1. Yoga

2. Paintball

3. Martial Arts

Yoga, Martial Arts, Basketball, and Swimming

I have really enjoyed my journey learning each of these disciplines. First I took lessons in Karate as a young boy. I trained for 5 days a week during a 4 year span from 7th grade to 12th grade. I then trained sporadically through and after college. I was a black belt by 1989 because of the intense training regime that I undertook. I wanted to be able to protect myself. But I learned more about confidence, coordination, awareness, teamwork, friendship, teaching and business during my time in the studios. I transformed from a student to a teacher, and took an active interest in running the studio. I also competed in tournaments. Bruce Lee was my inspiration, but the Karate Kid had just come out about the time I started training. I have come to love Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and the stars of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I love to study martial arts movies. I learned how to perform complex fighting sets with partners in front of an audience. I also was lucky enough to learn many weapon katas from my teachers. I believe my karate training leaked into all of my athletic endeavours in later life, and provided me with a strong foundation that I can return to all the time. I learned many life lessons during my study of the art of the open hand. I would recommend martial arts training to anyone that wants to get in shape and learn about their body.

Basketball is something I am still learning, and did not really try until I was in college. When I was younger I never thought I could be competitive in hoops because I was short. But I have found myself competing against adults much larger and more athletic than myself over the years, and often my team has won the game. At first all I did was play defense, pass the ball, and try to avoid turnovers. With practice I have developed a better jumpshot and better ballhandling. But those are still skills that I try to improve when I have time to practice. I love getting an assist or a steal, because I feel those are things I do well on the court. I rarely block shots, and rebounding is not one of my strengths. But I try to rebound to the best of my ability. I always try to muster the energy to chase loose balls and long rebounds that depend more on speed than size. I love playing basketball, because I still have a lot to get better at, and it is a fun challenge that I can share with peers. I am not the best one on one player, but I love playing with a team and taking advantage of our strengths and exploiting the other team's weaknesses. And ballers like Bogues, Webb, and Boykins have motivated me to try harder and not use height as an excuse for playing badly. I am a fan of the nba and march madness. I play fantasy basketball and go to vegas in march. It gives me a reason to watch more games during the year that might not have much meaning otherwise. The fact that there is a wnba now is awesome too. I am glad women have the opportunity to play pro hoops now in the WNBA.

Swimming has been a struggle for me later in life. When I was younger I took lessons and know all of the basic strokes. But I still don't know if I do them efficiently. Once I was older and tried to swim as a training method, I found that I was not a very strong swimmer. I love to be in the pool, but I am unable to swim long distances. But I associate swimming with getting into shape, because when I was swimming once a week I cut my body fat down a lot. I read all the magazines I could about swimming. I love to be in the water. It is very relaxing to rotate my body through the water, and hear the splash and have my head under the water. Freestyle, and breaststroke are the easiest for me. I get lost doing backstroke, I can't stay straight, probably pulling to hard with one of my arms and not compensating. Butterfly is a challenge but I can do it for short distances. Just give me a pair of goggles and I can hang out at the pool for hours. I often rest between sets, but I really enjoy swimming. I think I have finally gotten a better stroke. I really used to thrash and get very tired before.

Yoga is my favorite form of exercise lately. The movements are similar to karate just longer and more drawn out. An emphasis is put on the breath. In karate I would exhale and shout very loudly on powerful motions. For yoga I try to keep a steady rythmn of deep breaths, and I really focus on my breathing whenever I get tired to try and gain strength and hold poses a little longer. I learned to love yoga because my first teacher was very helpful in adjusting my poses and challenging me physically. She was a really great teacher and her own body was so strong that it motivated me to keep doing the exercise. We also did some partner stretching and massage that I looked forward to at the end of class. I also liked the meditation at the end of class. I learned to quiet my mind and remove any quick and useless thoughts or worries from my mind. This is a skill I did not have before doing yoga. All of these exercises invigorate me, but yoga has a way of relaxing me at the same time that I have not found in any other form of excercise. I am still learning a lot about yoga, and thankfully my waistline is getting smaller, and I have lost a few pounds. I still lift weights ocassionally, but I find that these sports are more engaging and challenging for me. weightlifting gets monotonous after awhile. I do not enjoy doing the same exercise over and over and I do not know how to keep weights from getting repetitive. Yoga has also helped me maintain my flexibility.