I wrote in some other posts how I feel JKD changed my life in many ways, but not only, Thanks to JKD  a lot of things happenned  and it is going on !

I always dreamed of being able to go to the United States, that´s  a fact but participating in an event celebrating Bruce is something I thought I would never be able to do.

Now I read on the foundation site that there will be a 70th birthday celebration in San Francisco on Nov 27th.

I can tell you I ´ll do everything I can  to be there.

This as a  chance to meet some great people from the JKD family and from anywhere else. A great opportunity that I don´t want to miss.

Micke went to Los Angeles in 1998 and even trained at Ted´s place , talking about a dream ..

After my footwork and shadowboxing session yesterday, I went on the net and read some articles from Bruce, Ted and Teri. Bruce said in one of them, it is better to throw 5 good punches than 20 LOUSY ones. 

To Focus on the technique but not think too much is no easy task, at least not for me, even if after 6 years I found it easier not to think too much and practise until I feel it right. Practise is the key there is no other way , it does not come naturally !

The good thing is that I know where my problems are , and  the flow must be the biggest. Everything is related to footwork that is why I am working on it more .

I feel, like Micke says  that  I  reached another level but still, there is something holding me back , I feel I lack something really important which is the key to all my problems.

I already know what it is but I even got a better light on it reading Ted´s article on footwork. And I can tell now that even if I have trained seriously during 5 years, this is far from being enough. More time on footwork is what I am doing now.

Because there is nothing more important to me than being good at JKD.

I just HATE mosquitos , in Sweden in the summer there is a ” Mosquito invasion ” . You can´t ride your bike or run or even go nearby the lakes without crossing mosquito clouds, most of the swedish don´t mind and aren´t bothered but my french blood must be more tasty or warmer I don´t know,  but I am in hell. 

if you run in the streets it is Ok but if like me,  you like to run in the forest or tracks nearby the lakes , well you have to be prepared to get started with a real fight , this is a new way to practise the shadow boxing , trying to kill as many  flying blood suckers as possible while running, it is very challenging, believe me !

When I started training JKD 6 years ago, I must say I was pretty ignorant. Having no training background at all, I was basically starting from nothing.

A lot of things happenned to me during those five years. I have evolved to be a better person, at least this is the feeling I have today. I got rid of a great deal of negativity, I have learned to like myself, I found some of my problems and learned to deal with them and use them to get stronger. This is both physically and mentally that I now am almost in peace with everything. I have learned to feel, to put aside the dark side and to try to go on from there.

A lot of times I tried to blame the failures of my life on other people but really, the decisions that we make, the way that we feel about ourselves is not to blame on others. Don´t you like the way you feel, do something about it, no one can help you but yourself. It takes a great deal of courage to take some decisions but at the end really, you should be happy, not for other people but for yourself.

This is all about personal development, personal experience and how the training has changed my life. It made me stonger and more intelligent. I have learned how to fight, how not to be afraid, how to control my emotions, how to defend myself. Having goals and doing what it takes to meet them, seing and feeling the difference and getting some confidence.  I have also met such amazing people, everyone of them have had some impact on me on different levels and they all made me learn something , about training, about life, about myself.

Because of the story behind it, I strongly believe that I would not have achieved this if I had not started with JKD. My journey has been rich in events and either than being something that I do, it is a life style. I call myself a fighter, no matter how many obstacles, I fight until there is nothing left to fight for. But if you believe in what you are fighting for, you will also know when it is time to stop and winning or losing at that stage won´t matter. I may have given up on other things because I realised the choice was not mine anyway,  those are the most painful but I am learning how to let go of things I don´t have any control upon and someday, I am sure I will find my path.

I have had some troubles with my health lately,  I had to leave the training aside for a while.

I have had  a headache for 8 days in a row ,  both the regular and the eye doctor  say they don´t find any reason why, a bit frustrating but I hope it will get better soon so I can return to my usual  training life.

I have been sick for a week now, all I can think about is training and how many days I am losing…

Anyway , While I do my thinking, I remembered I have a dream and I thought I would write it down tonight.

I am hoping that one day I will be the first woman certified in Sweden and run  my own school. I sit here and smile, I am thinking, My God,  I will be an old woman when / if this happens because this is no little thing. Either than a tremendous amount of work I have ahead of myself to be certified, running a school is no easy task either.

This is big, but dreams are meant to be big.

If I don´t get there I would at least have the satisfaction to have tried and I will get to a  good level after all the work done.  This will be good enough because my personal achievement is number one.

I am always concerned about not being able to train, I have the flu right now and yesterday I was thinking I would get better , and good enough  to train today .. but no. This is not a big catastrophy but I think about it all the time,  I feel restless , unfocused  and guilty.

