December 18, 2011 to... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I thought I already wrote 12/18-24 entry, but I guess not. Sorry, time flies. And we're in 2012 already!

We've been working on new Kata, plus practicing Koroshi-waza quite a bit. It's a great offensive strategy to compliment "Sen" (defensive/responding) timing we regularly work on. We're expanding it as we continue, including close-distance Koroshi or a failed Koroshi switching to combination attack. We'll do this for another week or so, then move on to another offensive strategy, I think.

Thank you very much for those who helped us clean the dojo at the end of last year. Tiffany, who failed to show up, agreed to do it all by herself at the end of this year. It's on the blog, so it's official...! The dojo sure feels clean and we started out the year very fresh. Thanks again, everyone.

Some exciting things are gonna happen this year. The national championship will be held right here in LA in June. Hopefully I'll do well and be able to compete at the World again (this time in Poland in November... COLD!!!). We will probably host a couple of Kyu tournaments again. Many of you will keep advancing in the rank (exams in April, August and December). Advanced class will start this Saturday. I'm gonna get married... Just kidding, just checking if you're paying attention. But maybe someone else will. And someone will have a baby. Very exciting year indeed.

I put out a new "Book of the Month" on the bookshelf. It's a Kata learning book which is a great learning tool to look at when you just started a new Kata.

Don't forget, Winter Training is going to be this month, 9th to 14th. Some of us participated and completed the whole week last year. Who is in this year??