SFMARTIALARTS.COM: SAN FRANCISCO MARTIAL ARTS

What a weekend!  We had Day Camp on Friday and then hit the road early Saturday morning to compete in Fitness Fanatics‘ Fourth Annual Wine Country Karate Open (WCKO).

First, Day Camp was a blast!  We had four great training sessions, complete with a solid sparring session and trip to the Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park.  Let’s just say some happy and tired kids went home Friday evening.

The WCKO was great, Master Jim DeBaca’s team of Black Belts did an amazing job running a smooth and very organized tournament.  From the Judges meeting to the Cross Championship Awards, they did a great job!

Team PMA was fantastic.  I was so proud of our students, our Black Belts, our Instructors and our Parents.  Everyone was friendly and respectful, it was an honor to be in a Paresh uniform and to watch everyone compete with just poise, power and perseverance.

The Paresh Team sent 25 competitors to the floor on Saturday and went home with 40 medals.  Everyone is a part of this success, regardless of the hardware around their next or in their hands.  The team, parents, instructors included, made this day a huge success.

Ko map sum ni da!

Yesterday he held our first Gup test of 2012.  In the Junior division we had six students testing for their first time and five students testing for advanced rank.  Juniors are always a mixed bag of energy, especially on testing days.  Some come in with wides eyes, very cautious and hesitant others come in some are so excited they don’t know what to do with themselves!

This test was exciting with all the new students testing, two of which were students that had graduated from our Dragon Program.  They two were not new at all, both having been Dragons for over a year and having tested in their respective program.

But a Gup test is different.  There’s more material, a longer testing time, higher expectations and greater intensity.  In short it’s a big jump and the bar is high.

One student in particular rose to the occasion.  They all did, the test was one of the best tests in a long time.  But one student, one of the Dragon graduates, really stepped it up.  She was focused.  She was confident.  She was strong and powerful.  She was present.

It’s the last one that made the difference.  Present.  She showed up.  She showed up in a way that she had never done before.  She impressed the panel with her intensity and her focus.  Amelia made her move from Dragons to Juniors on Saturday, officially, with closing the event by earning “Best in Test”.

Losing is hard.  Losing someone is even more so.  Losing a parent, a healthy one in their prime is beyond what any of us every dream of.  This past week we lost a father.

 

Our PMA community member, Scott M., whose son Matthew is in our Juniors program,  suffered a tragic cardiac event last week.  The damage to Scott’s brain was extensive, and he has died.  We are a close community and Scott was often in the studio watching class, so we share the burden of this profound loss with Matthew, his mom, Shaun, and the rest of their family.  I will have colorful cards of paper available at the studio this week and next for anyone who would like to write a note of support and love to the family.  These will be collected and delivered next Friday(2/17).  

As I did with the loss of a PMA parent last year, I will share the news with the older students (Juniors and Teen/Adult classes) and invite them to offer support for their friend using the colored cards as well.  Everyone grieves and processes loss differently.  Children process loss differently than adults.  Your child may or may not wish to talk about this at home.  Depending on their age and temperament, some children prefer to do some processing on their own or with their peers; some go into their rooms and spend time with toys, music, or pets; some want to talk to adults.  Even if they aren’t talking, you may notice your child staying a little closer to you than normal; sitting in the kitchen instead of their room to do their homework, wanting a hug more often than usual, or asking you to tuck them in.  Or you may not. 

I have included a link below that can serve as resources for how to talk with children about death and dying.  I am continually amazed and grateful for the power of this community, and know that our show of love for Shaun and Matthew will mean a lot in this difficult time.  Thank you all for your strength.

http://www.hospicenet.org/html/talking.html

Your child’s best day, becomes my best day – when you share it with me.  The below is from an email of a mom who has her two sons in my Dragon Program.

Both boys said repeatedly on the way home that today was the best day ever. Obviously every day can’t be a 3-man-class-so-let’s-spar kind of day at Paresh. But they really did have a great time.

They would also like to know if you are Power Ranger who cannot reveal your secret identity in order to keep the paparazzi away.

(I swear I did not make that up.)

So that’s pretty awesome.  First I had to acknowledge Lady Gaga for the fact that with out her, these two little guys would not have a clue as to what “paparazzi” even means, let alone be able to use it correctly in a sentence and then, of course, I had to share it!

So I shared it with Valerie our Studio Manager,  who in turn shared it with her husband, because this really is the kind of stuff you have to pass on.  Well, the best is her son, also a Dragon at Paresh, overheard her sharing and had this to say:

“You could figure out if Ms. Ohlson was a Power Ranger if you pull on her skin and see if it comes off.”  Then he suggested “Ms. Ohlson may be a Transformer and her power has been concentrated because she’s miniaturized (because transformers are huge you know)!”

The truth is, you really can not make this stuff up.  Thanks for the Best Day Ever!

It may be the challenge of our lives, the journey we are on, simply to find calm.  To find it in each moment.  To define and redefine how we experience it, how we share it.  What is it, what does it mean, why is it important?

I loosely define calm as being able to be with your reality and not be triggered by it.  It is being able to be present, to be witness to the world around you and not automatically react.  Being calm allows all that possible around you to be present and you the opportunity to receive this potential and respond, with a choice that is truly yours.

Finding calm is an ongoing practice.  It is a daily, hourly, moment to moment experience. When calm is found, it tends to disappear again.  All too often because we, the ‘finder’ attempt to hold on to it.  There is no holding calm.  We can only be with calm.

And this is our training, as martial artists, push our minds, our bodies, our spirits to limits we hadn’t imagined, and there, find calm.  Be with calm.  Be calm.