Reminder: There will be no class at MTHS or Germantown this Thursday.

I will arrive around 3:45. If you get there before me, tell them you are with the “Bockler” party.

4:00 p.m. – Arrive and begin getting dinner.

4:15 p.m. – Mr. Chianakas will present a fitness opportunity to students and parents.

4:30 p.m. – Adam will recognize graduating seniors and present awards for…

• Most Improved at MTHS, Riverview and Germantown
• Best Assistant Instructor (under black belt)
• Most Dedicated Beginner

4:45-4:50 p.m. – If available, Adam will distribute picture orders.

Can’t wait to see all of you there!

We have a lot happening throughout this busy month. Please pay careful attention to some dates and times below.

One of the benefits of Metamora Martial Arts is that, unlike many other activities, we don’t have a season; we train year-round. However, in the interest of time and rejuvenating ourselves, I’ve scheduled a mini-break at the end of May for our program. During the two weeks that we’re off, focus on your goals for the summer, and let’s work together to reach them.

A Special Thanks to Steve and Kim Aldus

On behalf of Mr. Hawkey, I would like to extend our gratitude to Steve and Kim Aldus for braving the chilly weather on Saturday, April 28, to spend time with the two of us to discuss just how similar the Chinese and Okinawan martial arts are.

I would enjoy bringing these experts back for a future seminar assuming students would be interested in attending such an eye-opening event.

Group Pictures

As announced on our blog several weeks ago, Pam Siefken of Portraits By Pam will be taking our pictures this year at all of our locations this week. On Wednesday, May 2, she will take group and individual shots at Riverview Grade School. And on Thursday, May 3, she will shoot at MTHS around 4 p.m. and Germantown Hills Middle School at 6 p.m.

If you did not get a chance to get your envelopes last week, we will have extras on hand. Pam expects to be able to turn the pictures around before the end of the school year. Once I receive notice the pictures are ready, I’ll notify everyone of how can you pick them up. As detailed below, our practice schedule for May is a bit unusual.

Senior Recognition and Awards Party

All of our martial arts students and family members are invited to our Senior Recognition and Awards Party at China Village Buffet in East Peoria on Thursday, May 10, at 4 p.m. We will be located in the back room with reservations under “Bockler.”

Many of our martial artists requested this location for our 10^th Anniversary Party earlier this year, so I wanted to honor their wish for this gathering.

As we like to do every year, we will congratulate our seniors on four years of hard work through high school and wish them the best in their future plans. Graduating seniors should not consider their high school graduation an end to their training. Many of our martial artists have continued to learn and teach after graduating (myself included).

May Class Schedule

May’s schedule is going to be different than normal. In short, our last class at MTHS will be Thursday, May 17. Riverview’s last class will be Wednesday, May 16, and Germantown’s last class will be this coming Thursday, May 3.

There will be no class for any students at MTHS, Riverview and Germantown following Thursday, May 17, and continuing for the remainder of the month. We will use those two weeks to take a break, regroup, and come back strong starting in June.

Tuesday, May 8 – No class at MTHS.

Thursday, May 10 – No class at MTHS or Germantown. MTHS Senior Recognition and Awards Party. Riverview and Germantown students and families are welcome to attend.

Tuesday, May 15 – No class at MTHS.

Thursday, May 17 – No class at Germantown because of 8^th grade graduation.

As of this writing, we anticipate holding the rest of the classes as scheduled through Thursday, May 17. We realize this is a busy time for students, so please make a commitment to your academics first.

Last-minute schedule changes may be emailed out or posted on either our Facebook group (geared specifically toward active students/parents) or our Facebook page (for anyone).

You may want to see these dates represented visually. To do so, visit our Google calendar located on the sidebar of our blog under “Upcoming Events.”

Summer Schedule

Speaking of schedules, we have a draft of a summer schedule ready for you. Class is expected to be held on Thursdays starting June 7 at MTHS for all students. From 6-7, we expect to host grade school students. And from 7-8, we expect to host high school students and older.

I say “expect” because I have not been given the official go-ahead from MTHS administration, though they are aware of our plans. If anything changes, we will let you know on our blog.

Mr. Hawkey also holds advanced classes at his home every other week. We had been looking at possibly holding class every other Wednesday night, though we have discussed also holding them Saturdays or Sundays. A decision will come within the next few weeks, so please pay attention to our blog. Advanced classes are open to brown belts and above.

