Posts Tagged ‘Black Belt’
In case you missed the graduation on Friday night, here are the highlights!
Here is an upbeat video of our Self Defense B B Program. These guys are having a blast at this program. Share the video with your friends!
Dear students and parents:
Happy holidays! I hope all of you are having a great weekend!
In class, we have been practicing the floating iron butterfly. This is an advanced kick. I have recently told this story in class. I hope that it reminds everyone of what martial arts is all about.
When I first started trying I was one of the youngest students in the class. There were not many kids or teens training in the martial arts almost 30 years ago. I started martial arts when I was a teenager.
The kick that I most admired was the floating iron butterfly. David lee Roth of Van Halen had made this kick famous in the video for the song “JUMP”. I tried doing is kick to the best of my ability but it was very hard. I started practicing every day after school. I got a key to the karate school and practice the floating Iron butterfly over one hundred times a day.
I practiced this kick over and over again until it was almost perfect. I practiced on the tennis ball and could kick it 7 feet in the air. Finally the day came when I showed my karate instructor and the other students how much I have improved. They were amazed. Only a few people could get the seven foot tennis ball in school. After a few weeks of doing this kick in the class I decided that we should raise the ball to 7 ½ feet. When the other students saw me do this, they thought I was crazy. I got close to the ball and focused my eyes on the ball and put my hand up to the ball. The first few times I missed. It took a few times, but I kept going back and refocusing. Hand to ball concentration. About a fifth or sixth time, I kicked the ball so hard it almost went to the ceiling tile. Everyone was truly amazed that this 5 foot 10 inch kid could kick so high. Other people tried it that night but they couldn’t hit the ball.
Within a few weeks several people could kick it 7 ½ high. A few people even kicked 8 foot in the air.
For my fifth degree black belt test in 1995, I kicked eight foot in the air for the first and only time with a floating iron butterfly. My instructor Grandmaster Phipps was very happy.
I have had many students that were very talented, but took their gift for granted. They did not have to work as hard as those less talented. In the long run they were not as good or dedicated as those less talented that worked twice as hard. For those less talented learn the meaning of hard work, diligence and effort and reaped the rewards of all the above.
Remember in 2010 that if you set a reasonable goal that you can achieve it with hard work and dedication.
Watch the video below for some inspiration. The floating iron I am kicking is only six foot, but it’s still not bad for a 43 year old man like me with a bad Achilles tendon.