The Martial Artist

Considering how sick I was on Sunday Night/Monday Morning I am impressed with how well today went.

When we got to the gym I was still not feeling right so I dedicated today to poomse practice and skipped yoga class. It ended up being a pretty good practice session considering all things involved. I am looking forward to September when the Y day camp is over and I can have full practice sessions in the gym again. There are too many kids watching my practice sessions and I think working on sparring techniques with them watching will not be a good idea because who knows if they will watch me then try what I am doing on their friends.

I had a little trouble sleeping today so I ended up watching the World Combat League season 1, which was most likely a bad idea because by the time the first dvd was over I wanted to go work on sparring practice. I also sent a email to Master Demasco, the former head of the United Studios of Self Defense and current head of Shaolin Studios. I was amazed to get a response from him in less then 15 minutes.

I thankfully fell asleep around 1:15ish and Jennifer and I woke up at 4:15 to take care of some running and to hit class at the south branch. Well sadly the road construction made things very difficult today and I ended up missing class at the south branch. I could have went and walked in 15 minutes late but I really do not like going to class late, even at the south branch when I can sneak in the back door and not interrupt class. Perhaps I should have gone, but I will stick to my decision.

Greybelt Class however was wonderful. We broke up into small groups and worked on forms for about 30 minutes and then we working on breaking techniques. At first we used bags, then those preparing for the test got called up to the front to work on breaking techniques with reproachable boards. I think the boards were a bit used so breaking was easy but it was nice working on them. I am hopeful I am as successful on the test as I was tonight. Jennifer also did a great job and as always I was very impressed with her.

Today may not have been the day I hoped for but it ended up well enough anyways. This should be a good week. I am actually not shocked that I was sick last night. There has been a number of stressful things going on from one of jennifers former friends steal pain medication from me, to him calling Jennifer’s mother and others to try to ruin our marriage to a number of people stressing the black belt test those who are healers pick up on this energy and take it onto themselves and well this harmful energy needs to get expelled somehow.

I am so proud of my classmates who went to the interschool competition today. I wish that our instructors could have been there to see how well their students did, however since they could not attend I was happy that I had the opportunity to step in and coach them through the process.

We had 6 people show up for today’s competition and they all did extremely well. Of the 5 our yellow belt female named keilina did remarkable well. The first match she was apart of was with a green belt with at least 6 months more experience and honestly kelina owned the match from start to finish. I think she shocked the green belt and the corner judges with her attacks and they way she controlled the ring. One of the Masters was extremely impressed with her but did not like how many hand strikes that she used. Another Master who say the match from the ring over asked if she would spar with a yellow belt boy because he believed she would do fine in the match. Kelina was also extremely impressive in that match and about 10 seconds into the match the boy learned not to take it easy on the person across from you just because she was a girl. Now in my opinion if Kelina did this well as a yellow belt with very little TKD and sparring experience when she gets trained up some more she will be wonderful at competitions. Her brother also did extremely well for his first match, he was not as dominate as his sister but for this first match he had nothing to be ashamed of. I think perhaps once he gets more comfortable with his skills and mixes in combinations that works for him, he will also be wonderful at sparring. It sucks that this two need to move away for a year and a half, however when they come back I am looking forward to see how far both of them have grown as martial artist and seeing how their skills develop in the competition aspect of martial artist. They will not be taking WTF Taekwondo, but they skills they learn at their new schools will certainly help them when they return back to us. I am happy that they both walked away with medals, because in many ways it seems like this competition was a parting gift for them.

Our White belt Dillon also did extremely well. He was matched against a kid twice his size and I think that made him a bit nervous. Honestly competing against people clearly bigger then you does take a bit from your game and I think he recovered well from this mismatch. Considering that he has only been in TKD for a few weeks I believe that he had nothing to be ashamed of and as our next competition will be in Feb and by then he will certainly have much more experience and his skills will also progress wonderfully. My own advice to him would be to keep both his hands and his eyes up. This however is a white belt mistake that most of us have made in the past and I am sure that as he progresses he will fix those issues.