Walker’s Taekwondo Tournament of Champions IX

Mr. Joseph Walker will host Walker’s Taekwondo Tournament of Champions IX in Bloomington on Saturday, May 19. We have posted all of the info on our site, so please take a look if you are interested. Fees are $50 for both forms and sparring until May 5, or $60 after May 5.

I talked briefly with Mr. Walker at a tournament in Springfield and he has invited me to bring a group of students down to spar with his group on a Friday night. If you are interested, please let me know.

Free Seminar with Richard Clear

Our martial artists are invited to a weekend of workshops with tai chi expert Richard Clear. Mr. Clear will be conducting several free workshops the same weekend as Mr. Walker’s tournament, making it an excellent three days for martial arts fans. Mr. Clear will also be hosting some paid sessions, as well as some private lessons.

More details are available, of course, on our website.

Quote of the Month

“At whatever level you achieve, if you think you ‘deserve’ a black belt, or if you think you are now ‘good enough’ to be a black belt, you are way off the mark and, indeed, a very long way from reaching your black belt. Train hard, be humble, don’t show off in front of teacher or other students, don’t complain about any task, and do your best in everything in your life. This is what is means to be a black belt.” –Kensho Furuya

Pam Siefken of Portraits By Pam has photographed our crew hundreds of times over the last 10 years and she’ll be doing so again this year.

On Wednesday, May 2, Pam will be at Riverview to take individual and group pictures starting at 6:30. We’ll be able to get the envelopes ahead of time so you can decide which photo combos you’d like to order when Pam is at class.

On Thursday, May 3, Pam will be at MTHS from 4:00 to 4:45. And that same night from 6-6:30, she’ll be at Germantown to take pictures there, as well.

Please wear full uniforms. I’m not necessarily concerned about which uniform you’d like, as long as it matches and it’s clean. All black, all white, competition – it doesn’t matter to me. Please be on time and lookin’ good!

I should mention that “well” isn’t necessarily measured in trophy count. Neither Joshu Adair Rodriguez nor Jake Potter were able to bring home hardware. However, I feel based on their kata performances and their sparring matches, both represented Metamora Martial Arts with pride and dignity. Joshu Adair especially showed he could get vicious during the game of tag that is a sparring match by forcing his opponent to lose his balance and fall over several times. I’m not trying to take anything away from his opponent (whose name I didn’t catch and who was very, very good), but I think there is something to be said for that.

Click this image to view our Facebook album

I was stunned to hear that I’d won first place in black belt forms – and by one-tenth of a point, at that. There were so many other great forms competitors in both the men’s and women’s divisions. I saw Tomari Bassai, which I learned from the black belt who performed it that the kata is just one of the many variations of Bassai Dai. I saw an Empi Sho performed with kamas, which was very cool. And I was very excited to see a couple who practiced tai chi chuan perform and place highly. It’s an honor to be able to show my art – our art – with people who are so similar but so different at the same time.

One of my favorite parts about Morrow’s tournament is that one Metamora Martial Arts alumnus, Joe Maubach, lives in the Quad Cities area. Every time we travel to this event, I’m grateful that Joe always shows up to support our team. After the tournament, we had a good mid-afternoon dinner at River House.

All in all, I’m very happy with our experience at Mr. Morrow’s. We’d love to go back next year.

Mr. Clear’s free workshops will be held on Friday and Sunday. On Friday night from 6-9 p.m., an introduction to combat tai chi and tai chi healing will take place at Dream Center Peoria in #200. And on Sunday from 5-7 p.m., Mr. Clear will hold a free practice with Q&A session at the Contemporary Art Center.

Paid sessions are also available. These include…

• Combat tai chi workshop for $100 at Dream Center Peoria – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Tai chi healing workshop for $45 at Dream Center Peoria – Saturday, 6-8:30 p.m.
• Kun tao silat workshop for $100 at the Contemporary Art Center – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Additionally, Mr. Clear is offering four timeslots of private lessons on any of these subjects. The times are Saturday from 2:30-4:30 p.m. at Dream Center Peoria and 3-5 p.m. Sunday at the Contemporary Art Center. The private lessons can be shared with up to four people and cost $200 per hour, or $50 each if four people attend the sessions.

For more information, visit Clear’s Tai Chi. To register for an event, contact Jared Voelker at 309-681-0771.

While you’re off, though, please take a few minutes to read through the April newsletter.

