June 2004

Upcoming Events

Thurs. June 10th - Colour Belt Test, 6pm, Fisher Park, register early
(all students asked to train at 7pm this evening)

Thurs. June 17th, Funday and board breaking.
(last class at Fisher until Sept.)

Honour TKD has been open one month in Thailand and there are 20 students registered. It`s a good start! Strangely enough, currently the majority of my students are Japanese. Soon I will do some more advertising and try to grow some more. One of my branches is a studio space and once I get enough students I will lease it fulltime and turn it into a real Martial Arts Dojang. All Honour TKD students from Canada are welcome to come visit and train once I do that.

Yesterday I went to the casting for Ong Bak 2 (Ong Bak is a thai action movie that was extremely popular across many countries last year) I think I did really well, I tried my best and they seemed to like me. This was my first real casting where they filmed me and made me do an action scene, it was so much fun! I hope I get called back. Today I went to an agency that does commercials and modeling, they wanted me for a commercial this Sunday! I teach TKD Sunday so had to turn them down, it was a small part so no biggie. Right after that I went to the casting for King Maker. It`s a Thai historical epic war movie. They filmed me a bit and dressed me up in old armor, it was very cool. Ong Bak 2 is the one I would love to be in but if I get called for King Maker great! The King Maker people also filmed me doing TKD for other action movies they have planned. If I`d known how much fun this was I would have been going to castings 5 months ago! It`s just as well since I had to focus on opening my school first.

Thurs. June 17th is the last day of classes at Fisher Park for this school year, classes resume Mon. July 5th at Tom Brown arena. We will have a fun day from 6 to 8pm on June 17th where everyone is encouraged to do board breaking, B.Y.O.B. (bring your own boards). Any white belts are especially encouraged. The board information is on the website in General information. If parents want to bring snacks please sign it up on the snacks list with Ms. Phrasavath.

If you are attending the colour belt test Thursday June 10th please register before that day.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasim."
- Sir Winston Churchill.

A very good quote, true for just about everything in life. Regardless of what you do, tenacity and perseverance without getting demoralized can practically guarantee success. Many successful people owe it all to just never giving up, maybe they weren’t successful at first but by trying over and over they eventually achieve their goals. Too many times in the martial arts I see really talented people or people with tons of potential just give up or get discouraged and never get to the level they want because it is too hard and a lot of work. Many people want the easy route and give up when failing at whatever technique or tournament or level they are going for. If martial arts is supposed to teach anything, it is perseverance and the ability to foresee success if you have the right attitude and effort. There is nothing I think I can’t do, but I didn’t always think like that, I myself almost quit martial arts 12 years ago because I felt it was too hard… what a mistake that would have been!

Damian Mavis
Head Instructor, Honour TKD