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!

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”!