2013 a Year
in Review
A few days
ago I took a beating for not posting on this blog (rightfully deserved by the
way) and once I got back on track and took a look at what I had already written
(last year) I was amazed at why I hadn’t posted anything. It was pure laziness on my part and one of my
resolutions for the coming year is to not let that happen again. So this year this blog will be regularly
updated and I have already written about a variety of things as it relates to
our school and my experiences in the martial arts.
While I was
taking the drumming for not posting on this blog is was brought to my attention
that people would see that I hadn’t posted since late October and think that
our school was dying and the website was dead.
Far from it actually, and that point was driven home to me that our
school is actively growing and we are getting out there and it is my duty to
not let people think we are inactive.
My first
blog for 2014 is a short recap of 2013 and then I’ll post a recap of the AKATO Invitational
Tournament results that our school took part in. After that we should be back on track with
regular posts about the other various topics I’ve written about.
In 2013
·
Jackie
and I taught Kombatan Arnis double stick principles and techniques to the AKATO
black belt Kobudo students translating double stick techniques to the Tonfa,
Sai, and Bo over four two hour classes.
·
I
started teaching sensei Master Starnes Modern Arnis stick techniques for his 7th
dan test and we (Hidden Sword) have ultimately partnered with his school the North Texas Karate Academy
in Bridgeport Tx for cross training purposes.
 |
| Group photo of all of the students at the September Sparring event in Bridgeport, Hidden Sword had the most students (almost 1/3) out of the four schools that participated. |
·
Cross
training with Master Starnes has lead to him teaching a sparring class for
Hidden Sword, as well as having sparring events with his and other karate
schools in September and November. You
can read about that in the Training with Others blog post. More are being planned for 2014 by the way.
·
Both
Master Starnes and Mrs. Hawkins (another instructor who took part in the
sparring training) also sat on our November belt test and we (some students
here at Hidden Sword and I) will be attending a black belt exam at sensei
Hawkins school in Feb. 2014.
·
Last
year in the Kobudo classes on Saturdays here at Hidden Sword, we covered the
Nunchaku and this year we have started the Jo.
·
In
2013 we had five students promote to red belt and this year we (the instructors
here at Hidden Sword) are planning on them testing for their 1st
dans.
·
In
2013 we rewrote our Modern Arnis and American Karate/Tae Kwon Do curriculums and
instituted a new belt and belt striping progression so that we have better
progress reporting for our students.
·
I
promoted my first Lakan Isa and Dayang Isa (male and female black belts) in
Modern Arnis at a surprise test for them.
They were approved for their rank by David Jones and GM Bruce Chui at
this special test.
·
Speaking
of promotions I was promoted in Dec. 2013 to 7th dan by sensei M.
Proctor and K. Yates
·
Our
school did their first outside demo displaying our Karate and Modern Arnis
skills.
·
Our
school took part in Celebrate Roanoke festival for the first time.
·
We
competed once again in the AKATO Invitational Tournament and you can read about
that in the Tournament blogs 1-3 and finishing in the up coming Tournament 4
blog.
·
We
held our annual Christmas party in December with the largest crowd yet.
 |
| Some of the students in our new Junior Modern Arnis class |
No our
school is far from dying, in fact we are growing, the Rec. Center has even
granted me more time to expand our classes and we have now added in January
2014 a Junior Modern Arnis class for students 10 yrs old and up. 2014 will be my 33rd year in the
martial arts and my 7th year teaching here at the Roanoke Rec.
Center so 2014 is shaping
up to be an even better year than 2013 but that is another blog. Till next time.