Max is leading the family at *red* belt

Max is leading the family at *red* belt. Next stop for him is the deep preparation for junior black belt!

Kyle made brown belt - first of the advanced belts in our system - Mon-Thur he does the junior and the adult classes, and he has another 2 hours with instructor Herman on Sundays - all-in he is doing 14+ hours a week. He has definition I never had.

... and I achieved purple - the last of the intermediate belts. In this cycle I made strong improvements with my kicks, and sparring has become really fun. But the more I learn, the more the horizon shifts further away from me and I go - oh shit! - so much more to learn. But it has been a good few months, I injured my left knee back in August, and I am now just about back to the same level of mobility with it, and now I need to focus on getting it strong again. Formally signed up for physical therapy after seeing an orthopedic surgeon who confirmed that despite tearing the ACL 20 years ago, the knee is in strong enough shape that I should not have repair surgery but instead just strengthen it up.

I am really grateful to Elite Martial Arts and Sensei John Roberson. His teachings, and everyone at the dojo have created an environment that is so *good* that the English language or at least my mastery of it is not strong enough to describe it well. The people there are fantastic, we learn striking, we learn ground, we learn speed and control. The kids addicted, I am addicted. We never want to miss a day.

All the techniques and teachings are coming together. Recently we did the 80 rounds of sparring and it was so much fun. About 100 people from various programs around central Austin came together for 5 hours of sparring. Everyone at Elite Martial Arts did very well, and I have to say, really my class mates from Elite were the strongest challenge for me. All the tools are beginning to come together and function decently. Again, a long ways to go, but the skills are starting pay off :)

Originally posted on Facebook on February 17, 2016.