Cognitive Dissonance: When people recognize inconsistent views within themselves, they tend to alter their thinking to remove the conflict. A mundane example is the tendency of people to value a product more highly after they buy it. It's hard for people to think of a product as worthless, and think of themselves as smart consumer at the same time, so they often come to think of their purchases as being worth more than they would if they hadn't bought the item.  ..Clara Moskowitz

y ninth grade English teacher reminded me of Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver.  I swear she got up early and practiced her icy stare every morning before school.  She seemed to hate kids and I had to wonder why she chose teaching as a profession.  But then again, it was a rough school and for all I know she was a nice person when away from that place.

     At the beginning of each school year, we were given our textbooks.  We were to inspect them and then sign our names on the inside of the book's cover.  My name would be the 14th.  English doesn't change all that much, so new books were a rarity.

     The key ingredient to working with pre-adolescent and early adolescent athletes is providing global stimulation from a movement perspective.  Younger athletes must experience and eventually perfect a variety of motor skills in order to ensure both future athletic success and injury prevention.  Developing basic coordination through movement stimulus is a must, with the eventual goal of developing sport-specific coordination in the teenage years. Coordination itself, however, is a global system made up of several synergistic elements and not necessarily a singularly defined ability. 

     Balance, rhythm, spatial orientation and the ability to react to both auditory and visual stimulus have all been identified as elements of coordination.  In fact, the development of good coordination is a multi-tiered sequence that progresses from skills performed with good spatial awareness but without speed to skills performed at increased speeds and in a constantly changing environment.  As Joseph Drabik points out, coordination is best developed between the ages of  7 – 14, with the most crucial period being between 10 – 13 years of age. 

     On Thursday October 15 we gathered at the See Sport Center in Caesarea, on the coast of the Mediterranean to conduct our annual two day training seminar.

Training on the first day included basics, kata and prearranged sparring (one step).

     On Friday morning at 06:30 AM, we went down to the beach for some warm up exercises, kata and meditation (after a good dip in the sea).
     Later on this morning, we continued our training with a ground work class, a reality based self-defense session and some intense free style full contact sparring matches.

     The main emphasis of this seminar was individual practice and improvement in familiar exercises. 

Several members of the dojo were deservingly promoted:

Mr. Ofer Feldman – 1 Kyu Mrs. Efrat Ben-Tovim Feldman – 2 Kyu

                        Ms. Na'ama Arie – 3 Kyu                        Mr.  Ran Shaham – 4 Kyu

                        Mr. Shraga Lapides – 4 Kyu            Mr. Randolf Benka – 6 Kyu

It was an excellent work out and a great social gathering. The most important feedback from our dojo members was – "We don't have to work so hard for a good BBQ dinner"

Thanks to the following GKK members who contributed to this years Newsletters.  I appreciate your help

Nimrod Astel,  Nancy Ault,  Kim Barrington,  John Barnes,  John Barton,  Trish Ballweg,  Howard Blum,  Mark Cramer,  Deb Crawford,  Robert J. DaLessio,  Greg Dodge,  Mike Galose,  Carol Gittins,  John Herrmann,  Bill Kane, 

Dr. Fred Koslowski,  Adrienne Leeman,  Tom Letizio,  Vic Lim,  Gary Mazzotti,  Roberto Mendez,  Gustavo Munoz,  Helen Muth,  Steven Muth,  Ed Myers,  Gail Oblinger,  Joe Ordonez,  Kayti Quesada,  Rachel Reitz,  Aleojin Rios, 

John Roath,  Steven Rusche,  Dwight Scales,  Rich Stamper,  Paul Stetsko,  Jeffrey Sullens,  Dan Taylor, 

D. Kumara Withanage,  Motoo Yamakura, Allen Zaklad

     A special thanks to the following guest authors who allowed their articles and book excerpts to be shared with our members;

Sumya Anani,  Dustin Baldis,  Tony Capasso,  Debra Anne Davis,  Brian Grasso, Tracy A. Hightower,  Lyle McDonald

Prof. Angel Spassov