2012 Sunflower State Games

WOW! After 20+ years away from the tourney circuit I got wild hair and decided to signup for this years Traditional Empty Hands Forms & Traditional Weopan Forms at the Sunflower State Games in Topeka.
 I also got one of Ben Miller one of my novice students interested in competing. Ben spent a few months working on Lian Huan Chuan and performed it very well. Especially when you concider it was the first time he ever competed and the first time he ever performed in front of more than three or four people. Ben place 2nd in Novice 12-13 year old Traditional Empty Hand Forms. 

 GREAT JOB BEN!!!!

Personally I decided to do Shaolin Shao Fu Yen Chuan for my Empty Hands Set and BaJi Li Liu Dao for the Weapons set. Now I didn't actually plan on Li Liu until the week of the tourney. You see I was training a traditional Whip Chain Set when I unexpectedly had a connecting link BREAK! So as with so many things in my life plans changed.
 The competitors were amazing. Okinawan, Japanese, Korean and Ben & I the lone Kung Fu guys.  Well I have to say I was sure after watching the completion that I was in no better than 5th place in weapons and when the score keeper called me as SECOND PLACE I about dropped my sword. Seriously, I was happy where I had myself scored, but to pull a second against the guys I was competing against with the focus and control they were exhibiting absolutely blew me away.
 Then we got to the Empty Hand Forms and the bracket grew from eight to about 12 and then all the stops were pulled. I mean WOW these guys were great.
 Smooth, solid, focused and powerful.
 I don't actually know my final score but the top three absolutely deserved their spots!
 The tourney was held at Christ the King Church and the facility was very nice. Thanks to all who did prep work and to all who assisted in making the tourney happen. I will be back next year and I am pretty sure I'll compete in more categories especially after the encouragement and comradery  I received from this years competitors.
 May the Lord bless you and your house hold

3000 Rep Fitness Challenge - July

Well June was a hectic month all the way around. Lots of work and lots of stuff going on with the wife and kids....now that I have set it up and my excuse is firmly in place I can tell you that I fell short of the 3000 Alternating Kettlebell Swings I had set as my goal for June. Life conspired against me, as life usually does and I only managed to knock out 2400 swings. I also missed 4 or 5 of my standard workouts last month.
 So lets start all over with a new month, the nice thing about an new month.
This months 3000 Rep Fitness Challenge is 100 reps per day of Alternating Squat Kicks. These are done simply by squating down until your hands touch the floor and then exploding back up, as you reach the standing position you do a snap or rising front kick, then return to the standing position and repeat. This time as you come up you kick with the other leg.
 It will really make you suck air!