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

Congrats Mississauga Thai Boxing Athletes!!!

Congrats to my boys Lee and Jacques for winning their Thai boxing matches this weekend!  The event was hosted by Muay Thai Niagara and was attended by a lot of various Thai boxing schools.  Also congrats to our friends from Renegade Muay Thai.  Kru Eddie’s athlete did a very good job winning his match by split decision.

Jacques won his match by unanimous decision.  From what I was able to glean from all of the texts that I got, he kept getting better and better each round.  Lee gave his opponent 2 standing eight counts in the 1st round.  In the 2nd round Lee put a closure on it with a KO!  Awesome work guys!!!  You should have seen me jumping around the theater with joy!

Also thanks and congrats to all of the coaches that helped out.  Sly, Dave, Roberto, Sean and Ivano.   Like I stated before there is a lot of work that goes into the development of these athletes.  I would also like to give a heartfelt thanks to all of the Kombat students that went to support our athletes and school.

I am very proud of how all of you guys have been conducting yourselves lately.  I know that I have not really had my head screwed on right as I muddle through my life, but it is comforting to know that you guys can take care of business with or without me.  Again, the word PROUD, does not clearly define how I feel.  Thanks for win, it has made me feel a lot better.  Love you guys, be good!!! Jd

Chil-lax

Today I did nothing!!!  Well that’s not entirely true.  Woke up to NO RAIN.  That meant I could stop production on the ARK and go for a light jog.  Mehdi did not need me as he was working with the boxing coach. I was a little sore so I had to drop some BioFreeze on my body.  I know Carolyn from UST would be disappointed that I’m using a topical pain reliever, but trust me she would peak if I used Bulleit Bourbon with my daily Aspirin for medicinal purposes.  Which to be honest, I was very tempted to do this.

Afterwards I did some work with the Kombat Arts via Skype.  It’s cool how I can still keep an “eye” on things at the club with this useful tool.  After all of my paperwork it was time to visit the various lounges, cafes and restaurants with Josip.  I also did some research on various Yoga places.  Thinking of taking a few private lessons to stretch me out. I finished the evening at the Cactus Club.

It was nice of Ivano to give me call during dinner and to also talk to my athletes Lee and Jacques as they mellow out before they go to war tomorrow.  Again, good luck my friends.  Remember:  Be first and be last.  We never take without giving-Jd

P.S. Take a look at the pik of the back of the truck.  What’s the “suicide” for?  Explain that to me-Jd

Good Luck Muay Thai Athletes

Chok Dee to my athletes Lee Kim and Jacques Malilian, as they make their way to Muay Thai Niagara’s Thai boxing match this November 21.  Unfortunately I will not be there to work their corner.  However I know that they will make me and the school proud, regardless of the outcome.  Just being associated with these individuals fills me with a lot of pride.  I also want to extend good luck to the support team: all of the corner men, warm up team and any of the members of the school and the Kombat Fight Team that go to support them.

One individual may step into the ring, but it is the whole Kombat Family that builds them and supports them.  Again I am filled with pride to have this school as my family.

Sorry Julian and Rick for not getting you guys a match; trust me there will be an opportunity to perform.  Good luck my friends, make me proud! Jd

Ugh, McDonalds Not So Good

Dragged my carcass out of bed today at a respectable hour.  Still raining here.  I think today I am going to build an Ark.  Ever since I got here it’s been raining.  And man it’s cold!  I got to gain my weight back to stave off this cold.  I weigh 145 lbs.  The good thing is that last month I weighed 140 lbs.  So I’m back up.  My goal is to get back to my svelte 155lbs.  So that is how I ended up at McDonalds.  Actually it was the smell of fries and just plain interest.  After a Big Mac combo and 2 extra cheese burgers, I was not interested any more .  This was going to cost me later on.

I did some lame errands and than Josip and I hooked up, making our way to KB-1 for training.  I put in my usual 4 rounds of 3 minutes, 30 sec rest on the bag.  The last round was really lethargic.  This was not a good sign.  Than Mehdi dropped the bomb.  I was going to hold pads for him, for 5 seven minute rounds with 1 rest! Time to digest my McDonalds!  And he was going to wear weights on his ankles!

I have attached a video of the last 3 minutes of the last round.  We are still going at a respectable pace.  At the end of this I helped Mehdi out with some plyometrics.  I concluded my own workout with pull ups, T-push ups, abs and neck exercises.  Time to eat!

Again we find ourselves at the Persian restaurant.  Going to gain that weight back!  Besides my daily Aspirin and Cold F/X supplementation, I found myself popping some extra Advil.  Soreness was already creeping into my muscles.  I think I will take a HOT shower and crash early tonight.  Tomorrow will be more training, and than downtown for an evening of debauchery and mischief-Jd

1st Day on the Job

Got up at around 2.00 PM, which is 5.00 PM your time and after a quick meditation session, headed over to the mall for a breakfast of Lebanese food and a stiff Starbucks coffee.  Mulled around the mall for some personal business and than off to hold pads for Mehdi.

Got to Kb-1 where classes were starting and after hugs and formalities were complete with my coach, it was time for war.  First I needed to score a set of CoreShorts from Mehdi before we started the evenings festivities.  I was introduced to these shorts, maybe about a month ago.  These shorts are awesome if you have hip / pelvic area complications.  Since I’ve started to develop some hip problems and I know that I was in for a rough 2 weeks, I had to invest in a pair.  I think we will get some for our own proshop (That’s a HINT Hector, if you’re reading this).

Tonight Mehdi was on the ball.  First he put on a 15 lb weighted vest.  I held pads for him, with an emphasis on boxing and elbow techniques.  Mehdi did 12 three minute rounds, with a 1 minute break!  The vest was dumped at round 7.  Man he’s in great shape!  I was beginning to get a sweat on.  I am happy to say that my shoulder held up (boy I’m falling apart )  Thanks Vineet for the therapy!

I left Mehdi and the boys to play video games; some FIFA 2010 series, where he was slaughtering his students and went for some Persian food to finish my evening.  I think I will finish my evening with some drawing and reading.  Have a great night Kombat boys and girls   Jd