Its been nearly two weeks since my last post and I've found several flaws in my character already. I'm bad with discpline making regular practice a very hard thing to do. That being said I'm trying to find fun ways to train to give me a better insentive to at least point me in the right direction.
I've gone out and bought a reflex bag and have been practicing 'dodging' attacks and learning to keep my eyes on a moving object while builing lower body strength by continual weight shifting. Thankfully I've been pretty succesful at making the bag rotate and change direction fairly often making the dodging a little more intense. Hopefully this will couple with the fact I've started practicing various flexibilty exercises from tai chi and jujutsu.
My fatal flaw is that I've got very little upper body strength. My lungs are weak and my body and arms are in miserable condition. I've been trying situps and pushups to help fix this. I'm trying to think of a good way to train my lungs. I'm not good at running but so far thats all I've come up with. Back to the drawing board on that one.
First two weeks (of serious training): Goals-> Begin to gain discipline (semi-failure) Training menu-> Pushups, Situps, Reflex bag, flexibility excersizes and stamina training. (I need regular practice for improvement.)

oh the irritation

Oh joy the benifits of the allmighty healthcare system comes to play its part in my life once again. I had previously mentioned an injury that had forced me to withdraw from the dojo and it's decided to rear its ugly head once again.

In febuary I had stepped on a piece of glass that went directly into my foot then promptly shattered. I went directly to emergency care as soon as it was clear that I was unable to get it all out. The nice people at the urgent care center gave me some pain killers and had me sitting there for roughly a half hour while they went to town cutting open my foot on a savenger hunt. the funny part is that they LOST a chunk of the glass. The thought it fell on the floor and they THOUGHT they had gotten it all out.

Several months later (as you can tell now) I've been suffering with chronic foot pain that comes after several hours of walking etc etc. It felt something akin to that of a sharp needle being stabbed into my foot. After a visit to my local friendly foot doctor, he told me that I still had glass in my foot! More painkillers and more digging. He doesnt know if there is anymore in there so if in a week or so there is still pain I have to get an X-Ray.... then more digging and more painkillers!

All in all this hurts my ability to train. I've had to cut my form training from my menu and possibly seiza. I'm down to basic body training for the moment. *sighs* Damn you health care!

The First Hurdle

Its been over a week since I've started this blog and my training. I've found the first hurdle of the self training idea. Practice. In our daily lives, we encounter so many different variables its hard to set aside time to do the things we'd like to do almost as much as to do them with any measure of quality. This is what I'm struggling with.

I am trying to get in the habit of doing situps and pushups and stretches and all those other little things. On a positive note, I'm finding odder ways to train when I'm busy doing other things. Such as sitting in Seiza with my butt raised while playing video games. THAT HURTS by the way. So far I've only been able to do it for a minute or so. My research has come to a small halt as I'm trying to get in contact with a friend of mine so I can get a number for his old trainer (who he claims happens to be going pro in MMA when it comes to Seattle) so I can do an interview. A few of the local dojo's happen to do mma training but thats not their main focus. Anyhow things are progressing if slowly.

this is Wu-Jing
Signing off.

What to expect this month

I've picked out my coming article for this coming month. I thought I'd do a piece on mma since its so popular. The origins of the style and sport. I also thought I might refer it back to the older sports of similar settings.

Good news. One of my co-workers at my retail job (I work for a sports store by the way.) has offered to 'test run' for a month or two as a partner in this project. This means for the readers that there will be TWO articles about martial arts a month! At least for the time being. As for his first article I think I'm going to ask him to write an introduction to himself and do a sample piece.

Another friend of mine is starting judo again after about 7 years or so during his next semester. Hopefully he'll be willing to offer a perspective upon someone returning to a martial art rather then a novice's point of view.

Signing off,
Wu-Jing

Huzzah! A growth in interest

After a few mishaps and what not, I've finally found a few people who are interested in participating and at least following the blog! Granted this is just a begining but its worth notice. I've got several contacts and even one ring fighter willing to post a mini article upon his experiances.

Getting a grasp on the situtation

I'm continually researching and trying to establish contacts. I've already gotten interest in the blog from several friends of mine and they are doing their best to help me . I've got a friend who happens to have been a Taekwondo instructor for several years. Though he is sorely out of practice he agreed to help me with some of my starting excersizes such as the Horse stance and a few other strength training ideas. This at the very least shall help me get a foot in the door toward a better understanding of my limitations and strengths.

I'm deciding to set up monthly goals to help form my training scheduals. When it comes down to it, I'm not really as interested as achieving the goals as trying to use them as waypoint and motivational techniques for my progress.

If anyone has ideas to help me I'd appreciate it. Again you can contact me at MartialEssence@live.com

WuJing Signing out.

Constraints and Concepts

Alright I'd like to take the time to talk about my expectations for reader participation. I'm not really picky about anything except for a few very simple rules.

1. I will not by any means post stories with foul language.
2. Do not disrespect any other martial art discpline or another person. Martial arts all deserve equal respect. You may voice your opinions but not in a disrespectful manner.
3. Boasting is not apperciated. Be realistic. This is a blog about actual martial arts, not Kung Fu Movies.
4. I reserve the right to have absolute control over this blog. I do not have to post your comments regardless of how much you beg or plead or try to coerce. Deal with it.

Alright since thats all taken care of. Now for the basic concept for this blog. I know its early and I dont have a 'blog reputation' to uphold. I'm looking for at least 3 other aspiring or established martial artists who are currently in training to help me do research and discuess their training methods.

My goal is to have a rotating article posting. We'll each take turns posting articles involving an research article about a martial art of your choice (serious research is required) and a summary of your training of that month.

Until this is complete I'm going to do smaller posts with minor articles every other week or for each 'event' thats happend.

For all that are interested please send me an email and hopefully a sample of your writing abilities (I really would love to have partners who can write above a middle school level)