A New Year of New Challenges & Opportunities Hard to believe, it’s 2023! Looking back at ’22, it was most certainly a challenging year, my black belt training and work to meet requirements top of list. Yet, this has culminated in positive growth; mentally, spiritually and physically. As we enter ’23, I am eager to […]
Support and encouragement makes a huge difference! Over the past year I have shared with friends, family and co-workers some details about my personal goal of achieving Shodan (1st degree black belt). I shared because of my own excitement and also to foster a network of people that could help to hold me accountable by […]
Written by David Brezinski
Meditation in micro-doses One of our Black Belt requirements is 15 minutes of daily meditation. Finding or making a contiguous 15 minutes of time with family, job (and early AM calls), karate class & training and other personal obligations has and continues to be a challenge for me. Of course, one must be disciplined and […]
Written by David Brezinski
Another night of blackout The last big storm that whipped through Sacramento caused a lot of power outages. Fallen trees and limbs plus overhead power lines do not make for a good combination. We lost power for 2.5 days but in the grand scheme of things it was merely an inconvenience rather than a hardship. […]
Written by David Brezinski
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, […]
Written by David Brezinski
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