Slow, Careful Review...

Practice today in class was constructive. 

I was the only student in the dojo after the first twenty minutes, thanks to a special event in town.

I was able to practice all my current forms in slow motion, paying close attention to the footwork of turns, weight transitions, and pivots. I am suffering from a minor knee injury, and I'm modifying my forms to avoid any sideways stress on the injured knee.

I will be testing second-section on Monday evening. The school is aware that I'm testing with a minor injury, so they're making accommodations so that I don't injure the knee further.

It was very quiet, and I was able to maintain focus. It was helpful. I am slowing working the footing out.

Thank you for reading.

I bow to my instructors and fellow students, to our past masters of the art, and all who have preserved, improved, and passed down this art before me.

With Respectful Regards,

Dan

Climbing The Mountain Of Jade Ghost Dragon Practice...

 

Dragon Practice

It's a cautious time in my practice. More on that in a bit.

Just for reference, the "Jade Ghost Dragon" is becoming my personal totem - the "spirit" of my martial arts practice. There are times when this art seems quite spiritual. 

I've been suffering from a pulled ligament in my knee for a couple of weeks now. I'm working it through, but slowly.

A big part of it is how I shift my feet before moving from one position in a form to the next, and just as important is exactly how I shift my weight from one leg to the other.

I'm having to deeply and intently analyze the root footwork of every form, and again retrain my muscle memory to compensate. I'm taking my time, and consulting carefully with our instructors.

I am also doing a LOT of hard training to strengthen my knee muscles, quads, and glutes. Every bit of strength I can build in my legs will help - and is helping - stabilize my knee.

As National Instructor Ben stated tonight, there is a silver lining to my going through this now; When I become an instructor years from now, and I have a student who suffers with knee trouble, I will know exactly how to help them. What I also think is that I can in that case teach them some footwork from the very beginning that will help prevent doing any additional damage to their knees.

I'm hoping that I can make this a contribution to the art some day.

Jade Ghost Dragon, lead me safely up the mountain, so that I may help others with their climb some day.

Thank you for reading.

I bow to my instructors and fellow students, to our past masters of the art, and all who have preserved, improved, and passed down this art before me.

With Respectful Regards,

Dan

The Dietary Changes I Made In April 2025, Prior To Starting Oom Yung Doe In August, 2025

(With a couple of minor updates recently)

Breakfast:

* 3 hard-boiled eggs, rolled in various spices. (Not salt) (Video short of how I apply spices: https://youtube.com/shorts/jXErvbAli4o?si=FRxDUxINcgvOarRa )

* 1 carrot

* 1 celery stalk

* 1 radish (10-2025 addition)

* 2 generous handfuls of cherry tomatoes.

Lunch/snacks:

* 5 pitted Medjool dates

* 2 handfuls dried cherries

* 3-4 pieces of crystallized ginger 

* 3 handfuls of mixed nuts

* 2 handfuls of dried cranberries 

* 1 can of tuna fish 🐟 (Skipjack)

* Twice a week, 1 can individual-sized Bush's baked beans. (09-2025 addition)

* Occasional handful of wasabi and soy almonds 

Dinner Sun-Thur:

2 meals from Factor's "Chef's Choice" menu. ( Factor: Get 50% Off + FREE MyFitnessPal Premium+ https://share.google/s4nKBMjrmLh18NyQ5 )

Dinner Fri:

3 street fish tacos and 3 deep fried mushrooms from Killarney's Irish Pub in Temecula, CA 

Note: I do take the following supplements:

Daily:

1 multivitamin 

1 psyllium husk fiber caplet

1 3,000 mg D3

1 1,000 mg Fish Oil

1 Glucosamine Chondroitin

Every other day:

1 turmeric with piperene (black pepper extract)

All the a tumbler of V8 vegetable juice that has a splash of Cholula and a splash of Worcestershire sauce in it.

Regards,

Dan Stafford

More Tired Horse...

I was back in class last night, but my right knee is still giving me grief.

Doing a lot of leg and knee strengthening exercises.

Regards,

Dan Stafford

On-Call, The Importance Of Home Practice, And A Jade Dragon Lounge Update...

 

The "Jade Dragon Lounge"

I was able to get the Jade Dragon poster framed and hung in my home dojo, the "Jade Dragon Lounge" just yesterday.

I have been on-call for work since this past Friday and through today, so I haven't able to make it into class.

The flooring you see above is comprised of 12" x 12" interlocking padded tiles that are 1" thick. It makes a decent workout space, except for the lamp hanging above, which is very tall. I have a much lower-profile lamp on the way to replace it with soon.

