Flying Baseball Runner

Be sure to watch the whole thing because this is fuuuuuuuuuuuuny. I think I'll try this sometime.

From White to Black

When I was in kindergarten through second grade there was an after school karate program that I participated in every Friday. I really liked it but once a week wasn't very much.

First Grade

Then in the third grade I went to Italy to live and I took shotokan which is a type of karate. Some of my instructors had been champions. It was strange to find them in the small village where I lived, Greve in Chianti. The head of the school was Michele Romano who was several times European and World Champion. I learned a lot from them.

A Competition at the Karate School in Greve

When I returned to San Diego from Italy we looked for a good karate school. We eventually found the one I am going to now and it happened to be the instructor who taught at my elementary school on Fridays. That was in September 2007.

Since I started at the Allied Gardens School of Martial Arts (AGSMA), I had a goal that I would become a black belt.

There are 6 levels before first degree black belt. The first test I took when I was a white belt, I didn't just pass, I double passed which meant that I got 20 or more points higher than I needed. From second section I tested for third section and passed; from there I tested for fourth section and passed and so until I went all the way to sixth section.

Finally the big day came, my instructor thought I was ready to take my black belt test. I took my test on January 9. It was really intense, but I got through it. I didn't know if I passed that day because I needed to write two 1000 word essays. One of them was on what it means to be a black belt and the other was on loyalty and benevolence which were the code of ethics that I chose to memorize for my test. Part of earning my black belt was that I had to perform community service or help teach 15 lessons to less advanced students. I did the 15 lessons which went by pretty quick. I liked doing it.

When I was done with my essays, I turned them in and waited for them to be graded by the Head Instructor. The Monday after I turned in my essays, I found out that I had passed my test and had earned my first degree black belt. There have been 10's of thousands of students at this school, but only 42 have reached black belt level and I'm one of them.

Now I begin my real training. My new goal is to get to first stripe by the end of this year.


See ya

Baseball and My Team the Orioles

Hi Everyone, here's more baseball. If I didn't tell you yet, my baseball team's name is the Orioles. Last Saturday was Allied Gardens Little League Opening Day at the fields. I had a lot of fun with my friends. Here's my team picture which was taken there. Not everyone's in the picture. My friend Gavin had to go somewhere.

Can you find me?

Here I am--All dressed up and ready.

This is my baseball trainer, Brandon. Here he is teaching me how to catch. He hasn't learned Italian yet.


Here's a picture of him with me. When he's not teaching me, he's coaching a high school junior varsity team. He's teaching me really good and I like him. Hear that Brandon?



I hurt my shoulder in karate and am having a little trouble pitching. I fell and landed on it the wrong way. Now I have a bruised bone. It huuuuuurts.

Bye everyone.

Baseball Season's Starting

Hi Everyone,

Baseball season is starting up again and I'm playing. I'm on the team named the Orioles. They're from Baltimore--the real ones.

This is picture of our second practice and it shows me. Yeah, for me. This year my positions are going to be pitcher and catcher.



Now I'm taking lessons from a guy who played baseball in Italy. He played in Ravenna but he's American. He doesn't speak Italian like me so I'm going to teach him when I go tomorrow, Friday, 2/27/2009. This time he's going to help me with my batting which hasn't been going to well so I need to do some work on it.

My coach is really nice and I've had him before. He's the father of one of my best friends. His name is Kurt. I've known him since kindergarten. Here's a picture of us then.


See ya at the ballpark.

Kip-Up

I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally got my kip-up--that's a karate move. It's really hard at first but then you get it after quite a while and here's a video of me demonstrating it. I have to be able to do it to get to the fifth section in karate.

After fifth section, I will only have one more test to go till I'm black belt.

I Passed My Karate Test

Last Friday I had a karate test and I passed it. Now I'm a fourth section and I'm in the advanced lessons.

I am good at my kung fu and kicks and hand attacks. My weakest area is weapons sparring.

Here's a picture of me getting my belt.

This is a picture of me with my new belt on.

I'm going to show my instructor in Italy what I learned here. His name is Michele. In Italy I'm going to get special lessons.

See you when I'm in Italy.

Three more sleeps.

Yellow Belt--Yellow Belt

Back in San Diego I did Martial Arts and here I do karate which is much, much different. Here in Italy, I just earned my yellow belt about two weeks ago. Hurray, I'm a yellow belt!!

Here I'm a Yellow Belt

Do you like my new move?

This is the karate routine I need to master to get to yellow#2. I hope I am an orange belt when I go home. I'll beat you instructor Eric.

My favorite instructor here is Michele. He was a 4 time world champion. This is when I was a poor, poor white belt. I have four other instructors. They have all won national or world karate competitions. I know that Greve isn't very big but there are a lot of karate fans here. I'm lucky.

Bye

My Day At School

I had a good day at school today except that I couldn't concentrate that well because I was too busy thinking about my grandma who wasn't feeling good.

I had fish for lunch and it was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry good. We put lemon juice on it. I don't usually like fish but this I mean was gooooooooooood.

Tomorrow I have karate and I've already memorized one new move. And one of the instructors told me to get there early for a special lesson from another karate champion but he isn't one of our instructors in karate. I am going to take a picture of my instructor Michele and show him to you.

Here is picture from the goat farm. It was fun.

These are the cute little puppies and the mommy doggy. The puppies are nursing.