April 12, 2010

Graphix' Epic Battle

They say your first trip to Las Vegas you will never forget. "They" have been proven correct by my short 12-hour experience in Vegas. Although most of it was spent in the Flamingo Hotel, anxiously practicing my Kata and internally battling my nerves, I had a blast. My experience was rather unique to most of my fellow Cedar Ridge Karate Champions. This was my first Championship in which I competed in the 18 through 35 year old bracket. My first impression was a minor freak out at the size of my competitors. But then I centered myself and remembered my confidence that Christine always tells me I should probably have. Once I was called my nerves abandoned me and all I could think about was Kata. I competed with Heian Sandan and did not achieve a place. Surprisingly, after I got over the feeling of having the sun blocked out by a very large Samoan man who wants nothing more than to land a reverse punch near and around your face, I did really well in Kumite (sparring). I placed fourth after sparring 6 matches, winning 3 and loosing 3. I felt like a champion, standing next to the huge Australian guys with a 4th place metal around my neck, I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride in myself and the techniques I have learned from Rob, Christine, and Wes. Forever now, Mr. Sean Haggardy has agreed to call me none other than The Great Rocky Balboa.

April 8, 2010

Brown Belt Spirit


Do brown belts really have magical powers?


There's the smile!

For the first time in Cedar Ridge Shotokan history, a student earned a belt through his perseverance and performance at a tournament. We held kyu exams shortly before the tournament in Las Vegas, and the students in our most advanced group were close to passing, but Rob felt they needed a little more work before they truly passed. One of those students was One.

After watching One compete in Las Vegas, we decided that his mental performance in the Park City tournament and in the Ozawa Cup put him over the edge to passing. (I got to tell him on the way back to the house in St. George!)

This is an example of how the belts in the dojo tie in to the level system. One is a brown belt in and out of the dojo--level headed, strong, committed, and genuine.

Congratulations!

Most Memorable Moments

I currently have the students writing these for me, so stay posted.

April 6, 2010

The swift attack on Las Vegas.

As you might have noticed from the title of this blog, we (Cedar Ridge Academy's karate kids) made an attack on Saturday the 3rd on Las Vegas Nevada. We annihilated countries like Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada, Poland, and Mexico. Us Americans were probably the minority at this tournament. It was gigantic, lets just put it that way.
Before the day of the tournament i encountered a rather horrendous experience. I was climbing on a play structure in St. George, and the wood roof sliced half of my mole on my back off. I ran very fast into the house to find blood dripping all down my back. Fortunately Tactical Medic Robert Neilson was there to assist.
overall, the trip was amazing. I have never had so much fun in a sober environment. looking for Lexi was a blast and the plethora of flashing lights in Vegas was astonishing. I hope to visit again, and we all thank the Neilsons for the trip.

Lettuce.

AndesMints with Cedar Ridge Shotokan in Las Vegas



Thursday morning we left around 9am to start driving down to St. George. The girls were in Rob's car doing therapy, but I spent most of the ride down car sick. Once we got down to St. George, we all settled in and spent our time eating, watching basketball and playing pool and board games.
Friday started out interesting. First thing in the morning Lettuce ripped her mole off. Don't ask me how she did it because I don't know, but it was weird. After she went to the doctor to get it removed, we went to the park to play basketball. Then we went to the pool and spent our time going down the waterslide and hanging out in the whirlpool. After a long day, we went back to the house and watched more basketball, played more pool and games.
Saturday we woke up at 5:30am to drive down to Vegas. Once we saw the tall building and lights, we all got excited. The tournament was really REALLY long. It was fun to watch everyone and participate in the tournament.
I really enjoyed this trip. It was fun getting to know everyone better and hanging out.
AndesMints

April 5, 2010

Cedar Ridge Shotokan at the Ozawa Cup in Las Vegas



Good evening friends and parents! We just returned from our weekend in St. George and Las Vegas for the Ozawa Cup karate tournament. We did really well at the tournament and came back proud parents and senseis. Some of the students also went through some growing pains during their first off-campus trip.

To give you some perspective, the previous tournaments we have attended have been around 150 competitors (I'm guessing). A few years ago the Ozawa Cup reached around 700 competitors, and it was at least that big this year. Our students competed in divisions about twice the size they have experienced. I noted below the size of the divisions for each of our students who placed.

