Kingston Kicks 2016

I spent this past weekend in Kingston at the revival of my favourite marital arts event. After being missed for a few years, Kingston Kicks assembled martial artists from far and wide, at the Ambassador Hotel, to put on, and take part in seminars in karate, aikido and jiu-jutsu. There were also special courses in iaido, bo and both women's self defence and cane defence.


I met a gentleman from Belleville who seemed to think it must have been a long boring day for me.  Quite the contrary.  It is always great to see so many old friends and meet new ones at events like this. Some such events are huge but Kingston Kicks is small enough to make it very special.  As a non-participant, I can check out what's happening in each of the six simultaneous seminars four times a day, pick the ones that interest me the most, and actually sit down and hear what the instructor is saying. The seminars are not all put on in one room, as is sometimes the case at other events. By having just one or two seminars in each room, it is much easier for the participants to hear, and work out without fear of being beaned by someone being taught another style in on a nearby mat.

The fact that there are others from our club taking part makes it even more interesting for me. My hubby taught the cane defence and there were several comments afterwards by amazed students who were surprised at how little pressure was needed to make the cane an effective weapon.  I watched a young member of our karate club take the opportunity to learn something about jiu-jitsu and aikido. He had a great time learning break falls and front rolls, and later learned how to dodge a pool noodle. The other members of our club that attended this year were all adults, but they all learned something new and had lots of fun in the process.

The hosts of this event, Carol and Ted Theelen,  of the Rideau Lakes School of Martial Arts always make everyone feel like part of the family. They had a meet and greet on Friday night, a dinner gathering at the Mandarin Restaurant Saturday evening, and even put on a party for everyone to attend, free of charge on Saturday night.  Even some of the young children were there. If you don't happen to be a dancer, the floor show can be quite entertaining as some martial artists apparently have moves we weren't aware of.

Sunday there was a tournament, which was especially enjoyed by the youngsters. They do love to get those metals! After watching such tournaments for over 30 years, I can vouch for the fact that there is a lot of talent coming up through the ranks, and great things to come in the future. 

I'm already looking forward to Kingston Kicks next year.

Following Life's Path

They said it wouldn't last, but here it is, 31 years later, and Merrickville Karate Club is still going strong.

Back in February of 1985, my husband and young son joined the class when it first opened here. I went up to watch, and really liked what I saw. The instructor had a way of pushing people beyond the limits they had set for themselves, and that was a great confidence builder. Once you know you can do something you never thought you could do, you are more willing to try other things without worrying about failing.

The instructor was from out of town and needed someone local to take calls from prospective students, and unlock the door to the dojo for when they arrived.  I took on the volunteer position and when my husband and I took over the club four years later, I automatically took on the rolls of Coordinator, PR person, and accountant.

The club runs smoothly, and successfully and has had an ongoing waiting list for more than twenty years.  People like that it's a family club, with adults and children in the same class.

I had a couple of openings this spring and mentioned that on Facebook.  Within seconds, those spaces were filled by two 11 year old boys. A couple of days later, the father of one, and the mother of the other had also decided to join the class. Before week was out, I had eleven people wanting to join.  Some will have to wait until September, but I am always warning people not to wait until the last minute. Spaces always fill quickly.

It's been an honour to watch so many people progress, not just in their martial arts skills, but in their life skills over the years. It really is true that once you discover you can do something you didn't think you could do, you find you can succeed at all kinds of other things.  Though I have never actually joined the karate class, I did get heavily involved in tai chi for many years, and have managed to have accumulated a few accomplishments of my own along the way.

The funny thing is, I've never been interested in sports of any kind. Who would ever have guessed that I would own and operate a karate club, let alone for so many years.  Life leads us down some interesting paths, if we are brave enough to follow them.

Art House Co-Op Keeps Me Busy

I decided early this year that I would make the time to play with my art more often this year. Play seems to be the optimum word so far.  There are a couple of days a week that I gather with others to create and possibly learn new techniques.  Meanwhile I sign up for projects that will force me to think in new ways, and at least get off the computer long enough to be a bit creative.

Art House Co-op is great for that. I first learned of them though a couple of acquaintances who were taking part in their annual Sketchbook project. For a fee, Art House will send you a blank sketchbook which you are to fill and mail back by a specified date. Then it goes on tour all over the United States, and maybe a Canadian city or two. I just don't think I'm ready to participate in that project, but I did find they have lots of other little projects available throughout the part of the year when they aren't busy with that tour.  Last year I got in on a few of those and really enjoyed it. See The Art of Progression from last May.  This year they are offering them far more frequently and I'm jumped on several already.

