1,000 Acts of Kindness (3.5 acts per day ~13 months), black belt requirement When I first reviewed this black belt requirement with Sensei Oliver, I thought to myself, “How will I achieve that? How does one measure an act of kindness?” I believe it really comes down to a few key principles (and practices)–kind thoughts, […]
I started my test on the 1st of December 2022. Over the next year, just like Lucas, Dirk, and David, my goals are to do 50,000 pushups and situps, 1,000 rounds of sparring, and 1000 reps of a kata. December was a journey, I was very very sore from doing pushups and situps but it […]
Written by Cooper Riegel
As it nears the end of Christmas break talk of school floats around and that dreaded feeling sinks in that the 2 weeks off that at first seemed so long are coming to an end. But that also means I can get back into a routine, and that will help give me some peace of […]
Written by Lucas Grant
The end of the year is always a busy time, especially if you work in logistics like I do. It’s physical inventory time, which means long days and long hours of counting, sorting, and organizing. And to make matters even more challenging, I have to spend a lot of time in the freezer (-20 Celsius!) […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
Unfortunately, I was hit with a sickness just before Christmas, which meant I had to power through at work and lost a few practice days at the dojo. However, now that Christmas has arrived, I’m looking forward to some downtime and the opportunity to catch up on my training. In fact, David san and I […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
I am excited that a new round of the Ultimate Black Belt Challenge is starting at the beginning of December. This time, we will be following the journey of Lucas san and Cooper san as they work towards achieving their black belt goals. David san and I will be on hand to provide tips and […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
New Year’s Day 5-mile bike ride and finish with Gumbo! What a way to start the new year! A friend of mine who is a local and well known chef hosted a bike ride and lunch of gumbo with rice and cornbread muffins (with honey butter). We left his house in Campus Commons and proceeded […]
Written by David Brezinski
National Airborne Day – August 16th I meant to post about this back in August but neglected to do so. Some of you may know I was a paratrooper (Airborne) and served in the U.S. Army, 1st Special Operations Command, 112th Signal (AIRBORNE). Being Airborne qualified opened up a door of options for me to […]
Written by David Brezinski
Oh no, another cold! Right before the Christmas holiday, of course! The Wednesday before, Sensei Oliver was not feeling well and asked me if I could cover the Wednesday night adult class. The class went well but the next day for me, I felt the symptoms of a cold coming on. Some congestion, runny nose, […]
Written by David Brezinski
Happy Holidays! I really enjoy the window of holidays starting with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New year! Putting up lights then taking them down. I don’t mind as I love being outside in the cool air, waving to the neighbors while tinkering with the lights that more often than not do not work […]
Written by David Brezinski