CMAA Newsletter - October With so much action at The Chinese Martial Arts Academy (CMAA) I’m a little late getting this one out. However, I didn’t want anyone to miss out on all the exciting news!
School Closing: We will be closed Monday, 10/14 for Columbus Day.
Kungfu Sash Test: Great job to those of you who participated in September’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! I heard from a number of parents who felt this was our most impressive sash test to date. 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.
International Chinese Martial Arts Competition (ICMA) Recap: 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.
The ICMA was a much larger tournament than the first. However, team CMAA made a very impressive showing with students placing top in the top three for every single division. I hope it was exciting to see just how good, 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.
I asked everyone who competed to tell me what they learned from the experience and got so many different answers. JG “It’s so cool to make new friends at competition!”, EW “Winning feels great!”, BP “Hard work and preparation pays off”, SW “Different competitions have different rules and systems for judging”, “It’s not about winning medals, it’s about doing your best.”
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.
More pictures from the tournament here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayen_vantage/sets/72157636031982344/
Chinese Medicine Seminar: Topic: Chinese Medicine in Tai Chi and Qigong. Date: Sunday, October 27th 10:30-11:30am. Presenter: Dr. Hui Gao Cost: $20 or FREE! (Write a Google or Yelp review for CMAA and not only can you attend the seminar FREE, in addition CMAA will donate $30 to the CMAA Parents Organization on your behalf!).
Stay tuned for more exciting info about Kungfu seminars with a National Champion at CMAA!