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In the NCAA Championship game Denver defeated Wisconsin 2-1 to win the National Championship game. Congratulations to the Denver Pioneers. It is their 11th National Championship, second in three years, and third in six years. In the NHL the Golden Knights clinched a playoff spot with an OT win against Colorado. The Oilers are also in, so there are two spots left in the West with the Ducks, Kings, and Preds fighting it out. The Jets and Sharks are barely hanging on by a thread, and the Blues and Kraken have been eliminated. In the east the Senators, Canadians, and Bruins are all in. Two spots left in that conference as well between the Flyers, Blue Jackets. Capitals, and Islanders. Red Wings are out.

This is a list of pointers I saw on FB titled: Defeating Bigger Opponents (TKDCoachAcademy). I believe this list is mainly taking the approach of sparring a taller/longer opponent, and that’s what I’ll be addressing unless I note it in the comments. 1. Size = Your Advantage 2. Stay Off Edges (Space = Control) 3. Use Speed to Disrupt Rhythm 4. Counter or Preempt, Don’t Rush 5. Control Distance Always 6. Avoid End of Their Reach 7. Stay Outside or Close In Smart 8. Use Feints -> Create Hesitation 9. Strong Side Kick -> Push Back 10. Be First and Be Gone My thoughts: Size = Your Advantage I’m thinking this is more of a mindset to take than an actuality. It’s a good one to take, because you can’t really do anything about a height disparity; you can’t train yourself to get taller. The sooner you can get over the fact that you’re short and will likely continue to be so, the sooner you can move on with actually training to get better at it. Otherwise, I’m trying to think of other ways that being shorter can be to my advantage. I believe my advantage comes into play once I do get inside. I’ll stand in and bang without a problem. I don’t mind trading punches in class, especially when no points are being called. In a point-sparring scenario, this can be an issue, especially if it’s a game of tag. First point gets called usually. And a flurry of exchanges can muddy things up to the point that refs might not call a point until they see something “clean.” Keeping the opponent’s hands busy blocking and then finishing with either a high kick or a kick to the body that makes some space at the same time are strategies that have worked for me here. Stay Off Edges (Space = Control) I believed this to mean staying off the edges of the ring. I confirmed this with the author of the post that this is the case. The author also commented that “the more space behind your back the more options.” I agree. Pressing the advantage is always preferrable to retreating, unless you are baiting someone with the retreat and have a plan. Ring control is important in any competition fight. The shorter fighter already has to deal with the range of the taller fighter. Controlling the ring is paramount in nullifying the height advantage. I try to do this by cutting angles and using good footwork, but I’ll be the first to admit that my footwork needs work. I do believe another aspect of ring control is through the use of techniques. It isn’t uncommon to refer to the side kick as the jab of Taekwondo. Good use of the side kick to keep a taller opponent at bay, coupled with footwork (before or after the kick) can help one to obtain control of the sparring area. Front kicks can help to an extent here, as well, but I feel the side kick has more reach and doesn’t square your body up as much. The sparring we do in our dojang doesn’t typically allow hand techniques to the head, but due to some emerging circumstances in seeking out more tournament opportunities, we have been experimenting with it here and there in order to prepare our students for tournaments with different rule sets. I can see how the jab or a quick backfist to the head would be a boon to helping control distance in ITF sparring. Although, in the sparring clips I’ve seen from the ITF, I don’t see a lot of traditional jabbing like it is done in boxing. It’s more of a flurry of straight punches to the head in an attempt to overwhelm an opponent. Use Speed to Disrupt Rhythm I like the premise of this, but I think it is easier said than done, and not applicable for everyone. Speed is based on explosiveness, and the level of explosiveness that someone can achieve is highly affected by their genetics. I think everyone can do work to get closer to their genetic potential, but not everyone’s potential is going to be the same. I also believe there are more aspects to consider here than just raw speed. Movement speed is one aspect, but recognition and reaction are also areas that can affect how fast we perceive someone to be. Learning to read and recognize the techniques an opponent is going to attack with can lead to intercepting and countering quicker, even if the fighter is naturally slower in general. Each of these criteria should be trained in order to make this premise really work to your advantage. Counter or Preempt, Don’t Rush I like the premise here as well, yet it kind of comes with the same caveats I mentioned above. A shorter fighter needs to learn to read an opponent and learn their tendencies early on in order