I have been practicing every day at home since I have been on-call. My weight is now down to 302 lbs as I head into Thanksgiving, from a high of 342 lbs last April. I have lost 40 lbs through diet and exercise in seven months. I am still losing weight yet, although I expect Thanksgiving and Christmas to slow that a little.

Still, I plan to practice every day, even the holidays. I will be back to my regular 4-5 days per week in class on Monday.

One of my main mottos in life is "keep moving." By this I mean physical exercise. (The other is "life is better on a low-drama diet.")

Having a space to practice in at home is a huge, major blessing. I also try to work in little bits of exercise throughout the day wherever I have a few quiet moments. A little bit of "moving isometrics," or leg strengthening squats and lunges, or gyroball wrist, hand, and arm exercises.

I was also able to clip our school flags from the video of me demonstrating in the virtual tournament:

Oom Yung Doe school flags

We bow with respect to the school flags whenever we enter of leave our school. I think that is a very healthy practice.

Thank you for reading.

I bow to my instructors and fellow students, to our past masters of the art, and all who have preserved, improved, and passed down this art before me.

With Respectful Regards,

Dan

Brief Notes And How I Did In The Local Virtual Tournament...

So I ended up getting a bronze silver metal for my demonstration of Tae Guk Chung. (Short form Tai Chi)

This is the first form I learned, and though I am still perfecting it, I've made a lot of improvement in 2 months. 

That being said I've also found a couple of places where I've been twisting my knee slightly while doing this form. I've had to learn to retrain my muscle memory during a couple of the moves to open my foot, meaning to turn it out an angle before I make the move rather than after. However I will get this down. 

I am now down from 342 lb last April to 306 lb now, so my weight loss is on track. I also am feeling much much stronger walking around and moving through daily life. 

I am also trying to work small amounts of exercise in at various points throughout the day in order to help speed up strengthening my body for training. 

I don't really mind if it takes me 2 years, or 5 years, to get to a black belt. The point is to do it safely and preserve my mobility as I get older. That's the entire reason I started this style / system. 

I will persist. 

I bow to the students who have gone before me.

I bow to the instructors who have trained all my instructors throughout the lineage of my new art. 

I bow to all my fellow students. 

I am grateful for what I have found here, and those who have come before me.

Regards,

Dan Stafford

Time For Intense Focus And Caution...

I have been having trouble with my knee for a few days now. 

I've had trouble with it since I was a teenager, so I am not surprised.

Certain moves in the form are twisting my knee out of alignment. Some of it is me not opening my foot properly before a turning move, and a few points are my feet sticking to the floor too much.

I've discussed it with the head instructor, and I will be focusing 90% on my footwork until I am able to work through this. I also will be wearing socks to reduce friction when I have to rotate my weight-bearing foot.

I really don't mind if this slows me down. Better to get it worked out properly and committed to muscle memory, rather than to do damage to my ability to move.

Inch by inch, so be it.

With respect, thank you for reading.

Thank you to the teachers and students who have gone before me.

Keep moving.

Dan

Grasshoppers In Dragon School...

 

Grasshoppers At Dragon School

Today at school was very good, in several ways.

First, the master of our art in the US was there. I got to meet him briefly. It sounds like I will be working with him roughly around February - near my birthday - for advanced training and guidance on progression. I do have long-term goals for learning martial arts, with the intention to be of service to others. I feel that this will be a good thing.

Second, our Head National Instructor was there. He has an excellent sense of humor, and was teaching me some seemingly minor positional changes to my forms that lead to much greater engagement of my body core in what I'm doing. It's amazing what a difference small changes make in strength, structure, and engagement.

I worked out quite well, but my knee was still giving me grief. Our Assistant National Instructor helped me with some stretching exercises. I still am certain that the damp, rainy weather we're having right now is part of it. I've felt most storms coming in that knee since I was at least thirteen years old. However, it did improve. I will keep doing this particular stretch daily going forward.

It still amazes me, the kindness of this school. They work with people of all races, genders, ages, and conditions with kindness, consideration, and compassion. This really is a community, and so far, I have enjoyed meeting every person I've connected with here. I am grateful to be able to learn here, at this particular school, at this stage of my life.

Thank you for reading.

I bow to my instructors, and all who have preserved, improved, and passed down this art before me.

Thank you for reading.

With Respectful Regards,

Dan

Rumor Has It...

 ...that the Master will be in town soon, and we'll get to meet him.

