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.