The first one I did was the Things Found - by Accident.  We all go places on a regular basis and perhaps don't always see what we as going past along the way. This project had us looking more closely, and sharing what we found. I sent them two photos, which is likely against the rules. One was something unusual that I'd actually never noticed before, and the other was something pretty that I passed all the time, but never really looked closely at. They posted the prettier one, above.

The second one I got in on was an infinite scroll which would become a monster when strung together. They sent a template that had the start and end markings, and you could string those together anyway you wanted, and the markings would line up with anyone else's start and finish markings.  It was so popular, they even extended the number of people who could take part. As I've become more interested in abstract and multimedia this past year, I had fun creating this.  Remember, it's just a section of a very long monster scroll. You may be able to see the whole thing at http://www.sketchbookproject.com/infinitescroll

The third one I got in on was for the encyclopedia of work.  We were to simply to take a picture of our work place.  My hubby and I own a karate club.  He teaches and I do the administrative work, so I took the camera to class one night.

There was one where you had to sketch the tallest building in your town, but you only had 5 minutes to do that in.  I had a lively discussion on Facebook about which building should be considered the tallest.  Though the roof tops of several line up fairly well, the United Church was my choice because it started a full story lower down from road level.  At one time the road was actually down at that level too, but when it was raised, the lower level on the two street sides of the building were buried too.  Five minutes passes very quickly when you are sketching, so there's no time for erasing and getting everything just where it belongs. At least, not for me.

Then we were asked to create a map of some adventure we have either had, or would like to have. I thought the hardest part of that was to figure out where I wanted the map to be of. That was until I started.  Trying to get words and/or pictures anywhere near where they should be isn't all that easy.  But now I have a great little reminder of last summer's vacation, when we went geocaching in the Muskoka region.  I kind of wish I had put a dirty wash around the edges though, just to make it look more like a treasure map.  After all, that is what we were after....so I may just do that yet.

Recently there was a project called The Meal.  Each of us were to post a photo of ourselves and our midday meal.  That doesn't sound hard either, but I tried it from several angles and kept missing part of the meal as I couldn't see what I was aiming at.  I ended up getting most of myself out of the picture.  People from all over the world take part in these projects, and so there was great variety represented in this project. I submitted the standard soup, salad and sandwich luncheon. This project was meant to help raise awareness of world hunger.

 I found I had missed out on another infinite scroll.  This one was going to be of outer space. I would have loved that as I've done a few spacy things in the past.  But the message somehow slipped into my spam folder and by the time I spotted it, they already had the 500 they allowed to sign up.  These spots go quickly.  So, I have just decided to share my last space inspired painting here anyway, even if it can't, and won't fit on the infinite scroll.

The most recent project I've submitted was for an encyclopedia of tools. Now, there are all kinds of tools around here. Some in the kitchen, some in the garage, some for doing crafts, some for doing home improvements and many that I have no idea what they actually are..  I wasn't sure what I would do for this project, until last Friday when I was at a friend's place and saw her paint brushes on the table. I grabbed the camera and took a picture.  Then I used my computer tools and ended up very happy with my submission.

I'm still currently signed up for two other projects due this month, but as you can see, I'm having fun.  There are also plenty of projects that I have not signed up for.  Some of them are even for writers.  If  you think you might like to have a look at what is available, just go to The Sketchbook Project and have a look around.  I'll try to keep you up to date with these things as they happen from now on.

I have also managed to do a few real paintings this year, all in watercolour, but I'll tell you about those some other time.

For those of you wondering what happened to Freebie Friday last week, I spent the Kellogg's free product coupon on a Jumbo Sized box of Frosted Flakes, and saved $7.48.  It was a very slow mail week, but I did get another one of these coupons in place of the other gas card application I made.  I'm quiet happy with that, but I doubt you wanted to see it again.

For the Record

For those of you who don't already know, I own and operate a karate club. I'm not the instructor, but I do most of everything else involved in running a business. 

The club is now 27 years old, and once in a while I'm still blown away by someone who refuses to allow their child to join the class, no matter how much the kid really wants to come.  The reason is that the parent thinks karate is too violent. If they would just come in and watch a class before passing that judgement, they would see that it is not.  Hockey is violent.  Apparently soccer is too, though I'm still wondering how that happened.  Karate, on the other hand, teaches you  to recognize a situation before it gets out of hand, and to get yourself out of there.  And, of course, it teaches you how to do just enough to escape just in case you didn't leave fast enough.  One could go so far as to say that karate teaches that the first rule of self defense is to run.  It certainly teaches you to avoid violence if at all possible. 

