Notes

Today I worked on Sil Lum Dao in my dreams. I often dream about practicing. It really would be interesting to run some kind of scientific test and see if this type of practice actually has any measurable performance effect. I figure that at the very least, it's got to be helping my "what comes next" issues, since I know that thinking through forms- even when I'm not physically DOING them- helps me memorize.

During the slow period at work last night, I sifted my ravaged files- the "technique list" which contains only things that I feel confident enough about that if I were asked to test on them right this minute, I would have no problem. I noticed that with the addition of Kiu Two, I now have TWENTY complete Shaolin forms on my list (and that's not counting Tai Chi forms, either). Zow- that's a lot of forms! I have two or three more forms in progress, and know bits and pieces of several others.

The other file is my "logbook" which contains more fleshed-out descriptions, miscellaneous notes, things in progress, and a lot of items that I have worked on but don't feel that I KNOW well enough to put on my technique list. Gawds, what a mess. Even if my computer hadn't eaten part of it and apparently put the remainder in a blender and given it a good whirl, it would have been a mess. I know that these notes were helpful to me while I was keeping up on them, and I'd like to get back to keeping up on them. I'm writing all the relevant info out on my training blog anyway, so all I really need to do as far as new material is copy/paste from my blog into the proper sections of the files. It would be great to work my way back through the old material and sketch out all of the forms, drills, etc.

The last time I took a stripe test in my kung fu group (wow, that test actually predates the earliest version of my training blog...) I had to produce a list of "everything I know"... Thus the "technique list". Although I did have halfway decent ongoing notes at the time (in a paper notebook), that took a LOT of work. I resolved that I didn't want to go through that again when the next test came around, so I was going to keep up on my typed notes and have a clean copy perpetually ready to go. After I decided that I didn't want to test any further, I sorta just blew the typed notes off.

Even if I'm not testing, keeping better notes is going to help me. Once again, when I went through the technique list, I had to remove some items that I've let languish long enough that I no longer feel confident about them. I hate that- it makes me feel like I'm working backwards. If I'm keeping the technique list current, and looking it over regularly, I can ask SK to go over anything that's getting rusty before I lose it. This list is also helpful for pinpointing deficiencies- things such as, "Wow, I only have two throws that I feel confident with right now... maybe I should ask to work on some throws" or "Gee, I have seven Tiger forms and only one Crane form, I wonder if I can get anyone to work on a new Crane form with me".