UPDATE- My 100,000 technique challenge- nearly 4 months on

Wow, this challenge is more difficult than I imagined it would be! It’s still slow-going and I am currently on just under 30,000 punches. I’m persevering and trying to make time to punch when I can, but it’s definitely going to take me more than 6 months. And that’s OK... I will get there.

I spoke with a few people on the last Masterclass and they were finding it difficult too, so I guess I’m not the only one. I don’t want to be hard on myself for not being on target, so rather than feel bad I need to just remember how many I have already done- that’s quite an achievement in itself. I just worked it out and I’ve probably spent around 30 hours on the challenge so far. That’s actually a really long time!

November has also been a bit of a strange month; I have been for 2 lots of x-rays on my right wrist. I’m not getting pain from punching at all, but I injured my wrist/hand a few months back and it hasn’t been right since. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint!) I can’t put any weight on my wrist when it’s pushed back, i.e. to do press-ups, burpees, squats etc. I have been training around this, but I’m still waiting to find out exactly what’s wrong. It may be tendonitis, as nothing much showed up on the x-rays. It has made me a bit more cautious about punching, especially on the days where I’ve been getting pain. I have been doing lots of the punches into the air, which isn’t as satisfying as hitting a pad! But, like I said, punching doesn’t seem to cause the pain, so I am carrying on with the challenge.

I wonder what December will bring…

I will let you know how I’m getting on next month.

Sarah Wilson x

UPDATE: I realised I never did update the blog with how I got on with the challenge in the end! My final total was 35,500 between 7th August 2011- 8th January 2012. Not bad for 5 months, but nowhere near 100,000! 

Since that time I have continued training with Geoff Thompson after being invited to do his Black Belt Course. Over the course of my training with Geoff my punching has improved considerably after working with him and other amazing punchers on improving my technique. Still working hard and still loving it...

My 100,000 technique challenge- 2 months on

September was not a great month for my 100,000 technique challenge; after August and the luxury of my 6 week summer holiday, I had got accustomed to being able to use my time how I wanted and September came as quite a shock. While August had been the month of excuses, September became the month of how-on-earth-am-I-going-to-fit-all-this-in??!!

So, I’m back at work and finding it hard, but today I did manage to break the 20,000 punches milestone; I’m a fifth of the way there and I am back on track after a tough month.

This month I have learnt lots….

I learnt that sometimes I need to use my time better. We all have the same 24 hours and what we choose to do with those hours determines how successful we are. Geoff Thompson devotes a chapter to this in his book, “The Elephant and the Twig”. My working week is sometimes a bit manic; I have my day job, I teach Tae Kwon Do two nights a week and I try and get my own training in during the week as well. It’s pretty full-on and can be exhausting. So, I have been looking at the things in my life that I could reduce, get rid of or improve (long journey to work, spending too long on the internet on pointless things, getting the right amount of sleep…) After chatting to Geoff and Sharon, I have been thinking about how to be more creative with my 24 hours to ensure that I finish the challenge in roughly 6 months.

I’ve also learnt that sometimes I do need to slow down and listen to my body. There’s a nasty cold going round and I caught it last month. It knocked me off my feet, which is quite unusual for me. The whole time I was ill I felt guilty for not being able to work, teach or punch and after a couple of weeks of feeling run-down I was really missing exercise and training. I wasn’t a happy bunny. I realised that I am quite guilt-driven and feel bad if I don’t continue to keep ticking things off the big to-do list that I carry around in my head. That’s not to say I want to lead a life of sloth, but maybe I could be a little kinder to myself when I don’t manage to get it all done and when I don’t get it perfect all the time.

I spoke to Geoff and Sharon about having missed a couple of weeks (felt like I was back at school and confessing to not having done my homework- which I only ever had to do once I think!! I was a good girl, me.) They were really reassuring. It’s more the commitment to the challenge and the things you learn from doing it that are important, rather than how long it takes. Saying that, I do want to complete the challenge in as short a time as possible. Like they said, there’ll be more of a sense of achievement that way.

So, I’m not sure what this next month will bring. In the 3^rd Masterclass, which was last weekend, Geoff talked about the power of imagination. A good place to start October would be to imagine big things and then start making them happen, I guess…

I’ll let you know how I’m getting on next month!

Sarah Wilson x

My 100,000 technique challenge- 1 month on

Last weekend was my second Masterclass with Geoff Thompson. That meant it had been a whole month since the first one and a whole month since I started the 100,000 technique challenge. So I thought I’d do a bit of an update on the blog to chart my progress.

So far I have done 15,940 punches (right crosses) in 35 days. That’s an average of 455 punches per day… kind of!

This challenge is incredibly unrelenting; if you miss a day you have to do double the next day (1100 punches approx). If you miss 2 days or 3 or 4… all of a sudden the task seems very daunting indeed.

On the second Masterclass Geoff urged everyone to keep on with the challenge, as the rewards would be greater than we might have imagined; that we would learn a lot about ourselves in the process of punching and along the journey we will take to reach the 100,000. I guess I am starting to see what he means by that.

I have realised that making excuses not to punch comes easier to me than I thought it would. If I punched for around half an hour a day I’d reach 100,000 easily, but some days that 30 minutes is as welcome a thought as chewing on a wasp! It’s not an exciting 30 minutes, it is bloody tiring if you put everything into it and my knuckles have constantly got a purple colour to them, and usually some rather fetching scabs to boot.

To counter the excuses my brain keeps thinking up I need to develop a strong purpose for doing this. I need a rock solid, unshakeable, brick wall of a reason for doing the challenge.

