May/June 2010 Progress Report

For the first time in my life, my biceps are nearing the size of my head.

I looked back and noticed that I forgot to publish my May 2010 numbers - oops!  I will rectify that error today...but first, a bit on me.

Training has been picking up lately.  I've had to reformat my personal program in order to account for the increased activity, but it basically consists of the following pattern:

• 15-minute meditation after I wake up, followed by stretching & at least 60 minutes of cardio, every morning. (I'm on it Kai!)  Sometimes, I will add a short hike or bike ride afterwards....as of late, I've begun riding to work while the weather holds up.  Biking is greener and healthier than my hybrid car....at least until I can get that Flintstone mod put in so I can run it. :) j/k
• On weekdays, another 15-minute meditation during my break at work.  I close/lock my door, or leave campus to find a quiet space to do this.  During weekends, this is an afternoon meditation.
• On weekdays, perform some/all of my UBBT reps with my student team during our sessions throughout the course of the week.  I've adjusted my program so I can do less reps on weekends (or even take a break!).  Anything missed becomes part of my solo evening workouts.
• Afternoon training: on the bike while I run local errands, chill pace....but active and green!
• Evening training, varies by day: Monday (BJJ), Tuesday (solo, my old curriculum), Wednesday (solo, my new curriculum), Thursday (kenpo), Friday (boxing/bag work), Saturday (chill), Sunday (eskrima)

My primary focus has shifted towards my physical training and diet.  The remainder of my UBBT requirements are going well, but I'm having a tough time burning off the gut....so that's my test.  For me, that means I've slowed down on everything else in order to put first things first during the summer months.  Fortunately, I'm ahead on many of my other goals, so it's not hurting my overall progress.

With that in mind, here's an update on my current training totals (May 2009-present):

• Pushups: 105,500 (rowr!)
• Crunches & related reps of abdominal exercises: 112,500
• Mileage: 2188 (all that cardio & biking adds up, hitting 2.2k tomorrow!)
• Forms: 3000 (1k each of Chung-Mo 3 & 4, 800 of Gaebaek, and 100 each of Kata 18 & 19 from the Alemany system, with more coming as I learn Kata 20!)
• Sparring & Bag Work: 590 (almost 600, but well over the halfway mark!)
• Groundwork: 60 hours (I'm starting to get the hang of this 'tapping out' business, lol)
• Meditation: 210+ hours, estimated (15m, twice a day...adds up!)
• Acts of Kindness: 13,000 plus another 4000 through students.

Onward - let the next evolution begin! :)

Salman Khan, a Living Hero

Salman Khan is the founder of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high-quality education to anyone, anywhere.  In 2009, Khan's work earned him a Tech Award in Education, honoring his innovative use of technology to benefit humanity.

He has produced over 1100 videos, primarily in the areas of K-12 math and science education, with each video targeting a specific concept.  This stands in contrast to many university-produced videos, which are often just taped lectures.  Filming concept-by-concept videos serves as a form of individualized enrichment and/or private tutoring.  Students can access his videos on-demand, at their own pace, from anywhere with an internet connection.  Several other non-profit groups have begun to distribute offline versions of his materials to underprivileged communities.

Khan's videos have received over 6 million hits on YouTube.  I recommend them to anyone who could use a bit of math help.  It's like having an extra coach in your corner.

You can subscribe to the Khan Academy's YouTube channel here.

A full listing of the Khan Academy's videos can be found here.  Happy studying!

Pennies from Heaven

Every day, for as long as I can remember, I find a penny on the ground and pick it up.  Well, pretty much every day, and often, Jenn finds one too, but it's awfully close.  It might be on the trails where I've been running, in the parking lot of the grocery store, on the pavement at work, nestled in the grass at the local park, on the floor of a public restroom....you name it, I've found a penny there.  If it's not a penny, it's some other coin.  This morning, I found a dime - yay!

Little things add up to big things, as Coach Tom reminds us, and when I look at the coins that accumulate in the coin sorter in my car, I smile since, at least once a year, the world buys a cup of coffee and a bagel for a friendly homeless person.

It's not about the pennies or my scrounging hobby, though.  Every penny on the ground is an opportunity discarded by someone else, so small as to be insignificant to most people, just like the value of a minute or the value of reading a couple of pages a day.

How many little things are you overlooking on a daily basis?  That spare minute could be spent hugging someone, or sending off a quick 'I love you' message, or in quiet solitude, or something else important.  That spare penny might add up to a meal, a book, a charitable contribution, or more.  That loose piece of trash adds up to a giant oceanwide garbage soup.  That little candy bar after lunch transforms into pounds.

The little things that we ignore add up to larger problems, but the little opportunities that we seize add up to victories.  Handle the small stuff....because it's all small stuff until we make it big stuff.

Congratulations, Class of 2010

I was honored to serve as one of three speakers at LPS San Jose's graduation ceremony yesterday.  The ceremony was held on a beautiful summer afternoon at San Jose State University.  Several of my Live team members walked the stage that day - congratulations to John Caliva, Meaghan Del Real, Edgar Diego, Alexis Gonzalez, Fernando Ortiz, Hope Pross, Rafael Villa, and a special shout-out to Youssef Shokry, valedictorian of the LPS San Jose Class of 2010!

