Finally, we are nearing Spring and warmer weather.  Remember to dress appropriately for working out  and to be conscious of how changing temperatures impact your workout.  As the temperatures begin to rise, you may need to moderate your exercise routine until you adjust to the rising temperatures and to increase your intake of fluids during your standard workouts. 

This month we have added the names of our students who made honor roll.  If you see these students in class, remember to congratulate them on their scholastic efforts. 

We have selected a date for our school sponsored tournament.  The tournament will be held on May 7th at Fairfield Intermediate School on Donald Drive near our school.  The turn out for this tournament has been fantastic in the past.  We will shortly begin seeking volunteers to help with the tournament.  Stay tuned!

Finally, as a person that helps other people with computer problems, I have noticed an increasing number of people plagued by spyware.  These programs are often unknowingly downloaded on your computer while visiting web sites.  In the worst cases, I have seen computers so infected with this type of software, the computer works slowly and sometimes not at all.  Microsoft has recently released a test ( or "beta") version  of a software to detect and remove spyware.  The software is free and has worked well on some of the computers that I have tried to help people fix.  The software is available at Microsoft Anti-Spyware Download Site.   Microsoft is planning to offer the software free of charge to the consumers once the beta product is finalized.  This information on spyware is provided as the opinion of this author and Hamilton-Fairfield TKD takes no responsibility for the content of this information.

Three students from Hamilton-Fairfield Taekwondo competed in Columbus on February 5th at the After School All Star Tournament.  Scott Cornwell coached our students at the competition where they won the following events:

When you see these students in class, be sure to congratulate them on their participation in the tournament and for winning their trophies.

We are always on the lookout for new pictures.  If you take digital pictures and would like to offer one or two for use in the newsletter, you can e-mail them to hamfair-tkd@cinci.rr.com.  If you take a lot of digital pictures and would like to offer them to us, please save them to a CDROM and leave them at the office. We are always looking for pictures from belt tests, tournaments, and just the day-to-day workouts.  If you participate in a tournament and win a trophy, we would love to have a picture of you and your trophy, too.

For those more ambitious folks who take digital video images and would like to share the video, we would be pleased to receive the video as windows media files (.wmv).  Due to limitations in the video editing software we have available, .mpg videos unfortunately cannot be used.

Many of our adult students in Taekwondo and Cardio travel as part of their work.  Those of us who travel know how difficult it can be to eat right and exercise.  One idea for people traveling for more than a few days is to look for martial art schools in the area you will be working.  Many schools will allow you to workout with them for a small price or sometimes even for free.  These are wonderful opportunities to meet new people and on recurring trips to even build friendships.  A couple of cautions for those who want to give this a try:

• Be respectful of the people in the school.  The goal is to workout, not to establish your superiority.

• The workout is likely to be different than the one you are use to and may involve different muscle groups; be careful not to overdue the activity.  Don't allow your ego to supersede good, common sense!

• Either take on very light sparring or grappling activities or avoid this type of workout altogether.  An injury in a remote location can become a disaster.

I have done this once at a grappling school.  It was a wonderful experience and the people were very warm and pleasant.  I made arrangements to do it at one other travel location, but have not been able to take advantage of this opportunity yet.  While I write this from the view of Taekwondo or grappling, I believe the people in Cardio could find similar opportunities.

As a reminder to all the sparring students, no sparring classes are held on the night of Junior Belt Testing.  Parents should expect the Junior Belt Test will be approximately 1 - 1.5 hours long.

The semi-annual black belt test has been tentatively scheduled for April.  The next test will be in the Fall of 2005.  Until the Fall test, this is the only time that a student can test for a black belt or a higher Dan.  Students testing for their brown belt with black tip in April will also be required to test during the black belt test. If you have any questions, please see Master Huffstutler.

We have scheduled our school's tournament for May 7th.  More details will be forthcoming.  All of our students are strongly encouraged to participate in both our school's tournament and Ahn's Taekwondo Classic.