Eden was a our green belt how competed. She did extremely well against a blue belt who was clearly afraid of her. The girl Eden faced kept moving to the inside to keep from getting kicked, however once there she really did not do much. I think Eden wanted to punch out, however after watching Kelinas match and seeing how one of the Masters were not fond of hand strikes eden decided not to do that. Although in my opinion Eden clearly controlled the match she did get a bit flustered with the inside fighting and when the match was over mentioned that was something she really wanted to work on. I will give Eden a great deal of credit for recognizing this issues now and wanted to correct it before the next competition. Too many people do not recognize weaknesses in their skills as quickly. I have some things counters that Eden may find useful so perhaps I will go over a couple of them with her.

I am also thankful for Leslie who pitched in to help the black belts judge and so forth today so I was free to coach our classmates. I am the highest rank student at the West Branch and Leslie is 2 spots after me, and together we were the highest rank students of our branch at the competition. If Leslie would not have stepped in to help out then I would not have been able to coach our classmates and honestly I am thankful that she did and I think our classmates feel the same way.

I am looking forward to speaking with Jr. Master Peshca on Tuesday and Mrs Mundt on Thursday when she returns from her trip. I believe they will both be extremely proud of the lower ranks from our branch who competed, Leslie for helping out and for me being there to coach the classmates. As a team we worked extremely well and I believe we represented our branch with honor. I am looking forward to the next interschool competition and seeing how much everyone who competed today grows and develops as martial artist, not just the few from the West Branch but all the Martial Artist from the other branches.

Master Wade put on a great competition even though it was a bit on the last minute side. I know my instructors would have been there if they had more time to plan for the event and when the next competition I will either help out, or coach again depending on what roles my instructors take on. I personally would love to coach again, however I think my instructor would prefer me to work on gaining some experience as a judge or ref but I can always hope. I will also need to remember to take my sparring gear to step in for when a individual needs a match.

Personally I loved the location we had it had a great deal of space and the energy within the building was intense. I am hopeful to see more competitions there as time passes. Honestly it was a great inter school competition and for a great many people this was their first taste of the competitive side of martial arts. A great number of people walked away with Gold, Silver, or Bronze Metals, but no one walked away a loser. Everyone who stepped into their match all faced a very frightening demon in one way shape or form and they all took that demon on head on. For those who have never done a competition it is harder then it looks and your first few matches are not often highlight films. God at my first competition in Shaolin Kempo I made it through 4 matches before I lost and I got physically sick before each match. The black belt in charge of the ring learned quickly and kept a basket there for me to make it easier. I ended up injuring the guy I faced in the 3rd round and I think that is why I lost my 4th round but honestly I have no clue how I made it that far. My first TKD match was against a 3rd dan who will be testing for his Jr. Master in a few days and he honestly reminded me of how much room I still have to grow as a martial artist. I think even for experienced martial artist the matches still get to us a bit.

Ops I forgot to say that I am also thankful for my friends at the other branches who filled me in on matches that I missed.

Well in any event it was a great day for Kim’s Academy of Taekwondo and I think Grand Master Kim was very pleased with how well it all went. At the end of the day everyone learned something be it the competitors, the judges, refs and us coaches. In truth that is why the interschool is so important so we can all gain skills and experience that will help us later. Win or lose everyone showed the heart of warriors and no one walked way feeling like a loser. They all walked in as warriors and they all walked out as warriors with new friends and stories to tell. I think perhaps a few of the friends and family of the competiors will also be signing up for classes but I may be mistaken on the last part.

Well honestly things have not been good these past few days. I missed classes on Wednesday due to my dentist appointment, and I also decided to take the day off from my private practice sessions. On Thursday morning I attempted a light practice but I pulled a muscle in my leg and well that grounded me from classes for both Thursday and Friday. I used reiki as normal but decided to also take advantage of the rest and took classes off as well. Essentially I missed 3 entire days of training and I should be nervous but I still feel good where I am now.

I was planning on attending class today until I realized that there would not be a family class today due to the “Friendship Competition”. So instead of having class I need to head up to the competition and support my classmates. My instructors will not be there due to the commitments they have so again it is my place to be there but without having much needed rest before hand I am not sure how much help I am going to be. I am going to be there before check in for last minute poomse practice, then I am going to try to get a nap in until they start getting ready for sparring. With luck I will get in a good hour or so of sleep! I will get in a practice session when I leave work, but I am not planning to push myself too hard. I would rather have light practice sessions, perhaps of only poomse for today and tomorrow to make sure I am prepared for the next week. Between Reiki, 3 days off and light practice sessions I should be up and ready with no issues on Monday.