In this case, "master" is used as a title, and an indication of mastery of the art of Oom Yung Do, and meant with great respect.

I'm looking forward, actually, to see what this will be like. I don't know if the master will be evaluating students, teaching, or demonstrating, or just here on a social call. Somehow, I suspect it will be a bit of all the above.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I might meet of even speak to a master of a martial art. I thought such things in my life were relegated to the movies.

On another note, both practice and weight loss have had a tricky side this week. I really worked out hard on Tuesday, and my right knee was a little stiff and sore on Wednesday morning. I went and trained on Wednesday as well, and I was pretty sore afterwards. I've really been using the herbal recovery formula, and took the day off on Thursday for my wife's birthday. That helped with the sore knee. To be more accurate, my right knee has been stiff and achy, no sharp pains.

I worked out fairly solidly this morning (Friday), and that seemed to loosen the knee up a bit. I'm moving better now, and feel like I'm on the mend. 

However, Thursday off didn't help for weight loss at all. I was down to 303.8 Lbs on Wednesday & Thursday mornings. While I was off, I took my wife to her favorite dentist in Orange county. That resulted in me eating restaurant food twice in one day. I tried very hard to eat light, but the restaurant menus had no good options for that. Even skipping dinner, one day of eating in restaurants and not practicing put me at 308.6 Lbs this morning. That's about two weeks of weight loss gone in one day, for perspective. I feel like the Universe is warning me ahead of the holidays.

At the end of practice today, we did a walking meditation called "baghwa" walking. It involves controlling the breath and doing mental energy work, or pulling in Chi from the Universe. It's wonderful stuff, and leaves me feeling calm and energized.

I also took in the Jade dragon poster (I ordered a 24" x 36" print) in to a locally-owned custom frame shop here in town. The frame I chose is a green and bronze faux bamboo, with a natural hued linen matting, and low-glare, slightly matte finish glass. I'm so looking forward to hanging it in the Jade Dragon Lounge, AKA my home dojo. I'll post a picture of it hung after it is on the wall, but here's the image:

Jade Dragon Poster

Thank you for reading.

I bow to my instructors, and all who have preserved, improved, and passed down this art before me.

Thank you for reading.

With Respectful Regards,

Dan

My First Virtual Tournament...

Saturday I attended my first virtual tournament at Oom Yung Doe.

Tournaments in Oom Yung Doe are conducted in the manner of traditional martial arts tournaments prior to Westernization.

These tournaments are not sparring competitions. They are a series of demonstrations of various martial arts forms taught by the school.

Participants are judged on how well they have improved in their technique and form.

Everyone is cheering on the other participants. Good will is in the air, and the energy is very positive.

The demonstrations are amazing to watch. Participants are of all ages, races, and gender, and respect is not even a question. I am in my early 60's, and have watched demonstrations by students easily ten years senior to me and that left me envious of their ability to move in ways that I can't yet.

I know everyone there has worked diligently to achive these forms, and I feel privileged to be in their company.

The atmosphere is a microcosm of what I would wish and hope for greater society to become.

I demonstrated a short form of Tai Chi called Tai Guk Chung. (Update 11-14-2025: I looked it up in the study guide.)

We should get our results and access to videos of the demonstrations around November 22nd. I'm looking forward to it.

With respect,

Dan Stafford,

Bamboo Grasshopper.

The Jade Dragon Lounge Dojo...

The Dragon Lounge Dojo...

Space is all what you make of it,

Dusty wasteland,

Or useful living.

In this space something living is being created,

Learning,

Spiritual,

A suitable form,

A desired outcome,

Small treasures added each day.

The Dragon Lounge is being born,

A place to dance with Chi,

Find the center of my time and space,

Moving in meditation,

Soft as mist,

Hard as jade,

Hoping to fly.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

© 11/08/2025

The Tired Horse...

The Tired Horse... 

Always working,

Always learning something new,

How can a thing grow old,

When it lives in a space of endless nuance? 

Tonight we started learning the barest inches of dagger form,

Tweaked our Tai Chi Chung,

Then practiced horse position,

As low as you can,

Halfway up,

Repeat until theee reps past burning quads.

Flex it out,

No,

Snap it out,

Front snap kicks.

Repeat,

Tired horse.

After meditation,

I practiced the rubber legs form,

But I don't think I will ever let myself,

I can't imagine,

Plopping down on a seat,

Not ever again.

My horse has earned a rest.

The Sun will rise again tomorrow,

But for now,

The stars can twinkle.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford

© 11/04/2025

The Latest Moves...

