Kung Fu and Chickens

During the pandemic, my friend and I have started raising chickens. The last few days we have been dealing with a sick chicken. Something was off, the chicken was not looking or acting right.  We had no idea what was happening so off to the internet.

Initially we thought she may have an impacted egg so we tried sitz baths, olive oil, and rehydration with electrolyte solution using a syringe.  Then we switched gears as it also presented as a crop issue so we added crop massages to our treatment plans.  We were fighting time as she was deteriorating very quickly but we kept getting periods of positivity so we knew not to give up.  Last night things started moving and finally she started pooping (who would ever think someone could be excited about a chicken pooping but we were) and then eating and drinking.  This morning she was behaving more like her normal self and is now back in the coop.

As all this was occurring, I kept thinking about my Kung Fu.  Why? I had questions regarding the dragons whip/open round house combo in Da Mu Hsing this week.  Something was wrong with my kick  (Noticing something was off with the chicken).  So I started thinking about the intent of the combo.  I tried a number of modifications to see if I could figure out what was causing the issue (our initial treatment plan) of spinning too much on the kick. I booked a 1-1 with Sifu Rybak and discussed what I was seeing and what changes I needed to make (consulting the internet).  I was over committing to the Dragon's whip and anticipating the spinning back kick. I needed to remain square to the front  for the Dragon's whip, recover, and THEN turn with the spinning back kick (modify treatment plan).  Although it only felt a little better, I needed the time and practice for the improvement to really feel better (time).  Although the chicken rebounded quicker than my form, it was still the same path we both followed.

It’s all in the approach we take to problems.   Have a goal (get a healthy chicken/ fix a form), create a plan (isolate chicken and treat/ intent of form and determine why kick is not working), have a success coach (internet/1-1 with Sifu),  take consistent action (lots of sitz baths and massages/many repetitions of the form), review goal (still sick chicken/ kick now adding pressure to knee), review plan (add crop massages/ reevaluate stances), and goal obtained (healthy chicken/kick now has intent with proper recovery). If this approach sounds familiar, you might recognize have heard about the “blackbelt success cycle” .  This just shows that this approach can be used for problems we encounter both in and out of the kwoon.  Even into the chicken coop!

See you on the virtual mats!