The Junior Black Belt

Owen Hagmaier and Mr. Trento in 2007

Many moons ago, my martial arts school did a program for three and four year olds called "Little Ninjas." It was more of a character enrichment program than martial arts, but used some kicks and punches for the activities and got them ready for the martial arts program. At the time, my dear friend Kristin Barrett was teaching this program. When we no longer taught it, I was offered the position. I said "NO WAY! I am NEVER going to teach three and four years olds!"

I didn't want to. And I didn't think I could. Too young? Well my friend Julie took over instead. When she no longer did it, I was asked again. I said NO. Then another guy did it. When he stopped, I was asked and declined once more. Than another girl did it. After she left, I was brought into the office and was TOLD I would be the new Little Ninja Instructor. -_____-

So my first group of Little Ninjas I had eight kids. Among those eight was a 3 1/2 year old boy named Owen Hagmaier. Owen was this cute little boy who was an absolute character! When I revamped the Little Ninha curriculum, one of the topics I did with the kiddies was Leadership. So we did Simon says and follow the leader, etc. Then one drill I had one kid at a time come up and count while the rest did a punch and yelled loud PUNCH! When it was Owen's turn, he stood tall, hands behind his back, and called out his numbers and imitated me to the tee! He would shake his ear, indicating he wanted them louder, waved his hands as I did, etc. It was the cutest thing and my earliest memory of Owen.

I trained Owen up to high green belt before I left that school to begin my own. When I finally opened my own center, Owen had come back to me as a high brown belt and joined my center to complete his color belt training at TMAFC. I was delighted! Owen came raw, but after about 6 months training he made tremendous progress and was awarded his advance brown belt, the last color belt before Junior Black Belt! We scheduled the test for Sept 8-10, 2011. 

Well Owen trained hard and last week was his Junior Black Belt test. He is 8 years old today, and is a child actor, starring in several commercials and short films, and cameos in movies. He is going to be a big star one day! Now many of you might say "Eight years old? Isn't that too young to be a Black Belt??"

Well let me remind you I have trained Owen since he was three! He has been training five years for this, and when I tell you what he did for his test, you will have no doubt that this young man has faced challenges with such character and strength that most grown adults could not do, with focus most adults don't have!

The Junior Black Belt test is a three day test for students from the ages of 12 and below. Thursday was Conditioning and Forms, Friday was Basics and Self-Defense, and Saturday....Well wouldn't you love to know >=) HEE HEE, that is exactly what it said on his schedule. I don't know until that morning of. Each Black Belt test is different, never two the same just as all people are different, no two the same. The test is a personal and emotional test that is catered to the individual candidate(s). Owen had to apply the mental lessons that he understands at such a young age through a physically challenging test that pushed him beyond his limits!

On Thursday, the very first thing Owen had to do was 1,000 jumping jacks. Yes, you heard me. One thousand (1,000) jumping jacks! And he did it with barely a struggle. Can YOU do that? At the last 200 or so, all of his friends had jumped up to do the jumping jacks with him for good energy and support. It was very touching to witness. After the thousand jumping jacks he did 15 minutes of speed and agility drills before we made him read a story from the book he had to read for the test (Owen had to read Eye of the Hurricane by Terrence Webster Doyle.) Then he did speed drills and had to beat his time 4 rounds in a row. We made him run side to side between two blocks as fast as he could in 15 seconds, beating the amount he could do each time. He hopped on one leg for 5 min each leg and sat for 5 min with a five pound dumb bell in his hand. After the conditioning he performed all his forms (there are 12) and then performed a few facing different directons, one backwards, and all of them in under one minute that took him four tries. He was VERY impressive.

 

Owen doing 1,000 jumping jacks

 

Owen doing speed and agility drills

People say, "That sounds like child abuse!" It honestly is not, I never have the kids perform something I know they cannot do, nor with something I did not prepare them for. And the mental energies they are trained for makes them do the most amazing things. That is what a Black Belt is all about anyway. Phenomenal attitude no matter what the task. If these kids learn NOW with a Black Belt test, they can carry it on into all aspects of their lives.

Friday I took a mental lesson that catered to Owen. Owen does not like giving the wrong answer or answers questions with questions. I did not want him to worry about making mistakes because he is taught mistakes are a good thing! Make them so you can learn from them! Do not deny yourself the opportunity to learn! As long as you are aware of them and not let it take away from your focus and attitude. How many parents, coaches, and teachers teach kids mistakes are a bad thing? They got it all wrong! No matter what I threw at Owen, he was expected to have a TEN attitude and a TEN focus level (ten being the highest, one the lowest).

