Serious Stuff

Hey guys, please take the time to check out the new Kombat schedule and to read our Welcome package.  All of this stuff is really, really, really important.  Thxs, Jd

New Kombat Schedule

The Kombat Arts Welcome Package

More Muay Thai Fights

Here is a short clip of a round from a Thai boxing match held at Studio 7.  Please enjoy.  I will post more later.  I have also posted another video of Mehdi and I training.  It was funny because there are 3 Thai instructors in the ring and me the only Filipino.  Hey I sort of fit in .  The camp is getting busy.  Everyday more people arrive.  We have had guests here from Australia, Russia and the Philippines.

The day was low key.  I woke up, meditated and followed a Yoga routine that I had downloaded on my I Pod.  I felt great even though last night I had that MMA, Muay Thai, Thai Massage combo.  After I had breakfast, a cappuccino, read my book, while listening to Christmas songs outside on the cafe’s patio.  Pretty neat huh?  Afterwards we jumped on some motorcycles and went to MBK, one of Thailand’s largest malls.  You guessed it, more shopping for the guys, than off to Black Canyon for some top notch coffee.

Back on the motorcycle to get back to training.  It was hot to train, but the cool wind really helped.  Than again back to Lumpini Bazaar for more shopping.  This night, like all nights here, we have been staying up to 3.00 AM watching soccer.  We have to stay up pretty late to keep Mehdi company.  He fights on Dec 4 around 11.00 PM, so we are trying to get him used to being active at that time.  Good nite Kombat Arts, I miss you guys Jd

Hot Heat, Hot Fights and Hot Food

Today was HOT!  It was hot enough to respect the heat, but pleasant enough to appreciate the other options: cold rain back in BC where I am building an Ark.  Today I got up late.  Needed the rest and I was ONE big sore muscle.  I started off the day with some quick meditation, breakfast and then I was off to the Channel 7 Studios.  Every Sunday the channel 7 studio shows fights.  Thanks Pak for getting us in!  There were 6 fights and all of them were good.  I have recorded a couple of rounds here and there.  Please be patient as the internet connection here sucks and it takes me awhile to upload.  Please watch them.  I risked life and limb to get them to you; if I don’t make it out, please tell my story.

There were some rounds were all they did was elbow and knee each other.  And when a kick landed it was clearly audible to the whole crowd.  The crowd itself was a spectacle, with betting and cheering going on, it was like a scene from Bloodsport.

After the fights, we went off to eat and hit some weights.  After all of that we hooked up with Cartoon, a good friend of Mehdi’s.  Cartoon produces some pretty awesome Thai shorts.  Her second specialty is finding us the best places to eat.  When I met Cartoon 1 year ago we had the BEST sea food ever.  Tonight we were not disappointed.  She just kept feeding me!  This is one of those rare times were I had to say “no more.”  I was so stuffed.  But in all sincerity it was really good sea food.

After that awesome meal I dragged myself back home.  It was approximately 10.30 PM; time for a traditional Thai massage.  I spent 300 baht for an hour and a half massage.  This is approximately $10 Canadian.  A Thai massage is like MMA, Thai boxing and a massage mixed together!!  No seriously, these little Thai women use their whole body (elbows, knees etc) to find every trigger point in your body.  I came so close to tapping out.  I wish I brought my mouthpiece with me.  It was mind boggling how strong they can be.  I forgot how much I love / hate Thai massages.  So now I sit here back in my apartment at 1.00 AM, Monday morning, drinking Singha, typing this blog, while the rest of my team watches soccer on my TV.  Have a great day Kombat Arts!!! Jd

I Want to Be a Ninja

Today was a day to get used to everything again in Thailand.  I was totally lethargic today.  The day started off with some miscellaneous errands here and there.  The highlight of the day was the night time training.  There is something really cool about training outside in the night.  This set the mood for our movie: Ninja Assassin!

Ok off to Center World to watch Ninja Assassin.  Man it was good to see a movie on traditional martial arts.  The Thai’s have it right when it comes to their movies.  First of all you have to select your seating; you can’t just sit anywhere.  And in our case, we got a couple of reclining coaches.  Luxury!

