Black Belt Goal

My 2 year goal to attain 1 of the 101 HaganaH BlackBelts in the world

You know I grew up watching ABC sports, I mean we only had 3 channels back then NBC, ABC, & CBS I guess I am dating myself!!! Every Sunday it was the “The Thrill of Victory or the Agony of Defeat” from ABC sports where a skier just gets nailed. If you do not remember or are to young to remember I put the video below.

The point is that one of the greatest guys I know last night experienced what some would call the “agony of defeat”. Why would I blog about defeat? Well, I think we can ALL take a life lesson from Mr. John Clarke. Last night John Clarke stepped into a cage at StrikeForce as the 5th fight of the night in front of thousands of people making his pro fighting debut. He came out and did what most people only dream of “DOING IT”.

He went into the cage and went to war for around 4 minutes when he took some hard shots and the referee had to jump in and stop it. For most people this would be the “agony of defeat”. As I watched this amazing person get stopped I crumpled myself  and felt a sudden state of sadness.  I wanted to brag and tell the world how much of a bad ass John is and then I realized how much of an egoic asshole I was being! John is a freaking bad ass!!!! AND A TRUE champion. How many people have gone after their dream? How many people have sacrificed family time, work time to go after the dream?

You see here is the key, most people talk few do.

Yes, it would have been awesome to see John win, but it is a sport there has to be a winner and  a loser. John may have lost a battle in that cage last night, BUT he won a victory in life, he did it! I am telling you he is going to go on to amazing things because of that fact!!! No challenge will slow him down! I know this because at 2 AM when most people would have caved, John with his wife’s urging went out to the dance floor and danced! DANCED – good for him! Life is way to short.

What can you take from all of this? Take your shots! Go after your dream (AJ this is you! ), you only live one time. It might not work out exactly how you want it to and that does not mean it is negative! “It is what it is”.

If you do not take the shots in your life who will? Stop talking and start doing and quit worrying about what other people think. John Clarke just earned another ranking in my mind as he is a true champion in life. A great father, a great husband, a great person and he goes after it – win lose or draw he is living his life and pursing his dream. What are you doing about yours? It is all a matter of perspective.

Did John win in that cage last night? No, but did he win in life? Hell yes! So many lessons from Mister John Clarke last night! How will you handle your life if things don’t go exactly as planned? What will you do if you have a negative judgment?

I know what John is going to do, he is going to be a better father, a better officer, a better business man. I just think about it and one thing rings in my mind thanks to his wife – “He danced.”

You have 1 life to live, GO AFTER IT! Live your dream. Win, Lose, or Draw – DANCE! Enjoy it, this life is the only one you got. Thank you Mr John Clarke for showing me that again. We all have our battles and we will win some and lose some and it is not in the winning that determines where we go, it is in that judgment of losing that really determines how we are going to make our lives.

I heard a quote that puts it all in perspective , “success is getting knocked down 10 times and getting up 11!” John will fight again and he will win, he is a warrior. But in my eyes last night he became a true champion. A champion of life. Do the same don’t just talk about it, go after your dream. Win, Lose or Draw you will be a much better person for doing it!

Many blessing to you – and one more thank you to John Clarke for showing me once again what is truly important in life.

JB

Here is the video I grew up with…

We are all heading to Strikeforce tonight at the Bank Atlantic Center here in South Florida. John is making is debut and we are all excited to support him!

John is a great guy with an amazing positive attitude and I am blogging about him because he truly deserves great things. He started HaganA East a few months ago and is really the founder of Combat Wrestling. He has mixed wrestling with combat in no other way that I have seen.  I really see his style of Combat Wrestling blossoming in the world of MMA. He has been training with the George St. Pierre camp and they loved what he brings.

As I said John is an amazing guy in all rights and he deserves the support of all of us. I am looking forward to tonight as I get ready to head out! Can’t wait to see John Rock-n-roll!

BTW my shoulder is back to 90% and I have some real cool things coming up. I am doing a Kickboxing seminar with the legend Joe Lewis in a few weeks and then I have certifications for Combat Fitness and HaganA instructor all coming up in the next few months. I will keep you posted on all of it.

