Something I have learned since becoming a black belt is how important it is to listen to how your body feels. As one of the ‘older’ students on the mat most nights, I am continually faced with limitations that come from getting old. I have the added challenge of having messed up my knee twice. (torn ACL once, torn meniscus twice) So it has become…

Where I could have done better, and how I changed because of it?

    The first few weeks I assisted with teaching the children’s classes, I struggled to lead any group without constant help. Anything more complex than running forms would…

My Living Heroes

1. Chef Marcus Samuelsson (Kassahun Tsegie) was born 1971 in Ethiopia. Due to the Ethiopian civil war in 1974, Marcus and his sister were adopted by Ann Marie and Lennart Samuelsson from Gothenburg, Sweden. His maternal grandmother in Sweden opened up Marcus’ interest in…

Jackie Chan is one of my living heroes because of how dedicated to martial arts he is. The fact that he performs his own stunts and knows so many martial arts is amazing to me. My goal in the future is to at least have studied multiple martial arts, and maybe even master them. Jackie Chan knows so many martial arts and I hope to some day know multiple…

After I submitted my letter of intent to the masters for my upcoming 2nd DAN test, they asked me to post it as an example for others. I believe the letter needs to be tailored for each personal individual journey, but I hope the format is useful for others.

Kenny

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April 30, 2017

Mercer Island Martial Arts

Grand Master Strongheart

Master…

What I did was work for half of a day at my dad’s office and the other half of the day was volunteering. My dad works at an IRB, if you don’t know what that is it’s essentially the legal side of a clinical study. When someone decides to participate in a clinical study, an IRB makes sure that that person knows all of his or her rights and makes sure…