to set up an advantage later in the match. We might be talking minutes here, or rounds; it just depends on the timetable. Learning an opponent’s tendencies has two parts: learning their tendencies when they are initiating and learning their tendencies when reacting to what you do. As a shorter fighter, learning a taller fighter’s initiation tendencies helps to recognize the preparation or setup for the attacks, therefore helping speed up the shorter fighter through reading and recognition, and therefore setting up a good interception or counter technique. It may be more difficult for a shorter fighter to initiate offensive techniques against the taller fighter due to the reach disparity, but that doesn’t mean a shorter fighter can’t use some dummy techniques to figure out how the taller fighter reacts to them and then start using them to bait the taller fighter. Years ago, we had a Greek student that was in our college Taekwondo class who had come from an Olympic sparring school. He liked to stomp his front foot all the time, usually getting a reaction out of the person he was sparring. Sometimes they’d freeze and “hunker down,” expecting a technique, and he could catch them flat-footed and go. Other times, a student would throw a lead leg side kick in response to the stomp, fearing he was closing and attacking. He could wait for the side kick and counter accordingly. Some of the more experienced sparrers wouldn’t really react to it at all. Either way, he learned something from his opponent by stomping, using this technique as bait. He knew if he could draw the fighter into a reaction that he wanted he could set up his next technique accordingly and go on the offensive. A shorter fighter can use some early techniques, like front leg side kicks or round kicks, that may not necessarily be thrown with the intent to score but rather with the intent to see the opponent’s reaction and use that information to bait the opponent later on. If the shorter fighter has a natural speed advantage over the taller fighter, the shorter fighter can use his speed to preempt the taller fighter, getting inside and gaining the advantage. If the shorter fighter is not naturally faster, using baiting tactics can help overcome the lack of speed and preempting the taller fighter through the setups. Lastly, I think not rushing is an important consideration to this premise as well. Getting in a hurry and rushing the game plan can lead to just getting poked and kept at the taller fighter’s range, giving them the advantage. Be patient, learn some tendencies, and try to set things up. Control Distance Always Controlling the distance as mentioned here, in my mind, is in regard to controlling your distance in regard to the taller fighter. The shorter fighter either needs to be outside their range, or inside their range and controlling the pace there. Controlling the range from outside should be done by cutting angles while backing up/retreating as little as possible. Throwing techniques that you know can’t hit the taller fighter is a good way to get tired sooner, and using footwork to create angles helps to cut the distance into their range just a bit so they have to respect the techniques and be ready to defend. That same footwork needs to be combined with defenses against the taller fighter’s attacks, as opposed to backing up and blocking. I think we all realize that people going forward tend to move faster than people going backward, and that’s what the taller fighter wants out of this exchange. We shorter fighters can’t give it to them. We have to live just outside the danger zone and use footwork to get inside that danger zone to initiate our offense. Once inside and initiating offense, the shorter fighter needs to control the distance here, too. If the shorter fighter can continue to press the attack from inside the taller fighter’s range, this is to the shorter fighter’s advantage. The shorter fighter has to keep pressing the attack, but in such a way as to not get so carried away that we leave ourselves open to a counterattack that puts us back at their range. Once inside, if I feel it’s time to regain some distance, I like to use a clearing technique, like a side kick or front kick that pushes the taller fighter away, or a series of punches that they just want to back away from. One thing is for sure, though; once the shorter fighter gets inside, controlling that space for as long as possible is advantageous. The short fighter needs to bring his go-to moves to bear on the taller fighter, ensuring a scoring finish. Avoid End of Their Reach This is a pretty obvious point. Either be inside their range, or just outside it. Staying outside the range can be fairly easily done with good footwork and movement around the ring. However, it is not advantageous to be way outside their range, for several reasons. For one, if I want to close from way outside, the taller fighter can usually see it coming and start poking me from their range as I close. Another reason is because I think this just plays into the taller fighter’s advantage, because if they want to initiate, they can just start pressing, especially if you give them room to run. By rule, the taller fighter will probably close quicker, unless they are just really