Budderfly

I learnt French in French Immersion school from Kindergarden to Grade 10. My parents put me in it, but I am grateful they did. I also want to learn Japanese cause I've always been interested Japan. I want to travel there and be able to converse with people. I also watch a lot of Japanese movies and listen to some music from Japan as well. I love the music but I have no idea what they're saying. Other languages I'm interested in is Spanish, Chinese and Italian. Writing and grammar (French and Japanese) is the hardest part, as well as finding a Japanese course that works with my schedule (I work full time and I'm at martial arts 4-5 evenings out of the week) Like I said above, I took French Immersion in school. It's also the second language of Canada and I am proud to speak it. I've also self-taught myself a bit of Japanese (reasons explained above) with books and tapes, but I need to take a class. I want to make sure I'm pronouncing words correctly. School - effective as you get one on one training. It also has a set cirriculum that makes learning easier to grasp. Books - you can learn the basics through books if you have perseverence, but you get to a point where you're questioning yourself if the words you are speaking make sense. I only did French in school. Our high school unfortunately didn't offer any other language except French. Otherwise I would have taken Japanese or Spanish. After 11 years of French, I felt very fluent in the language. But now that I am 26 and I haven't been given much oppertunity to keep up with it, I feel a little rusty. But I can still watch the movie Amelie without sub-titles.

Our dojang has a huge sense of family. We are all close, we have fun and we motivate each other. We train hard and push ourselves and are there to support each other. Not just in the dojang but outside as well. We still follow the traditional rules in our dojang and our Instructor wants to see us smiling, sweating and learning each class.

That's why I want to move into distributing afterwards.

Passed my test! Woo hoo! Next month I have my big test. I have to do my htorws again (but better), a long staff form and a board break. If I pass, I'll move to the next level of brown belt.

I was thinking, to start online and see how the market bites... but because the demand for a good "all round" martial arts store is high here, I would probably do better with a physical store.

I have a test tomorrow night (Wed) on my brown belt throws. Throws are the hardest application in the martial arts for me to do. It's challanging though... so many technical things to remember.

Ah yes, will make note of that. Thanks White Tiger!

I plan to have a range of different brands as well as cater to all styles of martial arts.

I'm thinking of opening my own martial arts supply store in the next 5 years and have it eventually lead distribution of supplies to schools in western Canada. The demand is large in my area. I'm hoping you can help me with a couple questions. As a consumer, what do you look for in a martial arts supply store? As a school owner, what do you look for in a martial arts supplier? If anyone has any bit of info on supply stores, positive and negative feedback or anything else please post it here.

Our school is mixed martial arts but we pay a little over $1,000 CDN ($600 US) for a year and you get 2 one hour lessons and up to 3 open classes a week (if you want to go). We also don't charge testing fees in our school. It's included. We have the option to pay monthly as well and you can break the contract if you wish to leave.

Karete Kid 2 was my favorite. I'm infatuated with Japan so having the setting there made it more appealing to me.

Front Push Kick

Congrats to your son! Not for just placing 3rd, but to overcome his shyness at the tourney. That was very brave of him to go up and do his best in front of a lot of people.

#2 was my favorite too I wonder what Daniel LaRusso looks like now? (*Google search*)

It's hard to slide your feet on the mats, making kicks harder to execute cause your foot sticks to the ground. Example - Roundhouse Kick. The foot that turns in doens't move as easily. I prefer not to wear them myself.

Yeah, but I don't dwell on it. What they see is what they see and their decision is final. At least I got to spar more people. It was great experience to be against different styles.

Went to the Tiger Balm tournement today and did well. I placed 1st in Weapons forms (I did my long staff pattern) and was eligible for the grand championships, but the coordinator put me in with the regular forms winners. I didn't win it, but that's okay cause I didn't expect to. The guy that did was really good and deserved the win. In my empty hands forms I did a red belt pattern called Tong Moo 8. I placed 4th and the judge said it was really close to 3rd place and he liked what he saw. He came up to me afterwards and told me, so I felt that was really nice of him to take the time and tell me that. In sparring, the judges were messed up. First they screwed up on the scorekeeping and advanced me when they shouldn't have. So I had to fight 3x in a row, but it was worth the experience. Plus the judges kept giving points to my opponent, when I clearly blocked and even my cheering section was like WTF? I even got some points in but I guess the judges didn't see them. Oh well, what can you do? I got 5th anyways. I had a good time and learned a lot, but it was really draining cause there was a lot of waiting time. But the turnout was good. Red Bull gave me wings!

I try to stretch everyday. In the last year I noticed a difference by strecthing more often. When I brush my teeth, I sometimes do it in horseriding stance for the full two minutes.

This one is a large full screen file, but if you have high speed connection, then it shouldn't take too long: http://www.scemo.org/blog/archives/2003_10.php and click on the hyperlink "full screen version" in the blurb.

Sundance is making people pay for it now. Bah... we can find a free viewing. Try this instead: http://www.rhetbear.com/films/Steven%20K%20Tsuchida%20Director.htm - They have been flooded with requests for downloads so they'll be back up shortly. Or if you can download it from your file sharing program. Give it a go. It's worth it. In the meantime, I'll look for more links. I've made it my mission.

AHHH! It was just working a couple days ago. I may have saved it on my FTP somewhere. I'll post it as soon as I can. It's really funny.

http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/showcase01_04.html A 5 minute film short entiled "A ninja pays half my rent" featured at the Sundance film festival. Enjoy. "Would you pass the Syrup please?!"

Our school is the same. Once you get into Brown, you're at the halfway point of earning your black belt. All the basics you learned in the previous belts are applied more in brown belt and it prepared you for black belt.

At Tong Moo Do, our system goes like this: White Yellow Green Blue Purple Red Brown ( which goes on to coloured stripes yellow, green, blue, red and black) Black

At Tour school you start with an all white dobak (or "gi"). After you move from novice to intermediate level OR you've shown commitment to earning your black belt you wear black pants and a white top, which is what I wear when I train. When I am teaching I have a red top and black pants (instructor's uniform). For demo team, we wear a blue top with a large school crest embroidered on the back and black pants. Black Belts wear black pants and black top.