Beyond the Newsletter: A Blog with Pictures

August 21st, found several Coos County martial arts schools convening at LaVerne park for the second annual SparBQ, an afternoon of fellowship, food and fun practicing their skills in sparring as they prepare for the fall tournament season which runs through November, and also to improve their skills in general. Among those present were members of Henderson's Shorin Ryu and Coquille Martial Arts. There are martial artists and martial arts instructors who proclaim loudly that tournaments do nothing to promote martial skill, and some even claim that competition detracts from their martial training. Nothing could be further from the truth. Modern team sports derived as an offshoot of training groups for war. The skills inherent in martial arts tournaments are, more directly applicable to defense, then say, those of football, soccer, or baseball. Yet, if we look closely, we see those things, both in the formation of a team, and in the skills of running after a moving target, hitting a ball with a club in baseball, or taking someone to ground in football. Thus challenging our martial skills in a safe environment helps us with our personal growth and self defense. Kim Singh, head instructor of Henderson's Shorin Ryu, of Coos Bay said, "students who train in the strict isolation of their own schools and never test themselves against other styles and other schools are their own(classmates or students) worst enemies." They get complacent and often assume their skills are superior, when they haven't tested to see if they are at least adequate.

In addition to sparring, students at the Spar BQ did some flag sparring, which teaches foot and body positioning. Family members watched, and even participated in the flag sparring, swam and had fun. This coming together allows students and their families to make friends outside of their own schools, and they learn to be tolerant of different styles and different ideas, bringing them together as a community.

When most people think of martial arts, they think of self defense and fighting. While that is certainly one aspect of martial arts, to say it is the only one is to miss out on all the benefits the activity has to offer. Historically speaking, nearly every martial art has an ethical and or spiritual aspect, a cultural aspect and a health aspect as well as a one of community, as those who developed the arts realized that without these different facets, warriors became nothing more than savages. Not all defense requires physicality. Coquille Martial Arts is aware of the need for diverse training and is launching it's new anti-bully curriculum, which teaches kids (and adults) to recognize bullying and defuse it verbally, and to prevent students from becoming bullies themselves. This will allow students of all ages to handle differences calmly, without violence in school, work and elsewhere.

Learning the martial arts, truly learning them, goes beyond stopping a bully who harrasses you in the lunch line(or even at your place of business). To truly learn the martial arts, is to begin to learn your own strengths and weaknesses. And learning one's weaknesses is not a bad thing. Once you know something, and name it, you can begin to control it, rather than allowing it to control you. Even in the case of physical limitations, one can generally move beyond them, once they are known and realized. As a martial arts instructor, this is the best part of my job: watching students overcome the weaknesses they can, and learning to accept those they can't(physical disabilities in themselves, and personality traits in others, for example). This has been an incredibly long two weeks: starting with testing, and finishing up with the departure of two beloved students, who are, along with their family embarking on an entirely new adventure, some 800 miles away.

In between the two extremes, we have had some great classes, both in and out of the dojo. The Coos County Fair and National Night Out allowed us to experience summer(allow we all complained of freezing at NNO) while training, with several hours of demos between the two events, and then if that was not enough we held a small tournament.

It seems as if the very presence of a spotlight is what pushes many people to do their best. All of our people did their very best and I saw growth in everyone who participated in the events, and am proud to have been there to witness it.

A small testing, but a good one. All high scores and great attitudes, even when guest instructor Dane worked them hard and threw in a few new things to do. Jos's board break was beautiful. Tianna was brave. Ruby unflappable. And Charisma focused. Congrats to everyone.

June 26: 34 of us and 3 canine friends made the trip past Gold and Silver falls and to the "old homestead." The day was perfect. We are looking forward to more summer events! keep checking back foor more information

June 15th: Catch up Time!

WE have been incredibly busy for the last several months. Tournaments, Talent show, Testing,and grad ceremony, Gay 90's, and for your instructors, training in kukkiwan TKD. Both head instructors are now card carrying members of that organization.