slow or have bad setups or telegraphing footwork. I find I just have to find that “happy place” where I’m just outside their range, but not so far away that it puts me at a disadvantage. From there, it’s a matter of learning tendencies and baiting attacks to block and maneuver around to get inside. I think on the other side of this coin is that it’s important that the shorter fighter doesn’t get caught up just inside the taller fighter’s range, either. Once I get inside, I need to really be inside, to the point they either have to kick high or I am jamming up their kicks. If I’m just inside their range, they can usually poke me out of range and I have to start all over. Stay Outside or Close in Smart Odd wording, but I’ll speak to how I interpret it. I covered a bulk of this in the previous point of avoiding the end of their reach. Either stay outside the range, or close in. But when I’m in close, I have to be smart about what I’m doing. Again, some of the keys to getting close are learning tendencies and baiting attacks and good footwork. While I’m still on the subject of being on the inside, I’ll talk about a tactic I use and teach called “crossing the T.” When we are sparring, we usually face each other in very bladed stances, in order to keep strong attacking tools in front and close to the opponent, and to keep a smaller profile and provide less target opportunities for each other. I think most everyone understands what I’m talking about here. As long as two fighters hold their initial positions, all things being equal, each fighter has 50/50 opportunities. But being the shorter fighter, I want those scoring opportunities to be more like 70/30 or 80/20, or even better in a perfect world. It would be like / / for a closed stance and / \ for open stance (but bladed even more). I want to use some footwork to cut about a 45-degree angle to the inside of an attack, like a side kick or a round kick. I call it “cutting an angle” (others probably do, too). If I can cut the angle right, I’ll still have my body in a bladed position while the opponent’s whole body is facing me, like a T. Once I “cross the T,” I can start unloading a lot of offense that my opponent is going to have to work really hard to block because their body is full facing me. Their first priority is probably going to be to get side-on again, so I have a small advantage for a short amount of time to press the attack while on the inside in a smart manner. Use Feints -> Create Hesitation I’ve already talked about these points above. Using feints to learn tendencies is helpful for setting up the path to get inside. I guess I didn’t really mention using aggressive feints to create hesitation in the opponent. When I think about feints, I usually think in terms of an attack that isn’t fully committed so I don’t overextend. However, there is an advantage to be gained by having strong, aggressive feinting motions to cause the opponent to hesitate and perhaps freeze just long enough to bridge the gap to get inside. I have played with throwing hard back leg round kick chambers to see what that causes an opponent to do. Combining that with strong back leg round kicks is a good way to create hesitation. Strong Side Kick -> Push Back I kind of covered this idea previously as well. A strong side kick can be a good deterrent to an opponent that keeps coming in. The trick for the short fighter, though, is if I can hit them with my side kick, then they can probably reach me with theirs. If I’m faster than them, then it’s great. If they are faster, then I have to use timing and probably stepping to keep them back. A good front leg side kick can go a long way in sparring. A good reverse side kick can change things up on the opponent and accomplish the same goals as well. Be First and Be Gone This is kind of referred to in other areas above, but bears mentioning. Being first is vitally important for the shorter fighter against the taller fighter. Being behind the initiative can make for a long game of catch-up. Being fast is great, if you’re fast. If not, though, then it goes back to learning tendencies in order to speed up the perception, which speeds up the perception of how fast you really are (if that makes sense). Being first is helpful for getting control of the exchange and making the attacks count. Once the initiative is gone, then it’s time to be gone as well. Get in, score, get out safely. Clearing techniques are great for helping to “get gone.” I talked earlier about using good footwork to get inside and “cross the T,” but good footwork also has to be used to help get out without presenting scoring opportunities to the opponent. Conclusion This is not meant to be a definitive set of answers to the above pointers. These are just my interpretations of them, along with ideas and strategies that I’ve found to be somewhat helpful over the years. I’ve never really thought of myself as a good sparrer, and I’ve always struggled against the taller opponents. Finding better ways to train students so they don’t struggle as much as I did is one of my goals when coaching sparring. I look forward to input from others, even if they are from other styles and rulesets. I’m very interested in what drills others have to work towards this end.

