"CDC: One-Third of Kids Born in 2000 at Risk for Diabetes

Saturday, June 14, 2003

NEW ORLEANS — One in three U.S. children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless many more people start eating less and exercising more, a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search) warns.

The odds are worse for black and Hispanic children: nearly half of them are likely to develop the disease, said Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, a diabetes epidemiologist at the CDC."

  Yet before discovering the interesting and diverse exercises of these Chinese based martial arts, I had never exercised consecutively for more than about a month, in my entire life. I had been a lifelong couch potato. Why don't most people exercise? Because almost all exercise quickly becomes boooooring! But please, for the sake of your health and life, read on, there's great fun and adventure in store!

October, 1998

    I've admired Shaolin Kung Fu ever since being an avid fan of the TV series "Kung Fu" years ago. A news report said that David Carradine actually became a Kung Fu master over the years, from all that he learned doing that series, and his continued studies since. I've always felt that the philosophy had great beauty within it, been awed by the martial art itself, and wanted to learn it. I've seen it in movies*, read about it and thought about it a long time.

    *( If you appreciate martial arts movies and haven't seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon yet, you owe it to yourself! )

    It's always irked me that so many women will do something like "jazzercise" ( The more modern trendy form is now something like "Tai Bo"? ) to stay slim, but then wind up not knowing how to seriously defend themselves if they ever need to. ( I've looked, and nowhere in any Tai Bo advertising can I find any claim that says it can teach someone self defense, though the people doing it appear to rationalize that on their own. Sounds like a potentially dangerous assumption. )

    And I understand that something like 2 of every 4 women gets violently attacked at some time in their lives. ( that's just here in the US and may be worse in other countries ) As many of you may remember from the TV series, martial arts like Shaolin Kung Fu, taught in the proper spirit, also build discipline, strength of character, self confidence and self esteem in people, besides good physical conditioning, without looking like a muscle bound weight lifter. And the fringe benefit is that you learn how to defend yourself. Of course nothing's perfect, and you may never be as good as Jet Li, but you can certainly greatly improve your odds.

  I've also observed other styles of martial arts over the years and wasn't drawn to them. I took 16 weeks of Judo years ago in college, but it was more of a college sport and wasn't my cup of tea anyway. In the late 70's, I worked with a guy in Fort Lauderdale ( Leon are you out there? :-) who was learning both Kung Fu and Tai Chi together and he told me they were very complimentary. I tried a 6 week class in Tai Chi in Boulder, when I first moved to Colorado in 1980, and my only regret since, has been that I didn't make it a lifelong habit. Since then I learned that Tai Chi is actually what they call a soft internal form of Kung Fu, and is still taught as a fighting art in some places.

  I've been through some very oppressive times in the years since 1993 and have been thinking about this lately and wishing I could get into a class and learn Kung Fu. But the nearest school was many miles away.

  So in late September of 1998, I found myself 50 years old and my weight had crept up to 300, 100 lbs too high! I'm a big woman, 6' tall and large framed ( imagine like the description I've heard of Boudicca, the Celtic warrior woman who beat the Romans :-) . But I hadn't done much exercise in many years and it was making things worse. The year before, I'd started walking 1/2 mile around our neighborhood almost every night, but that didn't help much. Then I'd increased that to 1 mile, but it was still no big deal. I supposed it helped some. But it was beginning to get really boring too.

  So one day in late September ( 1998 ), when I was driving into the nearby King Soopers shopping center at Florida and Kipling, I saw a sign that said "Kung Fu!".. "Grand Opening" ... "United Studios of Self Defense". The sign struck me like a bolt from the blue! Kung Fu! It was like the Universe had reached out and tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the place! This was it! I'd always admired Kung Fu and here was a place opening up about a mile from home! So I stopped by and talked to the teacher.