Of course, the punch itself will come in useful in a self defence situation, should I ever find myself in danger; that is, if my body doesn’t send a shed load of adrenalin coursing through my body, rendering me incapable of doing anything useful!

But, my reason has got to be more than this.

Some people have looked at me like I’m mad when I’ve told them what I’m doing, others have told me I’m mad (charming!) In a strange kind of way this makes me even more determined to finish what I have started. Geoff has a sweatshirt with “100,000 technique challenge” on it. If, no… when, I finish this challenge I’m going to get one of those. I want to go there, do that and get the sweatshirt to prove it! Ultimately though, it’s not about proving it to anyone else. I’m starting to see that to finish it will take a lot more than the need to prove something to other people.

My motivation has got to come from me, for me…and it is starting to. I am trying to catch up any days that I have missed and I do feel good when I stop making excuses and just do it. I want to prove to myself that I can do this, despite all the excuses!

I will let you know how I’m getting on next month!

Sarah Wilson x

Geoff Thompson’s Masterclass- August 2011

Yesterday I took my first steps on what I hope will be an enlightening and empowering journey. I finally had my first experience of Geoff Thompson’s Masterclass, not just from an observer’s point of view, but as a student.

I had been putting that day off for a while now, coming up with a hundred excuses why I couldn’t do it; it will be full of men and I’ll be the only woman, I might get injured, I might make myself look bad (after all, I’m a black belt, right?), it’s expensive, I don’t have the time… blah, blah, blah.

Then, just over a month ago, something just clicked and on impulse I signed up. I had one of those days when you just think, what the hell, just do it!

People have different reasons for signing up for the Masterclass. Part of my reason was that Kai had done it twice and I saw the change in him straight away. After each class he would be more positive, more reflective and more pro-active about the direction in which his life was going. I wanted some of that for me. I was becoming fed up with disempowering, negative thoughts taking over my brain and the feeling that nothing I was doing was quite good enough somehow, despite my very best efforts.

I had been to watch the Masterclass twice and had done a seminar with Geoff and Peter Consterdine in 2010. I also did a 6 week self defence course with Geoff’s son, Louis, earlier this year, so I had met Geoff a few times.  He had been nothing but lovely and just a few hours after I had hastily written my email and pressed send (before I change my mind again), he rang to confirm my place on the course. He told me not to worry, that everyone would look after me and he congratulated me on signing up. I felt like I’d already done something to be proud of in that moment.

On the way to Coventry I tried not to think of much at all, to be honest, and I succeeded pretty well. I wasn’t nervous until we actually arrived at the AT7 centre and then the nerves kicked in. Even though the people we met up with in the café had all done the Masterclass before, everyone else seemed to be really nervous too and it became one of the topics of conversation. It helped to know that I wasn’t the only one. Everyone kind of agreed that it was because you put yourself under pressure to be on your “best game”. I had recently had the experience where my “best game” hadn’t been as good as it could have/should have been, so this was my biggest worry. What if I made myself look stupid? Or weak?  Or out my depth?

We didn’t have long to wait until we were shown into the room where the Masterclass is held. Everyone just milled about a bit (looking a bit nervous still) and we saw a few more people we knew. I was pleased to see Joy and Louise, who I knew from previous Masterclasses I’d watched, but there were also 2 other ladies there. That made 5 of us (6 including Sharon); more than I was expecting.

The first hour or so was really inspiring. Geoff talked about the 100,000 technique challenge he wanted everyone to do over the 6 months. The idea behind the challenge is to achieve mastery over one technique and then take what you have learnt from the process and apply that to other areas of your life. He spoke about obstacles we might put in our own way that might prevent us from completing the challenge. I really felt like he was talking to me when he spoke about limiting thoughts that become self-fulfilling prophecies. I think everyone probably takes something slightly different from Geoff’s talks, as you tend to apply what he is saying to your own situation, but that was what really stood out for me.

Geoff introduced a guy who had come over from New Zealand to train on the Masterclass; the furthest anyone has ever travelled to attend and that was pretty amazing. It made me realise how well-respected Geoff’s teachings are, not just in this country, but all over the world. It was pretty scary as well, as here I was, putting myself in a room with a world-respected teacher, self defence expert and martial artist. What was I thinking?

We then broke off with a partner and worked on using the fence to control an aggressive situation. I had done this before, but for some reason I was shockingly bad; so self-conscious and worried about getting it wrong. I did feel more at ease after a bit though and strangely, when we started doing some posturing and I had to act more aggressively, I started to lose my nerves. It’s amazing what a bit of swearing and arm-waving can do!

I was glad when we moved on to the punching though. It was really good to see Sharon demonstrating this as well as Geoff, as I’d only ever seen the men do it. I punch all the time in my martial arts training, but this is a different kind of punching; this is knockout stuff. I was pleased that my punching was pretty strong, although I know I need to work on bringing more energy up from within on the exhale if it’s going to get better still.

In the session we also covered chokes and strangles, which was brilliant. I’ve never been able to get these on very well, but I learnt lots of little things from Dean, who I was partnered with and from the instructors, so that I could do them with some confidence by the end.

So, am I glad that I did sign up for the Masterclass? You bet! I have already made a start on my 100,000 technique challenge this morning. I have taken the skin off my knuckles and my right arm and shoulder are definitely feeling like they’ve had a good workout, but I am going to carry on. I am trying to ignore all the what ifs and buts that my mind keeps bringing up every now and again. I can’t wait til next month!

Sarah Wilson x