U.S. Open begins tomorrow, July 3-4, at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL

…I salute you!!!

Well, here we are friends!  This is the Final Countdown (another shameless tribute to big music and big hair from the past :)  Tomorrow begins the world’s most prestigious Martial Arts tournament…the 2009 U.S. Open World Martial Arts Championships.  Martial Artists from all over the globe are converging on Orlando as I type (they have been arriving all week) preparing to go head-to-head in everything from Jiu Jitsu, Freestyle fighting, Forms, Weapons, Self Defense, Synchronization, Sparring, Team Demos, XMA Trick Battles, and so much more!

Here’s one thing I know…with all the martial artists in the area this week, Orlando should be the safest big city in America !

Doug and the team getting ready for the U.S. Open

We had some good, light training yesterday with the team, and then Michael and I went back out for a couple of hours to do some more work on our own.  Today is a rest day…mental training day…enjoy the process day.  I just got word that I may be going out in just a bit to help set some things up with my friends over at www.Kickgen.com who will be onsite all weekend doing live stream broadcasts and capturing the entire event on video, and interviewing some of the top athletes.  I’ve got family coming in from out of state and other friend arriving in Central Florida as well for this mothership of tournaments!  This should be a fun day in anticipation of tomorrow’s events kicking off.

I will be posting some results and happenings as I can and am not engaged in competition throughout the weekend, then after it is all said and done, I will post some links to vids and final results and also let you in on what is happening for the future as a result of this training experience.

If you need times and locations of my events, please see my previous post…

I look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. – Please take a moment to thank my sponsors and friends who have supported this effort by visiting their sites, sending them a message…or better yet, get a hold of some of their products and services.  Only the best for you my friend!  Now…let’s rock!

Can you believe that after all these months, we are only a couple of days away!? Yahooooo!

We did quite a bit of training today, but light in intensity.  I’ve had to wrap my ankle as it twisted yesterday twice…nothing major, and it wasn’t even during training when it twisted, but still need to take care of it as I do a lot of heavy pivoting on it.  Pinkie toe still jammed up from being broken a couple of weeks ago in Palm Beach, so keeping that taped too.  All in all, though, training is coming along well.

We meet with our coach again tomorrow and have another team practice tomorrow late…then move into the final 2 days.  I went for a 2.5 mile walk this a.m. to warm up for some training time and got caught in a beautiful storm.  I found a gazebo to get under and just sat through it, watched it, and did quite a bit of visualization and meditation during the storm.  It was quite an energizing and powerful experience.  Holly even drove out to find me to give me a ride home, and I just wanted to stay through it…very refreshing and empowering.

I have some times and locations for the events here.  Remember the U.S. Open is taking place at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort.  You can get more info about everything location and tix at www.usopen-karate.com.  Here are times for our events:

• Friday, beginning at noon our divisions for Self-defense and Synchronized forms begins.  It will be held in the Veracruz Exhibit Hall.  These divisions begin at noon, but we may or may not be competing at that time (possibly later).  Never can tell exact timing until things get going.  As it stands now, we will be in Ring 3 and on the Stage for these events.
• Saturday, traditional forms begin at 11:00am in the same Hall.  Again, exact timing for when I will compete is to be determined based on how many competitors…where I line up in all of it…and how many divisions there are.
• I do want to mention that one of our team-mates, Mike Tatum, will be competing in the Sport Jiu-Jitsu Freestyle Fighting competition beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday.  Support for him is mucho appreciated.

Please plan on visiting the Kickgen.com booth while you are there, and if you need help finding people or places, just ask anyone…I am sure we will be just as enlightened as you .

Just a couple of days away…look forward to seeing you there!

It has been a day filled with training from various angles…in the pool resistance training, out of the pool-stay-alive-in-the-heat-training, solo kata training, synchronized kata training, with music, without music, with frustration, without frustration…you get the point.  Tomorrow we will dive further into self-defense.

Here is a link to a local newspaper that ran an article on me and our Quest For The U.S. Open.  Thanks to the West Orange Times here in the Orlando area for running this piece.  We have made some great friends from the response to the article.

http://wotimes.com/articles/2009/06/22/news/sports/sports01.txt

Please take a moment to read through it and pass it on to friends and family via Fb, email, twitter, or any other way you communicate with your peeps!

It’s hard to believe we are under two weeks away!  We will keep working harder than ever to be ready in every area.  The dream is at hand!!!  As always, I appreciate your support, prayers, and encouragement!  I have added a support button to the right in the sidebar.  If you think kindly of it, please throw some spare change our way and we have two free gifts to send you regardless of what amount you give.  I thank you in advance.

There have been some new developments as a result of this Quest that I am excited to share with you as the details are ironed out and I have permission to announce.  Please stay tuned, and know that we are reaching lives in some unique places as a result of reaching for the highest level of athletic training in our Quest For The U.S. Open.