    I was wary because I'd seen so many martial arts places come and go. They'd usually only be open at 7 PM two nights a week, for a couple of hours of classes and then closed the rest of the time. But this one was different. It was open all day, it seemed to be run like a real business, not just someone's hobby while the teacher had a day job. I found out that was because it was a large successful nationwide school with over 150 locations, and they were expanding into Colorado now. They already had schools in Arvada and Wheat Ridge and were opening ones in Boulder and Littleton soon. The school has quite a resume too. One of the founders / vice presidents is the only caucasian to be recognized as Grand Master by the head Abbot of the Shaolin Temple. ( as of the time I originally wrote this ) You can read more about the school at: http://www.ussd.com

  ( I've since learned that the term "Kung Fu" is a misnomer that actually just means that you put work and time into learning something, but a lot of westerners know these arts by the term so it remains used. ) The school teaches a style called Shaolin Kempo ( In english. Actually Shaolin Ch'uan Fa. Shaolin means young pine forest, for the place where the original temple was, and Ch'uan Fa means "fist law" or "way of the fist". ) that has been evolving into what it is today, for almost 1500 years!

    In fact it was started by a Indian warrior caste monk named Ta Mo, who traveled north from India to the Shaolin Temple, around the year 526, and do you know what alse he brought with his fighting arts? Zen Buddhism! ) They have classes for children-young adults and adults ( This kind of training can be the best thing in the world for children and teens! It almost always makes them into better adults! ) and also teach Tai Chi.. They were offering some free lessons as part of the Grand Opening, so I decided "Why not"?! ( they still offer a free trial lesson / class! )

  I paid a visit to instructor Isaac Rodriguez. I said; I'm 50 years old, I'm 100 pounds overweight, I tried doing one pushup and it was all I could do to lower myself to the ground without crashing. The good news is that I've been walking a mile a day. I've always admired, and wanted to learn, Kung Fu. Can you help me? He said; "yes"! He was cheerful and answered all my questions. I signed up! I read the first few chapters of the training manual, including the history chapter, and learned how Zen Buddhism was started and who Mr. Miyagi's family actually were ( remember the Karate Kid story? ) , among many other really interesting things. The manual is packed full of fascinating things.

  The class has had a nice balance of both men and women, which I guess surprised me at first because I didn't know so many other women were interested in Kung Fu, but it's great. We've had nights when there's been about two thirds women, even a few when there were all women. One of my private lessons was right after the kids' class and it was mostly girls! Wow! I heard a news story once that said that girls lose most of their self esteem by age 8. It gets knocked out of them by some of the primitive foolish cultural things in our society. Not to mention that something like 3 of every 4 women gets attacked by a man at some time in their life. Scary statistics, but my personal experience with all the other women I've known, bears this out.

    My own sister was even attacked once, but fortunately someone else walked into the shop where she was working and the guy fled before hurting her. But she was just lucky! She didn't know how to defend herself! With odds like that, are you willing to leave something like that up to random chance? Not me, sister! Not anymore!

  Everyone starts off with a white belt. That's the lowest, first level rank you start at, just for walking in the door. "The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step".

The belt rankings of our school can be seen at belts.jpg

  The major belt rankings go: white-yellow-orange-purple-blue-green-brown-black. It seems to me, that getting a first degree black belt, is like getting the equivalent of a college degree in martial arts, and may take as long ( it can take 4-5 years ), so there's plenty of challenge in this. I took my very first lesson on October 3rd 1998 and was asked to test for yellow belt, three weeks later to the day, on October 24th. Students aren't allowed to ask to attend the tests, the instructor has to think you're ready and invite you. I was given a written invitation saying I'd earned it. It was a real experience, where three local schools got together at the studio in Wheat Ridge for a real ordeal of grueling workout and testing. The kind of ordeal where I could hardly catch my breath for the whole time, and my muscles were sore for two days later! But it's a good ordeal and the spiritual power in the air was amazing, as we all did our moves and yells ( called "kiai's" ) in unison! At the end of the test, we all sat and meditated together with our eyes closed. I passed and received my yellow belt, along with an 8 1/2 x 11 parchment certificate certifying my new rank.

  I've been having all kinds of fun with this, and really enjoy it! In fact, I've started to call it my Minimum Daily Requirement ( MDR ) of fun. Everyone should have one. It appears that it might even turn out to be my giant economy sized lifetime supply of fun. In fact I kid my instructors that it's so much fun that someone will probably want to make it illegal. :-) But due to exuberance, I tigress...

