February 2007 Newsletter

Congratulations

Congratulations to the people who earned promotions since our last newsletter.

• Junior Yellow Belt – C. J. Knorr, Sujit Patel, Pranav Patel, Sarah Fontana
• Junior Green Belt #1 – Cristina & Isabel Gomez
• Junior Green Belt #2 – Austin Pidoto, Justin Pidoto, Hassan White
• Junior Purple Belt #1 – Tiffany Dill, Kristyn Wheeler, Kevin Fontana
• Junior Purple Belt #2 – Matthew Fontana
• Brown Belt # 3 – Kyle Wheeler
• Brown Belt # 2 – Brian Mulligan
• Brown Belt # 1 – Brandon Folkes, Thomas Healy, Shaheeda Miles, Anthony Hunt, Michael Hunt

Each promotion is a rank or advancement earned. There are no small promotions because each represents and improvement of the individual and the dojo. Take note that there are a number of promotions to brown belt and advancements within the brown belt ranks. The final level of brown belt, Brown Belt #1, is the final step prior to Black Belt. That next step is a “quantum leap” for these teenagers. A step, which will be earned with, continued discipline to individual practice when not in the dojo, working to advance their skills and helping others to improve as well.

Remember the Golden Rule Karate Tournament on Sunday, February 11th. We have registration forms. Pre-registration forms must be mailed by February 3rd. Warren Hills High School will be open at 9:00 a.m. and the tournament will begin at 11:00 a.m. This is a nicely run tournament, so plan to attend.

Mark your calendars. Kumite (sparring) Tournament on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at Newton High School, sponsored by King’s Isshinryu Karate Club. See Kyoshi for more information.

We need your help with our upcoming Benefit Tournament - - April 29th at Hackettstown High School.

• Set up, Score Keepers, Registration, Awards Table, 50-50, and much more
• We train. It is easy and enjoyable.
• It is practice for the World Event in June.
• See Kyoshi for more information.

We need your help with the upcoming World Karate Championship Event that we are hosting this June 28 – 30 in Princeton. Help with media coordination, sponsorships, golf tournament and below.

THURSDAY JUNE 28, 2007

• GREETERS
• GOLF TOURNAMENT
• 1 - 4 PM REGISTRATION PICKUP
• 3 PM HIGH DAN BLACK BELT MEETING
• 7 PM BLACK BELT WEAPONS SEMINAR
• SOCIALIZE BY INDOOR / OUTDOOR POOL
• CARDS FOR VISION STATEMENTS

FRIDAY JUNE 29, 2007

• GREETERS
• 7 AM SETUP TOURN
• 9 AM - VENDORS SITE ASSIST.
• 10 AM - 5 PM PRE REG PICUP & T-SHIRT SALES
• 11 AM - 12:30 PM FORRESTAL OPEN FOR TRAINING SESSION
• SUPERVISE ASSIST @ PHOTO SITE W/ MASTER SHIMABUKU
• GET BALOONS FOR DINNER AND TOURNAMENT
• 1:30 - 3:15 PM - BR / BL SEMINAR – DOOR ASSIST
• 3:30 - 4:30 ALL RANK SEMINAR – DOOR ASSIST
• 5 PM - HELP SET UP BANQUET
• 6:30 - 10 - BANQUET
• 10 PM – CHECK - SET UP FOR TOURNAMENT

SATURDAY JUNE 30, 2007

• GREETERS
• PICTURES W/ MASTER SHIMABUKU ASSIST
• STAGING AREA
• AWARDS TABLE
• PA ANNOUNCER
• JUDGE COORDINATOR
• SCORE KEEPERS COORDINATOR – ASSIST.
• PRE TOURN MEETING - BLACK BELTS
• ENTER WINNERS ON COMPUTER
• ENTRY DOOR SECURITY
• RUNNERS FOR REFRESHMENTS
• REGISTRATION ASSIST.
• SUNDAY JULY 1, 2007
• MEET PEOPLE AS THEY LEAVE
• PACK ALL MATERIALS

At the dojo we have a container for spare coins . . . “Coins for the Cause” - - - The cause is to help with the upcoming IWKA Championships. Help of you can.

Mental Prisons

Some time ago I read an article about Habits. A few days later I participated in a conference call with Bob Proctor who’s program happened to be covering the same topic. Things happen for a reason. As I work to prepare the World Championships and teach at Warren County College and the dojo, I needed to regain the focus on all the things I must do each day and organize the tasks that must be completed. After reading the article and participating in the conference call it became clear that I needed to focus again on my old established habits and I realized the important role they play in life. Like many aspects of life, habits can be considered both a blessing and a curse. Mr. Proctor spoke about an author; Robert Russell, who in his book, You Try It, wrote that habit was God's way of making good thoughts and actions automatic in life.

Mr. Proctor had a friend in Atlanta, the late Dr. Jay Dishman, who wrote an excellent article about habit in his monthly newsletter dated February 1985. He has shared Dr. Dishman's article with thousands of people around the world. Today I want to share a part of it with you.

"Recently I visited Alcatraz Prison. Once it housed the most hardened of criminals. Today it is open to tourists under the direction of the United States Parks Department. Many men tried to escape Alcatraz; no one is known to have succeeded. As I listened to the tour guide explain the impossibility of escape, I thought of other prisons equally confining but where the doors are never locked, no guards walk the halls, and escape is encouraged and possible. That prison is Habit."

Each of us creates our habit when we think about our environment and ourselves. We demonstrate our perceptions and habits of thought when we see our circumstances as a jail or a paradise. We need but to look around us to see people who are rich emotionally and materially because they think and feel rich. We also see people who are laden with emotional and material debt because they think that they cannot succeed and thus they are poor. Some are inspired with vision, while others are encumbered with doubt. Some are moved by ambition, others feel safer in monotony. Some reach for the mountaintops, others huddle in the pits. Some seek opportunity; others wait for it to knock. The sad fact is that more people are confined by their thoughts than are fed by them.

Negative thinking shuts us in a prison, but there is a way out. The apostle Paul said, "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Paul knew a great deal about prisons, both physical and mental. Renew life by renewing the mind. The mind is renewed as the habits of thinking are changed and made to become more positive in nature.

In the martial arts and our daily lives we often let negative thoughts enter our minds stopping us from accomplishing the things we want to do. If I have been told once, ‘I want to work out but I don’t have he time’, I have been told this a thousand times. These thoughts are excuses limiting our abilities that eventually enter every aspect of our lives if we are not careful. If we make a conscious effort to improve our thinking and actions a good habit will be created. It is said that it takes 21 days of conscious thought and action to create a habit. If we fall back during that time, the desired habit must be started again. It is worth the dedication and effort to improve our lives.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. -- Aristotle

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. -- Author Unknown