24 hour countdown has begun

This morning @ 5:55am reality began to set in. As I waited for the boys to get dressed for our morning practice session, it hit me that tomorrow is T day (lol). The unnerving thing about the tournament is the unknown factors. There are 6-7 schools participating in this fall tournament. With that many schools, we have no idea who we will be competing against.

The pattern competition will present us the opportunity to do our best with what we've learned over the last couple of weeks. We will be competing by age groups in a bracket type of format. Each competitor will do their pattern in groups of three. Then the top four competitors will compete head to head. The 1st place and 4th place will face off, followed by the 2nd & 3rd place, and finally the winners of these two face offs will compete against each other to decide 1st place. Competing in this way will be new for Emily, and I look forward to seeing how she reacts.

The point sparring is a different beast all together. Not knowing your opponent creates a void for planning any strategy..........same basic format as pattern competition with a couple of big exceptions. During this part of the competition we will get hit & kicked. Same bracket arrangement, draw to see who faces who, then winners face off to whittle down to 1-3rd places. On a personal note, I am really hoping that this right knee holds together! The swelling has gone down a bit and it's not as stiff as it was. Rapid healing is not occuring for this "old dude".

We have trained as hard as possible, against the best at our facility, so now it is up to us. Like I said before "unnerving"!!!

Getting down to it

Three more days of training is all that's left. The "Battle by the River" Tournament is Saturday. We are all giving everything we got to perfecting our patterns and improving our sparring skills. In addition to the classes, we are still getting up every morning by 6am to do some sparring drills and to perform our patterns 10 times. I am really impressed with the boys dedication in getting up early before school to do this without complaining. It will pay off for them.

The boys have been getting better with each session thanks to the fine sparring help from some of the higher ranks like Junior Black Belts- Mr Matthew Corliss, Ms Elizabeth Wiggins & Mr Cade Carpenter, the Recommended Black Belts- the Lemons Brothers, Jada & Kera.

I have been sparring with top rank Black Belts since last week. The following Black Belts have really tried to help me out: Mr Wiggins, Mrs Wiggins, Mr Corliss, Mr Perry, Mr Scarborough, & Mr Scott. These folks are top notch and I am greatful for their patience and support.

Emily Grace is coming right along with her Orange Belt Pattern. I am looking forward to seeing how she handles the tourney. She is just so darn cute out there doing her thing.

On a side note, I hurt/twisted my knee last Friday and the silly thing has been a little swollen and stiff ever since. Sure am hoping it will stay together thru training & tourney. My competitive spirit refuses to let it get in the way.

Until the next time, peace to Ya'll.

Sparring, Sparring, Sparring

As you could probably tell from the title, today was all about the Sparring. We did do Patterns too, but we sparred alot and it was a blast. The boys & I got to spar with higher ranks tonight and that is a valuable asset to use moving toward the Tourney. Working with these higher Ranked & better skilled Martial Artists should really help us prepare for competing with those folks that are in our own Rank.

Turns out the Tourney rules are going to be ITF style & that means 1 additional point for strikes done while in the air.
Example: a jump turn side landed to the head is 3 points instead of 2.

So, needless to say we are working on some timing to get a few of these strikes incorporated as a fluid part of our striking skills. Fun stuff. I even scored a couple of these during our sparring tonight.........woohoo, trust me it's no easy task to jump my big self up & do an aerial strike. I even absorbed some very good head & body shots that were dished out by the Black Belts. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I like the physical challenge that comes from being hit with strong contact! It releases that competative adrenaline and drive to do better.

The patterns are coming right along as well. We will continue to work hard to make the Tournament a great experience.

Kicking it in HIGH GEAR

After a two week hiatus that included vacation & work travels.
Ahh, the Great Smokey Mountains

Family all together.

Kids going old school in this black & white (thanks to their Momma's fancy camera).


We're back & ready to dedicate the next two weeks to learning our new patterns in hopes of making the Fall Tourney coming up October 18th in West Memphis, AR. The only way we are going to be ready is for us to work morning and night to get our forms down! This will be one of our biggest tests yet and not a lot of time to get prepared.