One--First in Kumite (sparring) in the men's intermediate ages 18-34, 11 competitors (he had four kumite matches total)

Lettuce--First in Kata, Second in Kumite in girls' intermediate ages 15-17, 5 competitors

Diva--Third in Kata, Third in Kumite in girls' beginner ages 15-17, 7 competitors

Sweet Pea--Second in Kumite in boys' brown belt ages 15-17, 8 competitors

Blush--Third in Kata in girls' intermediate ages 15-17, 5 competitors

AND THE ROCKY BALBOA AWARD GOES TO GRAPHIX, who placed fourth in men's beginner ages 18-34 division. This was great to see because Graphix had to fight in six matches to place fourth out of eighteen competitors. Not only was his division huge, but some of his opponents were, too. If you can picture a kid about 5'11", 135ish sparring Emery's long lost brother, that's a little of what we saw. He impressed Rob and me with his physical and mental endurance through all of his matches.

Fuzzy and RazMataz did not place in their beginner division ages 15-17, but they both did a fair kata. Alexandar the Great and Chan also did well in their very large division in both kata and kumite. AndesMints placed fifth in her black belt divisions, and MadLove scored the first point in her sparring match and then lost because she was so excited she lost her focus.

The rest of the trip allowed for some social time and driving. We made it down to St. George on Thursday night in time for dinner and settled in for some basketball on TV. Friday we went to the park and played some playground basketball, then I took the group swimming at the city's new recreation center. Saturday night was Jazz game on the TV, and then we went to bed to get as much sleep as we could before our early and long tournament day on Saturday.

After the tournament on Saturday, we hit a buffet to feed the horde (which was pretty disappointing as far as the food went) then headed back to St. George to get what sleep we could. The hardest part about Saturday was that my dog got out of my sister's yard and was missing until today (Monday afternoon). I went looking for her with my dad until almost 2:00 a.m. (She was picked up by a nice a family and returned to my mom today.)

Sunday was spent at the house except for a few of us who went for a little ER visit for Graphix' stomache (likely compliments of the buffet), then the girls and I hit my sister's neighborhood with 'missing' flyers for Lexi.

Sunday night we had a processing group and asked each of the students to rate their trip like they rate their days at Cedar Ridge. Rob and I had been dealing with some normal limit-testing from all of the students and some persistent limit-testing from a couple of the students.

Now, as their parents, you are more aware than I will ever be of your children's limit-testing skills. On trips, it is a regular pattern to spend the first day working on mindfulness about the rules for students who don't have much trip experience. After the first day, this typically irons out and everybody relaxes and understands that you can actually have more fun when you follow the rules, and as a staff I have few problems after that. This trip, however, I was a bit surprised by a couple of the students who continually, and in a bit of a sneaky way, practiced poor boundaries with music, image, and talking between genders without a third party. By the end of the fourth day of the trip I was ready to 'lay the smack down' about it. Hence, the process group at that particular time.

Now, sometimes it's hard to see this kind of a situation as a move forward for these students because it feels like they are behaviors that the student has moved past while they have been at Cedar Ridge. However, it is a very honest way of looking at a student's level of self-management without truly turning them loose. They are supervised, but the structure changes due to the nature of being in a co-ed group off campus with a flexible schedule. Some of the students thrive and prove that they choose to take care of themselves. Others demonstrate that they are not ready to take care of themselves and do not choose to do so when the task is given to them. This gives you and the therapists and the Cedar Ridge staff important information and material to work with in moving your family forward.

On the flip side, we had a couple of students who surprised us with their personal growth and positive decisions on the trip. During the processing group, Rob asked everyone to decide if they were a 'giver' or a 'taker' in the group. Most of the students were givers, and a couple of them demonstrated definitively why they are on the higher level that they are on by being assertive with their peers about the rules and by contributing to the positive function of the group.

As a whole, even though some of the more seasoned students felt that this trip was more work for them than any trip they've ever been on, I expect to see them bring this noticeable growth back to their lives at Cedar Ridge.

Congratulations to our group, and now we will prepare for the next tournament in Louisville, Colorado on May 3. I will post more details later this week (I promise!).