 

The Blues Of Feeling Better

So the latest, of course, starts with lots of practice. I try to get at least five one-hour sessions in per week.

The fun side: I'm getting a lot better at moving around. It feels like I've shaved five years off my gait in two months. I've also lost 30-32 lbs since late April of this year. The pants are looser, which is better for kicking.

The bluesey journey is that I think I'll be fine-tuning these moves for the rest of my life. One thing to be sure of; Martial Arts instructors will ALWAYS find something you can fine-tune a bit more in your technique. Grasshoppers may grow and change, but to the masters of the art, they will always be their grasshoppers.

I love the energy work, and I love the physical activity. To be honest, I love the challenge of building muscle memory, strength, balance, and timing.

I'm starting to learn my third form, but am also still working on perfecting the first two. I'm also building foundational muscle strength with specific exercises.

We have a space at the front of the house where we had a full-size air hockey table. I sold it off to make room for a small "dojo," so that I can practice at home when school is closed. That air hockey had been played maybe ten times in ten years. We'd though our granddaughters would play it when visiting, but not so much. Then they moved out of State.

I still need to change out the lamp overhead for something lower-profile, and fill the Wavemaster so I can bring it in and start practicing strikes, punches, kicks, and blocks. However, here's the space as it sits today.

The padded, interlocking floor tiles I added today.

Life is, of course, all about the journey. I also grew up reading superhero comics. I enjoy the aesthetic.

With respect,

Dan

Bamboo Grasshopper

How I Wound Up Studying Oom Yung Doe

 

Public Domain Antique Chinese Koi Illustration

First, what happened with Isshin Shorinjii Okinawa Te in Plainfield, Illinois; I broke my left ankle shoveling snow. Then we moved 45 minutes one-way from Plainfield. (The move was fallout from the 2008-2009 financial crisis.)

My recovery was long, class was far, and I just couldn't.

In 2015, we moved even further - to Temecula, California. 

Temecula is a beautiful smaller town in inland Southern California, and is the epicenter of Southern California wine country. I absolutely love the place, and we're permanently settled here.

Around 2017, I tried taking karate through the park district. It was affordable, but all the other students were children. The instructor was in his 30's.

The instructor had the students constantly sitting on the floor, and then getting up. This did not work for a body in its late 50's and well over 300 lbs. I pulled a ligament in my right knee trying to keep up with the up-down. It took two years to heal.

I had been looking for a Tai Chi class in Temecula for several years. I had a brief two-month exposure to it after my ankle recovered and while we were still in Illinois. (The instructor had to move away, and my work schedule changed) I absolutely loved it. I also knew it would help me strengthen myself without injury. Harvard actually recommends Tai Chi over other forms of exercise for aging well.

Oom Yung Doe kept coming up in my searches.

I finally went in to check it out after getting re-hired by the company I used to work for in Chicago.

Oom Yung Doe is fairly expensive here. It costs $250.00 per month to attend.

However, many of the students are my age or older. Many are working post-injury with physical limitations. The instructors are very "safety-first." They understand the older student.

I started with Tai Gup Chung, (Spelling?) which is a short form of Tai Chi. I've gotten fairly decent at it in five weeks.

I've also started learning Oom Yung Bop, which is a short form of Kung Fu, and am just getting into Tai Chi Chung, which is a much longer form of Tai Chi. I expect to be at this for several months.

However, I am doing well. I really like the instructors, and the other students. I am very, very grateful to be allowed to attend this school.

My weight loss has been slow but steady as well.

Sometimes doing the laundry is a pleasant exercise, as is the incremental learning of other ancient arts. It's the journey. It changes you, little bits at a time.

I look forward to a lifetime of practicing whatever I'm able to learn here.

With respect, thank you for reading, and thank you to those who have gone before me for carrying this into our time and presence.

Dan

Oom Yung Doe

I've been studying Oom Yung Doe for about 5 weeks now. I feel like I may have landed at the right place finally. 

The first four weeks, I was sweating buckets every day I trained.  My knees were stiff like boards. 

However, my weight  has been slowly going down. My clothes are fitting looser. (I've dramatically changed my diet, too.)

In the past three training sessions, I have only broken a light sweat. My knees are tight and stiff in the morning, but loosen up after I walk around for awhile at work.

We've been out in California for ten years now. 

Sometimes you have to deal with drudgery before you can find grace. You have to do the laundry if you want to have nice, clean clothes.

 One promise I have made to myself is that, no matter what happens with me or the dojo, I will continue to practice everything I learn for the rest of my life.

Dan