If you don’t have your tix yet for the event, please mosey on over to the U.S. Open site and get your tix locked in.  I will be competing in events on both Friday and Saturday, and will share some times as I know them.  The biggie “Night of Champions” is held on Saturday night, and you will definitely want to see this.  A…MA…ZING!

Do me a favor and check out some of my sponsors like www.BoldLook.net and my coach www.LaurenKearney.com over in the right hand sidebar.

Everybody stay cool now…I’ll see you at the U.S. Open!!!

Michael, Kyle, Ariel, Ricky, me, and Lauren at Palm Beach Martial Arts & Fitness

I just returned from a day of training with my coach, World Martial Arts Champion Lauren Kearney, in Palm Beach/Lake Worth area.

  Good, hard day of training, and yet very encouraging.  The U.S. Open is right around the corner (July 3 & 4), so now it’s time for refining, a step up in mental prep, and continuing to focus on my own physical training for continued weight loss, flexibility, and strength.  Overall a very good day.

Lauren brought in two other World Champions for us to train with (Kyle Montagna and Ricky Morris), as well we had the privilege of training with another U.S. Open first timer (Ariel – better watch out for this girl as she is a young star rising!)…so it was a lot of fun, educational, and a lot about raising to the level of those who are much better than me.

Snapped my little toe on the mats today which wasn’t (isn’t) fun, but gonna tape it up, ice it up, and work the “kinks” out over the next several days.  Don’t think this is gonna hinder me at all other than being really uncomfortable.

Big thanks to those at Palm Beach Martial Arts & Fitness (www.palmbeachmartialarts.com) for allowing us to train in their facility today.  Great place!  If you are in the Lake Worth area…get yourself over their way and check it out.  I promise you will enjoy it!

ALSO…this just in:  article in today’s West Orange Times about this Quest and kinda what has led me to all of this.  Please pick up a copy in the next day or so…I would appreciate the support as I know the newspaper would.

Now off to do some more “refining”!

Doug McGannon, Mike Tatum, Michael McGannon

Myself, Mike Tatum, and Michael McGannon (my son and primary training partner) out in the open field training some self-defense over the weekend.  Can you say HOT and MUGGY (the weather, not the pic)!!!

Mike Tatum

Here’s Mike T. (right) striking a pose…um, I mean, traditional stance…   Congrats to Mike for receiving his Black Belt the night before our training on Friday.  He was preeeettty sore whilst undergoing some self-defense maneuvers (hee, hee!).

Doug holding a new uniform from The Bold Look!

There is definitely a lot happening this week as we zero in on some technique-specific training with our kata (forms) and self-defense.  Michael and I will be heading south again on Wed. for some intense training with our Coach, Lauren Kearney, and I think she is going to team us up with some other tournament champs in order to raise our game a bit.  There is certainly nothing like learning from a group of people that are waaaaay above you in this game.  Good times!  I am looking forward to learning more.

We are so close now…to the point where I physically felt the pressure of being less than 3 weeks away today.  It has all come down to this.  I will be prepared, and this will definitely be a “moment” to remember.

Do me a favor and check out my friends and sponsors (link up top and links to the right).  I would appreciate it and I know they would appreciate your support!  There is no way I could do this alone, and to have some great people and companies in my “corner” for this Quest means a lot.

July 3 & 4 people…here we come!!!

I am seeking to honor warriors who have gone before me, who stand with me now, and who in the future will travel this same road.  I feel this is the greater burden in this Quest…that is to be worthy of the platform I am preparing to stand on in competition, and also to be respectful of those who have been or currently are on their own Quest.  At the end of each day I want to know that my God and my family are looking on me and saying, “Good.  Well done.  Keep going!”

Today I began with an invigorating walk/meditation that actually ended up in a light jog. First time my body has been able to do that in many years.  I wasn’t trying to go all Olympian on us or anything…but it felt good that my body said “GO!” and I was able to do so.

Now I am on my out the door toward South Florida where I meet up with my coach, Lauren Kearney, for an afternoon of working with her on technique, sharpening, and whatever else she has in mind.

What road lies before you?  Are you preparing and acting in a way that is worthy of the path or the destination you are on?  Are you surrounded by people  who care, but who are also honest?  When you reach your destination will you have already won, so that your destination becomes more the celebration of where you have come from?  What Quest must you embark upon today…what Prize are you striving for?

Prayerfully one that is much more than a mere trophy or applause, but one that is eternal, deep within you, and one that will inspire everyone else around you!

Big week ahead, and so far, this has been a great start of this new week!  See you somewhere on the road we travel together…

Soke Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi

So, today we focused on self-defense training specifically. Michael and I worked on several sequences this morning together and then later we met up with Michael Tatum, a student with Bunjikan Tenguzake Dojo, here in the Central Florida area. This Dojo is in the line of instruction under Masaaki Hatsumi, the reknown Master from Japan.  Truly a man and a system of Martial Arts deserving of much honor and respect.