Elements of this were touched upon in the Hikite Topic. There are some peculiar ideas about how to generate power with the human body which are in fact at best poorly informed, and at worst, entirely disconnected from actual ergonomic and sport science. Thus, I would hypothesise some of what is being seen as poor structure are attempts to achieve a communicated idea which has not been properly transmitted or was misinformed in the first place. The worst example I personally notice is the idea of the back being straight, and what happens is people tend to push their chest and hips forward, rather than straightening the spine by raising the head through the crown. The prior causes the leaning back affect as mentioned in the opening post. My inclination would be to blame the instructors in most instances. They either do not care to make the corrections (Whether they are more lax at junior levels, or they do not consider them essential), or and I fear this to be just as likely, they do not know how to make these corrections. Once you know the benefits of good structure in fighting arts it is impossible not to care. Especially, if the fighting arts are a passion to you. Another factor at play is what I call middle of the road karate. Where the training has not settled on a paradigm: Sport, Budo, Practical, or Neo-Classical. By those terms I mean the following – Sport: Training to compete in one of the various models of competition available, with a focus on game theory, sport specific conditioning, and competition preparation. Budo: What emerged in Japanese Karate in the 1930s and reached its final form in the 50s/60s. May better be called Traditional or Three K Karate. Training through repetition of Kihon, Kata and Yakusoku Kumite (Pre-Arranged kumite which may or may not be based on Kata movements). With the results of training tested through Jiyu Kumite. Practical: Self-Defence orientated with an emphasis on conditioning for physical self-defence through pad-work, resistance-based drills, and Jissen Kumite. Can be bunkai led but if there is kata analysis it is focused on whether the fighting skills being practiced are effective for modern concerns. Congruence with the original context of the kata, or being informed by investigating traditional and historical methods, is secondary (Or possibly unimportant) to whether the techniques work under resistance when tested. Neo-Classical: Shares much in common with the practical paradigm. It is bunkai and kata led, informed by investigation and experimentation with traditional and historical methods, and seeks to be congruent with both the realities of physical violence (The human body has not changed significantly in hundreds of thousands of years) and with the historical context of Kata and Karate Principles. Kobudo practice is also important in this paradigm as the weapons of Okinawan Martial arts ultimately inform the assumptions, conceits, and ideas that historically shaped Okinawa Te and Ryukyu Kempo. Middle of the Road Karate is when people have taken some things from an emerging paradigm but have not fundamentally altered their practice. I have seen a lot of Budo or Traditional karate systems, which were the mainstream until the 90s, adopt elements from practical karate but only the framework with none of the substance. For example, doing Bunkai but it is essentially Yakusoku Kumite. It is pre-arranged, one step sparring where the defence comes a kata movement but without contextualisation through other drills that consider the kata sequentially. Another would be incorporating striking pads, but in a manner similar to boxercise where it is striking for the sake of fitness, and not as a coaching tool to get better to striking. The result of this Middle of the Road approach is that rather than improving on what was already there it is just fed even further into the “trying to get good at several sports under one umbrella” dilemma of the Three K Approach. What I mean by this is that the Three K approach often has significant disconnection between the three. Kihon waza are practiced in a way that differs from how they are used during Jiyu Kumite, and Yakusoku kumite is done at a miai which is again different from that of Jiyu Kumite. Thus, practice is built around trying to get better at three different things. By adding pad work and bunkai without adding what makes padwork and bunkai valuable it is just trying to do more with the same amount of time and getting poorer results. Confused training will produce confused results. I suspect this may be the root cause of these slipping standards. In regard to my own experience each of my instructors has somewhat had different foci when it comes to structure. However, all of them did consider structure important, and it was usually where I would find myself pulled up on during gradings and directed on where to improve. My first instructors were very much focused on hand and foot alignment. Aragaki Sensei could tear anyone’s posture apart and find ways to make it better. I honestly thought I had wasted my teenage and young adult years when I first underwent his corrections. My current instructor is very much about principles and structure following on from Aragaki Sensei’s example. As I have got older (I am 36 so still young by average life expectancy but passed my prime athletically) the only thing that I have found I am able to consistently improve are: 1. Structure through postural training 2. Sensitivity – Proprioception of my own body to improve the timing of my techniques, and my ability perceive my opponent’s intent through touch As such, I would say I spend most of my time coaching giving feedback on structure over anything else. It is what I am always considering when grading people. My system of advancement is not knowledge based but competency based. Which is to say I do not rank people on if they know XYZ kata, but rather when they perform the kata are they displaying the quality of karate I expect

