Student of the Month - Stefanie

Favorite Color - Purple

Favorite Food - Medium-rare grass fed steak and potatoes, just to be specific!

Profession - Executive assistant, Bookkeeper, Mom

Tell us about your family - I have been married for ten years this month (!) and have 2 children: Frankie (8) and Jacob (5).

Besides hula, what other activities do you enjoy? Traveling, movies, hiking, shopping and spending time with family & friends.

What do you like most about training at Kajukenbo AZ? All of it! Families that train (and work!) together, stay together. It’s an honor to make a difference with others and to do it alongside out amazing ohana.

What are your goals for the next year? To better myself as a hula dancer, start taking Kaju classes again and to HAVE FUN every day!

Student of the Month - Maddy

Favorite Color - Aqua Blue

Favorite Food - Chocolate Cupakes

School - Sophomore in High School at Highland High.

Family and pets - Mom Colette is a Realtor, Dad Danny works for Gilbert PD, older brother Austin is a Medic in the US Army and is married to Mariah, also a hula dancer.  I have no pets.

Besides hula, what other activities do you enjoy?  Swimming, shopping, baking, time with friends and the beach!

What do you like most about training at KajuAZ - The Aloha spirit and all the great friendships I've made.

What are your goals for the next year - To improve my skills as a dancer and someday Hula in Hawaii.

Stay the Path

(Through this fist style, one will find happiness and long life)

Wow!! It is awesome and a honor to train here at Kaju AZ. I never thought when I first started that I’d find so many nice and generous people here. So many families and so many good times. On days that I’m here, it’s hard to have a bad day. The dojo is filled with positive people and whatever the case may be it seems someone has your back.

I remember once after training for about 3 months, my wife ask me something like “So how long are you going to do this karate thing”? I said something like, “Forever”. I was hooked. So 5.5 years later I’ve earned my black belt. Now it’s time to step things up. Learn more, train harder, and pass on more of what I learn to my friends and family. 

I am grateful for this art and my teachers. What they have taught me has made me stronger, faster, and confident. All the pit classes and kaju classes have made me healthier than I ever thought I’d be. 

I like that we don’t just talk about breaking bones and poking eyes. That’s all good stuff but I like that we talk about what it means to be a martial artist. Honesty, courage, integrity, respect, self-control, and loyalty. These character attributes can and will get you through hard times. They have for me, in the dojo and out.

For the past two years I’ve been assisting and teaching the kaju dragons and now in the juniors. It is rewarding and a great learning experience. The kids are hard workers and can give you a good mental workout at the same time. Working with them has made me better in many ways, and I want to be a great example for them.

Through this fist style, one will find happiness and long life. This is what Kajukenbo means. All the hard work and drills and basics and more drills, new friends that like to hit too, the small things that happen in class, these make me happy. I hope they happen all the time for a long life.

Mr. Adam S.

The Results of Hard Work

Some people are simply amazing in their ability to grasp a concept and make it their own. Some people have the physical prowess to see a martial arts technique and execute it near perfect the first time.

Sadly, I am not one of the people. Because of that I have struggled to gain a skill and failed miserably and looked bad in the process. It’s a good thing I have tough skin, because falling down can hurt!

One thing I am grateful I do have is a strong will and a desire to get it right eventually. It might take me longer, but if it is important enough, it’s worth it.

Here’s a clip from a post by Stephen Kesting, a fellow Kajukenbo practitioner and BJJ Black Belt:

"So I’m touring Casa Loma recently, the famous castle in downtown Toronto and the largest private residence ever constructed in Canada.

We’re wandering the halls, climbing the turrets, and exploring the never-ending parade of lavishly decorated rooms.

All of a sudden I heard something beautiful drifting through the marble and hardwood hallways. It was the aria Il Dolce Suono from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor opera.  And it sounded like it was being sung live.

I made my way towards the sound and ended up at the edge of the balcony that overlooked the main hall. There, at another, smaller balcony, not 15 feet from me, was the source of the music – a young woman – delivering an unaccompanied live performance for the visitors to the castle.

It was incredible. Despite the acoustics of the hall (most decidedly NOT designed for opera) she did a great job with several famous arias. To hear that almost-private performance in the home of an industrialist robber baron made me feel like I should be wearing an ivory linen suit in the style of the Great Gatsby.

Finally she concluded with a rendition of Ave Maria, curtsied, waved, and then disappeared from her balcony.