I will let you all know what I am planning for next week sometime on Sunday. Until then as always me friends enjoy life, train hard and remember that being a martial artist is a life style not what we do in the dojan.

7-28-09

AM

We well had the morning meeting with one of our primary accounts. It was a give and take situation, however both sides seemed to came out of the meeting happy. Jennifer and I will need to make a couple of small changes to our routine but nothing too bad. It is believed that the areas of unhappiness, were perhaps more of using the wrong then approach then anything. I was happy to hear that part, but it was still a bit frustrating for me. We will try changing things up this week and see what happens next week. At this point the good news is that the contract continues.

The difficult part about this meeting however was that we had to cancel our AM training session. We did not have enough time to hit the gym, nor did we have enough time to go home. We decided to hit a local park and we ran through our forms a few times. After we finished that we decided to play on the swings and the other stuff they have for kids there. It was actually a great deal of fun, and honestly a wonderful release.

PM

Classes today were impressive. I missed a few minutes of the beginner class because I spoke to a couple of the yellow belts parents. I informed him about the computer I have that his daughter wants and we talked a bit about the competition and what to expect. Both of his kids want to compete and I am looking forward to watching them do it. It is official due to the late planning of the competition both of my instructors will be out of town this weekend so as the highest rank person after them I believe it is my place to attend the competition and support my classmates and so forth. Mrs. Mundt is the beginner class’s main instructor and unofficially I am her “teachers aid” so the yellow belts there know me and we have a level of trust and respect so I am going to attempt to corner them when possible. I will check with the upper ranks but I believe the black belts assigned to corner the rings will understand, but again I will check with Grand Master Kim to make sure I will not be over stepping my bounds. I have cornered for classmates in the past and things went over well but I do not want to step on anyone’s feet. I am not positive on who from the advanced class is attending so I am not sure if when the yellow belts are done if I will be leaving at that point, helping out in other areas, or what will happen when they are done.

Opps sorry that was one of my famous rants that I am sure you will get used to when you read my blogs. Class itself was demanding tonight. The dojan felt hotter and more humid then normal. I am not sure if that was just me since I missed classes last week or if indeed we had air issues. I do now that 3 of my classmates all had to sit out for a bit, actually 1 sat out for a minute and returned but 2 others sat out for the entire class. Half way through class we thankfully finished basics and started working on bag drills. Honestly I love doing bag and paddle drills because my kicks look a hell of a lot better when aiming at a target verse just tossing kick in the air. Admittedly I am not great at visualizing attackers which I think is part of the issue.

Potential Concerns

Wednesday is going to be another distracting day for me. I have a early morning dentist appointment which means I will miss both practice and yoga. Depending one when I get done I may also miss black belt class. I talked to Grand Master Kim about this potential issue and he told me not to worry about it, but I really do not like missing practice sessios let along missing classes. Now there is no way around missing am training but missing pm training is worse case situation. I would rather plan for the worse and hope for the best. Normally things work out as I want them to, but it is better to cover our butt just incase.

Monday was a extremely busy day for me.  It was not as action packed as a Jett Li movie, but well thankfully life seldomly is.

Monday Morning

The AM workout was a bit give and take. I went through my poomse twice and then ran up to yoga class. The best part about today however was that I actually felt the spiritual aspect of yoga once again.  It has been so long since I have actually felt the spiritual aspects of yoga, and I am hopeful that Fridays yoga class is the same way.

The poomse practice went well enough as well.  I did not feel the power of the elements like I used to, however I was feeling a taste of the energy again. I do not know but it feels like things have been so blend lately and today I lightly tapped into the universal life force, ki, chi or prana or whatever else you wish to call it.  Perhaps I closed myself of to my spiritual aspects for way too long.

Monday Night

Black belt, or perhaps I should say grey belt class was also wonderful.  We had about 15 people in class today and remarkible only 5 of us are preparing for testing.  I believe this is a good tribute to Master Weaver that so many people attend his class, when offically it is not part of any of our programs.  Grey Belt class was designed for those who are a bit rusty on Taeguek/Palgwe poomse and want to brush up on them, however there are a good number of black belts who show up regularly. 