I also have some equipment reviews coming this week. Life is amazing, live it and love it!!

JB

Hagnah 2010 Annual Conference

What an amazing weekend in Las Vegas! I just got home and I am getting back into the groove. The annual conference was filled with working out, learning new techniques and making new friends. It was a 10! One of the highlights of the conference for me was the award ceremony. There where a lot of amazing people there as you can see from the above picture, people where just ripped and in amazing shape.

Sunday afternoon before the black belt test they made the announcement for the International Haganah Federation “Fit2Fight Award 2009″. As I sat and watch Sir (Mike Lee Kanarek) discuss this award it was amazing who had won it the 2 years previous. Cooper who you can see on the far left of the picture is who is behind the award. As you can see he is a machine, just a solid amazing person and motivator. He was the first to receive it and the one who brings so much to the Haganah family from a fitness standpoint. The following year Larry Cott who is to the right of Sir is the person who received it last year.

Larry is my mentor at the gym, he is another machine. Larry trains harder then anyone I have personally ever met and just takes it to another level. Sir was explaining that it would be Coop and Larry who would announce the winner. When Coop said my name , I was blown away. Yes I have made massive improvement and gained over 20lbs but to be named with this award with these other 2 was just amazing to me. They both are so dedicated to there fitness level.

It is so motivating and now I HAVE to take it to the next level I will not let those 2 down. 10 more pounds this year and my cardio has to live up to this award. You will be seeing many more posts on this as Sir is rolling out the Combat Fitness certifications and I am going to be a very active participant in these.

Overall, I have never been to a better conference. We had fun and we all worked hard. Learned some great new skills and came home for some massive motivation!!.

Oh yes, my shoulder is feeling better. I am taking one day off as I had to take the “red eye” home last night and I am just now getting my mojo back. Ready to roll in 2010 going to bust ass to make it amazing. Bringing the eagle home goes to show you hard work does pay off! What are you dedicated to?

Going into a week and half and I am crawling out of my skin!!! I am working on my shoulder and what we have found it is being compressed thus causing some pain and major discomfort. SOOOOO

We are working it back into place, my brace is coming wed so we are going to brace it up. I am going to head to Vegas and work the best I can in the conference. Once I get back we are going to do massive rehab and some acupuncture to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder.

It is a minor setback as I am having trouble lifting. It is like I have no stabilizers in my left arm. The brace should help if we can keep it in the right place and strengthen it. 40 years old does not help the recovery but we will get it done.

Few more days and we are heading out! It is going to be a great trip to the annual HaganaH convention.

Well the shoulder has been acting up and I have VEGAS next week an our annual conference. I had to make a decision on how to handle this shoulder so for the first time in my life I went to the Chiropractor. The good thing is was not just a Chiropractor but it was actually Dr. Joseph Bogart. Why is that important? Well Dr. Joe is also a HaganaH practitioner and I probably would not have gone if it was different.

I have to tell you I am feeling better, what we found is the shoulder is way out of position and is causing some issues so we are doing some treatments and some physical therapy on it. It is crazy because we also found some issues with my left hip.

When you train this hard you start to learn you need your team around you. Doctors, Trainers, Massage Therapists, etc… I am truly learning how to take care of the machine.

I took some time off this week to work out the shoulder and will be back at it in the morning when I hit combat fitness. If you are in this area Dr Joe is awesome his clinic is in Parkland – Parkland Chiropractic

Next week it is out to Vegas to train going to be awesome!

Well the shoulder is still banged up, going to the Doctor tomorrow to get a look at it. We have Las Vegas coming up in 2 weeks and I want to be in great shape for that. SOOOOO no heavy lifting, going to combat fitness tonight and have 25 minutes of bag work, but I will take it light.

It is amazing when you get in amazing shape you have to start doing things to help your body such as deep tissue massage, chiropractors, etc… It is amazing how fast and strong you can become but you also are putting more stress on the body with the strength and speed.

Well another day of training, eat right, get the right amount of rest and keep working!