Owen performed his blocks, then again with three pound dumb bells in his hands. He did his kicks with resistance bands on his legs, and again without them, then kicking combination's, then all the combinations under a minute. He was attacked by a Black Belt to do his level self-defenses, another student attacked whatever they wanted and he had to protect himself, then three students on him, then three Black Belts attacking. Owen was a force to be reckoned with.

Owen performing his blocks

Owen performing blocks with dumb bells in hand.

On the last day, Owen is judged by nine judges alongside me. The ten of us grade him by the level of control he has over his effort, his attitude, and his responses. Four judges were former students of mine who were around Owen's age when they got THEIR Junior Black Belts before later becoming adult Black Belts. Another judge there was an instructor who taught with me when Owen was a Little Ninja. And then my four adult Black Belts I had on the panel as well.

After Owen performed his forms, we had a portion of the test called Judge's Choice, where each judge chooses for Owen to do whatever task they want him to do. Owen did phenomenally. He did 500 jump ropes, all his forms in one minute, all his self-defenses in one minute, perform his least favorite form, and one of the most impressive tasks was breaking FIVE BOARDS, after impressing us by doing 4 on Friday. I think he even shocked himself, and it took five or six times, which is NOTHING when it comes to such a difficult task as that. He was asked a few questions, did a form with a cup of pennies on his head he was not allowed to drop on the floor or he did push ups and we created a lieu of distractions like flickering the lights and clapping, putting music on and off etc to test his focus.

Owen with 20 boards on his legs for 5 min, adding five boards every minute.

The last and most trying task was to do that sitting position for five minutes again but with 20 boards on his legs, adding five more boards every minute. There were a few tears, but he did it! Absolutely amazing! The perseverance this eight year old showed, I was so proud of him! He then did 5 minutes of rapid sparring, sparring a new partner every fifteen seconds, and then we had blind folded him, turned the music on loud, and had four people attack him continuously for self-defense. It is very difficult to watch, and very intense, but the bottom line is that this eight year old can defend himself even when everything is against him. You didn't even recognize Owen by the time he was finished. The intensity was magnificent! Then he did all his breaks which were a total of 25 in all. He ended with a combination he made up.

The ceremony was beautiful, and he was so happy. His parents were very proud, and so were the fellow students and their families. I am so proud of my student Owen. He truly represents what the martial arts is all about. SO many parents I meet always fear for their children with the way the world is becoming and what will things be like when they get older, and all I have to say is, don't worry, there is hope. With young people like Owen in our world, the world is definitely the better, along with all his other martial arts family.

CONGRATULATIONS OWEN HAGMAIER ON YOUR JUNIOR BLACK BELT! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Yours in service,

ANDREW TRENTO

United We Shall Stand

Like most people today, I reflect on where I was on September 11, 2001. I was in middle school and my guidance counselor, now good friend, Dawn Schwartz, came in and told us that America had been attacked. We did not fully understand what had happened, nor what was STILL happening. People were leaving school, being picked up, long lines for the phones in the office, people crying, then we watched it on the TV. We could not believe our eyes.

My family lost a cousin, they could not find all of John's body parts. My father lost many people he knew from work, friends he made from the city, being a New Yorker himself. And the memories and the emotions are so raw still, even ten years later...

Remember how during that time ten years ago, there were no such thing at Republicans or Democrats? No African-Americans or Hispanic-Americans? No Christian-Americans or Jewish Americans or Muslim Americans? We were all just AMERICANS!


We will never forget that tragic day. My business was open today for classes and I will always be open for business on September 11 because that is what the terrorists wanted. A disruption in our lives. Life keeps going and I will not allow them to think they have disrupted us to not live on. We will never forget, nor deny what we lost, but life still goes on. The unity we felt ten years ago and that we feel every annual anniversary of this day needs to be felt the other 364 days of the year as well.

In the major events of our country, in the major events in our lives, and the minor events in our lives, with all people we come in contact with, friends, family, foes, there are NO situations or scenarios where we cannot be united for a greater and common good. We are as strong united as we are weak divided. Any bonds of friendship and trust must remain strong at all costs! Do not be petty and irrational. Those are the very thing that destroy us as a nation, and destroy us as people. UNITED WE SHALL STAND!

May I take this time to say thank you....thank you to the true servant leaders who help protect this wonderful country today and on that day ten years ago...to all the police officers, the fire fighters, the navy, the army, the air force, the national guard, the ambulance corps, the marine corps, to the veterans, to you ALL!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

The Fall Cycle Begins!

