Nicolette's Brown Belt Beastly Bash

Well, about a month ago, I (Nicolette) got my brown belt. And no, i didn't just get it handed to me, I had to really work for it.

So the new rule for Cedar Ridge Shotokan is that you have to be on level 800 to recieve your brown belt, and level 900 to recieve your black belt. The reason this rule is in effect, is because you have to be showing your belt level outside of the dojo, which would include you being a higher level. In my case, I had been "just too good at it[being a sempai]". being able to be a sempai means that you show leadership skill, good spirit, attitude and effort. This is major in being a senior student because you are now an example for the rest of the karate dojo.

I went through a very straining hour of all different kinds of kicks, punches and different combinations infront of the whole campus. I was sweating profusely, totally out of breath, and had the feeling as though I was about to vomit all over the dojo floor. the most intense part of is, was that Kat and Jamie were in the background shouting insults at me. Saying things like, "you will never be good enough, you will just go back to drugs" and things like that that they KNEW would get me pissed. The point was that i could fight through all of the anger, and keep up my good spirit.
I did just that, and I was able to keep my spirit. Sensei Rob then asked me if I could commit to being a leader inside and outside of the dojo. Of course I am, so i said "Os". He then told me he had something for me, and gave me my brown belt. I immediately started crying. This is the day I have been waiting for. Karate is my number one thing I love to do. It is my "Kung Fu", so when I was able to officially be a Sempai, it was a dream come true. And that's my story.

-Lettuce

The Kyu Exams

November 12th, 2010 Cedar Ridge held kyu exams in the gym. The exams were judged by Sensei Rob, Sensei Christine, Sempai Nicolette(me) and Lauren. Be warned: whenever you have us judging kyu exams, you know its going to be a adrenaline pumping, sweaty, beastly workout. Fortunately, a lot of people passed their exams. It consisted of Triangle Katas, shifting patterns, shifting combinations, foot positions, punching, and full on FIGHTING SPIRIT. What we look for mainly for kyu exams is spirit. Spirit comes before skill or technique, so if you have a good attitude and good effort, it overrides if you aren't as "coordinated" as others. Everyone did a very good job, and those who didn't pass just have a few nuts and bolts to sort out. Congratulations everybody!

-Lettuce

KYU EXAMS

Cedar Ridge Academy Boarding School students in Utah test for their next karate belt level, or 'kyu' level. We had a lot of good energy during this test!

Karate Team 2010-2011

Okay, after an obviously long space of neglecting this blog (and you're missing info on a couple of tournaments from the spring--sorry!) I am ready to put together the next karate team. I am working on a general tournament schedule and info, but I already have several applications from students. I will post info as I have it.

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.

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.

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

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!).

Cedar Ridge Shotokan at the Utah State Championships

IMA Dan Testing

My dad (Rob) and I traveled out to Louisville, Colorado to train and test with Hanshi Cyrus Madani and the International Martialarts organization. Well, I went to test and my dad went with me to support me on a daddy-daughter weekend. Once we got there and spent time training with Hanshi (it's his title, not his name--in karate, it's like calling someone an honored teacher or father and also conveys his rank of 8th Dan), Rob decided he likes Hanshi and the IMA organization and committed to testing also.

I'll spare you the details of traveling other than to say that I didn't fare so well on the drive there, but once we arrived in Louisville on Friday we trained with Hanshi, working on some katas, and then trained with some of his other black belts once they arrived. We also had a quick dinner in between training times with Hanshi and Ernesto and Sarah from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Ernesto and Sarah are a couple of Hanshi's students who traveled out to Colorado this weekend to support those testing for a dan degree. It is the dedication and support of such students who weren't even testing themselves that really shows what the IMA organization is about--a karate family. On Saturday, Ernesto and Sarah's support consisted of training with us during the basics endurance (which was tough), filling in as sparring partners, and then putting us through an intense endurance workout AFTER we had finished our individual test. The endurance part for me started with 250 jumping jacks and then went from there. It took me a little while, but I did it all.

I have to admit that I cried a bit when my dad went up to perform his katas. He hasn't had an exam since 1971 (well, that's his best guess, or actually Pam's best guess) and I am very proud of my old man :). This was a very special weekend for me in many, many ways. It is something I will never forget doing with my dad, and we came back very inspired and energized by our time with Hanshi. We have an amazing opportunity with our dojo at Cedar Ridge and with our new association with IMA.

I am now an IMA Shodan (1st degree black belt) and Rob earned his Sandan (3rd degree black belt).

I also spent time with my sensei from Salt Lake City, Amadou Niang. Amadou is a very special mentor to me and I really love taking the karate team out to train with him. We will be going out again soon and the kids are excited. Amadou earned his Sandan, which is 3rd degree black belt, and I was proud to watch him.

Others who were in Louisville whom I felt especially supported by were Sensei Rick McGavin and his wife Jennifer. Sensei McGavin came up with Hanshi in December to help with our workshop, and he has a way of putting me at ease. Jennifer is cool to talk to. For the evening extravaganza she performed a weapons kata with weapons that I don't know the name of, but she put lights on them and it was all VERY COOL. I hope she'll perform for us next time we have a chance to talk her into it :).

To celebrate, karate people break boards. At IMA, they break boards of pine almost an inch thick. I brought back the two halves of my board mostly because the students get all excited over that stuff and I love to see them excited.