Of course we worked hard on forms like always.  After we a time I was dismissed from the main group and worked with Leslie and Jennifer (the black tips) and helped them with some sugguestions to prepare them for their danbo test.  Since I was the last one to test for danbo I had the freshest perspective on the test. To round out class we ended up working on spinning back kicks, jumping back kicks and stepping back kicks.  The class seemed odd when they noticed how much room I actually need to hit a full power stepping back kick  I have extremely long legs and when I extend my kicks then well it takes some room

Honestly I think we should change the name of the "Grey Belt" class.  To has the same rules as black belt class were testing black tips can attend classes.  The class really is a black belt class with a focus on forms and honestly I think the instructors like hitting the Grey Belt and the Black Belt class. It gives them the chance to be students once again.  On Mondays and Wednesdays the instructors seem to enjoy lining up like students and taking classes togather.  True the regular students are mixed in together with them but listening to them talk and seeing their smiles show how much they enjoy getting together.

On a final note it seems like I have been accepted more by some of the black belts over the last few months.  I am not sure if this is because I am a Kim's Academy black belt (not a kukkian black belt yet) or if it is because they have seem me in black belt classes as often. Do not get me wrong our black belts are wonderful and they do show proper respect to everyone but like myself they give a certain level of respect and what you do with it is up to you!

Well Tuesday will be a big day.  We have another meeting with cargill.  This happens every few months and honestly I am not sure which way it is going to go.  At the very least will will be given our 2 month notice, as best we walk out with the contract still in tact.  For some reason there are always some "big" issues we need to discuss.  I am not sure how this happens since we do the same job every night but well what can you do.

7-26-09

Sunday was fairly good day for me. I did not make it to sparring class like I wanted to, however that was not shocking. The timing really does not work for Jennifer and I, so I spent 2 hours at the West YMCA in a practice session. After the class I went ahead and spend about 45 minutes in the hot tube then 15 minutes in the sauna to let my muscles soak and relax. Unlike the jackasses who watched “The Ultimate” fighter and do not understand that you can cut weight using the sauna for night before weigh in then drink water to put the weight back on I had no intentions on cutting weight. Instead I let my muscles take advantage of the heat and drank plenty of liquid when I got out. (The last thing I need to worry about is cutting weight and honestly I think it is funny as hell when I see people in the sauna or steam room who spend a hour or so in there and actually think they are going to “lose weight”. Perhaps the UFC should have expressed that cutting weight is not the same as losing weight.

The Week ahead

Well this week will be a bit of give and take. Jennifer and I have a meeting with one of our accounts on Tuesday morning at 8am and I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday at 8am. I am not sure which will be more painful. If all goes well I will get a practice session in on Tuesday before the business meeting, if we get to work early enough that will be possible. On Wednesday things will be more complex. I can get in a forms practice, but I will miss yoga because of the time and odds are I will mix black belt class that night. If all goes well the appointment will not take that long, but by the time the numbness goes away I will get even less sleep then normal, mixed with pain killers and I will not be at my best.

I am still looking hopeful for the week. I am trying to figure out what is going to happen with Tuesday Mornings meeting.

7/25/09

Family Class

As much as I love hitting classes with Master Weaver the Saturday Family classes are far from easy for Jennifer and I. Thankfully we got out of work a bit early this morning so I got a power nap on the way home from work, and Jennifer got 2 hours of sleep before class.

Going to class was important today for two reasons. The first because hitting classes are always good, but Jennifer needed to talk to both Grand Master Kim and Master Weaver about the promotional test. Jennifer has not attended classes at the North West branch as much as she used to, so Master Boman, Jennifer’s primary instructor has actually been her secondary instructor and could not sign her testing form. Master Bowman suggested for Jennifer to talk to Grand Master Kim and Master Weaver since she has been taking classes under them lately. She felt odd going to them, but since it was her instructors idea she did not feel as though she was doing anything wrong. Grand Master Kim and Master Weaver both listened to Jennifer and agreed that she is prepared for testing. If all goes well Master Bowman will sign off on Jennifer’s test form on the Master sign off page. I do not think Jennifer is happy with this because Master Bowman up until now was her primary instructor, however the NW branch has gone though a number of class time and day changes and attending those classes is not as easy as it used to be. I am happy that Jennifer is testing, however I believe she should have talked this over with her instructor when the issues first started. I understand Master Bowman’s point of view since as she has not been Jennifer’s primary instructor for a while now.