But the key is not to overdo it, train everyday can be too much. It is not the first time I get sick and extremely tired after I have had such intense workouts on a regular basis.

I am not a weight focused woman, the point for me is absolutely not to loose weight, if any I have to get some. I eat 6 to 7 times a day, I add supplements such as vitamins omega 3 and CLA, and always recovery drinks after the training…. I am very aware of what is a good nutrition and what is needed to be able to train like I do,  so I don´t think the problem comes from there.

I train because I want to be a better JKD fighter. My problem as always,  is when I get this kind of rush in my motivation,  I burn it quickly because I do too much and my body is always reacting the same way: I get sick and I am almost never sick,  it is only a pattern that I have to take seriously now, this is always and only happening after an intense period of daily training.

But this is very easy to cross the line,  so what is enough and what is too much ?

After today´s pain I feel I have to get some serious information about that. Here is what I found: 

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) describes a phenomenon of muscle pain, muscle soreness or muscle stiffness that is felt 12 to 48 hours after exercise, particularly at the beginning of a new an exercise program, after a change in sports activities, or after a dramatic increase in the duration or intensity of exercise.

This muscle pain is a normal response to unusual exercising and is part of an adaptation process that leads to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and build hypertrophy.

There is no proven effective method to reduce or avoid the pain, but gentle stretching or even anti -inflamatory medication such as aspirin, can be helpfull for me together with  a warm bath , but it helps just for a little while.  I did not find anything on the internet that is proven effective, some tricks help some people and not others,  it is more how the individual react to different and own methods.

What I really want to know is why do I have to go through this every single week? This is a normal reaction after unusual exercise or change of activity. Well after 4 years what is unusual about what I do ?  In this case this is related to the fact that I give much more during those sessions than before , increasing intensity must be  why I get this.

I found myself some light about this today and even if I feel I have been hit by a truck , it feels good to know why  🙂

When I started training JKD I had a tendency to want to be good already at the beginning, I was impatient and immature .

Together with JKD I had to learn to behave mentaly. This was another hard part but a part of the training is the  control of the behaviour and attidude . I have to say that this took quite a while .  This was leading to decreasing motivation for me. ” I can´t do anything, I am worthless”.. or even ” I don´t want to train anymore I don´t deserve it” … bla bla bla …

“well stop complaining and do something about it” ! .. this is what I have heard numerous times. The right attidude was needed for me to be better, to want to be better and accept that a lot of training  and time will be needed to get somewhere . If you want to be good at something you have to practice, that is all.

I left the bad childish thoughts behind me and  I have accepted that I am here to learn and that it will take time. I am training with a great instructor, it is up to me to take all the tools he gives me and use them.

Some days I don´t feel like it, I am tired or stressed but  as soon as I start, I feel better and the best of it is when I am finished , I feel good because I have achieved something, even if the session was hard or not so good , I have something to work on. That is how I get motivated those days.

In 2005 after the first day  Seminar with Ted , as we were sitting at the bar before diner and he told me something about motivation.  ” I train every day, some days if I don´t really feel like it, I just think about Bruce and then  I just  do it ”

And last year  Ted became emotional when he told us :  ” I am not doing that for myself, I am doing that for you, the next generation”.

How can we not be motivated. This is already a great priviledge to train Jun Fan JKD ,  Ted Wong JKD.

I am not talking for anyone else but me, I get the motivation from the fact that I truly think I have been given a great opportunity.

A lot of people do not get what JKD is all about and I don´t feel like I have to explain. My passion is personal and I only fully share it with my training partners and with myself.

Am I motivated to go on? of course,  because training JKD makes me feel good on so many levels and I don´t need to prove or explain it to anyone. This is all about my personal achievement and depending on my own goals and expectations. What I am looking for is to get better according to my own  goals.

I am the new generation, in a way I owe this to Bruce and to Ted.

Well, that is easy , be better

SPEED and POWER

Because of my size and weight I need to be faster, I need to have more power in the kicks and punches.

FOOTWORK

This is of course the key for everything, good fotwork and TIMING !

In my dreams I would like to be able to stand in a 3 minutes fight with Micke and get out of there alive ! OK NOT HAPPENING ! Would he give 100%,  I would be dead after 5 seconds . I saw myself almost knocked out after less than this,  with only a “touch” as he says! … No but realistically,  I need to be able to defend myself and get out of a fight against strong men like him and I want to work on this.

Have more STABILITY and FLUIDITY in the fights  and see Michel or Remy fly away from one of my side kicks !

And wish ( or demand )  from the trainer for both Remy and I :

DO the SPLIT before the summer !

And yes one more personal thing :

Running up the stairs….  time to beat : Michel´s time 🙂