  Our original instructor, Isaac, transferred to another school in California after that, and since then we have teachers Gayle and Steve. The school has not only the classes, but a nicely done instruction manual and video tapes containing much of what we need to learn for each belt level. You may have heard that it's hard, if not impossible, to learn martial arts from reading books or watching tapes, but when combined with class training they all reinforce each other and I think it makes for a great learning experience and the ideal way to learn.

    The exercises in class are always varied, and there's always more to learn, so it keeps things interesting, never boring. This should be especially noted by my friends in Mensa. I've tried many different kinds of exercises over my lifetime but always quit within 3-6 months when they became boring. Treadmill ( Especially boring, even with a TV in front of it. Talk about feeling like a hamster in some kind of rat race! ), walking ( was nice for awhile but also became boring, and did nothing for my arms and upper body strength, or for my ability to defend myself. ). I really think this is the thing for intelligent people who don't want to be bored.

    Goals are clearly defined and I've been very impressed by the degree of class and integrity this school has. It all really helps. So I went back and studied some more. I was asked to attend the next test on Saturday, December 12th. But I slightly dislocated my left hip joint, just sitting in bed with the legs raised up and twisting the wrong way ( I'm 50, remember? ), on the Friday night before! It was painful just to walk! I was really upset the day of the test and called Gayle and said I wasn't sure if I could make it. She said; Go! At least go and try! I did, and the test actually healed the problem and it's been better ever since! I passed that one too and received my orange belt!

  I went back to work for the purple belt and was asked to test for that in mid-February, and passed that! It's teaching me how to move both powerfully and gracefully, it's a great aerobic workout and the fringe benefit is I'm learning how to defend myself. In fact the self defense potential for what I'm learning has absolutely amazed me as I go. This stuff is awesome! I can tell I'm really enjoying it, when I go home and dream the moves at night. What fun!

  I was asked to take the test for Blue Belt on May 15th, and passed that. It was the most physical challenging ordeal I've ever experienced ( so far ), in my life! But I made it and my stamina has increased maybe four fold since starting this last October. I never would have believed it. I now feel like my age has been set back to 45... So far. :-) It also seems that I've displaced a certain amount of fat with muscle now. My street clothing belt has been taken in by 5 notches, 5 inches off my waist. I've gotten much stronger.

10/99 Note: Tested for Blue Stripe belt October 9th and passed that one.

  There's another aspect of this that I haven't talked about before. I've been disabled for the last five years ( since around November 1993 ) , from a combination of severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder, from some things that happened to me back then. These classes have literally been bringing me back to life and I feel like they're saving my life! I feel that they're very empowering, especially for women, who perhaps need them the most. And you know, I feel like they're making me a better person too! I'm very grateful to United Studios of Self Defense, that's why I decided to do this page, so maybe it can help others too.

  Hmmm, let's see, I can actually think of a whole list of benefits that I've experienced from this so far. It's hard to explain to people I meet on an everyday basis, so being I probably express myself better in writing than verbally, I wrote the following paper to give them.

    Note 1/5/02: This paper of mine has been gradually growing and under revision all this time, so I've now made it a separate document here. Just click on this link to read it, then come back and read the rest of this page when you're done. Feel free to print it out and share it with others.

  I also have nothing but admiration and respect for my teachers, they're great. We even get a visit once in awhile from Regional Director Sifu Will Clark ( update: he became 5TH 5th Degree and is now "Master Will Clark" in 2001! ), who comes to teach a class once in awhile and he's nothing short of amazing!

  The world can be a tough place on us, in this life. We get put down and knocked around. Spirits need rebuilding on a regular basis. So do yours a favor and come join us and rebuild your spirit. Something like this is the opposite of evil, it does us good!

  True heroes are in short supply these days. It's gotten harder for us to look up to so many of our political and spiritual figures in this modern world. But because this school and our teachers have done so much for me in such a short period of time, I have come to think of these people as my modern day heroes. I'm very grateful to them, from Head Master Charles A Materra right on down to my Simu, Gayle. It's amazing because it wasn't too long ago that I thought I never would think of anyone as a hero anymore. It restores my faith in people.