I feel very fulfilled and sore and excited. By the time I test for my nidan, I will have calves of steel and a six-pack.

Stay posted for karate tournament details. I will have a fairly complete schedule for the rest of the year posted this week.

Osss!!!!!

Cedar Ridge Academy Karate Class

Last week in karate we had a team kata competition. On Thursday, I broke the students up into smaller groups with a higher level belt teaching the newer students. On Friday, I had the higher belt students choose a 'team' to train and compete with a kata as a team. They stayed focused and I think the newest students learned the most that day, partly because it was a competition and partly because they were mentored by the students whom they admired in karate.

USANKF Qualifier Tournament in Park City

Hello my Karate Family,
The final information is available on the Utah Karate Championships in Park City, Utah on March 6, 2010. The competition is at the Park City Racquet Club and begins at 9 a.m. I will email you the details of the cost once I have figured it all. For the best details, go to www.jeppersonkaratedojos.com. I will probably be going out to Park City on Friday night to attend a referee seminar and then driving out with the Karate Team early Saturday morning.

I am traveling to Louisville,Colorado to test for my dan rank with International Martialarts, a world level organization that provides excellent support and training for senseis. I am invested in continuing my own training and learning so that I continue to grow as a sensei and so that I can forge connections for a karate support system for the students when they go home. Hanshi Madani came to Cedar Ridge in December to conduct a workshop for the students, and he offers a deep level of training and connections. I will keep you posted!
Christine

Alexander the Great plunders the Persians

What to say? The trip to Salt Lake was totally awesome. We got the crap kicked out of us by Amadou with a tough sparring combination practice. Then we got to SPAR!!! Which is in fact my very favorite part of karate. Sensei did chew me out for hitting Sweet Pea way too hard. I felt pretty bad about that cuz Sweet Pea's my boy. I had been kinda showing off for the cute jr. black belt. Then we went to an awesome Jazz game, the first NBA game I have ever been to. It was awesome hanging out with all of my friends. I had some pretty good talks with Christine and Sean, too. Over all the trip was awsome and I can't wait to do it again.

- Alexander the Great

Cedar Ridge Shotokan Karate Team

I tried to get a really good picture, but the glare from the sun made it a little grainy. I'll try again soon, but here this is for now.

You can download the GIF files of these and a few more team pictures at www.peopleplacesphotography.com. DO NOT PAY FOR THE PHOTOS! You should be able to right click and download the file. I already gave prints of these pictures to the students who are in them. The password for any Cedar Ridge Academy picture is cedarridge, one word, two r's. Thanks!
Sensei Christine

Lunchbox goes to Salt Lake City

On Saturday the Karate team went down to Salt Lake City to train with Sensei Amadou. We trained for two painful, exhausting,and eventful hours. After the training we got ready to go to the Chinese Buffet, then off to the Jazz game. Once we got to the Jazz game it was hard not to people watch with normal people we don't regularly see. I felt like a normal teenager going out with friends to see a game and just hanging out. At half time at the Jazz game it was Bear's birthday which is their mascot. They invited other mascots from the other teams to celebrate his birthday by bringing gifts. My favorite was a dragon who once he lifted up his shirt green streamer flew out of his nose. For the rest of half time they did dunking competions by doing tricks off trampolines. At the end the Jazz won against the Bucks. We got in the car and started the long three hour journey back home.
--Lunchbox

Cedar Ridge Shotokan Karate Team trains with Sensei Amadou Niang

On Saturday the Karate Team went down to Salt Lake City to train with Sensei Amadou. He had come down to Cedar Ridge a few months earlier to do a workshop with the whole campus so most of us were familiar with him. We left at 8a.m. and all piled into the Yukon to drive down. After the three hour drive, we stopped at Costco to get pizza for lunch. After we had all eaten, we got back into the car to drive down to the dojo. For the first two hours, we watched Christine train and could tell that this was going to be a hard workout. We started our workout with the warm ups, and then Amadou said he'd be teaching us 20 of their sparring techniques that they do at their dojo. I was really excited because I haven't been able to have much sparring lately. It started off pretty easy with different combinations of punches, kicks, and blocks. As the hour went on, I soon realized that this wouldn't be as easy as I thought it was going to be. Everyone started to get tired and Amadou asked "Are you getting tired?" We all responded no because we knew that if we said yes then we'd have to do jumping jacks or planks. After an exhausting hour and a half and learning all 20 combinations, we finally got a three minute break. We took that break to get a quick drink of water and regain our breath. After our break, we all sat in a circle and did another sparring exercise where two people were in the middle and whoever won the match stayed in the middle while the other one sat down and a new competitor came up. It was cool to watch everyone and learn new styles of sparring. After we had finished and bowed out, we went over to the Chinese Gourmet and ate all the food we could. Then it was off to the Jazz game. We were up in the nosebleeds, but had a pretty good view of the court. The game was really fun to watch. The Jazz beat the Bucks no problem. Overall it was a really fun trip to go on .
--Bug

Video from Training Trip to Salt Lake City

Training in Salt Lake City

This Saturday we are training with Sensei Amadou Niang in Salt Lake City. Sensei Amadou has been training under Hanshi Madani (Madani, who conducted a recent workshop for us, was awarded his eighth dan in Morocco by the World Karate Federation). We are going to train and socialize, including a Jazz game after we train and eat! Check soon for pictures.