World Karate & Kickboxing Council (WKC) National Team Tryouts

This past weekend, Dana Broadhead, a 3rd Degree Brown Belt in American Kenpo Karate at my school, competed at the WKC Canadian Championships in Ottawa, Ontario. I am pleased to announce that Dana won 1st place in the Women’s 18+ Chinese/soft style forms division with Long Form 4, and 3rd place in the Women’s 18+ traditional weapons division with Tonfa Set 1. Dana has thus qualified for the Canadian team in both divisions, with the World Championships being held in Cadiz, Spain, October 31-November 5, 2011.

Luke’s Grade 1 Speech on Kenpo Karate

Below you find a link to a simply awesome speech given by one of my youngest students, Luke. His vocabulary and ability to memorize is incredible. I am so proud of him! ENJOY!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJRkAbhqlQQ&feature=share

Amazing Vacation!!

I just got back yesterday from an amazing vacation with my family in Florida. The weather was awesome! We were gone for a full two weeks, and spent much of our time swimming and hanging out by the pool. We also spent a full day at Disney World (Magic Kingdom). I really liked Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (although, admittedly, the latter freaked me out!!).

It was awesome spending so much time with my beautiful wife, Chantel, and my lovely daughters, Morgan and Madison. I swear Chantel gets more gorgeous by the day!! My father-in-law, Glenn, also came with us, as did some very close friends of ours (the Baker’s).

Two hilarious things that I will remember about my daughters on this trip were: (1) Madison doing the Macarena for 30 cents in front of everyone at the pool; and (2) Morgan was laughing hysterically on Splash Mountain thinking that Justin was so scared on the ride for the first time!!

As this is a Kenpo blog, I should also mention that I had plenty of free time to train hard. Here is what I did over the past 2 weeks:

446 self-defense techniques (including the entire system with extensions), taught 3 private lessons, Blocking Set 1 (4X), Blocking Set 2 (4X), Kicking Set 1 (2X), Kicking Set 2 (2X), Coordination Set 1, Coordination Set 2, Finger Set 1 (4X), Finger Set 2 (2X), Striking Set 1 (2X), Striking Set 2 (2X), Stance Set 1 (3X), Stance Set 2 (3X), Staff Set, Short Form 1 (5X), Short Form 2 (3X), Short Form 3 (2X), Long Form 1 (2X), Long Form 2 (2X), Long Form 3, Long Form 4 (3X), Long Form 5, Long Form 6, Long Form 8, Book Set, Tiger and Crane (2X), Breathing Law (2X), 6 days of weight training, 380 pushups, and 380 sit-ups.

Longe Hun Gwan (Wandering Dragon Staff)

About one year ago, I decided that I wanted to put up a wide variety of weapons forms on youtube for people to see. Since that time, I have put up 2 tonfa forms, 1 single stick form, 1 double stick form, 1 long staff (bo) form, and 1 double knife form. About 3 years ago, I also put up a saber form.

Last night, Chantel taped me performing another long staff form, called "Longe Hun Gwan" (Wandering Dragon Staff). Longe Hun Gwan is part of the Black Dragon System of Kung Fu, of which I am also a black belt. I am thankful to have learned this form from my former Kung Fu instructor, martial arts legend, Paul Chau. The link to the form can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B8GdyTBZeQ

Great Time at 4th Annual Kenpo Karate Boot Camp

On March 20th, I had the opportunity of teaching three American Kenpo seminars at the 4th Annual Dynamic Academy of Martial Arts Boot Camp in Sarnia, Ontario, hosted by 6th Degree Black Belt, Rob Broad. Matt Trejo, one of my 3rd Degree Black Belts, was also a guest instructor at the camp. In my first seminar, I showed how Dance of Death, Thundering Hammers and Sleeper are family related techniques and how the what-if phase of training can be used to determine which technique should be used in a given situation. In my second seminar, I taught Short Form 3, and demonstrated the opposites and reverses throughout the form when executing the techniques. In my final seminar, I helped students improve their kickboxing skills by working various pad drill combinations. The last part of the seminar finished with some continuous fighting.

I was also very impressed by the dedication and talent of Rob Broad’s students, and Matt Trejo did a phenomenal job in showing how Striking Set 1 could be utilized in more practical, fighting applications. Rob Broad’s classes on Short Form 2 and weaponry were also very exciting.

Above are a couple of pictures from the event.

Sean Kelley Seminars in Bradford, PA

Are you ready to take your martial art skills to the next level? If so, you will not want to miss the following Sean Kelley seminars hosted by my good friend, Michael Miller, May 20-21, 2011, in Bradford, Pennsylvania:

Friday, May 20 (6:00-7:30pm) Storm Techniques
Saturday, May 21 (1:00 – 2:30pm) Knife class
Saturday, May 21 (3:00 – 4:00pm) Kickboxing
Saturday, May 21 (4:00 - 4:30pm) Open sparring

The cost for all students traveling to this event is only $50. Checks can be made out to "Miller's Dojo."

Be there!

Summary of Last Weekend’s Kenpo Karate Seminars

Thanks to everyone who came out to my seminars last Friday night. In the first seminar, I taught the children Short Form 2. In the adult seminar, I focused on evolving techniques beginning with single-person attacks, and how those same techniques are then used subsequently in two-man attack scenarios. In the first seminar, I focused on proper utilization of the power principles, namely - torque, marriage of gravity, and backup mass. In the second seminar, the vast majority of the time was spent working the techniques on partners, and learning how to understand the moves in the ideal phase, what-if phase, and the formulation phase. Both of the seminars were well attended. Above are a couple of photos from the event.