  When I first started this school, I was a little cynical when they referred to it as our "USSD family" but now I'm beginning to understand what they mean. These people care, and it comes down from the top of the school to the bottom.

  It's been said by cynics before, that the bad stuff flows down hill in a company or organization. Well I'm learning that what we put out in the world flows outward like ripples from a pebble dropped into a pond, be it bad or good. And these are the good guys.

  Something about my experiences reminded me strongly of the words from the theme song from the TV series Greatest American Hero, years ago. That's what USSD has become to me. So the lyrics are especially meaningful now.

10/99
It just keeps getting better and more amazing. The following letter is self explanatory.

  Honorable Headmaster Charles A Materra
United Studios of Self Defense

Friday, October 22, 1999

Dear Headmaster Materra,

    I've discovered in life, that it pays to listen to our intuition, our inner voice. I'm considered a fairly intelligent woman, and most of my life I've been quickly bored by ordinary exercise, so I haven't done that much of it and have been pretty overweight. But I've always admired Shaolin Kung Fu, after being an avid fan of the original TV series years ago. I loved not only the art but the encompassing philosophy. I took 16 weeks of Judo in college in Miami, because that's all they had at the time, but just didn't relate well enough to it, to continue. Then in September of last year, I noticed a sign in our local shopping center that said "Grand Opening - Kung Fu"! It was like the Universe had tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to it! Something I'd always admired, and it was here now! I've been skeptical of many of the martial arts schools I've seen, but went in and talked to Isaac Rodriguez and he was very nice and convinced me to try it.

    My admiration for, and gratitude to, this school has been growing ever since. I just passed my test for blue stripe a couple of weeks ago ( despite being out for a total of a month since August for heart tests ). I enjoy writing and have enclosed a paper that I wrote a few weeks ago about how I feel USSD has benefitted me. I've been disabled for the last 6 years with severe depression, and this training has been helping me to slowly recover from that, which is great in and of itself. I've felt like it's been giving me back my life. But I just discovered that the school may have done far more for me than that. As I've studied with USSD, I've had this gradually increasing intuitive feeling that it was literally saving my life, and that I should continue with this study for the rest of my life.

    I've had long term allergy and mild asthma problems and in August of this year was feeling some mild chest pains, that I usually associate with the asthma. It was the peak of the allergy season here. I've experienced them at times, for about 15 years. But my doctor suggested that, just to be safe, I should have an EKG done. It came back abnormal. So they did a radiation treamill test and an echo cardiogram, which indicated that I'd had an "old silent" heart attack and that there was a small damaged area at the bottom of my heart, possibly from some blockage of the right coronary artery, which is a small artery that supplies blood to the bottom of the heart. They also said I have a moderately leaky aortic valve, which is one of the four heart valves we have. This was scary. They told me to moderate my exercise until they could do a cardiac catheterization test to determine the true extent of the blockage and injury. That test was done two days ago. It involved inserting a catheter into the femoral artery in the groin, and moving it up into the heart, then injecting a contrasting dye and looking at it on the X-ray screen, along with taking other measurements, like blood flow and pressure, around the inside of my heart.

    I'd previously mentioned to the doctors that I'd been studying Kung Fu since October of 1998 and that these mild chest pains seemed paradoxical, because they told me that heart pain usually happens when people exercise, yet these mild chest pains were more concurrent with my allergies and were never happening when I was doing my Kung Fu. I always felt better then. They said that they might be what they called thoracic pains in the lungs from the asthma, but that only the catheter test would tell for sure.

    During the test, they found that the right coronary artery was blocked and then attempted to do a balloon angioplasty to open the artery back up, but weren't able to because they said the blockage was so old that it had hardened ( calcified ) and that the artery was totally blocked closed in the middle. This can often cause a major heart attack and kill people. I was told this indicates that the blockage and "silent heart attack" they said I'd had, was around 4 years old. In cases like this, they most often have to do immediate surgery to bypass the blocked artery and restore blood flow to that part of the heart. But then they looked around some more, and discovered that a minor miracle had taken place.