I have seen, over the years, that karate teaches self-confidence, self-control and self-discipline. I have seen kids go from being painfully shy to starring in high school musicals. I have witnessed, time and again, how the kids from the karate class consistently win at the annual science fairs and speech contests.  From time to time I hear of fights that break out at the local school, but it's never the karate kids that are involved in them. They know better. 

If you are one of these people who has this preconceived notion that karate, or any other martial art, is violent, I suggest you take yourself to the nearest class, and ask if you can watch.  If the instructor doesn't let you watch, perhaps that's not a place where you would want to leave your kids anyway.  Find another dojo. But please, don't paint the whole martial arts concept with a single brush. Especially one that doesn't even have a basis in reality.  Violent?  I don't think so!

Canada Day in Eastern Ontario

We had choices to make as there were Canada Day festivities all over the place.  We decided it would be a nice day to spend by the water, so we headed to Brockville for Riverfest.  It's been years since we've done that! We got to town just in time to see the parade.  Honestly, it wasn't any bigger than the one they have in Merrickville, but at least it didn't have as many firetrucks in it. I took a photo of that one year, and managed to get I think  the entire parade in just one frame of my camera. Kemptville has the best parade around these parts. 

The Dock Dogs competition was at Riverfest today.  I've never seen that before, and it was great fun. The dog owners throw something in the pool for the dogs to retrieve.  The rules state that the object must float, be none edible and be retrievable.  The dogs had all kinds of interesting toys to fit the bill.  Some of the dogs had done this before, and knew the routine. Others had never done it before, and thought twice about going off the edge of the platform.  That made things interesting as then the owners had to find a way to get the dog to jump into the water, without actually pushing or pulling them off the dock.  Only one dog flat out refused.  But later in the day, even that one figured out he was missing out on the fun, and jumped off the dock with no hesitation during the second round.  There was a competition to see how far they could jump, another to see how high they could jump, and a third to see how fast they could retrieve something from the far end of the pool.  A good time was had by all.....especially the dogs!

Other things we saw today were a karate demonstration put on by the Brockville Karate Club, various musical performances, and the Wildcat II, a boat that takes people for a wild and speedy ride....but it had some kind of problem and had to come back to shore.  Too bad too as I really wanted to see how fast that thing could go.

There was an area for children that had such things as a petting zoo, a pony ride, facepainting. There was also an area there where the budding artists could make chalk drawings if they wanted to.  Apparently it was not just the kids that were enjoying that.  Too bad all this work will be washed away in the next rain.

We went for a lovely lunch of fish and chips at Buds On The Bay and then went back to the park for another walk around (to wear all that food off) before heading home. 

This evening we went to watch the local firework display.  I feel like I packed the whole weekend into just one day.  I'll be happy to sit around and read for the rest of the weekend......or maybe just sleep.  It was a really great Canada Day this year.

Kingston Kicks

Every year I look forward to my favourite martial arts event, Kingston Kicks. It is held at the Ambassador Hotel, and put on by Renshi Ted Theelen and his wife Carol.  On Saturday there are always lots of seminars for all ranks and age groups that include karate, jiu jitsu, aikido, tai chi, weapons, self defense and an assortment of other things.  This year I even heard how much some people really enjoyed the sport massage class. 

My hubby generally teaches at these events and I wander from room to room watching the students from our club as they take part.  This year there were even a couple of wives there, so I wasn't as alone as I might usually be. Not that I'm ever actually alone, since this is like a giant reunion when I get to see people I may not see any other time of year.  An old friend even drove in from outside of Kingston to spend some time with us and we had a nice visit. 

In the evening there is always a great party, at no extra charge.  Even the kids can come to the party if they want.  Usually they are just there for the early part of the evening, as they are already worn out from all the exercise they got throughout the day.  It's amazing how well little kids can dance these days, and it's always fun to watch them.  This year the party theme was Hoe Down, and people showed up in their jeans and plaid shirts and cowboy hats.  I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as usual.  I'm not that much into country music, and I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't getting to wear the dress I bought especially for this occasion.  But surprisingly I had as great a time as I usually do. 

Sunday it's Tournament time.  There were demonstration teams, and sports jui jitsu competitions as well as the usual kata and kumite (sparring) competitions.  The categories were small enough that everything ran smoothly, and there were lots of smiling faces.  Just one of our students took part in the tournament this year, and though it was his first ever competition, he proudly took home a bronze metal. 

 I'm sure plans are already in the works for next year, and I'm already looking forward to going back for more good times.