VKR 01: "Essence of Personalization "

Here is a blog I have been working on for over a month, and I think this is as finely tuned and cohesive of a product as it can get. 

Something I have been working on for a while now is how I can make my Kung Fu truly mine. However, this has been a very bumpy road for me so far. Within all forms of professions, hobbies, and lifestyles, there are people who irrefutably shine a cut above the rest. In my opinion, this comes from the ability to take the same building blocks that everyone is given and building upon them to make something unique and original, while still following the same general formula everyone else is using. I had previously thought that I need to know everything before I can begin to truly personalize it, and that was my excuse for putting it off. Over the last year or so, I have realized how naïve of an approach this is. I mean, you CAN'T know everything. It is obviously not humanly possible to know everything that is and once was. In fact, it seems obvious to me now that being able to take teachings and convert them to my own will actually let me learn more.

Humans are as unique as the fingerprints we have. No two people will picture the exact same scenery when reading the same book, nor will they have the exact same approach or understanding to the same techniques. Even so, as we learn and slowly work on our path to mastery in forms, we are each presented with the same set formula and order of building blocks not unlike the structure of sentences in a novel. In that sense, one can compare a form to a book. No matter who performs or reads it, the core structure will always be the same for every person. It has to be. The words on the page and the moves in the form need to remain consistent between individuals, as it is the way of the universe. When I first made this analogy (because I really do love analogies), a realization donned upon me. We have all heard an excerpt or reading done by someone who was awfully monotone, and by someone who had emotion and energy. They can read the same thing, but why is Person Two so much easier to listen to? It is the personalization of their presentation and the intensity they work into the same words anyone can read that truly make the difference. Depth, tone, pace, emotion, all little factors in play. And alas, this can be done on a much more grandiose scale in forms and techniques. 

With that said, there is no right way to working your personality into your Kung Fu. I have always strongly relied on visualization. Or specifically, I like to think of it as "Visualization to Kinetic Representation". This is a process in which I first visualize how I want my technique to turn out, and then performing it as accurately as possible in accordance to said visualization. I did not realize it at the time, but even as a child I would picture material constructs as my visualizations and tried to emulate them. Now, what were these material constructs, you may ask? The five animals of Kung Fu! When I was younger, incorporating the five animals into my techniques, even if it occurred subconsciously most of the time, was my baby steps into a deeper understanding of whatever I was working on. 

It wasn't until I watched The Last Airbender series as teenager and saw the different elements being represented as different styles of Kung Fu that I realized there was more to Kinetic Representation than just animals. Different forms and techniques have different flows and match different elements, or so I thought. Visualizing to Kinetically Representing the five animals as well as the four elements in my Kung Fu was a tool I used in my later teens, as a blue-brown belt, and one that worked quite well for me (or so I like to think). 

Something I have realized lately is that, while incorporating different Kinetic Representations may be necessary for matching the flow of certain forms, I have yet to truly embody a singular Kinetic Representation. I believe there are two factors for this. The first is that, by constantly changing flows for different forms, my visualizations blend together. Transitioning from my water-based Tai Chi mindset to my earth-based Lao Gar mindset on a dime results in a muddy blend of the two. The second factor is that the visualizations I have been using are not 100% compatible with my body and mind. For example, I may only be 65% compatible with my concept of earth, 55% compatible with my concept of tiger, 20% compatible with my concept of water, etc. 

Now that I have laid out the groundwork of my thought process, on to the point of this blog; what do I need to visualize to completely embody and personalize my Kung Fu? The conclusion I have reached is that I need to take the nine visualizations I have been using and treat them as primary colours. They shine excellently on their own, but what never before seen shade can I create by mixing them in such a way to be as close as possible to being 100% compatible with me? What visualization do I need to create that can be applied to every single one of my techniques in a way that allows me to properly perform them while fully bringing out my potential? CAN I apply a single universal visualization to every single one of my techniques? What chemical reaction must I create to cover as many bases as I possibly can?

This is what I have been working on and will continue to work on throughout my weapons form and techniques this year. It is my intent to figure out what Visualization truly embodies me, and how I can develop it. This will be the essence of my personalization. I think it is also worth noting that my intention is not to create a style and try to conform to it. I may be a little late in mentioning this, but I already have a style. I realized this because there have been grey spots in my visualizations in which nothing works. I just draw a blank. My goal is to realize what this "grey" visualization is and that by applying it to my Kung Fu, I can further evolve my six harmonies, my flow, my energy, my intensity, and my Kung Fu in general. 

To record these thoughts and discoveries, I plan on writing several more follow up blogs which I will use to expand my thoughts and understandings of each of my nine current visualizations, as well as some of the blends I am working with. Additionally, I feel that it is worth stating again that this is how I work. The only right way to doing these sorts of things is whatever comes to you naturally.

With that, the first installment of the Visualization to Kinetic Representation (VKR) Series comes to a conclusion.