April 17th and 24th had us away at two tournaments. The first was in Salem, hosted by Dave's TKD. It was something of a reunion tournament, as we saw people we hadn't seen in a couple years. Dane competed and took a 2nd in creative forms, 4th in sparring. The next weekend we headed in the opposite direction to Chip Wrights. Chip's is always a friendly toournament with heavy competition, and this was no exception. We still did quite well, with Charisma placing 4th in sparring, Bill 3rd in sparring and 4th in forms and Mr Saxton 2nd in creative, 3rd in traditional weapons abd 4th in forms.

April 10th and 11th: several students tested and achieving new ranks. Congratulations go out to Vincent and Sammy of Coquille, and Riley, Hunter, JJ and Max in Bandon. Afterwards, the Saxtons went to Florence to train in TKD, Sunday was Pac Mac, and the Saxtons as well as 7 from Henderson's in Coos Bay attended.

March 6th: Found us hosting two events. IN the morning we had a Coos County Invitational Martial Arts tournament/playday. There were competitors from Reiss's, Henderson's, Red Sun and Coquille Martial Arts(both locations). The afternoon welcomed Matt Lowes of Eugene for a systema workshop on multiple attackers. Tons of fun.

March 1:We welcome Brian Walters to our dojo. Brian will be teaching grappling in Coquille and Bandon and he will be joining our adult TKD class. The grappling class is open to older teens and adults for now.

February 2: Just heard from Chip Wright's Championship karate that their tournament will be on April 24th, and Dave's is the weekend before that. We have a lot of time to train!

February 1:

No, it isn't the Jonestown of Martial Arts. January 30th was Pac Mac and the pictures shows about 100 people participating in a relaxation exercise. Ask anyone who went: it was a great day. 10 instructors in and all day seminar. Followed the next day with a systema seminar taught by Kaizen Taki.

January 16: Spent the evening training with Ron Suggs, 8th dan. We believe this will not only improve our skills, but yours, whether in the tournnament ring, or simply the betterment of your TKD skills

January 8, 2010: The new year promises a lot of exciting events for us at Coquille Martial Arts. We are planning to hold an in-school tournament with the local schools, in order to get ready for the spring tournament season. Asian celebration kicks off in Eugene with Pac Mac also known as the Pacific Martial Arts Conference on January 30th and April 11th. Kaizen Taki will be doing a systema workshop in Eugene on January 31st, and the Asian Celebration itself is February 20/21st at the Lane County Fairgrounds. And last but not least, Jim Mooney is coming out in March to do portraits again.

December 28, 2009 - Looking forward. Our first testing for the new year is to be held on January 9th at the Coquille Dojo.

Pacific Martial arts conference is January 30th, in Eugene. All teens and adults are encouraged to attend.

Dec 9: Saturday December 5th was a great way to spend a chilly Saturday. We had several fun mini lessons(We did Renshi Singh's complex in several classes this week and enjoyed it immenesly). Lots more of these planned for the future! Maybe a summer camp if everyone is interested.

Dec 2nd: Saturday, Dec 5th, is our first all dojos workshop and playday, followed by a systema workshop. Potluck lunch in the middle. Call if you are interested in attending. Pictures to follow

Nov 21st:
We were invited to come be guests instructors for Tom King's 3rd dan test at Henderson's Shorin Ryu. It was an honor working with all of their black belts, doing a series of gun and knife defenses. Thanks to Kim Singh for the photos more on her website Henderson's

Nov 17:
Congrats Chris on your first break!

Nov 14: TOURNAMENT!

I have to say that everyone did a great job and we're proud of you. Full results on the tournament page!

October 24th: Congrats to Max Underdown for earning his Junior Black Belt! And to Tianna, Misty& Brendon who received their belts at the ceremony. If you missed it, Franklin and Max did forms at the talent show that followed.

October 17th" Tournament at Chip Wrights, where pictures say more than words ever could

Sept 19th: SparBQ2 was not rained out. The rain stopped the moment we arrived at the park which we shared with a wedding. Good food, sparring practice against people of all sizes and then a hike... or swimming made for a great day. Our team is getting ready for the tournament at Chip's. Tianna was one of my camera people this time, trading off with her mom for gear

September 9th: Operation Clean Sweep began on Central between the highway and 1st street. As of last week we had 150 pledged toward scholarships and more on the way. Our next clean sweepps will take place after school before the Wednesday classes in short work periods until the weather gives out. The town has noticed the difference we made!