The current candy bar leaders are

 - Michael Fugate selling 364 candy bars;

 - Brad Fields selling 208 candy bars; and

 - Clinton Rouse selling 156 candy bars

We will complete counting the sales in March and announce the winners and the total from the candy sale.  Thank you for your help.... David 

Many of our members take advantage of our cardio program.  Our cardio program is great for people who want to get in shape or develop additional stamina in sparring.  While cardio classes are offered six days a week, many people are only able to come a few times a week.  Those people also wanting to spend time working out at home may find the resources on Bluesuitmom.com useful.  The site offers short descriptions of various exercises that can be done at home and supplement your workout routine at the studio.  The exercises, such as Seated Torso Twists and Walking Lunges are a great way to vary your workout routine.  The Blue Suit site contains some basic information on health, but like any information from the Internet, users should carefully consider whether the advice on health and diet is right for them. 

One caution about the Blue Suit site, the site contained some pop-ups and commercials that were annoying.

Two self defense techniques will be taught during the 1-hour long training classes this month.  During the month of March, we will work on the Naked Choke.  The Naked Choke is a powerful choke that is applied from behind your opponent and works by cutting air and blood flow.  Once a hold is established, the student being choked gives up by tapping the person's arm or leg - preferably before the student passes out.  We will also spend time looking at the escape from this choke hold.  Our second self-defense technique this month will be escapes from opposite-side wrist grabs, same-side wrist grabs, and/or two-arm wrist grabs.  The referenced articles on the Fighting Arts web site are pretty good.  In class, we will be more focused and only address one or two escapes.

In order to successfully use these defensive techniques, students should practice outside of normal class time their one steps and grappling self defense techniques, except for chokes.  Chokes should only be practiced in class under supervision.  This practice builds muscle memory and the techniques become more automatic.  Participation in the grappling classes also builds students ability to react defensively to opponents.

Links to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Fighting Arts.

Adult training in grappling based on Jiu-jitsu is offered on Saturday mornings 11:45 am to 12:30 pm.  This month the sparring rounds for the more experienced grapplers will be approximately 2 minutes in length.  Beginning grapplers will continue to grapple for 1.5 minutes. This longer grappling time will require more careful energy conservation by the grapplers to be able to last the entire round.  As the year progresses, the grappling time will continue to be lengthened.  In addition to the lengthened grappling times, Robert Gerhardt will be teaching the following techniques in class: Hip Throw and Smother from the Side Mount.  While Surviving the Smother will not be covered in class , students may find this article on the Grappling Arts  web page very interesting.

Links to Aiuchi Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Arts

Aiuchi

After more than a year of development, Version 2.0 of the supplemental CDROM is complete.  The CDROMs are offered in four varieties (beginners, intermediate, advanced, and master) and are designed to allow students to hone techniques outside of the classroom and to supplement the techniques taught in class. Some examples of new material include grappling self defense techniques, new one steps, and grappling techniques.  There are also multiple views of many of the forms for students to use as reference in preparing for their next belt test .

In order to keep students from trying to advance beyond their training level, students may only purchase CDROMs that are appropriate to their current training level.  Students who purchase this CDROM and who are using Windows XP with Service Pack 2 will need to change their browser settings to enable the movie content to work properly on their computer.  A description of the change needed is provided on the CDROM under troubleshooting or you can click here to read about the change required.

If a student discovers a problem on the CDROM, the problem can be reported by clicking this link.  If possible the problem will be fixed, and the student reporting the problem will receive a new CDROM with the correction.  No plans exist to release a version 3.0 of the CDROM.  However, some effort is underway to develop a supplemental CDROM for students working with Nunchakus.

Hamilton-Fairfield Taekwondo is proud of our students and their scholastic achievements.  We strive to instill not only concepts of physical fitness and spirit, but  also a focus and commitment to their school work.  Healthy bodies and healthy minds are important for our juniors as they become working adults.  During the 2nd Quarter, the following students were on Honor Roll.  Students whose names are shown in Bold Red also had straight A's.  If you see these students, please congratulate them on their academic excellence.

If you wish to be removed from this mailing, please send an e-mail to hamfair-tkd@cinci.rr.com.  We do not regularly check this e-mail address.  Please allow time for us to process your request.