Afterwards we went back to Patpong for the guys to do more shopping.  I found myself really dozing off and I can tell you I was SO HAPPY to find my bed at the end of the night.  Tomorrow we go watch some fights! Jd

In Thailand!

Ok, I’ve finally made it here!  It took us awhile, but when we landed we found Pak (he coordinates Mehdi’s training in Thailand) and we were whisked away to our accommodations.  Before we got there though, we had to stop off at another hotel and grab Fred, one of Mehdi’s students on the way.  We are staying at the President Park Ebony Wing.  I attached a video showing my room:

After getting situated in our rooms we HAD to eat.  Mehdi wanted a chicken sandwich.  So we have travelled all this distance to eat chicken sandwiches!  That’s ok, we will have traditional Thai food tonight.  After we ate we went to check out the new site of Pak’s new training camp which was next door.  It’s pretty exciting to see the camp start from bare bones.

We wanted to work out tonight, but we needed pads, so we decided to go to Lumpini stadium to do some shopping for gear.  In order to beat the traffic Mehdi suggested that we hire motorcycle drivers.  I was a little skeptical of the safety factor, but it was an awesome drive!  There is nothing more exhilarating than speeding along the highway precariously between vehicles.  There were times when my legs almost scrapped against the sides of idling vehicles!  Shopping for gear was a blast and we eventually made our way back to camp.

Back at the camp we started Mehdi’s training.  We are the 1^st guys to work out at the camp.  Mehdi did 10 rounds of 3 minutes, with 1 min rest.  Pak was on hand to guide the training.  That was pretty cool.   I learned a lot from Pak in the few hours we were there.  Check it out here:

While we were training we drew a large crowd.  It felt neat to train outside with spectators.  Eventually some other fighters showed up, and soon we had good energy as the athletes banged away on pads and on each other.

A quick shower after the training and then we took the train to Center World for an actual Thai dinner.  From there we jumped into a cab and made our way to the Patpong Bazaar.  Here we continued with more shopping and browsing.  We are going to finish our day by going back to the airport to pick up Ramin, one of my students and a good friend of Mehdi’s.  Tomorrow we have to do more training, shop, watch movies and get an adapter for Mehdi’s XBOX.  He actually packed his XBOX in his carry on!  Mehdi and I have got about 6 to 8 hours sleep in the last 40 hours!  It is time to sleep-Jd

Oops

Ok I made a little mistake.  I will elaborate on this later on.  My day started off with my 3^rd private lesson in Power Yoga with Lori.  It was AWESOME!  Not only did I do the usual Sun Salutations, I also got introduced to some really cool standing poses and some hand stand poses.  Handstand stuff, neato!  Again thanks Lori for the great experience.  I am definitely going to check out this Power Yoga stuff when I get back home.  Namasta Lori.  Again good luck to you, your husband and your baby!

After this I made my way to the academy to give Mehdi a hand with his training.  Mehdi had already completed 15 rounds of boxing with Perry when Josip and I got there.  I held Thai pads for Mehdi for 5 three minute rounds.  Again Mehdi was on the ball!  This is going to be a great fight.  Then I held some pads for Josip.  Josip man you look sharp!  We finished off with some bag work and some plyo ab work.

I was talking to Mehdi about our flight arrangements to Thailand and he made me realize my MISTAKE.  I thought I was leaving Thursday midnight; nope BIG mistake.  I was leaving Wed midnight; tonight.  LOL.

I rushed off to cram some Persian food down my throat, get home, do 2 loads of laundry, pack my gear in the suitcase (I did an AMAZING JOB!), packed my amazing Maxpedition sling bag, with the Jack Bauer patch, handled banking and credit card authorizations, bribed my cab driver to speed to the airport, and I MADE IT!  I did 24 hours worth of crap, in about 3 hours.  Not bad.

Mehdi just shook his head as we checked in.  This was my 1^st time flying with Eva Airlines.  This is a Taiwanese Airline (Hector and Ivano you have to come).  I actually felt pretty tall.  I was actually taller than quite a few of the passengers.  Sitting in the Deluxe section, I was treated to huge chairs, that reclined like Lazy Boy chairs, complete with foot rests, an actual glass for my wine, an actual cup for my coffee and a remote for my TV!  Heaven!  Got to kill 12 hours on this flight, so I am going to watch the Ugly Truth, Up! and Ghajini, a really awesome 3 hour love story with action (this will be the 2^nd time I have watched this good foreign film).

