Michael Miller's 5th Degree Black Belt Promotion

A huge congratulations goes out to Michael Miller on his promotion on February 12, 2012 to 5th Degree Black Belt (Associate Professor) in American Kenpo under Chinese Karate Federation (CKF) President, Sean Kelley.

Since 2008, Michael and I have become close friends who train together at least 3-4 times per year. Michael runs one of the best Kenpo Karate programs in all of the United States, and is an awesome instructor and role model. I can't think of anyone more deserving of that rank.

GM Dennis Tosten Seminar

This past Sunday I attended a sparring seminar by GM Dennis Tosten in London, Ontario. Mr. Tosten taught the importance of moving just enough distance away from your attacker where you are safe from being hit, but where can still effectively counter. He also taught how to use zones of sanctuary when our opponent is attacking so that we are on a safer angle from being hit while quickly counterattacking. We worked on foot maneuvers, jabs, roundhouse kicks, hook kicks, cross punches, defense side kicks, back knuckle strikes, and even spinning back kicks.

It was great to finally see Mr. Tosten again as it had been 16 years since I last attended one of his seminars.

The seminar was also attended by three blacks from my school: Matt Trejo, Evan Wiley, and Brennan Weatherhead.

Above are a couple of pictures from the event.