Michael Tatum will be working with our team for the self-defense portion of our training and presentation. It is an honor and a privilege to be working with him.

What was NOT such “an honor and a privilege” was training in the deluge of rain that came upon us while in the middle of the field we were training in. The rain came so fast and so hard we really had no other choice but to stand there and “enjoy”   Actually, it kinda reminded us of the dreams we have as kids (and adults) about being warriors standing in the rain looking off toward the battlefield ready to engage the enemy with power and skill, ready to lay down our lives for honor…and with a huge rolling mist engulfing us…um, cut to the credits

It was refreshing, pun intended, to work outside and specifically on self-defense techniques ranging from Muy Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Hapkido, Karate, and Judo to weapons defenses.

I always enjoy working self-defense and am grateful that the U.S. Open has a platform for this portion of our Art to be demonstrated and performed.

We will train for quite a bit tomorrow on this again, as well as with our kata (forms) training in addition to our physical workout.

Then…on Sunday we travel South to meet with Lauren Kearney, my coach, to really begin fine tuning a lot of our training.

We have accomplished a lot this week and are looking to make significant strides in the next few weeks in our preparation for the U.S. Open.

Stay tuned…

With that in mind, I always want to find ways to give back and to help others on their own Quest. In the meantime, I have some people who have stepped up to say they will help me as well. In the next few days (I hope) I am going to be able to make a couple of announcements that, at least to me, are very, very cool. Stay tuned.

By the way, I had someone say to me the other day that I must be doing this full-time and get paid for it and no wonder I can find all this time to train…blah, blah, blah! I wanted to introduce him to Mr. Roundhouse! (I didn’t, don’t worry!)

Let me say…I don’t do this full-time (though I will certainly entertain that option in the future), and I don’t get paid for doing all this. In fact, I am working full-time at another job, launching a small business in spare time (actually Holly focuses most on this now that I am pursuing the U.S. Open), am first and foremost a Husband and a Father of two sons (one of which is dual-enrolled in High School and College – and is my primary training partner, the other is a toddler – HA!), and am seeking further employment as my primary job is shutting down due to a national closing in the very near future. I have spent the past couple of years overcoming injury and a depression that I thought was going to wipe me out (which is why I stepped away from my professional line of work after nearly 20 years)! I still struggle with all of that sometimes. I struggle with this Quest. Sometimes “Quest” is short for “Questions” for me…but I push on!

Training sometimes is in the middle of the night, or before everybody else is up and around. I don’t have a lot of equipment…jumprope, punching mits, a mountain bike, and a very old weight set, and an open space in the backyard. It’s all pretty rustic. I kinda feel like Rocky when he went to live in that barn and workout in the wild. Most of the time it is pretty cool, to be honest. I feel like I am connected to a long line of warriors who didn’t have all the modern “necessities” that we have today. Though, I will admit that stuff would probably help sometimes.

I’m like most of you in that I do the best I can with what I’ve got. I do feel immensely blessed because of who has stepped into my corner as a coach, Lauren Kearney (http://www.laurenkearney.com), and I feel a great deal of support from all my friends at http://www.kickgen.com, and of course, I have 24/7 support from my family.

The reality is I am like most of you in that I have stuff I have to do everyday, and I have struggles I have to face everyday… The only difference may be that I know I still have a Champion’s Heart and Mind through it all, no matter what has happened, and no matter what will happen, and I can do this and I have decided to do this. I live with a lot of Grace that has been shown me, and I am thankful. I am thankful I can still step out and train and even attempt something like the U.S. Open.

So, there is a lot more to this than you might think. It is certainly multi-layered and not easy at all.

Soon, I will make some exciting announcements. For now, I am going to try and catch a 20-minute nap before work. The lat night training last night and the training today has worn me slap out. Just for the record…I absolutely despise being slapped in the face by low-hanging branches that I can’t see when drivers blast their beams in my eyes while biking near the highway (on a sidewalk).

If you see me out biking in the middle of the night, please go drive somewhere else so I don’t see spots for the next 2 miles, and I don’t get mauled by tree branches that somehow are mysteriously not there in the daytime!

Ride on!

Lauren, my Coach, sent me some videos this morning of my potential competition. Yep…I’m definitely climbing a BIG mountain. Will be receiving some more instruction from her soon. In the meantime, studying, studying, and training, training.

I feel like I’m moving too slow right now (in terms of the intensity of my training), so I will evaluate that tomorrow again and see if I simply hit a plateau already. I think I will begin to disappear from the world around me a few times a week for my training times. I do really well to be alone sometimes and I can push myself and work through some visualization. Other times I need to be surrounded, but the distractions lately have been mounting.

Hydrating…and hitting the sack!