That’s why cross training means so much to me because I don’t believe in the “this and that” techniques either. The more I can reference in a real life situation the better across the board.

Don't know why it seems like I just saw this, but hey, that's ok. I've found the more I roll in BJJ class that principles are a better way to look at things as opposed to "this or that technique." Principles will apply to techniques, and this is the better way to train. Of course, having a base of techniques to reference is also helpful.

4/10/2026 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 95x5, 135x3, 155x1, 175x3, 195x3, 205x3, 215x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 155x1, 180x5, 180x5, 180x5. Power Cleans: 75x3, 95x3, 115x3, 125x3. Deadlifts: 135x3, 185x2, 225x1, 245x3, 245x3. Full body workout in today. Sets of 3 on squats and deadlifts are making a difference in my head not exploding. When I sat down rep 3 on the deadlift, I thought about going for the 4th rep, but as I took in the breath, I felt the pressure in my head start to build. I took that as a sign to let it set and hit another set of 3 after a rest. The last set went well. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Three warmup rounds, about 3 minutes each. I've decided to focus on a different approach to the warmup rounds; I'm just going to focus on working on position; maintaining good positions or improving position. And when I get better, I'll work on transitioning from one advantageous position to another. Not going to be trying to submit, but will try to see and recognize the opportunities, maybe even briefly attack and then stop and move on. Focus tonight was on leg entanglements. We started with games focused on starting in and holding the position, and they progressed from there. Keeping the knee line. We progressed to top player starting standing and seated player working on getting the leg entanglement from seated and tripping, then holding position. We started seated and got into the entangled position, then went from there. We finished by working on ankle locks and heel hooks. I got a couple of rounds of free rolling in. I ended up submitting to knee on belly position. I was stuck there too long and it just overwhelmed me and couldn't breath. Some time ago I mentioned in one of these posts after a Taekwondo class that a couple of college athletes came in to use the TKD floor to do some grappling, and I stopped and chatted with them for a bit. Good kids. I told them about the Jiu-Jitsu school. Well, they made it in tonight. It was cool to have them in there, but in a way it wasn't, because they just kicked my butt. Younger, athletic, and of course taller than me. But such good kids. It was cool to see them make it in, and hopefully I get to train with them some more in the future as their schedule (and mine) allows.

That's probably a good idea. Throwing Mendoza right into the fire won't be super beneficial, and he'll get a chance to see how a pro prepares for a game. He could learn quite a bit from watching Cousins for the first 4 or so weeks of the season.

4/9/2026 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning Class. Loosened up and then got into technique work. Katatetori sankyo, omote and ura: I struggled with ura. I have to focus on driving uke's elbow to their hip with the step and turn that is required of the ura variation. I struggled with the entry, too. Maybe overthinking it.

Is Karate in this Olympics?

I don't currently use any fixed blades for work, just a folder. I think I'd like to have a bit longer blade; I think it's only about 3". I've seen some blades that are referred to as "last ditch knives," and they are shaped like a karambit. Something fairly slim that wouldn't take up a lot of space on the belt or on the vest with a comfortable grip and possibly a thumb hole. I'm not sure I'm much help.

4/8/2026 Strength Training Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 127.5x5, 127.5x5, 127.5x5. Lat Pull-downs: 122.5x10, 122.5x10, 122.5x10.

4/6/2026 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3. Had a long break before the last set. Too long. Next time I won't get distracted for so long.

I learned about structure very early on, and preach it often when I teach classes, especially in stances. When striking, I teach that power comes from the ground, up through the body, and without proper structure, strikes are moot. In Aikido I find structure to be just as important, and am learning it in a different manner, and I see that when my techniques don't seem to be working quite right, I can trace the root of the problem back to structure. I wonder if these schools that you are seeing this problem from stems from the possibility that they don't hit anything? Hitting a makiwara is one thing; hit that with bad structure and you'll soon realize it. But even striking heavy bags, kicking shields, and focus mitts can help to see the leaks in a weak structure. That kind of immediate feedback should help students with these issues to realize their issues.

4/3/2026 Strength Training Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x3, 135x1, 175x5, 175x5, 175x5. Barbell Curls: 55x15, 55x15, 55x15. Triceps Push-downs: 65x15, 65x15, 65x15.

Boy howdy, I hope it's not the tumor. Keep up the fight! I'll keep praying.