August 22nd: There have been a lot of changes made to the dojo over the last few weeks. The mudding and paint ismostly finished and the mat room is matted. The weapons room has doors, and the place was presentable for our summer fun double header: invitational tournament and systema workshop with Matt.

Now we're working on getting the weapons racks back up, in time for school to start and for students to return from summer break. We also have a page on facebook and a few of the pictures will be different from the ones here. And I just updated pictures on the photo page. Our next big even is our all tournament Nov 14th. Plan on attending and competing.

August 8: SparBQ! We had over 50 people in attendance from 3 schools. Over 20 people sparred, and many more tried their hand at flag sparring and padded stick sparring. A fantastic time was had by all. We plan to repeat this next month, while the good weather still holds out for us!

MR S shows Tang Soo Do instructor, David Brussard that the old man can still spar!
Brendan will do anything to get that flag!

July 31: A week of fair demos! More pictures to come as I get them(and more still in the photo album). We've had great attendance each day, including Tuesday which was intensely andmiserably hot. Friday, we really only had our systema and tai chi people and found that we could do a great job entertaining and informing using those two arts primarily. And did anyone know Mr S could do the macarena?

July 14th: What happens when you take a class of TKD students and a bunch of balloons?

July 4th: found several of us at Bastandorf beach for Henderson's Shorin Ryu's annual 4th of July picnic. Good food and lots oof smoky thing that go bang. Also on the 4th, the bamboo was installed in its permanant home at the coquille dojo. If anything, it makes our already spacious quarters appear more spacious.

June 6: Gay 90's and the grand unveiling! It was also the first time we've ever marched in the parade. Gotta check out the banner.And the cute kids holding the banner too. It's all for the kids - we're looking forward to summer events. In school tounament and Spar BQ!

June 5: Today was crunch day, as we know that all of the town will want a look see inside the building and we wanted it to be as nice as humanely possible. In some ways, we did better than expected.

Kayla helped by putting finishing touches on the banner forthe parade.

Cheryl vacuumed the entire "dance floor." I'm going to say that all of our people rocked, and did far more than their share. But we couldn't have beaten the deadline without them. Note that nasty stain. It is now gone, thanks to Frank Smith!

Might be the only picture you see of Mr S vacuuming! This was between classes. I wonder why we're soo tired.

Thanks to Kitty, Brian and Thomas we have the beginnings of a weapons locker. Thomas also modified my desk so my computer actually fits!

June 2, 2009: We have moved! Still in the process of finishing walls and painting and once again, I want to thank our wonderful volunteers! Jeff Taylor, Kyle Smith, Brian and Kitty Noel, Thomas, the Houston and Smith families and everyone else who made this wonderful building possible. It was truly a meeting of minds, hearts and hardwork!!

My office is complete.

office and small work out room,which still needs paint

seating area, leading to dressing rooms, still under construction

May 23 - 31, 2009: Taking a moment to catch up, so I'll post pictures as they arrive from the remodal.

My office before and after

In the midst of cleaning and creating a dojo out of the former Barrow Drug/Jc Penny building and before, untouched(scrolldownto see the balcony and my office underneath after our work).

Tear down the wall! Thanks to Brian(who is even more camera shy than I am) and Kitty Noel.

The wall: our thanks to Aim High construction and Kyle Smith.

Memorial Day's accomplishments

Honestly, I can't begin to thank everyone who put their time and energy into this project. I feel so blessed.

Like every other building in the county. The wiring is abysmal!

May 23rd, 2009:

Tots in gear!

May 1st: Looking ahead: We are preparing for our remodel and move. So far, everything looks to be a go, and its just amatter of time. Any and all donations of construction material and assistance welcome. We need: 2X4's, sheet rock, plywood and 3 doors. We also need about 100 SF of large ceramic floor tiles, preferably in earth tones and resembling stone if at all possible. Also on our wish list are a small desk fountain, a waterfall for the entry and some bamboo plants. If you have these items lying around, and no longer need them, please contact Coquille Martial Arts.