Seminar: Steve & Kim Aldus Come April 28

The month is finally here! Mr. and Mrs. Aldus will perform an exclusive workshop for us on Saturday, April 28, from 1:30-3 at MTHS. The event is only open to high school students, adults, and selected grade school students.

In case you’ve missed the announcement, I have been practicing tai chi chuan and hsing-i chuan with the Alduses since 2010. I’m very excited for all of you to meet them, but more importantly, that we all get to learn from them. I think the connection is special – they practice arts that predated and ultimately led to the formation of Shuri-ryu karate.

One, Two, Three New Yellow Belts!

Congratulations to Samantha Barth, Andrew Nauman and William Bracero who earned their yellow belts on March 22! The rest of the students who were part of the stripe test earned an additional stripe. It was great to see so much energy, but there’s still lots of work to do to refine those techniques before earning the next full belt.

Competition Update: Adair Rodriguez Takes 3^rd, Adam Bockler Takes 1^st

Tournament season is underway! Joshu Adair placed 3^rd at the Supreme Way Challenge in Pekin on March 10. This was Joshu Adair’s first competition as a black belt, an impressive feat in a group of five black belts who are some of the toughest forms competitors I’ve seen in this area.

I grabbed 1^st place at Auvenshine’s Taekwondo 13^th Annual Open Tournament in Springfield on March 17 in a division of 2^nd-degree black belts ages 16 and up. This was a big goal for me to accomplish, as I’ve come up short the last three times I competed there. I did not, however, take the grand championship.

Coming Up: Moline on April 14 and Bloomington on May 19

We have two more opportunities for you to compete. Mr. Morrow hosts his Karate & Kung Fu Championships on April 14 in Moline, and Mr. Walker hosts Tournament of Champions IX in Bloomington on May 19. If you’re interested, please let Adam know as soon as possible to help guide you through registering and to help get you ready.

PE Waiver Update

Please make sure your high school student is attending class. If not, the student can only miss class for other school-related activities. If a student receiving a PE waiver is not attending class, I will make requests to Guidance for that student to be removed from the waiver. This does not mean I don’t want the student in our martial arts program. I want to make sure, however, that we are doing right by the school standards.

Additionally, I have requested that Metamora Martial Arts students not be given a PE waiver next year. I know how popular this aspect of the program has been for students over the years (myself included), but I’ve explained in detail why the PE waiver will no longer be offered on our blog: http://metamoramartialarts.com/blog/news/pe-waiver-update-and-a-stripe-test-change.

June Schedule Coming Soon

Many students and parents have asked about our summer schedule. Because many of our instructors are in college and have jobs, we are only planning one month at a time at this point. Currently, we are planning on having classes Thursday nights. From 6-7 we’ll have grade school students, and from 7-8 or 8:30 we’ll have high school students and adults.

On two Wednesday nights, brown belts and above will be invited to Mr. Hawkey’s house for a special two-hour Wednesday class.

Please stay tuned to our website at http://metamoramartialarts.com to get the most up-to-date information about our summer schedule.

Quote of the Month

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

I’d never studied much about Bruce Lee. But earlier in March, SpikeTV aired a really cool special called “I Am Bruce Lee” and I became hooked. There’s a lot to be said about his philosophy on the martial arts, bringing people together and finding the commonalities that all arts share, not to mention technique effectiveness.

For the first time this year, the event will have black belts 14+ double-elimination parring, a grand championship for colored belt forms, and three overall colored belt forms grand champion awards for ages 9 and under, 10-17, and 18 and over.

Other events include forms and Olympic sparring. Olympic sparring, for those unfamiliar, is continuous sparring for a given amount of time for two rounds. The time varies for colored belts (two 1-minute rounds) and black belts (two 2-minute rounds), with a 30-second rest period in between rounds.

The black belt forms grand champion in the junior and senior divisions will win a 6-foot-tall trophy, as well as $100 cash.

The tournament will be hosted at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Shirk Center and will start at 10 a.m. Fees are $50 for both events before May 5. After May 5, add $10.

A full tournament packet can be downloaded at the Walker’s Taekwondo Tournament of Champions IX page.