    They said it's rare but it does happen. The blood vessels had actually rerouted ( what they call ) "collaterally" to bypass the blocked artery and re-establish the blood supply to that area of my heart! Sort of like a freeway that has an accident and is blocked, so the traffic starts taking side streets. They said there was now adequate blood flow to that area, and so they wouldn't need to do bypass surgery on me now! They still cautioned me not to do extreme exercise, especially in temperature extremes of heat or cold, because while the blood supply is adequate, it may not be optimal, as if I were a 20 year old again ( I'm 51 ). But they say there's now almost no chance of me having a heart attack because of that blocked artery, and they told me something else that's very profound to me.

    They told me that my heart is extremely strong now and that this was a large part the reason for my recovery from that old silent heart attack! Then they said that the Kung Fu I've been studying has probably saved my life!

    Like I said Master Materra, I've felt grateful all along for all that this school has done for me, but now I feel an especially deep sense of gratitude that I want to express to you, and to the entire USSD organization, for helping to save my life. Like my simu Gayle said after my last test, I was the one who did the work. But you were the ones who were there for me, to facilitate it and inspire me with your amazing awesome skills in these arts, in a way that's been interesting and stimulating enough to keep me going with it, and for that I feel that I owe you my sincerest gratitude, from the bottom of my heart and the depths of my soul. ( no pun intended there, as it's both figurative and literal ) I plan on continuing my studies with USSD for the rest of my life and wanted to express to you, that this organization which you've all built and worked so hard for, has no doubt done far more good for people, in far more ways, than you may have ever originally imagined.

  If you get to Colorado, I'd be extremely honored to meet you.

  Thank you!

  ( my signature )

May 2000: Passed test green belt.

Update: Summer 2000

    Went back to the Cardiologist for a follow-up check. Last year there had been evidence of ischemia on the tests they did, which my dictionary says is "local deficiency of blood supply produced by vasoconstriction or local obstacles to the arterial flow.". But this summer I told the Cardiologist that I feel like I'm in much better shape than last year when they found the problems mentioned above. So she decided to test that by doing a treadmill echocardiogram. First they did a baseline echocardiogram, then they put me on a treadmill and ran me like a race horse for about 10 minutes. No problem! In fact they said they found no signs of the ischemia anymore! The miracles continue!

September 16th, 2000

    Passed my test for green belt with brown stripe, almost 4 hours wearing 14 ounce long sleeve cotton uniforms, and we had record temperatures of 98 here that day! This was the first test where I felt really energized and not in any way discouraged at any time during it!

It just keeps getting better and better!

March 17th, 2001

    Whew what a test! 4 really full hours of the hardest work I've ever done in my life to date! I'm now 3rd Brown Belt. They go 3, 2, 1 and then Black Belt. My teacher says I'm now 85% of the way to Black. I never imagined getting this far when I started, I just wanted to try it out.
:-)

May 5th, 2001

Attended the school's first ever Colorado tounament. 350 or so competitors. Here's what I took home.

2nd Place in Senior Women's Division Sparring
( women over 34, I'm not THAT old :-)

It just keeps getting better and better!.....

November 11th, 2001

1st Place - Senior Women's Division Sparring.

December 2001

    I don't mean for this to sound the wrong way. I mean I started out just wanting to try this school out and I doubt I'll ever be like a master or great teacher or anything with this, just a student. But do you remember in the Kung Fu series when David Carradine's character used to say, "I am Shaolin"? It's now been a little over 3 years since I've been studying this. Something has been changing in me over all this time. My soul has been changing. And every once in awhile, it's like the universe taps me on the shoulder again and I get this little voice that comes into the deepest recesses of my mind and, like a little whisper, says; I am becoming Shaolin. How amazing.

