here at Balanced Life Skills.
As I start this blog, I want to try to give you a picture of my day to day existence.
Open Class Morning Qigong
A typical day of training looks like this. We get up at 6:00 (this and all times vary by season) and do an hour or so of qigong, taiji, or other internal basics before breakfast. At 8:15 we assemble outside the school, wearing our uniforms and carrying our weapons and other practice gear, and we walk alongside the wall of Yuxugong temple to the front gate, where we enter the temple and start stretching. After 20 minutes we begin warm-ups and basic exercises, which are usually low stances or striking combinations. After about an hour, we rest and then do some conditioning, usually sit-ups. After that, we go through our forms as a group — that is, standing in a grid pattern and practicing matching our speed and position to the students around us while trying to execute the movements clearly. Morning class ends at 11:00. We return to the school, eat lunch, and rest until around 2:45, and then we go back to Yuxugong. Afternoon practice usually includes kicking basics followed by more group form practice. At 5:00 we end class for dinner. At 7:00 we meditate for a little over an hour, and then we prepare for bed. Lots of rest is important for our training, so we go to sleep early and get ready to do it again the next day.
This pattern repeats Friday through Tuesday. On Wednesday we have a school performance where we show our master our forms and demonstrate our progress. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday we rest and clean the school.
Yihui Shixiong in front of Class Four
We students are organized into 5 classes. There is the Open class, for short term students, and there are four Traditional classes. Class One contains the coaches. They are students who have been training with our master for 5 years or more and who teach the Open and Traditional classes while Master rotates between them. Class Two is a group of teenage Chinese students who have been training at the school for roughly 2 or more years. Class Three is the traditional class for non-Chinese; my class. Class Four is the traditional class for newer students who are not yet ready for Class Two. This hierarchy also represents a structure of command to some degree, whereby this large and energetic group of people is coordinated and disciplined.
Though we have fun, I think people who have served and trained in the military or similarly rigorous programs might best understand the discipline and structure of our lives and how that feels. Living this way for a day or a week was challenging to begin with, but it is the unrelenting structure that is the most wearing and ultimately works such amazing changes in the students here. This is the backdrop I hope you will keep in mind as I write posts about the special and unusual things that happen to me.
Clement Stone, one of the greatest business people in the world, once said, “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” I found this quote interesting because when you ask a child, would you take a cookie if you were told not too, they would say NO! When asked why not the answer is almost always, “Because you will get in trouble.”
One of our favorite sayings in our classes that all of our students know is, “Do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do! Not because you will get in trouble” In fact we tell the students – “Do not worry about getting in trouble or not. The most important thing is do the right thing.”
While some will say that children know in their gut what is right and wrong and what are good choices and bad choices, I would disagree. As parents we have the responsibility to teach our children morals, values and ethics. When they see us practice those same things they begin to understand the meaning and importance of integrity. Our display of truth and honesty in our lives as adults, is how our children “learn to feel in their gut”, what it means to do the right thing.
This month we will talk about honesty, promises, being authentic to ourselves, and how integrity influences leadership and stress in our lives. Keep checking back in with us here, or visit our school and let your child take classes with us as we practice the martial arts and build character, confidence and contribution to the community.
Recently I have heard of situations where children who were very young were able to react to an emergency situation and were instrumental in the saving of a life. In a report on CNN they listed 5 actions that every child should know how to perform that may very well save a life. Here is a link to the entire article, and a list of five emergency situations that you can teach your child how to react and possibly save a life:
Choking
Bleeding
Fire
Drowning
Person is not breathing
Of course this is all in addition to every child knowing how and when to dial 911. This is a skill that we can practice with our child and tell them when it is appropriate to do so. During our summer classes we will be teaching as part of our regular classes the skills for the 5 emergencies and hope that all parents can reinforce the skills by practice at home.