The boys & I have to learn and be able to proberly execute the 32 moves of Joong-Gun.


Emily Grace has to learn and be able to execute the 24 moves of Do-San.


We started down the trail Friday evening and let's just say, it's not gonna be easy. Mr Wiggins worked deligently to familiarize us with this new form. His patience is very much appreciated (unfortunately, I am a slow learner).

Saturday & Sunday mornings we got up early (6am) and practiced our patterns. This morning Dalton & I got up to start the day off with a 5:30am run (a little more than a mile). Dalton is helping Dad try to loss some weight and get in better cardio shape. After the run, Tyler joined us for a program that included doing our pattern cycled with push-ups for a rotation of 5 sets (seemed like a good starting point). Tonight will bring two 1 hour classes at TKD-USA to focus, practice and learn.

Boy this should be an interesting couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Another Step toward the Goal

Well this has been a GREAT night. We all performed our patterns & combo's for passing scores to achieve our next rank. Taking another step closer to the ultimate goal with my family is the BEST feeling EVER!!

Before the testing began Emily Grace and her buddy Josie did some strategizing.

Then she & Dalton discussed the plan: Emily was first up.

Mrs Wiggins called her out and the show began:

Spin knifehand (such grace)

Side kick (very nice)

Next up was the three of us boys. Once again Mr Wiggins was kind enough to let us do our Yul-Gok pattern as a family unit. What a blessing!

Next came sparring and wouldn't you just know it, Mr Wiggins decides to spar with me. It was an honor to get to spar with a 5th degree BB that has the kind of skill Mr Wiggins has. Yes he schooled me, but not in a flashy showy kind of way, just enough to make me realize how far I have to go without completely destroying me. I appreciated the opportunity.

However, as everyone found out, David Blane isn't the only one who can levitate, check this out.

Even replayed the famous scene from Rocky:

Dalton in the Blue Uniform did well.

Tyler held his own against his opponent.

I am very proud of the whole gang for working hard, learning the patterns/combos, over coming the nerves and doing their very best to succeed.

And yes, as you can tell, Emily is having a ball.

Next up will be the fall tourney in October. Got get to work for that one, cuz we do not have a lot of time to prepare for this bad boy!

God Bless and hope all of you have a great weekend.

Testing Tonight

Tonight is the night to show what we learned the last 7 weeks. We have to demonstrate our patterns, striking combinations and then spar utilizing the striking skills that we learned thus far. These strikes include: spin side-kicks, spin heel-hook, knife hands, round kicks, side kicks, hook kicks, reverse punch & front punch. Fun stuff.

Me & the boys are testing for Blue belt tonight. We will be demonstrating the 38movements in the Yul-Gok pattern.

Emily Grace is testing for Orange belt. She has to demonstrate the 21 movements in the Dan-Gun pattern.

Will post pics & update after testing. Until then remember "You're born to win".

Not the usual week

TKD this week went really well for us. We all got better on our patterns and combinations. The morning practices have really helped me remember the patterns that we've learned so far. Emily Grace and I reviewed her Pattern (Dan-Gun) and it began to click for her. In fact, she was able to do 90% of it by herself for Mr Wiggins on Friday. Good job Emily!

Also, this was the week many of us remembered the events of 9/11/01. This week also was one marked by the loss of one of our favorite MMA fighters. Evan Tanner was a unique individual who was very much a free spirit. He touched many lives in and out of the ring/cage. He truly believed that everyone of us can make a difference in this world. He lived his life as if there would be no tomorrow and he went out as only Evan could. His life was inspiring for me and I'd like to share the following vids in honor of Evan.

The first two videos are a two part interview during which he shared some of his thoughts on life:





This video is one of the best tributes put together on his fighting career:


Evan Tanner 1971-2008
Rest in Peace

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

Next Friday will be testing for new ranks. Us three boys are testing for Blue belts and Emily is testing for Orange. We gotta keep practing in preparation for that.