April 28, 2009: Congratulations Franklin on earning your 1st Poom. This young man is truly more han the sum of his parts. After he received his belt, I asked him what he liked best about martial arts. His answer: “the ability to learn more about who one is, and how we react in different situations, and that everyone reacts differently, while attempting to achieve the same goal. Also to learn personal security and how to protect oneself and others, while being able to inflict as little damage to one’s attacker/opponent, or in other words to resolve conflict without becoming part it."

All arts are one was the mantra at the Pacific Martial Arts Conference. And this was never more evident than when Brian Jones of Eugene shaolin demo'd his lesson and said, you folks who do aikido, you know this as.... do that andyou'll get it just right. There were several other lessons that were similar to things we already knew, but with different names and slightly different applications, or way of explaining them. There was also some breand new material as well. And working with people from different schools is always fun. The trip was worth seeing Albert Roy's amazing dojo. We told him we took tons of pictures to insppire us in our future move and remodel and his reply was "cool!" Then on Sunday we went to Alan Best's equally wonderful dojo for a Systema seminar with Kaizen Taki of NW Systema. It was a great weekend, and we'll all benefit from the new material.
Through the bamboo curtain, and a group photo, although its only about half the group

March 28: if you missed the workshop with Matt, you missed a lot of fun. We had visitors from Brookings as well as some of the Eugene group and some of our group. There is something to be said for working out with new people. You learn something about yourself, something about them, something about learning and something about teaching. Martial Arts is truly a communal activity. The three hour class lasted 4 and then only because people started to get tired. Pictures include our "minefield" and Matt and Ryan demonstrating possibilities, Matt and Cheryl

March 21: Kayla, Max, and Jacob all turned out for the board break class. All three broke their boards and worked on perfectingtheir techniques.

March 7th: Congrats Tasha!! Second place traditional at Daves! For those of you who don't know her, this is a kid who lives out of Coquille and gets here about every other month. She does most of practice at home alone and tournaments are a way of getting feedback on what she needs to work on next.

February 28th: found 23 of us at Coquille Lanes for our annual bowling party, including 6 of the Bandon contingent. Tianna suprised us all with her accuracy! Tom had the high score for the second year in a row, with Dane second highest, 1 point over Mrs S. Afterwards, belts were awarded and we all headed home. It was a good day!

February 7th: 4 students and 15 trophies. We are proud of everyone who attended, whether they competed or not! Pictures: The Huffmans with their trophies; Misty's epic groin shot! Girl after my own heart!; John boy and Misty guard their haul; Tianna holds off her opponent; ; if John-boy wasn't so cute he wouldn't be in so many pictures!

January 31,2009:CONGRATULATIONS NIKKI: You have not only earned a black belt, you have become one, in every sense of the word.

December 6th: Chip Wright's Championship Karate traveled to us! As did members of Henderson's, Reiss's, Eugene Shaolin, Oregon MA Academy, and Robinson's Korean Karate of Sparks Nevada. I must say the coolest thing about this tournament was the bonds we forged and tightened with the other schools, and seeing just how much in the way of quality MA's we have here in Coos County. Several of my students made personal victories and several made some very impressive wins: including Geoffery's tie for best all Around with Hayden Johnston who competed with our newly returned Mariah Langenberg in both traditional forms and Sparring. And Dane made Grand Ch Black Belt Sparring. It was a good day all in all. POsted are a few photos, with more coming soon to the photo page and local newspapers.

November 8th: We traveled with 6 students to Chip Wright's Championship Karate tournament in Medford. It was a well run tournament, and our kids did awesome. Need I say more? We returned in time to watch 5 more of our students sweating under the direction of Pat and Taryn.
A few of the pictures taken by Cheryl HOuston. Missing Tasha for now. If we can rip one from the video we'll post it! For more of Katie's fight, go to the photo section.

