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THIS AND THAT 
 

As you know, the sensei’s corner is for the multi purpose of educating our students as to who people are, what our philosophy is, recognizing the accomplishments of Martial arts friends; and, as much as anything, an electronic news letter. Occasionally it has been a personal soapbox for my rants. That is one reason I chose to have my own site rather than muck up someone else’s, as well as giving people an option to ignore me if they wish.

This and that; "which will cover a variety of subjects and people."

I'll open with the "this and that", and save the best till last. I almost didn’t do an article this weekend because I’m worn out. As you read a couple of weeks ago, I made some rounds to see Butch Hill, Willie Wilson, and finished off at James and Angie Ogle’s place. The next week was filled with bringing the students up to speed on what we went over the week before, and starting twelve new Isshin-ryu students. No matter what else is happening in my life, I am dedicated to my training schedule. I think it’s called, obsessive compulsive. On the other hand when you are sixty and your playmates are all about half you age, it is called survival. My personal training schedule goes something like; teach two classes on Monday. Monday night is advanced class, so I get plenty of physical work in that. Tuesday morning I run kata for 30 minutes and use the stepper for 30 minutes. I teach class Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I teach and follow it with my hardest workout of the week. It consist of; eight, 2minute rounds on the bag; three, 2 minute freestyle rounds; two rounds of speed work; agility drills, weapons kata, and leg work (3 sets of lunges, quad extensions, dumbbell squats, plyometric jumping up and down on an aerobic bench, and major hip, glute, hamstring and lower ab work using a cable machine) until I am spent. I then do 30 minutes of stretching, both static and ballistic. Basically it is all about raising my anaerobic thresh-hold, improving my basics and developing explosiveness. If I feel ok Thursday I do weights. Friday I again do kata, the air-dyne bike and bag work. Saturday I match with the Saturday morning crazies. Sunday is my power lifting day with lifts to help my grappling. I try to listen to my body (because it talks to me a lot more than it use to) and gage the intensity of my training accordingly. Last Monday night we (black and brown belts) tested out the tag team grappling we are going to do at our May 25th shiai. It is fun but exhausting. If you are going to enter, even just for fun, train hard. Read the rules I sent and you will know why. We then tried the kumite, and I got stuck with three opponents instead of one. This after Rocky and I had fought to a jujitsu/grappling stalemate earlier. Good old Rock had also given me the old, Morote Gari drive through the floor. My back felt like I had jumped backwards off a building. My hat is off to the guys that do this all the time. I can take a punch much better than a slam. . . And so goes the reason for the cross training. I don’t want to experience either of them anymore than I have to. The whole point of this is that this week followed suite and on the heels of the last two I am just a little worn and torn.

Before getting to “Big Stagger Lee”, here are some news bites. Unfortunately Maurice Masarsa will not be able to make the shiai. He has a family trip planned and just couldn’t get his schedule worked out. Some good news is, Pete Mills has been added to the exhibition list. Master Toby Cooling has arranged to arrive early for the shiai and teach our Thursday night class. The G-Man (Garfield Wilson) may be arriving on a brand new Harley. Talk about born to be wild. . Condolences and regrets to Trice Fasig, who lost his father last week. There is an outside chance that Elvis (Dennis Martin) will be doing his rendition of "The Tupilo Mississippi Flash" during the break at the shiai. Master Phil Little is hosting a Shiai for his association members in Knoxville, the end of April. We have been invited. We attended one of his last October, and it was the best of the year.
Master Joel Chandler, who has been back in the hospital is being released and is heading home. He is really a tough guy and has that Isshin-ryu, no quit mentality. He also has a student and loyal friend in Master Clyde Stanley who has really been there for him. Master Chris Spruiell is rehabbing a knee he had a little work done on. I ask him if he was doing it the right way and he said, yeah, he was careful with it while he was on the mat. Is there something wrong with that approach?. . Typical. Joe Laney took time off from chasing down bad guys to do a session in Hawaii for the marines returning from Afghanistan. The fact his son was one of them made it especially memorable. His site is one of our links (Laney Steel Hand Dojo). It’s a good site with some good stories and info.

Below you’ll find an article that brought the dojo some good P. R. not to mentions new students. Most of the credit goes to Sgt. Rocky Latimer. I’ve run out of news and down on energy. So before I don’t have enough to do Master Lee justice, I'll close and get to the main business at hand.