What do Sheep Herding, Dog Training, and Kung Fu Have in Common?

“Journal what you love, what you hate, what’s in your head, what’s important. Journaling organizes your thoughts; allows you to see things in a concrete way that otherwise you might not see.”

~ Kay WalkingStick

Sunday I was herding sheep into a pen in preparation for dog training. If I applied just the right spacial pressure in the right direction the sheep moved where I wanted them to. With dogs I’ve been learning about the four quadrants of operant conditioning and one of them involves pressure and release of pressure (negative reinforcement); by releasing pressure the dog is more likely to repeat the behaviour.

Maybe it’s weird that I process information by relating seemingly different things, but this is how my mind works. Just go with it. Seeing things in different places, or circumstances, makes me think in a way that I might not have otherwise done.

All this came to mind last night as we were sparring in class. When I moved forward my opponent moved back, when I moved back it would draw my opponent forward. “Hmm”, I found myself moving my opponent around the ring, pretty much wherever I wanted to put them, just by using spacial pressure. “Aha!”. I don’t think I would have noticed this in sparring if I hadn’t done things like training dogs, herding sheep, or catching horses.

Numbers

Pushups: 890

Sit-ups: 540

I wish the numbers for the pushups and sit-ups were higher, but my back and shoulders are thankful it’s not. Still working on little progressions each day rather than huge numbers.

Weapon form: 49

Hand form: 196

RAoK: 20 – still forgetting to write many of them down.

Sparring: 130

Kilometres: 325

Memorize “Mastery”: haven’t done it the last couple of days

Nurture Relationships: had a wonderful opportunity to do that today. It was nice!

Blogging: 11

Declutter: not actively worked on it the last couple of days

Greatcoat project: still on hold.