While it is always a duty of a speaker to present some words of wisdom to the graduating class, I felt especially obligated to share and reiterate some lessons from our time together, so I gathered my thoughts, infused some of my classic material, and produced a short speech about 'blinking' for the graduates.  Although the message was written for them, the content works for everyone, so I thought I'd share it with you here too:


Earlier this morning, as my mind stirred, I opened my eyes and blinked awake, as you and I have all done countless times in our lives.  It's fascinating how that works, actually.  It is said that the average person blinks about 16 times per minute during the time that they are awake.  That's roughly once every four seconds.

Each time they close, time slips by me.  Every time they open again, the moment that I once knew as "Now" is gone, and the moment that I used to call "Later" is here.  In this fashion, our eyes quietly mark the passage of our lives - closing one moment into memory in an instant, and opening to new opportunity in the next.

Yet, as often as my eyelids may flutter, sometimes when I blink, entire sections of my life have flown by me, and on those occasions, I find myself looking back, wondering where that time has gone.  It still feels like it hasn't been all that long since I left high school myself, which is most likely compounded by my tendency to behave like a 15-year-old.

On one occasion, I had blinked and found myself teaching here at San Jose State.  I was distracted while grading papers, amazed by the suddenness at which life could transform a student into a teacher, and my attention had drifted to a Craigslist ad from some little startup charter school that was looking for teachers.  I remember thinking it would be a fun part-time gig.

Then I blinked again, and found myself at the Cowell Houses at Stanford University with a bunch of young, nervous freshmen-to-be, much shorter in stature and with much higher-pitched voices, unsure of themselves and each other, trying to figure out this "LPS thing" and this "high school thing" for themselves.

They had no idea about the fine print on our sign, courtesy of Facebook, which read: "Welcome to our high school, please choose two of the following three options: good grades, adequate sleep, a social life."  Judging from the wide awake faces I'm seeing up here on the stage, I can say with confidence: You nerds have done well.

I couldn't begin or presume to explain all that you may have experienced or learned since that time.  From my point of view, I just blinked and now we're here.  For some of you, it may feel the same way, like it has all gone by so quickly.  If not, it will the next time you blink.

What I can say is this: you are not the children that you once were.  In the blink of an eye, you are someone else now.  Part of you fades away into yesterday every time you close your eyes, while another part remains in the moment to meet the part of you that you are becoming.

In each of those moments, there is opportunity - opportunity to transform yourself a little bit closer towards the person that you would like to become; however, you must decide to embrace the opportunity and then take action to move towards it, for opportunity is not the same thing as choice, and choice is not the same thing as action.

Opportunity presents itself in the blink of an eye and remains for an indeterminate amount of time.  It vanishes as quickly as it arrives unless you choose to seize it.

Choices are made in the blink of an eye and change the direction that we face in life, but without action, you aren't going anywhere.

Actions are the vehicles that carry us from blink to blink.  They are rooted in our choices.  Choices steer the wheel, action powers the engine.  

You can dream every night, you can see opportunities, and you can decide to embrace a new direction, but your actions create your destiny.  If you blink one moment and find yourself unhappy, you - and only you - have the power to change that.  

Change doesn't have to happen slowly.  It happens in the blink of an eye.  

Just watch today.

Blink in a few moments and you will have crossed the stage and entered a new phase of your life.

Blink again and you may find yourself living in a new place and working to create a new life for yourself.

Blink again and a pair of newborn baby eyes may one day be staring back at you.

But don't blink too quickly, my friends.  This isn't a race.  We all arrive at the same finish line eventually and at your age, grey hair is overrated.  There is no hurry. You will blink, whether you want to or not. 

Each time your eyes close, you will slip forward into another time.  What was "Now" is quickly becoming "Then".  Your future awaits you.  Embrace it with your eyes and hearts wide open.

This is not goodbye.  If it is our destiny, we will see each other again the next time that we blink.

Until then, choose wisely, my friends, and take action in the direction of your dreams.  

An Epic Week Without Walls

Last month, I brought twenty of my students to Lake Tahoe, Nevada as part of my program's third black belt test, in conjunction with Leadership Public School's annual Week Without Walls field trip.

This was a unique opportunity to reinvent my black belt testing process to be more in alignment with my vision, as well as to experiment with a way to more deeply integrate my black belt tests with the culture of my hosting school through involving more of my students.  Four of the students were candidates (three 1st Dan, one 2nd Dan) and the other sixteen were students of varying levels of experience.  Every color belt participant was screened for general fitness prior to being accepted on the trip for safety purposes, which was especially important to me because I wanted to preserve the authenticity of the testing experience while maintaining as inclusive of an environment as possible.

Some of the features included:

• A well-regulated "Ironman-style" multi-day test, with monitored rest, hydration, and nutrition to balance out periods of high-performance activity;
• Daily workshops to introduce new curricular elements and provide high-quality learning experiences each day;
• Visits to two friendly martial arts schools (The Dojo in Folsom, run by UBBT teammate Sensei Chris Hadlock, and KicksUSA Martial Arts Center in Pleasanton, run by BKJN Michael Yu);
• Some social time, built into hikes and environmental awareness training;
• Technical demonstrations, spread out during the week;
• Individual and team "challenge" activities to complete each day;
• Camping in beautiful, faraway locales; and
• A tight-knit graduation ceremony with lots of heart and celebration to be found.  We promoted the black belts, but we also recognized many of the color belts who participated by promoting them to their next belt level too!

My brother was kind enough to come along and videotape a lot of the event.  He recorded a whopping 30 hours of footage that we'll be trimming down into a 30-minute documentary, to be distributed to the students and several of our honored guests.

Here's a 90-second teaser trailer for your enjoyment.