I did not get to say a proper “good bye” to my bro Josip.  I hope you read this guy.  Again thanks my friend for putting me up at your house, showing me a good time, eating and drinking with me (I know you gained a lot of weight because of me) and for helping me out in a lot of immeasurable intangible ways.  You’re a great friend and brother to me Josip, again thanks.

The second leg of my journey has begun.  I’m off to Thailand guys to help Mehdi as he prepares to defend his championship belt.  I’ll be back soon guys, have a good one for me-Jd

PS.  Quick update: I’ve stopped off in Taipai, Taiwan.  ALL IS GOOD

Congrats to Savate and JKD Graduates

About a weekend ago we had Professor Salem Assli come and do a 2 day seminar on silat, JKD, savate and kali.  I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the following for passing their tests in either JKD or savate.  Great work guys! Jd

Martin Duncan – JKD White and Green Ying Yang

Anthony Colli – White Glove

Andre Maitland – White Glove

Calvin Millar – White Glove

Barry Lee – Red Glove

Neal Hoyte – Red Glove

Matthew Mejias – Green Glove

Waldek Rak – Green Glove

Maja Zonjic – Green Glove

Roberto Mastromarini also successfully tested for first level instructorship (Savate)

Again great work guys!!! Jd

Piks from St. Catherines Thai Boxing Show

Here are some piks of our athletes and team that recently competed in St. Catherines at an event hosted by Muay Thai Niagara.  Again congrats Team Kombat! Thxs Rohan for the piks.  Jd

Random Thai Boxing Matches

I’m going to post some random Thai boxing and K1 style matches that I filmed from Austria.  These matches have no real significance to me, I just filmed them to further my education and also my students’ education.  Observe the pace and footwork.  Pretty good stuff.  Enjoy!  Jd

The Day After

Boy the day after can be rough.  The boys really did a good job with their wins yesterday so as they were partying it up in TO, I decided to do the same in Vancouver.

Our evening consisted at dining at my friend’s restaurant Azia.  If you love Asian Fusion food, you gotta come here.  It’s got tapas, Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, Mongolian and Japanese theme dishes.  A lot of the staff are Asian, so Ivano and Hector, jump on a plane!

Afterwards we hit the theaters to see 2012.  Awesome effects in this movie.  However with all of the rain we’ve been getting in Vancouver, you would think 2012 is already upon us!

The night concluded with more eating at Moxies and at the fully licensed Cafe Crepe!

Next morning I woke up with a purpose to hit the gym in an effort to reverse the damage I had caused.  As my student Julian likes to state “if you do the crime, you must do the time.”  Man I know that statement very well!

Before I had a chance to hit the gym, I got a call from Rob Kaman!  You will be very glad to hear that Rob is his usual charismatic destructive self.  He says “hi” to all of the Kombat boys and girls.

I jumped on the SkyTrain and made my way to the Gold’s Gym.  Boy it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a gym.  We actually started off Kombat Arts in the aerobics studio (just 2500 sq ft!) of a Gold’s Gym.  Boy I miss those days, and at times a small part of me wishes to be back there.  The good news is that I weighed  in at 147 lbs this morning!  Must be the facial hair!

It was great to be totally anonymous and get in about 1 1/2 hours of hard work.  My workout consisted of: skipping rope, shadowboxing, chin ups, dips, snatches into a split squat, military push presses, 1 legged stiff legged deadlifts, japanese squats, plate twists, more core training, Ys and Ts for the mid back and finally neck training.  Whew, not bad eh?

I finished up and made my way to Extreme Pita were I chilled and read more of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now.  It’s pretty interesting; if you’ve completed the whole book, please let me know your thoughts on it.

Back at home Josip’s brother entertained us for an hour or so by bringing over his German Shepherd puppies.  They are such little terrors!

After getting nipped everywhere, Josip and I escaped our residence and headed to Earls for dinner.  The night got capped off with the movie, The Blind Side.  The movie was really moving and inspirational.  If you get a chance please check it out.  Ok guys, off to chill out by watching Heroes on my net book.  Tomorrow will be a full day of Yoga (my 1st lesson!) and back to training camp-Jd