1:00 AM
Paul B
I have decided to take a little bit of a hiatus from blogging here at Bauer-Power. I have a lot of stuff I have to catch up on in real life, and I really want to focus in on that. Don’t worry though, Bauer-Power isn’t going anywhere, just taking a short break. I promise I will pick up writing on the blog here around mid December.
Just to let you know, I have two really important certifications I am working on right now. One is for my VMware VCP4 certification for my career, and the other is to certify my second degree black belt in Karate with the World Martial Arts Ranking Association (WMARA). Did that last one catch you by surprise?
That’s right, when I was in fourth grade my parents put me in Karate at East-West Karate in Littleton Colorado under Fred Bode. Mr. Bode developed his own unique style of Karate, like many American martial artists do, by combining several different styles. The style he taught was called Bushi No Te Ryu. Mr. Bode retired from teaching his style in the mid 90’s. A few years before he retired I earned a second degree black belt at his school. Not long after that, the school began to change. They hired a business manager to run the school, and take over the business aspect because they weren’t making enough money. After that it started to become less like a martial arts school, and more of a business. My brother and I decided it was time to leave.
A few years later I wanted to see what going to a tournament was like. Mr. Bode believed that Karate was for self defense and not for showing off, so we never competed in tournaments. It’s funny that he taught that though, because he himself was a kick boxer. Anyway, I decided to join a local Taekwondo school in my home town of Conifer Colorado. I joined the local ATA (American Taekwondo Association) school which taught Songahm Taekwondo. They honored my black belt there after making me come to a black belt class to prove my skills. Since I was paying for it and I had to learn their style in only a month, I went to every class I could. Some times three times a night until I felt I had a good enough grasp on their forms, and I was in good enough shape to compete. After the tournament, I dropped back out. Taekwondo was just too expensive for a teen working part time, and I didn’t like the way ATA was ran. To me it is like the McDonalds of Taekwondo, and their main concern is for tournaments, not real life applications. That was about 13 years ago.
About a month ago a local Taekwondo instructor from Family Karate in Escondido California came to my daughter’s school. His name is Stephen Truscott, and is a 7th degree black belt in Taekwondo. He was offering free “life lessons” classes to my daughter’s kindergarten class. I told my wife how important martial arts can be to a kid growing up because it teaches them respect and discipline. That was exactly what he was teaching. We decided to sign her up. After taking the class, my daughter earned her white belt, and I got to meet and talk to Mr. Truscott. He invited me to train with my daughter at the school, and he would too honor my black belt, but he is requiring me to certify my belt with the WMARA.
In order to get back up to speed after taking 13 years off, I feel that I have to dedicate a great deal of my free time to training. I think this is an amazing opportunity though to get back on track. The founder of Shotokan Karate, which is a base for my original style of Karate, and Mr. Truscott’s style of Taekwondo, Gichin Funakoshi, believed that Karate is a life long pursuit, and I sort of let that slip away. Also, after watching some videos about Martial Arts frauds like Frank Dux and Ashida Kim, I decided that certifying my belt with a national organization sounded like a great thing to do!
Anyway, long story short. I won’t be writing for a while while I concentrate on martial arts, and my VMware certifications. Please check back though, because I will return!
