The weather is changing here at the Retreat Center. It's been raining alot the past couple weeks and as a result its getting very green. Nature here is really amazing.


(The Clouds rolling in....)


(Holy Moly..! Look at the size of that shroom!)

Vacation is coming up. Its about a month away...as much as we all love it here we do look forward to going home to visit our friends and families. I'll be in Orange County California for most of vacation and I'll be going to Pennsylvania for about a week. It will be really nice to see my dad, my friends and my old kung fu teachers Mark Seidel (Scranton, Pa) and Alan Ondash (Kingston, Pa) while in Pennsylvania.

Vacation being a month away, there's still alot to do here thats keeping us very busy. We all have magazine articles and short film projects were working on and my Chinese still needs work so that keeps me busy in the little free time I have. I like to spend time with our dog Xiao Hu...he's such a cool little dog..very friendly although he likes to nibble on us when we play with him...He's very affectionate but he likes to play rough...he lives up to his name Little Tiger. (Xiao Hu)

(Xiao Hu chillin in Mikes bag)

Training is progressing along nicely. This passed week for the first time I've been doing interval training up the mountain...I jog as much as I can followed by walking and then more jogging and on and on until I reach the top. This is the first time I've been able to do this training because of my ACL...but its gotten much better especially over the past month.

Rope climbing and cinder block training are getting easier. While training Cinder Blocks (tossing them in the air and catching them) this week I added a dumbbell to it to make it harder....a great time. The extra weight tore up my hands a little bit but I'm sure they'll heal over the weekend and by next week I'll be ready for more pain.

We added stepping footwork to our reaction training. Before we used to stand in White Crane horse stance facing each other while we practiced 4 corners...now we train moving in straight lines down the floor...the same 4 corner drill but now with stepping. The idea being when one person steps forward to punch the other person tries to maintain the same distance by stepping back or close the distance by stepping forward and then defending with cover and repel (blocks). Having a Hung Gar Background I tend to be a bit more aggressive in training and move forward more than backwards.

Well off to sleep...gotta wake up early