Monthly Newsletter – November Dear Friends,
As always, there’s a lot happening at CMAA! Please review the following information on:
School Closings CMAA Holiday School Party NEW JKD Combatives Class at CMAA Kungfu Competition Recap Kungfu Sash Test Recap Student of the Month Profile – Lizzy “The Warrior Princess” Liu Festival of Nations – Recap 1 Year FREE at CMAA – Referral Program! Kick or Treat – Halloween at CMAA Costumes Tai Chi vs MMA (Who is Nicer)? Black Belts Never Give Up
As usual please stay tuned for more exciting action at CMAA!
Best,
Shifu School Closings Please note we will be closed and all classes will be canceled on Nov. 27th, Thanksgiving Day. Otherwise, all classes will be held as regularly scheduled.
CMAA Holiday Dinner Party With all the holidays and family time this time of year, we would like to organize a time for us to be together outside the school. Please join us for a holiday dinner celebration!
Date: Saturday, December 13th Time: 6:30 PM Location: Dragon Buffet, 1881 Central Ave. Albany, NY 12205 (518) 452-6963 Price: $16.50 for adults and $11 for children (under 10 years old). Please pay in advance by check or cash at the school as we have reserved a room for our group. Deadline: Please register by Saturday, Dec. 5th.
NEW JKD Combatives Class at CMAA
Bruce Lee's JKD inspired Combatives class will now be held at CMAA on Saturdays from 2-3pm. For more information about the class please read more here! JKD Combatives
Festival of Nations Representing China and the Chinese Community Center, CMAA was the first to take the stage and open up the festivities with an exciting performance. This is part of a follow up email I received from one of the organizers, “We want to thank the Chinese Martial Arts Academy, under the guidance of Lucas Geller, who performed an acrobatic, exciting and dynamic presentation of Wushu. It was a real "hit" and absolutely mesmerized the audience. We hope they come back next year.”
Due to time constraints, we pulled off this year’s demo without a single rehearsal practice. I can assure you, our next demo for the Chinese New Year will be even more exciting! To see CMAA in action check out the video of our performance here!
Kungfu Competition: International Chinese Marital Arts Championship
I know many of you were excited to begin learning your new forms and weapons routines. However, it was important that we not be distracted in our training with anything we would not have been competing in at the ICMA. For those who sash tested but didn’t complete, you too were required to wait until your teammates had finished competition before moving on to new forms. This is because we are a team and even if you don’t compete you are still a huge part of our competition preparation.
With our biggest competition team to date, CMAA made a very impressive showing with students placing top in every single division we competed in. I hope it was exciting to see just how good other martial artists are, and learn how hard other people and schools train to get to the levels they are at. I know that personally, it was a great learning experience. With years of competition experience, it was all a very different experience as a coach.
Again, congratulations on all your success! Team CMAA will spend the winter in training hibernation, looking at sash tests and the many upcoming Chinese New Year’s demo’s as opportunities to showcase our rising talents. We will begin looking for competition venues again in the spring and summer.
Kungu Sash Test
Great job to those of you who participated in October’s Sash Test. Many of you practiced all summer for the test and rose to the occasion. Also, with so many of you taking summer vacation, I was equally impressed by those of you who were not at CMAA as much this summer, but kept up with your training and didn’t seem to miss a beat! Congratulations to all of you!
In addition, I would like to congratulate those who chose NOT to sash test. You too demonstrate self-control. I know you too were excited to get your next sash and move on to something new but with an honest self-assessment, decided to wait until you knew you’d truly mastered your form. Keep up the hard work, we will test again soon and you will be all the better for having waited.
Student of the Month Profile – Elizabeth “The Warrior Princess” Liu
A few months ago a new student joined CMAA. You’ve all seen her because she’s always in the class you’re in. She has progressed incredibly quickly, but it’s not just because she’s a fast learner (which she is), it’s because she doesn’t just take classes at CMAA, she takes take’s ALL the classes! She frequently stays for 2 hours of classes, then eats dinner at the school so she can stay for a 3rd class. You guessed it. November’s student of the month is Elizabeth “The Warrior Princess” Liu.
Shifu: Why did you start Kungfu? Lizzy: I started kungfu because it looked fun!
Shifu: What is your favorite thing about Kungfu? Lizzy: Learning new forms.
Shifu: What are your goals in Kungfu for this coming year? Lizzy: I don’t have any goals. I just practice.
Shifu: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get better at Kungfu? Lizzy: Keep practicing and don’t give up.
Shifu: What is your favorite food? Lizzy: Instant noodles, pizza and hotdogs.
Shifu: When you’re not training at CMAA what do you like to do in your free time? Lizzy: Read books, play games, play sports and climb trees.
Shifu: Anything else about yourself you’d like to share with everyone? Lizzy: My favorite color is yellow. I’m Chinese I have been to China 3 times. I love kungfu.
Well, there you have it guys. Keep up the hard work Lizzy, you're doing great!
Kick or Treat! Halloween at CMAA!
Wow, you guys looked great! From super heroes and dinosaurs to ninjas and vampires it was great seeing you guys in action on Halloween!
(Since most people couldn't guess my costume I'll give you a hint "Sweep the leg! Yea, Johnny, put him in a body bag! Cobra Kai, Never Die!".. "Wax on, Wax off"... got it yet?!)
Tai Chi VS MMA (Who is Nicer)?
If what he says is true about judging the quality of a martial arts program by the character of their students or personality of the instructor, then we must have a very high quality program (if I don’t say so myself). In addition to an interesting message, I also loved watching the video and just seeing some very interesting applications of Tai Chi!
Black Belts Never Quit All the reasons you should keep going! (… even when you want to quit, sometimes).
1. Learn what it really means to be a martial arts master. You won’t ever know if you quit now.
2. All your friends at practice miss you when you’re not there.
3. Sometimes you’re teammates are having a tough time in training and they could really use your motivation and support! Every practice you miss might have been one that a teammate needed you…
Read More Here: http://www.martialartsalbany.com/never-quit/
Save Money with the CMAA Referral Program! CMAA Referral Program- Easy as 1, 2,3,4,5.
1. Earn $50 when your first referral joins. 2. Earn $100 when your second referral joins. 3. Earn $250 when your third referral joins. 4. Earn $500 when your fourth referral joins. 5. Earn ONE YEAR FREE when your fifth referral joins.
This will be even easier now with our new CMAA flyers. You can pick them up for free at the school. Just write your name on the back of the bottom info tabs and when people come in with your flyer tab they will be considered your referral!
*Please note that offer applies to annual memberships and new referrals only (as of 11/5/14).
Summary
As usual please stay tuned for more exciting action at CMAA!
Best,
Shifu