January 6th 2002

    Awoke last night after a very strange dream. In the dream, had just finished my long greuling black belt test and was being awarded my black belt by Professor Materra himself! We were kneeling facing each other on some soft ground. He produced a huge box of Cracker Jacks and pulled my black belt out of it, then before he presented it to me, he held it out between his hands said; Melissa, I know when you started this, you may have had the idea that maybe you could get a black belt out of a box of Cracker Jacks. That was true, but in this school at least, you still had to pass the test!

January 5th, 2002

    It had been awhile since I'd really updated this page and story, but now that I've gotten around to it, there's something I really want to mention.

    In the above journal, I mentioned having been disabled for years, with severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder. My life was pretty trashed, crashed and burned by some things that happened to me in the workplace in late 1993. I'd been at home since then, too depressed to work. I felt like there really wasn't anything I felt like doing in life anymore and people really need a purpose and something they enjoy doing, to even motivate them enough to keep on living. Therapy had helped quite a bit but still not enough to get me recovered to the point of being able to go back to work again.

I credit this school with making the rest of the difference for me.

    In May of this year, I started attending another school ( at times when I don't have classes at USSD :-) to learn a new occupation. My 25 years of electronics background from before, had become outdated and the demand for electronics engineering technicians had become pretty phased out, in this area of the country at least. So I started attending school for AutoCAD Drafting, to learn how to draw mechanically with the computer. The AutoCAD program itself is great, and in my opinion, the best commercial software program in the world. I mean people have been designing things like bridges, highways and buildings with it, since it came out in the mid-80's. Very powerful.

    But I started looking for work again in mid-June and by mid-August started working and earning a living again for the first time since 1993!

    Thank you USSD! Thank you Professor Materra, for founding this school and for it being here for me! And thank you especially my teachers, simu Gayle, and Sifus Andy and Mark!

    Oh, another thing. I regret not having mentioned this before, because I hadn't updated this page in so long. In summer of 1999, my first main teacher Gayle moved from the Lakewood school to the Wheat Ridge school. I thought she was such a good teacher, I followed her over there. She moved on since then and I was still so happy with my two teachers there, Sifus Andy and Mark, that I stayed and have been there since.

    Some people, after having read this journal, have asked me which of our schools I study at now. The Wheat Ridge school is at 38th and Wadsworth in the Safeway Center on the northeast side, right next to the Quiznos on the north end. The phone number is 303-432-0831.

    If you've ever been intrigued or interested by anything like this, you owe it to yourself to check this school out. If you don't, you could regret it for the rest of your life. If you want your own little adventure, a great bigger-than-life experience like this, call them! You can do it! They're the best! Tell them Melissa said "hi!" on the web. Don't procrastinate!

  Speaking of procrastination, years ago I remember a "Dear Abby" column that caught my eye in the paper. A woman was saying to Abby, that she'd always wanted a college degree but had raised a family instead. Now that the family was raised, she still wanted the college degree, but here she was at the age of ( something like ) 56 and if she went to school for 4 years, she'd be 60 by the time she got her degree. Abby responded that she'd be 60 if she didn't get it, too. The moral of the story is, if you've always wanted to do something and have the chance to do it now, then do it now! Otherwise you'll always be kicking yourself for not having done it.

  I see this the same way. I always wanted to learn this, and looking back now, I wish I'd started it in my 20's. But by the time I learned what I had to, to even begin it, and the opportunity arrived, I was 50 years old. By the time I ever get a black belt, I may be 55 or 56, but so what? I'd be 55 or 56 anyway. If you've "always wanted to do something like this", and have the opportunity now, then do it!

  Oh, here are photos of my belt walls that have been growing over these past few years since starting this.

  One of the new students in my school, said to me recently that she's always wanted to learn something like this ( she was also a fan of the original Kung Fu TV series, not just for martial arts but for the philosophy ) and that she was planning on making it a life style. I thought about that. A lifestyle.

  It turns out that if this is the kind of thing you've always wanted to learn, then learning it over a period of time can really get under your skin. It DOES become a lifestyle. Last fall I subscribed to Inside Kung Fu ( an excellent publication ) and I've been reading about so many of the things we've been learning here. It's amazing. I never realized my teachers were so right about so many things, until I started reading so many articles affirming what they've been teaching us.