…Afterwards, as I was on my way down the hallways of the castle, I saw the same diva again. Some fan had cornered her and was fawning over her performance.

As I got a little closer I could see her nodding with a polite smile plastered on her face in response to what seemed like a very one-sided conversation.Then I was able to overhear what the dude was saying… 

“What a gift,” he sighed, “What an amazing gift.”

I couldn’t help myself. “What a lot of work!” I interrupted.

She used the interruption to disengage and get on her way, but not before flashing me what seemed like a giant smile of gratitude.  I squeezed past her now lonely admirer on my quest to find the castle’s secret passageways and tunnels."

I am reminded by our STORM retreat a couple of years ago where we talked about the pitfalls have having a natural talent and being praised for the talent rather than the hard work in perfecting the talent. Talent IS overrated. Be careful of the pitfall of relying on your talents to get you by. It will work in the short run, but in the long run, hard work and practice will overcome anyone’s natural abilities.

As we drill and practice our martial arts, we must remember that the pay off is down the road. In the future as we demonstrate our ‘talents’, in reality we will be demonstrating the many, many hours of practice, patience with ourselves, the bumps and bruises we have sustained, and ultimately, the demonstration of the will to not quit.

Others might see it as a gift, but you will know differently.

Train Strong to Remain Strong!

-Sigung Kelly

Note: Stephen Kesting is a student of Tuhan and Grandmaster Philip Gelinas of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Gelinas is the author of the Kajukenbo Family Tree and has been on the KSDI board of directors for many years. GM Gelinas is a stick fighter and knife fighter practitioner. GM Gelinas is a special guest instructor for Grandmaster Lim this year for the Malama Ohana event. He is a ‘must see’ martial artist. 

Student of the Month - Ryanne

Favorite Color - Rainbow

Favorite Food - Pizza

Favorite Subject in School  - Biology, Art

Tell us about your family - 1 brother, 2 sisters Lachlan (6) goes to Kaju, Tamsyn (16) hula, 

Maia (21) lives in Washington

Do you have any pets? Yes, dogs and cats.

Besides Kajukenbo, what other activities do you enjoy? Dance, gymnastics, running, swimming, snowboarding, hiking.

What do you like most about training at Kajukenbo AZ? I like learning blocks and strikes, grappling.

Student of the Month - Charlie

Favorite Color - Blue

Favorite Food - Pizza

Favorite Subject in School  - Math

Tell us about your family - I love them

Besides Kajukenbo, what other activities do you enjoy? Playing with legos, going to the movies.

What do you like most about training at Kajukenbo AZ? Punches.

What are your intentions – and what are your actions?

Grandmaster Lim once said to me  “Know your intentions. If you are going to strike, then strike. If you are going to run, then run. But know what you are going to do, and then do it.”

To me this means that what is in our brains had better be revealed in our actions, otherwise: no success.

I was reminded recently about intentions watching an associate struggle with hardships he created himself although his “intentions” were otherwise.  Bottom line: Saying it doesn’t make it so. I think this conflict inhibits our success in a huge way.  If we can get our intentions in alignment with our actions, what an amazing life we can have!

How do we facilitate living with intention, thus turning our intention into action?

Motivational speaker and close friend of Pit Master, Tony Robbins has a ritual that he does every morning, no matter what. He says it focuses his minds on his intentions and how he will create the actions necessary to carry them out.  Every morning, he takes a walk for at least 10-minutes and then thinks about these things (in order);

        

1. Think of 3 things you are grateful for.

2. Thing of how you are going to help others today

3. Imagine the life you want to create, vividly as if it has already happened.

Tony Robbins says: “I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.”

Attention is the glue that helps our actions become in alignment with our intentions. As we pay attention to our goals, we will start doing the things that are needed to further our goals. As we pay attention to what we do and what we say we can analyze ourselves and make adjustments either to our goals or our actions.

Remember the mantra "Mind, Body, Spirit…as One?”  This reminds me of the importance of our intentions being aligned with our actions. I believe that it takes constant effort for us to be striving for that alignment. And the result of that effort is success. The opposite cannot even be considered failure, just confusion and random happenstance.

And remember, we make the world a better place by our actions, not just our intentions. Lets put our actions to work and let our actions speak for themselves.

There it is – do what you say.  Live your intentions. If you can’t, change and adapt it.  It seems we are guaranteed a successful life by doing this. I certainly want that!

Professor Kelly