I am a week away from going to Thailand. I am very excited about going. I am planning to do a lot of training while I am there. I will be training in Muay Thai and Krabi Krabong (Thai Weapons Art). I will be training at Sitsongpeenong for Muay Thai and Pramote Gym Buddhai Sawan for Krabi Krabong. I am also planning on going to 13 Coins, Kaewsamrit , Sityodtong and possibly Por Pramuk to check out their training.

I will be posting updates on my facebook page and hopefully here on this blog.

As I continued my Karate training, my search for a hidden Kung Fu Master continued. Every time I went to a Chinese Restaurant I would talk to the waiters or staff about Kung Fu, hoping one of them were or knew a Kung Fu Master. Being young and naive I thought all older Chinese Men were hidden Kung Fu Masters. I was obsessed with learning Kung Fu. I would buy any instructional Kung Fu books or videos (that I could afford). I would sit there everyday, practice a few sections at a time and try to perfect them.

I would supplement my "training" by watching Kung Fu Movies. My all time favorite Kung Fu movie is called "36th Chamber" (AKA. "The Master Killer") with Gordon Liu. What I really liked most about this movie was all of the unique and different training situations and equipment used in the movie. For the most part, I tried doing every training situation that was portrayed in this movie...I have to say, some of them are not the smartest things to try. But I did it anyway!

The first one I tried was balancing on a barrel and jumping to another one. Well, I didn't have a barrel but I did have buckets. I would try rolling two buckets, jump on one and then jump to the other one. Anyhow, I wasn't the best at jumping from one bucket to the next, so I wrote it off as sub-standard training equipment and not the real thing like in the movie.

The next training idea was putting weights on a long stick and swinging it into a gong (tree for me). Actually, I got pretty good at this one! Since I was getting so good at this one, I figured I was on my way to becoming a Kung Fu Master so I moved on.

My next session was carrying buckets of water with knives attached under my arms, so if I dropped my arms I would poke myself and lift the buckets higher. My version was buckets (plastic ones) and sticks duck taped under my arms. I didn't really like taking the duck tape off my arms, so I stopped this one.

The next training idea was to put burning incense on each side of my face and watch a moving candle with my eyes without moving my head. This was a tough one. I wasn't that talented of a woodworker to make what was needed...so I didn't do it!

The last training idea was to hang small punching bags with sand and practice head butting them. Maybe not the best thing to do, but I actually got pretty good at this (only side effect was a headache). I would hit the bag with the side of my head, my forehead and the top of my head by doing a running flying head butt. Like I said I was good at this one, I have always had a hard head (literally) but my headaches were getting worse, so I stopped doing that.

I would have to say as a kid I was a very dedicated, innovative and hard working Martial Artist. I had a lot of talent but I lacked the disciplined hard training found in a formal school to turn natural talent into greatness.

Tags: Martial Arts Training

I remember going to see the original Karate Kid movie at the theater with my Grandmother. As an 11 year old kid training in Martial Arts, most of the time on my own, I really connected with Daniel San. I was so excited when Mr. Miyagi turned out to be a Karate Master...it renewed my belief that there were hidden masters everywhere and that there was a possibility of my finding a Master who would take me under his wing and train me in the way of the warrior. Mr. Miyagi was the Master I was searching for. He was wise, tough and a hero at the same time. Looking back at my training as I write this, Mr. Miyagi has been the measure I have held all of the Master's I train with to.

I really loved the original Karate Kid movie, except the part when Daniel San asked Mr. Miyagi what belt he was and Mr. Miyagi said, "belt no matter, only to hold up your pants." I was devastated because at that point in time in my life I was consumed with earning a belt...any belt...and the idea of earning a Black Belt was just a dream, a dream that was slowly fading away with each day.

What made the whole thing worse was that my Grandmother leaned over (at that exact moment) and said, "See it doesn't matter what belt you are!" I know she was trying to make me feel good but I was like, "Uuhhh...that's not what I wanted to hear Grandma". I wanted to earn a belt that showed I had worked hard and deserved it, not a crappy leather belt from some store that didn't mean anything. I wasn't even looking for a Black Belt, a yellow belt would have been fine by me.

One thing I am extremely passionate about as an instructor, is making sure that I provide my students with the ability to test and earn a new belt on a regular and consistent basis. The reason I am so passionate about testing is because I never earned any belts while studying martial arts as a kid until age 14. I want to make sure that my students never have the gnawing feeling that I had...that maybe they aren't good enough or like they have to beg to test for their next belt. I truly believe the color belt system found in martial arts (when supported by a strong curriculum and disciplined hard training) is one of the most powerful tools for building confidence, teaching goal setting and as a reward system for hard work.

At the time, I was like "Thanks a lot Mr. Miyagi!" but looking back and being an instructor myself, I say "Thanks a lot Mr. Miyagi, you made me a better instructor!"

I am really excited about seeing the new Karate Kid movie. I hear through the grapevine that it is great!

Since I was a kid I knew my life was going to be dedicated to the pursuit of learning martial arts and teaching it. I don't know why, but I knew it! There was something about it, now looking back as an adult. I realize it was about the martial arts code...one of honor, discipline, respect, loyalty, dedication, hard training, cool uniforms and of course good guys destroying the bad guys.

I continued my martial arts training sporadically at different schools and on my own. I was pretty much a Ronin (Masterless warrior) but I practiced everyday for at least 2 hours. I used to drive my parents crazy, everywhere I went in the house I was punching and kicking. I was always trying to see how high I could kick and how long I could hold my kicks out in mid air. Everywhere my Mom turned there was my foot. It drove her crazy.

Besides training, I was always coming up with imaginative ways to make different types of training equipment. One of the more stupid ideas I came up with was, after watching Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, there was a scene where all of the karate students on Master Han's Island were doing punches into big bowls full of hot sand. So I got the bright idea that, that would make me tough if I could do that. So I got a bunch of sand, heated it up in my Mom's frying pan on the oven, then poured it into a coffee can and like an idiot started doing spear hands into it. It didn't make me any tougher, it just burned my hands. Needless to say, I never did that one again.