  But yes, a lifestyle. I've been beginning to think of this as my American Shaolin lifestyle and it feels good to live it. It's done me a world of good and I feel like it would benefit many other people in the world, in the same kinds of ways. Why isn't something like this started with most kids in elementary school? Perhaps because the Chinese were keeping it to themselves for so long? ( they considered it like a military secret? ) Or perhaps because it took so long for the west to discover it and appreciate it for what it is? Like one of the movies I watched said, it doesn't teach you to kill, it teaches you how to live. And in ways I never originally even imagined.

    By the way, the school must be considered pretty good investor material. I've heard they're in the process of adding another 100 studios nationwide, which will bring the total to around 250. Some of the students I've been studying with all this time, have been moving up through the ranks, attending USSD Instructor's College, finding careers in this, and becoming instructors in their own rights.

    In my own neighborhood, when I started with this school, I wrote an article or two about my experiences, for our neighborhood community association newspaper. A young man who read the article came and started studying in the same school with me, and then took the accelerated path, attended USSD Instructor's College and became a black belt USSD Instructor, and I might add one of the best contestants in the black belt division that I witnessed at the last tournament! ( Hi Sifu James! :-)

  If any school deserves to be called "America's Self Defense Leader", I think this one does! Though I haven't yet had any investment money, I may even invest in one or more of them some day myself.

 

May 11th, 2002

1st Place - Senior Women's Division Sparring.

8-14-02
"It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday,
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been coming to see
To forget about life for awhile."
-- Piano Man, by Billy Joel

  That song was about a piano player in a bar, but there's something interesting about it, that I've just re-learned with my school. Why have to go to a bar and drink, "to forget about life for awhile"? I just learned another lesson from this. I was having problems because I was bringing my problems to school with me. I wasn't using the school the way I should have been. So I just recently got back to applying it the way I should have, and had originally, when I first started. Just hadn't realized how valuable that was before, but I do now.

  We need a place where we can go, and not have to get drunk, and "forget about life for awhile" and this is one of the most important things about a place like this school. There's no clock, no watch on your wrist. You lose track of time and if you use that to your advantage it can be like a refreshing mini-vacation while working out. No matter what your problems are outside the school, if you maintain that focus, you can go there and "forget about life for awhile", without even having to drink alcohol ( or use drugs, etc. ) to do it. It can work wonders for you, when you do that!

September 21st 2002 - 2nd Degree Brown Belt.

After I reached this rank, one day the Chief Instructor of the school ( a 3rd Black Belt ) and I were talking, and he told me that he now considered me a martial artist. I wasn't quite expecting this at the time, it was a pleasant surprise, but I understood his thinking. There are so many so-called traditional schools that promote students just for being there, or promote them for any number of reasons. It's been estimated therefore, that this rank at USSD is actually past the equivalent of a 1st degree black belt at many other schools. In fact I'd even heard that a green belt at USSD was considered the equivalent of a black belt at some other schools.

USSD Fall Tournament 11-10-02

2nd Place - Senior Women's Sparring

If I get any more of these, they won't fit on the air cleaner in my bedroom anymore! :-)
Everyone should have this problem.

  Look at this! This is about an 8 foot tall wall mural of the USSD logo that Alia, one of our newer students, just painted on the wall of our school! You can see the ceiling tiles at the top of this photo, for a sense of the size of this! Please forgive the poor quality of my cheap digital camera, it looks much better when you're there to see it! ( The little white square in the middle is just a reflection off the thermostat, which she actually covered up quite nicely. ) Isn't that awesome! Congratulations Alia, for doing such a great job on this! Now that's devotion! Alia also recently decided to attend USSD Instructor's College as she attends our school, and make a career out of teaching.

4-26-03 Tournament - First Place in Senior Women's Sparring.

That's Puff, my computer dragon, next to it. :-)

People ask me every once in awhile, if I know when I'll get my black belt.
If the journey is pleasant, why worry about the destination?

Melissa
Who feels like she's becoming an
American Shaolin

You can E-mail Me

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your day!

Last updated on 8/7/2003.