Shihan Madani coming to Cedar Ridge Shotokan

Cedar Ridge Shotokan Blackbelt Challenge and Karate Team

Hey, folks. We are gearing up this week to begin our Black Belt Challenge and put together a karate team to travel to more nearby tournaments and training.

We are ready to ramp up the karate program for Cedar Ridge Academy. Traditional martial arts is an excellent way to improve many things about the way a person functions, and, honestly, I think it's the most fun I ever have. The karate team will train additional hours some evenings and on the weekends and compete as often as we can find a tournament within a day's drive, mostly in Colorado and Utah.

I have several students interested. The team will consist of seven students and a couple of alternates who will fill in as needed or who will step in fully when one of the original team graduates and goes home. We are going to get started, but for at least the first year the team will be in the formative stage and we will be working out the bugs. What I really want from you is support as parents for this team since it will cost a little and require a lot of extra work on the part of the students (and myself, but I haven't considered karate 'work' for a long time). I am excited to open up our dojo to the bigger world of karate and have worked on making connections to enhance our training.

I will blog some more details as we go through 'tryouts' and I will be sending out an email with attachments to the parents of the students whom I select for the team.

Also stay posted for details about a great training opportunity we have coming up with Shihan Madani out of Louisville, Colorado. He is a seventh degree black belt and founder of the International Martial Arts Karate organization. You can check out his web site at www.imakarate.com. He will be at our academy December 3 and 4 and all students on campus are greatly encouraged to attend. The cost will be $50 and will include a t-shirt for participating. I will need a response from parents by November 20 to finalize the shirts.

Thanks!

Phoenix trip

The trip was way fun!! It took awhile to get started because after we had been driving in the bus for awhile Rob decided to turn it around and drive the Yukons. but after that we drove to St. George for 8 hours. When we got there the girls were making some amazing burgers and hot dogs, they were great. Christine decided she wanted to spin poi, which is basicly spinning maces around and looking cool. So being the competitve person that I am, I decided to do some spinning of my own. When I was at home I spun rifles for a drill team. So I grabbed a digging tool and started spinning that it was pretty fun. We played pool and hung out after that. Rob watched baseball. The next day we had another 8 hour drive to Pheonix and that was pretty fun. That night we went swimming and hung out at the pool. on our first whole day at Pheonix we hiked sqwa peak. I worked out in the morning with Sensi and then we went and hiked. The hike wasn't that hard but it was fun. I got to get close to some of the girls. The next day we went to the tournament. We sat around and watched a bunch of people compete. Then it was our turn, I didn't do to well, but it was still fun. we hung out for the next day and drove back to St. George. We were all pretty tired but I was the only one to do school. The funnest part of the trip was hanging out and getting close to the girls I haven't gotten to hang out with before.
- Alexander the Great

Bling

We went to Phoenix and came back with a little bling!

Kung Fu karate Trip

For the last three days I have been on a karate trip in Phoenix, AZ. Fun stuff. on Wednesday last week we started our drive to Phoenix. It was a six hour drive to St. George where we stayed at Rob and Pam's house. The house was awesome, we stayed the night there and had a BBQ. played some pool, hung out, socialized with the other boys and girls on the trip. It was nice to just get to relax for the day. The next morning we packed up and left for another six or seven hour drive to Phoenix. On the way we passed through Las Vegas and went over the Hoover Dam. They are building a new bridge across the canyon so people aren't driving across the dam and it was about half way finished. That was an amazing sight to see. We also stopped outside of Phoenix and got to hike around which was pretty cool. We found a lot of quartz crystals just lying around.
On Friday we hiked up Squaw Peak. That's the biggest peak in the area I think, but that was a sweet hike and a few of us wore ourselves out trying to run up the last steepest leg of the trail. After that we went to One's house for another BBQ.
Saturday was the tournament. I did alright personally, didn't place or anything but most of the other students all took home a sweet medal for their division. We were there most of the day and we watched the black belt divisions compete, which was awesome to watch. Those guys were crazy good. After the tournament we just kicked back the rest of the day and went swimming at the hotel.
The whole trip overall was awesome. I think it was the best Cedar Ridge trip I have been on so far and I have been on quite a few. The part that I think I liked the best was just time out in the "Real World" I guess you could say and getting to know some of the girls that I see on a daily basis here but never really get to talk to to find out who they really are.
i'm really anticipating the next karate trip and planning to do better in the next competition but I'm really glad I got to go on this one.
-

Yes, The training pays off.

So, today was the day of the tournament, both excitment and anxiety were in the air...but mostly anxiety. It started off slow. We got there and waited forever for our groups to get called, but when they where, boy did time fly. It was amazing.
I went to this same tournament last October, and this time it felt completely different, I was much more aware, and everything seemed so much more important, especially representing our Dojo and our senseis.

The Western Karate Championships

Hey Everybody,
Today we went and did the tournament. We all did well. The girls were all against each other except for one other girl who was from Phoenix, she only did Kata. Then in Kumite all five of the girls sparred against one another. I know that for myself I was so nervous for the Kata and ended up not doing as well as I'd hope for. In sparring though I did well I got third place. Which meant that I got a medal!!! YAY! Then after we got to watch the adult black belt finals. The Katas that they did were beautiful. There aren't many words I use to describe what I saw today. After we got to eat some grub at the World Buffet. Man I definitely ate too much. Swimming for the last time was awesome but hard. Knowing the fact that this is my last night in Phoenix is definitely a hard concept for me to grasp. The relationships that I made with each one of the people whom I went with is something that I don't want to lose. This trip was a once in the lifetime opportunity with Cedar Ridge. I hope that people who get this opportunity next year will take this in a positive direction and follow on the tradition of Cedar Ridge Shotokan.
-Blick