I’m starting to get really excited about the US Open. I can’t wait to compete. I love the surge of adrenaline that you get as you enter the demo surface. It is insane.

Now all I have to do is get good for the tournament. I’m learning a new form today that will hopefully be my primary form. I’ll have a back-up just in case cus…well that would just be prudent.

ANyway, just wanted to drop this note really quickly. And I’m out…

P.S. - I got a Wii.

I wake up in the mornings and slowly try to get out of bed. Once my feet hit the ground, I bend over and here the rat-tat-tat-tat-tat of my spine stretching out. The sink calls my name as I sleep walk to the bathroom and my shoulders need to be massaged. That was me 2 and a half years ago.

Now I wake up with only a rat-tat-tat. 8) I slide out of bed and the day starts a little bit smoother. @ and a half years of stretching will do that for ya.

I’d like to think of this as a step up from what I used to be/act/live. Now its a little bit better and I like it that way. I aim to keep it improving. Getting to the next level is a natural need, want desire for us all. Tonight I worked with 4 kids from the age of 10 to 15 who all improved a little bit today. One can throw a better knock-out kick while another improved a form. The other 2 improved on a jumping triple kick that we work on.

Its not just them that get better. Every time I remind one of them of something, I’m cementing that same property in me. Whats even better is that it makes me feel better to see them improve. Even though I’m essentially on the DL, it gives me great solace and incomparable joy to be able to assist them. As long as they keep improving, I’m more than glad to not be able to train like I want.

This week was a complete pain from start to finish. Besides several personal issues split between my lady friend and office work.

The only good that I’ve really encountered this week is that one of my older brothers was in town. It was nice to have him around and good to see him. (Side note - Out of my 5 siblings only 1 lives in FL. The rest are spread out between Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. We don’t often get to see each other, but it is good when we can.)

Along with that, my knee is starting to feel much better. I taught yesterday morning and through a kick in demonstration that lands on my left leg. Hurt like a bitch, but there was no pain afterwards. Just a mater of strengthening now. A little over one week and I’ll be training again. Don’t think there isn’t a countdown going…until next time.

So I wake up Monday morning and my knee…doesn’t feel great, but certainly doesn’t feel bad. So I throw a couple of kicks (none jumping, don’t want to wake the whole house up) and it feels okay. 5 minute later it its throbbing a bit, but not too bad. This is something I would normally attempt to train with. 30 minutes later I make an appointment at my doctors office to get it checked out.

Flashback - The previous Saturday, Master John (schools owner) tells me to go have it checked out. As I’m not in the habit of angering 6th degree blackbelts, I will happily go get it checked out, even if I wouldn’t mind training on it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into hurting myself anymore, but after not training for a few weeks I’d welcome the real workout.

So I go to the doctor for a late afternoon appointment at 3:30. Finally get into an exam room and I hear the doc outside asking her nurse “is this my last one for the day?” She pops into another room. Comes out 5 minutes later asks the same question and her nurse answers “No, you’ve got 2 more after this one.” So the doctor comes into my room, listens to me tell her about my symptoms. She writes everything down and asks me to show her my knee. 10 seconds of feeling around my knee she tells me that I probably sprained my knee originally, but now it is just a mild strain and I need to stay off it for another 2 weeks before I start training again. After doing this, she quickly proceeds out of the room.

…

Um yeah, great thorough 3 minute assessment. I should feel real good about that yeah. Oh well, I’ll take any good news at this time, even iff it was from a medical professional that wants to leave the office early. Oh well, they say never to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ll take the next 2 weeks off for the health of my knee, but then I’m stepping it up to a new level of training. US Open cometh…and I want to represent.

Throughout life, progression is a natural process. We see it most openly and blatantly in the martial arts with a person that journeys through a particular system. It is most apparent in rank, different colors that symbolize KNOWLEDGE not skill.

(Interesting Fact - when martial arts were created, there was no rank system. The uniforms you see today are essentially what people used as underwear in Asian societies. The belts were often white and became darker as they were soiled through training. This eventually gave someone the brilliant idea {probably a Westerner} of creating color belt systems and assigning ranks to inspire competition between students with the goal of raising their skills faster.)

We, as humans all progress in stages at life. We are born, grow and mature, then pass on - to put it very simply. As we move through the stages of life, we change, learn, hopefully become wiser, and in a way culminate in some heightened plain of consciousness if we are lucky. This is the same in the martial arts. Obtaining a new rank symbolizes the greater acquisition of knowledge. The ability to teach, to correct one’s self, and to learn not only skills, but improved interaction with everyone they get in contact with.

When I think of this topic after the last week, I am reminded of one of my students. He started about 6 months ago and has just passed his second rank test. I remember the first time he came in and I tried teaching him a simple kick. (Picture me laughing here) I won’t go into the story, but it took me about 15 minutes to calm him down enough so that he would just go kicking around without listening to what I was saying. Yesterday, I was speaking to his mother, letting him know how much better he has gotten and she confided to me that I wasn’t the only one that has seen that. It turns out that he has been doing better in school, taking criticism from all sorts of adults. Progression. Who would have thought with this one…not me. I’m glad I was wrong.