Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Class, tonight, was unique in a couple of ways:  Sensei Tracey came to class and worked with Amy and Jamie quite a bit--Tracey is expected to recover nicely.  We worked on some variations of seoi nage, some arm bars from the mat, and a unique version of the elbow reap.

We were honored to have Master Julienne Begin, Tracey's Tae Kwon Do instructor, as a guest this evening.  I have had the pleasure to watch several of Master Begin's classes.  She is an extremely talented martial artist, who teaches in both the Waterville and Madison/Skowhegan areas.  Master Begin joined us for coffee after class at the local Tim Horton's.  

I also had the pleasure of promoting my son, Christopher Charlebois, to the rank of Orange Belt this evening.  Chris was wearing neither his contact lenses, nor his glasses at the beginning of the promotion, and so was not sure what was going on as I called him forward to receive his orange belt.  "All I saw was this orange blur coming out of his bag.  I didn't know what he was going to do," said Chris.  Chris took his congratulatory throws in stride even though he had suffered a severe pummeling from both Sensei Jon, and Joseph Larsen earlier in the class.  "There's something about that "Mountain Storm" technique that I don't like, said Chris."

The class is anxiously anticipating the June contests in Southern California.  We will be starting to work on techniques for the kata contest in the next week or two, and will continue to work on our ground-fighting skills.