November 1: Saturday is martial arts work out day at Coquille Martial Arts! Coquille has Patrick's sparring/conditioning clinic from 4-6pm. Bandon sees Ray Chatman leading open floor Hapkido from 10-4 and at least once a month, Jim and Karen Saxton plan on going to the Matthew Lowe's systema training day in Eugene. Any adult is welcome(and teens with instructor approval) to join us. No need to have systema training before you go. This is a very inexpensive, well facilitated 3 hour training session and while we help ourselves, we help Matthew who is a certified instructor in training, move toward his certified instructor status. Plan to get sweaty, learn a lot about systema and yourself and work with some really great people. Check the monthly calender for details. Next week: Chip Wright's tournament in Medford

October 25th: The annual Halloween Party was well attended. Lots of great food, costumes, and fun. I got so many pictures that I'm going to be adding them to the photo 2008 page! Be sure to check back. In the meantime:

October 18th: Saturday was the Salem Tournament. Geoffery and Jamaica attended and each palced in weapons. Not bad for a tournament where the majority of competitors are working toward the big national events. Both students have been working hard and it showed, with Geoffery bringing home a 2nd and Tasha beinging home a 3rd. Next weekend is our annual Halloween party, with pictures to follow, and the weekend after that we are headed to a Systema training day in Eugene. All are invited. And speaking of systema training, we have been using our new tactical trainer in class, on the recommendation of James Williams. No nasty sharp edges, but the look and the feel of real metal on your skin.

October 4th: Home again and its great to be back where the weather is cool. So what do three martial arts instructors do while on vacation? They become martial arts students. Last Monday the Saxtons all woke up at 5 and wound their way through North County San Diego rush traffic to attend a systema class under James Williams. We got some great instruction from James and his assistants and will be incorporating those lessons into our systema and TKD classes on a regular basis. But before you think that's all we did, here are a few pictures from San Diego:

Sept 24th:

Lily and John tested for their yellow stripes and did a great job even with all the distractions... new students and construction on both skylights. Way to go John and Lily! Joe Ortega tested for his green belt and did an awesome job. Joe has been away for two years and started back in August.

Speaking of the skylights. We now have two new skylights. While I will miss the older big ones, the new ones are guaranteed not to leak! The roof is also being patched in time for the rainy season. And NW Natural is putting in natural gas so we have heat in our future, without worrying about the propane running out.

We want to extend a warm welcome to Ray our new Hapkido instructor in Bandon. If there is enough interest in the community, we will offer Hapkido in Coquille as well.

Sept 12th

- one week later. The sign!

Sept 6: Now you see it...... Now you don't! The Western Auto sign that is. Keep watching for the soon to be revealed new sign!

August 10, 2008: Yesterday was our summer picnic held to honor the kids form daycamp. As luck would have it, half of Coquille, including the chess club was at LaVerne Park. We managed to move in as soon as the chess tournament was over. Which was convenient for us, and for the families who had children in both events.

This is not our main picnic: that one comes in October. Be prepared for tons of food and games and many more awards at that event.

Our day campers walked away with many awards, and bottles of scented bubble solution. Pictures from the fair demos are up on the newest photo gallery. Make sure you take a look there too.

We have some exciting prospects coming up for the following school year, including Korean culture class, our tournament and more. We have announced our new family class on M & W, and this is proving to be quite popular already.

August 1 2008: We are still awaiting pictures from our demos at the fair. I will have them posted when they arrive.

In the meantime, our first annual day camp is a success. So far the kids have learned punches, kicks, blocks, forms and safety. Lots of safety.

In between times, they have been coloring, making sand castles, and watching kid videos. Parents report happy sleepy children heading off to bed when they get home.

Looking ahead: We are preparing for our remodel and move. So far, everything looks to be a go, and its just amatter of time. Any and all donations of construction material and assistance welcome. We need: 2X4's, sheet rock, plywood and 3 doors. We also need about 100 SF of large ceramic floor tiles, preferably in earth tones and resembling stone if at all possible. Also on our wish list are a small desk fountain, a waterfall for the entry and some bamboo plants. If you have these items lying around, and no longer need them, please contact Coquille Martial Arts.

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