Location
302 E. Emerson St.
Bloomington, IL 61701

Contact
Joe Walker
info[at]walkerskicks[dot]com
www.facebook.com/walkerstkd

Due to a last-minute schedule change, my tournament companion Joshu Adair was unable to accompany me to the event, meaning I have no footage of my two performances. I say two because after all of the black belt divisions finished, the first-place winners were called back for the grand championship. I thought it was cool how that was organized. We were asked to be seated and then turn around. This way, we couldn’t see our competitors’ performance and we were only told what form we would be doing once we were standing in front of the judges. We were all given the number 5, meaning we had to perform the equivalent form in our system. For us, Empi Sho is the fifth form, meaning that’s what I had to compete with.

In a tournament predominately attended by tae kwon do practitioners, I’m proud to have represented not only Metamora Martial Arts, but the art of karate itself.

The event featured two unique twists that not many open tournaments (that I’ve been to, anyway) have, and those were grappling and special divisions. As we had our backs turned to the judges and competitors during the grand championship, I found myself more focused on studying the grapplers – how they jockey for position standing up, how the people on the bottom can attempt to kick their legs out to pass the guard, and how that one guy took a gamble on a sacrifice grab. Since I didn’t win the big trophy, hindsight is telling me perhaps I should’ve been thinking about my own forms a little more than I did. I only saw about half of a sparring match with the special competitors, but I think it’s a cool thing for the Auvenshines to offer.

This year, I’ve been noticing several family members or friends using iPads to record their favorite competitors. I first noticed this last week at the Supreme Way Challenge. It makes sense, given that the iPad 2 that came out last spring was the first with a camera on it. I didn’t attend any competitions last summer, so this year is the first time I’m really seeing them. My guess is we’ll see more and more iPads on the sidelines.

Of course, it was great seeing Mr. and Mrs. Aldus (who are putting on a seminar for us, in case you haven’t heard), Ms. Harrison, the Auvenshines, and Mr. Walker and his troops. And a special thanks Mr. Budan for doing a great job running the ring I judged yesterday, and to Mr. Warren (whose first name escapes me) and the boy who both came up to me and told me they liked my form. Having a trophy would have been cool, but knowing that total strangers appreciate what I did is enough for me.

Remember: Next week is our stripe test for all ranks. Note that this is a change from what was announced several weeks ago. Please refer to this link if you’re unsure of what you need. We’ve been doing lots of review, so if you’ve been attending class, you will be eligible to test. Just keep in mind that being eligible does not mean you’ll earn an automatic stripe.

On March 29, I will be absent from class due to a seminar I need to attend for work. I had mentioned this afternoon that the 3:30 class would be canceled, but that has already changed. Mr. Unger will be available to work out with at 3:30. Mr. Hawkey’s advanced class will follow at 4:30. If you are still receiving the PE waiver, you need to be at this class. Don’t skip just because you’ll be close to spring break.

I wanted to post a few takeaways from this tournament:

* I love what we do. I really do. I think are forms are cool, and I think how we do them is cool and works for us. But there are so many other cool martial arts out there. I saw some great forms competitors today who represented their school and their art very well. Several times I said to myself, “I have to learn that form!”

* In my studies of other arts, I try not to focus on the differences. However, I noticed students who were running the same forms we do that were running variants. I saw a Wansu that looked to be more performed at a 45-degree angle than a straight line. Adair saw a Go Pei Sho where a te uke usually on one side was on the other. Some people started their forms with or added a few “extras” along the way. But, again, the main idea is that they’re doing exactly just what we do with some modifications. It’s like handwriting – everybody does it, but each person has their own individual touch.

* I was struck by several martial artists who, several years ago, were still kyu ranks and were now black belts, taking responsibility for judging and really upping their competitive game. These martial artists competed in Metamora when we would host open tournaments, and it was great to see how they’ve advanced since our last one in 2010.

For those who asked yesterday that may be reading this: Yes, I’d like to eye an open tournament again. But first, we need to get our martial artists out to other tournaments to see how it’s done.

* Coaching your students from outside the ring is okay, depending on the rules of the particular tournament. Blatantly standing behind a referee and vocally disagreeing with the calls is unsportsmanlike, though at least a judge can choose not to acknowledge it. Getting in the face of the center referee and cussing him out, however, is not an appropriate way to handle those disagreements. There was an incident today between two instructors that I feel did not represent martial artists in the best light. Thankfully, this incident is in the minority.

* Kudos to Mr. and Mrs. Fink of Kosho Kai Karate in Pekin. They did a great job of making sure that things ran smoothly. And thanks to the Lincoln’s Challenge cadets who also volunteered their time to help out.