4/2/2026 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning Class. Loosened up, then jumped right into technique work. In these morning classes we finish a lot of the techniques in a stretch until we are feeling warmed up enough to take ukemi. Technique work was 5th kyu focused. Munestski kotegashi: It felt like I was getting up high doing it on the right side, especially on the entry. I wasn't blending as well. Shomenuchi kotegashi: I need to blend better here, too. Kaitenange: Several versions. I've got a testing date set for May 12th. I'm excited for it, but there is a lot of material in this testing. I'm going to be reviewing more video to get prepared. Aikido: 3:30 - 4:30 pm. Club Class. Mostly technique work. Shomenuchi iriminage: Did ok here. Shomenuchi iriminage omote: Struggled with this one. The tenkan and turn, and keeping uke close enough was a task. My entry here needs work. I did do some falling, but switched it up and finished in stretches as well. My back was still pretty sore.

My wife, Linda, and I just finished with my doctor appointment. The news is good and bad!! The good news is that my cancer didn’t return; I’m still in complete remission. The bad news is that I might have a brain tumor the size of an egg. That will require a biopsy and PETScan of my brain in order to determine if it’s a tumor or old blood clot. Appointments and test forthcoming.

No worries, Bob. Just wanted to make sure it was clear. Thanks.

Hello, everyone, As some of you may know, in addition to being a martial artist, I am also a bladesmith, so I am constantly thinking about knife designs, their uses, and their pros/cons. That said, I don't have much formal knife training, in a martial arts sense. I'm curious to get your input on the knife designs you like best for your martial arts--not necessarily specific brands and models, but design features. What length of blade do you like best? What blade shape? What handle shape? What tang style? Etc.

Unfortunately, kobudo weapon makers are hard to come by, in general, and many only make some of the weapons, not all of them, so it is going to depend on exactly what weapon you're looking for. It will probably be easier to find a bo maker than a sai maker, for example.

Haisai, everyone, Lately, I've been seeing a lot of videos on social media from various different martial arts schools from around the world where intermediate (and even some advanced) students lack basic structure and alignment. Obviously, different styles will do things differently, but there are still some fundamentals that are pretty much universal, since there are only so many ways to use the human body to effectively combat another human body. For example, when punching, I very often see these students with their wrists cocked back in the natural gripping position, rather than having their knuckles aligned with their forearm. When in front stances, I often see front knees buckling inward instead of being positioned above the foot. I also notice that many end up with their torso leaning backward in a variety of different stances. I had to correct all of these fundamenals within the first 3 belt ranks, and would never have been allowed to progress beyond those beginner ranks with the form I have been seeing. Within Okinawan karate, the concept of chinkuchi (muscle/sinew and bone) is a very important structural focus, and while I realize that not all karate styles know what chinkuchi is, I would think that the idea of proper structure and alignment would be something all instructors understood the importance of. I am curious as to your experiences with this sort of thing. Did you have to learn these fundamentals early on, or were you allowed to progress into intermediate or advanced ranks without them being corrected. If you were allowed to progress without them, do you know why?

That looks like an excellent session! Several finals and medal matches - i am jealous!

Vegas took their first loss under Tortz, but it was a SO loss, so they still got standings point. The Utah Mammoth have clinched their first playoff spot in their third season after moving from Arizona.

In the NCAA Frozen Four, Denver defeated the #1 team in the country, Michigan, 4-3 in double overtime. It was a heck of a game! Denver will face Wisconsin, who upset the #2 team in the country, North Dakota, 2-1. The Championship game is on Saturday in Las Vegas, so you have to be there to see it live. Of course you can watch it on TV also. It starts at 5pm on ESPN if you are interested. Denver and Wisconsin, two underdogs playing for the national title.

Yes. I’m just 5 hours north of Los Angeles. I’ve plans to attend as much as I can of Judo and TKD events. Will try to see Track and Field, Diving, Fencing, Swimming, and Equestrian. If able to, I’ll see what else I can!! Bad thing is that my wife and I can only attend the weekend events due to my wife’s work schedule as a school teacher. One thing I’ll be looking for is to eat at Cupid Hot Dogs, a staple of my youth and a must as an adult, in the San Fernando Valley which is north of Los Angeles just over the Santa Monica Mountains.