Well that being said class was a great deal of fun today. The Saturday class is a mixed class, with an average of 20-30 people. Today I think there was about 18 with 12 of the people being black belts and 2 black tips preparing for black belt testing. We finished class with 3 step sparring due to the number of children and lower ranks. For my first partner I ended up “sparring” with Master Holding. Master Holding is currently a 6st dan and I believe the most known Master at Kim’s Academy. Master Holding has happens to be my first primary instructor. Master Holding was the primary instructor at the West Branch for years and he stopped teaching in the fall of 2007. When he left Jr. Master Peshca took over teaching. I once thought Master Holdings classes were difficult, that was until Jr. Master Peshca started teaching in the primary instructor spot. In any event the cool thing is I am the lowest rank student of Master Holding at Kim’s Academy and honestly it felt right that when I test for Danbo, Master Holding was the one who called the test. I know with testing it is really the luck of the draw but for me it felt right to have Master Holding calling the test. Funny enough within 10 minutes everyone I tested with were winded but thankfully I am used to hard and fast classes so it was not as bad for me. Opps sorry I went far from the point. After I finished sparring with Master Holding I made the statement of my kicks are finally getting higher and he agreed and told me that my techniques are looking good. Now truth that is from my hard work, but also a positive statement for how well Jr. Master Peschca had done with the West Branch. Master Holding is about 6’2” and 200 lbs and extremely in shape. I am about the same height but about 50lbs less. In a real match I would never have a chance but in sparring today I am happy to say that I did pull a couple of kicks that would have landed on his chin. Again in a real match I would not have gotten that close but I am happy that in theory my kicks are getting high enough to do that.

One of these days I really need to put up a linage page of the people I trained with. My instructors deserve to have that and I am just concerned that when I do it, the page may not look correct. On a normal website it would be from the highest rank to the lowest rank, but for me it seems more fitting to list them in the order I train with them on. Of course as a black belt Grand Master Kim is officially my Primary instructor, but I would list Jr. Master Peshca after him because I train with him the most then list the rest of the instructors from there. I do not know perhaps I will talk to Jr. Master Peshca for his feedback for the best way to list everyone. I think this is why most people do not train at different branches.

7-24-09

Funny Day 2 did not go so well.

We had a great deal of running to do after work again so we decided that we would practice after class on Thursday night. It was a good plan but well things do not always work out the way we want them to. I woke up at 1pm and if I said that I felt sick that would have been a understatement. Sickness went through my home the past few days so I was not exactly shocked that I got sick, but it still sucked. I was hoping I could avoid it until the weekend so I would not have missed too many classes but well things do not always work the way we want them to. I was able to keep from getting “physically sick” from fast thinking with Reiki and a shower. After the shower set the alarm for 4:30 and went back to sleep. I woke up at 7:45 and pretty much accepted that my body needed the rest which is why I overslept the alarm clock. I woke up feeling great but my wife did not look too good. I did a fast Reiki treatment on her while she slept and went outside to work on forms and listened to my audio books.

Most people would consider this to be a bad sign of the month to come, but honestly for me it is actually a good sign of the month ahead. When the first few days of a training cycle are difficult I usually end up with a great training cycle. I will only have 3 hours to finish out this week which still leaves me plenty of time to knock out my actual goals before the Black Belt Pretest 3 weeks from Saturday.

Well that is about it for now, I am quite sure that my blogs will bet more interesting as the days get closer to the pretest. I am also going to spend a great deal of time on the website this weekend. I am going to post information for Reiki 1, a number of the pages from the book Bow to Life and 365 Tao. Not much just enough to give some information to help book sales. I also am planning to start posting some of my own thoughts with perhaps a hint of wisdom from my 15 years of martial art studies.

Day 1

Ok honestly day one was a bit mixed. I was unable to hit the gym on Wednesday morning since Jennifer and I had too much going and I chose TKD classes over workouts/practice session. When we got home we set the alarm for 4:00 and went to sleep. I woke up at 5:30 to a blinking alarm clock. This meant that I missed class at the south branch but thankfully I did make it to Black Belt class.

