Your monitor might shatter...

...but here's a picture of me that my wife took today. We're updating a flier for a boxing circuit class that I just took over a few weeks ago. It's a combination of bag work, classical boxing training, and some mixed martial arts technique. Since I don't have some of the more impressive credentials that our previous instructor Gordon had (like this), I have to resort to cheap props (like my embroidered belt).



Actually, now that I think of it, that wasn't a cheap prop by any means—five years of work and four special trainings. If you haven't been to an SKA special training, you haven't really lived. (Okay, well, the Seal Adventure probably makes it pale in comparison.) Here's Norm Welch's story of his first special training. Mr. Welch is a godan (5th degree, a high level in SKA) in Vancouver, BC. I've gone to three special trainings with him. I remember remarking to him once that I hoped I was still training when I was his age. (He was in his late 40s, and I in my late 20s. And here I am at 42.) He laughed. I could have benefited when I was younger by embracing silence a little more frequently.

In a sick way, I miss it.