Tomatoes and Shadows

I have been very busy with work again, and it feels like Kung fu has slipped into a back burner position for the time being. I am still trying to stay engaged, but I am currently stretching myself too thin again. Sihing Burke recently put up a post about how they sometimes feel like a big push of effort feels like it can help to deal with backlogged issues, but in reality it is not sustainable and will lead to burn out. I feel like this is my life. I fall behind in one area and then try to do a big push to catch up, but while doing so I fall behind in other areas and the cycle spins ever downward, leading to even more burnout and even more work needing to be done. That being said, sometimes it does feel like there are priorities that are so critical they cannot be allowed to get too far behind.

I really do need to work on finding a more sustainable life balance.

I previously mentioned that I have been recently diagnosed with ADHD. With that, healthy sleep and food habits are the foundation upon which everything else must be built upon. However it is also possible to build and develop skills that can help with time management and focus. One method that I used while studying to write the MCATs was called the Pomodoro technique. The original technique used one of those tomato kitchen timers, hence the tomatoes in my title. What happens with the pomodoro is that you set a timer, typically for 25 minutes. During that time you actively focus on the most important task in front of you. If a distraction comes up or something you think you need to deal with, you jot it down on a notepad and deal with it during a break. The system is 25 minutes of focus, 5 minutes break. Then after 4 sets of this you take a bigger break of 15-30m, before beginning the process again. When I was talking with Sihing Burke after the I Ho Chuan meeting last week, I wound up reflecting on this method, and I think if it was truly and properly applied, you could do a couple of pushups, a few sit-ups and/or a form rep during each break. I think using such a method would give you the change of pace and increase of blood flow to really help you accomplish goals and meet requirements while sharpening focus and increasing productivity. That being said, its not a free way to all of a sudden make everything magical. It takes deliberation, discipline and intent to actually accomplish timings and structure like this. I’ve managed to do it a few times, but I would like to incorporate it more often into my daily routine.

Now for the shadow portion of my title. As some of you may know I love technology, I enjoy seeing how things are advancing and how we can use technologies to improve and push ourselves further. Part of that is a love for Virtual Reality technologies. I have been involved with VR both in using it and working with it for over a decade now. I currently use a quest 3 for work, and it allows me to have multiple floating screens anywhere that I am working with my laptop. A couple of weeks ago I found a new app on the VR store called Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu. I haven’t had very much time to use it, but what I did see was very exciting and I wanted to share it with the team. The app supports mixed reality with the quest’s pass through cameras. So I was able to go to my garage, and spar with various “shadow” opponents. It was like they were in the garage with me, and we were able to spar. The PC version even supports full body tracking so you can also use your legs for kicks or blocks, though it loses the mixed reality mode from the standalone quest version. Which means instead of fighting in the garage you would be fighting your opponent in some temple or remote, but digital location. Beyond having the ability to spar with a digital opponent though, there is a multiplayer mode, where you could remotely spar with a friend. There are limitations with the tracking, and it is not as good as actually physically sparring with someone, but it is interesting and if anyone else on the team has a VR headset, I would enjoy trying to do some shadow sparring with you in the future.

P.s. if you really want to go crazy with VR, it is possible to get haptics that would allow you to feel any hits. The haptics system is not the same as an actual impact and uses rumble motors to simulate contact at various points of the body. I’ve seen vests with either 40 or 16 contacts to let you feel if and where your chest/back has been hit. There are gauntlets for the arms which would let you feel if you’ve blocked or punched something. There are foot haptics that would again let you get a feeling of contact if you kick or block something, and I think there is a visor that attaches to various VR headsets and which would let you feel if you got punched in the head.

CurrentGoalChange Since Last
Pushups63492146920
Situps60442146920
Hand Forms1134295
Weapon Forms1114290
Acts of Kindness0429
Distance Travelled679.465935.7
Sparring2504290
Blog Posts10221
Tai Chi Time47021470
Language Practice Time1111214730

I Ho Chuan Blog Post

I am currently training with Silent River Kung fu as a member of the Dragon team of the I Ho Chuan. https://www.silentriverkungfu.ca/

1 thought on “Tomatoes and Shadows”

  1. I was hoping you would write a blog after our discussion the other day! Glad to see you made one! 😀

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