My Goju-Ryu Journal — 2000

January 1, 2000

Holy cow! Hard to believe that we just flipped the old millenial odometer. I won't get into the whole "the millenium doesn't start until 2001" debate, and I'll just say Happy New Year!

January 4, 2000

First class of the new year. Sempai ran class through exercises while Sensei took several of the students to the back of the mat and worked with them. We have a number of people who may be testing at the annual banquet on the 22nd, so Sensei is working with them. After exercises, Sempai paired us up and we worked on two-person techniques. I bowed out about 8:30 to go home and watch Virginia Tech lose the Sugar Bowl. Ah, well, it was a good game.

January 6, 2000

After exercises, we paired up and worked on rank requirements. I worked with Jason H. on 5th kumite for a while and then Sensei had me run through Skeen Suni Kaki eku kata. He then had me teach it to Sempai David. I use the phrase "teach" loosely, since it's definately not one of my smoother katas, but I was able to get him acquainted with the gross movements at least. Sensei then came over and worked with us on it.

January 11, 2000

I had a very pleasant surprise tonight. Rudy, another one of our brown belts, came back to class. He had dropped out, or taken a leave of absence, or something, about six months ago, but will be starting back with us full time.

After exercises, I worked with Rudy and Jason H. on Kiso Kumite and Bunkai Kumite.

January 13, 2000

After we lined up and bowed into class, Sensei called Jason H. up front and had him run exercises. He took Sempai and myself to the back of the mat and we worked on Skeen Suni Kaki eku kata for a while. I then lined back up for kicks and Sensei worked on Skeen Aku Chu eku kata with Sempai. Neither of the eku katas are rank requirements, but they're both simple but elegant.

After exercise, I worked with Jason H. on 5th kumite and Bo-Bo kumite nidan.

January 18, 2000

Sensei was working with a number of people tonight who will be testing at the banquet this weekend, so I ran class exercises. After exercises, we paired up and worked on rank requirements. I worked with Brittney for a while and then worked with Dr. Hensley on all of his rank requirements.

January 20, 2000

I missed class tonight because my wife had some stuff she had to do in the evening. I stayed home and hung out with the kiddlies.

January 22, 2000

Today was the TOGKF banquet, hosted by Sensei's Heier and Werther up in Walnut Hill. Dr. Henlsey and I drove up in the morning, getting there around 1:00. There was a board test that morning and Jason H. and Lydia C. both tested and passed (Lydia for 5th kyu and Jason for 3rd kyu), but I wasn't able to make it up early. I wouldn't have been testing anyway, but I try to make it to board tests to help out and lend support. Just couldn't make this one.

The Austin school took School of the Year again, and Sensei Yocham took Instructor of the Year. I took home a Spirit Award. Other awards listed on the TOGKF web site (http://www.io.com/~matsuso/) were:

For the T.O.G.K.F. organization:
Kobudo Student of the Year: Mr. T Marble of Irving
Most Improved Student of the Year: J. Hodges of Austin
Family of the Year: Nunio Family of Irving
Asst. Instructor of the Year: Mr. D. Williams of Austin
Student of the Year: L. Clemmons of Austin
Black Belt of the Year: Sensei B. Heiar of Dallas
Instructor of the Year: Sensei T. Yocham of Austin
School of the Year: Sensei T. Yocham of Austin

AUSTIN SCHOOL AWARDS:
Student of the Yr: J. Hodges
Most Improved of the Yr: J. Hodges
Family of the Yr: Trinite Family
Competitor of the Yr: S. Delapp
Asst. Instructor of the Yr: Sempai Williams
Spirit Awards: B. Woodward, L. Light, E. Elliott

January 24 - February 10, 2000

I have been missing class for the last three weeks. My brother-in-law's wife, Robin Wallace, passed away unexpectedly after being in the intensive care unit up in Indianapolis for a couple of weeks. She delivered healthy twin boys (Donovan and Kieran) on January 16th and had very unexpected complications. My wife flew up to IN to help out with everything (especially the twins), so I was Mister Mom for two weeks, followed by the funeral on February 7th. I plan to get back to class next week (that'll be the 15th).

When I got to the funeral home (up in Natrona Heights, PA, right outside of Pittsburgh) on Monday, the 6th, for the viewing, there was a lovely flower arrangement from the TOGKF. Thanks, everyone!!!

February 10, 2000

Hey, surprise, surprise, I made it back to class a few days early. There was supposed to be an Aikido seminar that we were invited to at the school, but when we got to class, all of the lights were out. Apparently, someone had neglected to pay the electric bill! Not sure who, Sensei just subleases space there, but we were assured it would be taken care of by next week.

In the meantime, we headed over to NYOS, which is another place that Sensei teaches, on Mondays and Wednesdays. It's a smaller facility, but there weren't a whole lot of us, so it worked out. Stan and Lester tested for their purple stripes (6th kyu), and Jason H. and I got to help perform shime on them during Sanchin kata. They passed and Sensei promoted them. Jason and I also worked together on 6th kata and Bo-Tonfa kumite.

May 23, 2000

OK, a big jump since I last updated my journal. I took almost all of April and May off for several reasons. First and foremost, my wife and I had a baby girl, Delaney Rachael Woodward, on April 18th. My wife had a C-section with Delaney, and had to go back in and have a second surgery becuase of a post-op infection. So she had a pretty difficult time of it, although Delaney's healthy and beautiful, and Kelly's doing much better now, but I took time off from karate while she was recovering.

The second reason is that we're building a house up in Round Rock, which is supposed to be finished in June, and we needed to get our current house on the market and sold. I had a fair amount of work to do to get it ready to sell, and I was doing most of it in the evenings. We did get it sold, though, after two weeks. The Austin housing market is a hoot. Most people we've talked to have sold in less than a week. We were getting stressed that it took two :-).

Anyway, I started back tonight. Sensei was out of class, so Sempai Williams ran class. After exercises, I worked with Stan on fifth kata (Gekisai dai san) and worked on my own kata while he was practicing.