Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,

We begin our summer schedule this week, offering day classes on
Monday and Wednesdays at 12:00 noon and on Tuesday and Thursday at
9:00 am. Friday sparring classes will be 4:15 for kids and 6:00 –
7:30 for teens and adults.

The Colorado State Games will be held on August 3rd. Registrations
have to be in by the end of June, but we are limiting this years
event to 200 competitors, so if you are planning on competing please
get your registrations in early. The Colorado State Games is like the
Olympics for all Colorado athletes in a variety of sports and levels,
including the martial arts. We have committed all of our resources to
make this a great event for all the competitors in the state. You can
register on-line at www.sportsnuts.com or pick up a registration kit
at the dojo. If you are interested in helping, please contact Mary so
she can put you on our volunteer list. We will need referees,
scorekeepers and timers to help make this a smooth event. There will
be nighttime finals at 6:00 pm at Air Academy High School.

Brown and Black Belts - We are having a special guest instructor
Monday evening teaching class. Master Ken Baker is known for his
expertice in jujitsu, karate and eagle claw kung fu. Hope you are
able to attend class.


Lesson of the Week

This week, while Diana and I were taking a walk in the neighborhood,
we came across a robin sitting on a rail on a front porch. The front
windows of this house had a reflective coating on them that made them
look like mirrors and they reflected the beautiful blue sky. This
robin, seeing the reflection, flew into the window and then when she
found that she couldn't get through would settle down on the railing
once again. We watched as she tried over and over again, with the
same results. Having never witnessed such a display we watched for
several minutes but the robin never learned, she continued the same
behavior over and over again.

I thought that although this behavior was indeed strange, it is very
common with humans. How many people do you know that are not happy
with their lives but continue doing the same old things but expecting
different outcomes? They blame their position on bad luck or other
people instead of identifying specific problems in their life and
doing something about it. They continue with their same old habits
and hope that someday they will get lucky.

Practicing the martial arts teaches us how to instantly identify a
problem, come up with a strategy to neutralize it and then to take
action. Soon we learn that preventative actions are more effective
than responding to an action when it happens, or in other words to be
proactive instead of reactive.

When you combine this attitude with the simple concept that all
actions have consequences, you can come up with a simple but very
powerful strategy. If you are where you are at currently based on
your previous actions, then if you identifying and implement new
actions, you can create a wonderful and different future.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where you want to
blame someone else for something that has gone wrong, simply try and
identify what actions you did that caused it and change those
actions. After all, how many times are you planning on flying into
the same window hoping for a different result?

Respectfully,

Terry Bryan, Kyoshi