I swear I can not stand the trains in Wichita KS, the trains city does not give up a train times so if you have to cross a railroad track it is hit or miss, today it was hit and we were delayed 10 minutes getting to class. I honestly do not like hitting classes late when it can be avoided and hitting black belt class late is certainly not a delightful experience. Thankfully Grand Master Kim is understanding but it is still not something I enjoy. When I entered the school I took 2 steps in, turned to the dojan and bowed. The class was all in a stance were they all noticed me walking in which did not help matters. Grand Master Kim bowed, smiled and pointed to the locker room for me to get changed. When I was dressed and ran along the side wall to the back of the room I was amazed with how many people we had in class tonight. I do not believe there was less then 40 people in class tonight. 4 other danbo’s were in class as well as 4 black tips. It was as great full class.

After basics Grand Master Kim called up black tips and danbos for rank specific practice and I lined up in the front right position. (This is normal for me for my danbo class since I am one who hits black belt class the most often.) We did some basics kicks and so forth and spent some time on forms. I do not know what happened but on move 6 of palgwe O Jang I completely blanked out and made a handful of mistakes. I do not like making mistakes, especially at black belt class but Grand Master Kim seemed amused that everyone saw my mistakes and did the same thing I did. Mistakes happen in class even to the best martial artist and when they do all you can do is laugh about them and move on. I could have mentally beat myself up over the mistake, or perhaps complete lack of focus but honestly that would have made things worse not better.

1st Dan Test Count

It was nice seeing two more people who I tested with for Basic Black Belt level in class tonight. I think at the moment we have 9 of the 12 of us accounted for and planning to pretest as well as two people of the class before us planning to test for 1st dan. Our testing group will have 11ish people so it will be a small group which means the Masters will certainly have a clear view of all of us. I would like to get a hold of everyone in my black belt class to see if they would like to meet up as a group for a once a week practice session, just so we can get on each others timing and so forth but a good number of the people I tested wither were barely over 15 and the idea may not go over right. Perhaps I will talk this over with my wife and bring up the idea on our pretest day. I believe it would be a great idea, however I could be mistaken.

The New Moon Cycle

I have talked a bit bout this on one of my other blogs but this blog is the official focus of the new moon cycle.

I will be honest this month will be focus more on promotional testing then I have done for quite some time. Normally promotional testing is a side effect of hard training but this one is a bit different. I think it is perhaps because black belt testing is only held twice a year and if I do poorly I know I will have another 6 months until I can test again. I am not worried about stripes on my belt out of ego, instead it is because earning a second Dan ranking is important for future goals and this pretest will determine if I will be testing for 1st Dan in 2 months or 8 months. My goal is to head out to the Kukkiwan is summer of 2011 so I need to make sure I do what needs to be done to pass this pretest and be prepared to test for 1st Dan in Oct.

I feel confident in my present skills and abilities, but there is always room for improvement. I feel that for being a Danbo I have a good understanding of the techniques and poomse I will be responsible for, but that does not mean I am going to slack now.

1..30 class hours before my black belt pretest.

2. 60 hours of practice time.

3. 8 hours of Yoga practice

4. 20 hours of strength training and cardio training.

5. Read The Martial Way/ 10th Insight (book two of the Celestine Prophecy)

Obstacles of the Month

I do have a few issues I need to be concerned with. I have a couple of dentist appointments coming up this moon cycle alone. I have been forced to push them back due to not getting paid for invoices, however I can not continue to do this any longer. I do have my appointments set on Thursdays so I may only miss 2 classes on those weeks. Thankfully I will be able to continue with practice sessions on the day of the appointment they will just be a bit more limited.

I am also not exactly confident in my cardio training right now. I feel ok where I am at, but they worked the danbos fairly hard and my cardio has been limited due to summer training needs. I lose weight during the early summer so I have had to limit my cardio to keep from dropping too much weight. I think 20 minutes on the ARC trainer 3 days a week should get me where I need to be. The ARC trainer is intense cardio and worth 60 minutes of running on the track, or on a treadmill. If by the Full Moon I do not feel comfortable with my cardio then I will add 2 more days of ARC trainer and perhaps 10 more minutes per day.

Things I am looking forward to

We have a Friendship competition on August 1st. I will not be taking part in the competition due to how close it is pretest but I will be there to support some of my classmates. We have up to 5 people from our beginner class who will be in the competition and Mrs. Mundt will not be in town for the matches so I am going to head up there to support the individuals and perhaps corner them in their matches. I am sure Jr. Master Pescha will be there but the yellow belts do not have as much experience with them.