So I failed at enjoying my summer. It's okay, I can deal with it. I trained successfully with Charlene this summer twice a week and she has given me the momentum and motivation I need to carry myself for my fall training cycle. And I began on Labor Day, this past Monday. Now I know I haven't been consistent with my posts but I will be now that I have structure in my life I will be abiding to.

Now I have a lot going on at TMAFC this month also! I have new students signing up which I am very excited about, I have a junior Black Belt test that has already begun, a 2nd Degree Adult Black Belt test next week, I started my competition team today and we'll be competing at the beginning of October, I have a regular color bet test for 14 students, and another school event for my students, so I am so grateful for the busy-ness. ;)

So it is only natural for me to be very excited, and head full of thoughts that I was unable to sleep Sunday night so I pulled an all nighter. Finally by 5AM, I said to myself, what's the point of sleeping now? Unlike my insomniac month of August, I at least understood the reasoning behind my not sleeping Sunday was more acceptable than the previous reasons. So I went to work out an hour earlier from 6-8. Well....let's just say I began, but the lack of sleep DID affect my performance and I cannot lie. I did everything, and everything well. However, it was not my BEST, and that is all the difference. At first I thought it was totally due to my lack of work from the previous months, but I could not deny the all nighter took a toll.

So naturally, Tuesday I ended up sleeping in and I did not mind it. I was okay as long as I came back Wednesday and came back strong. Truthfully, I struggled getting up. I had my two alarms go off, plus my we up call from a friend, and my lamp on a timer, all to wake me up. It still took 30 min but I DID choose to get up. I dragged, but I made it to TMAFC for my workout.

WELL! Let me tell you! From beginning to end, I was strong, fluent, sore, sweaty...I LOVED IT! I was so happy and proud with myself for doing the type of workout I wanted to do! Right to the tee! I even had ideas of how I would increase my level of difficulty, I think I was pleasantly surprised where my body was at, and excited about the improvements I could make, not irritated for falling behind. I allowed myself to sleep in today due to grandparents coming up from the shore to visit. Mom had minor surgery today, she is fine! But I was so sore today and I was sooo happy about it! Tomorrow I plan on going in and giving it my all again!

Week one, I am happy. Next week I am going to bring it u even more. Good momentum! Fourth Degree Black Belt, here I come!

Yours in service,
A TRENTO

Guilty by Association

I am further looking into the topic of guilt. As per my last post, a new view on guilt emerged- that is to say guilt that comes from being associated to something. Sounds a lot like grudges to me. What do you think?

I once knew of a person in a work place and she had a relationship with someone who had a falling out with the boss. Well because she had some kind of connection to this person, she was being treated differently, with lack of respect and value, and life became miserable for her to the point where she ended up leaving her job.

I think it was completely unfair for the boss to have treated her as if she was in the wrong. Her relationship with the person he had problems with was irrelevant to her work ethic. This happened many years ago, and she still holds ill feelings toward her former employer for these actions.

This situation is what is called guilty by association. You don't do anything wrong, not hurting anyone or anything, but are treated unfairly because you are associated either with another person, place, or activity. Have you ever suffered from this behavior? Sometimes we do this and not even realize it. But we all need to differentiate the circumstances in our lives and dissociate the people involved and make decisions with fair reason and thought.

I would never again want to see people being treated or limited to do something only because they are associated with an outside force. People who are victims to being guilty by association can become resentful or associate anything relating to their situation with negativity and the party you are associated with may feel bad, or GUILTY, that someone else suffered due to their association with THEM.

What I am getting at is one negative emotion can create more negative emotions. But same goes for the reverse. A positive emotion can create MORE positives. As a martial artist, I want to do nothing but produce positivity everywhere I go. And by observing what creates negative, I can compare it from what I don't want to create to what I DO want to create. Guilt is one of those underhanded emotions that we need to be aware of, because it creates more negative. Everywhere we go, we should want to create good feelings of happiness, excitement, gratitude, or encouragement. Those emotions create more positive energy around you and others.

Help out by doing this little exercise. When we see people today. Just smile at them! Give every person you come in contact with a big smile! Leave a positive mark on everyone you come in contact with in that small way, and see how much positive energy will follow you and everyone else around you!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

Don't be Guilted

I have a few thoughts on the subject of guilt. Guilt is an emotion. Guilt is a weapon. Guilt can be felt. Guilt can be used. Guilt is a negative. But I find people act out of guilt and people conform due to guilt. And As I get older, I find more and more cases where people will guilt other people to doing things they may not really want to do and to get "their way."

There is an argument, however, that guilt can be an internal alarm saying "Well MAYBE you should or shouldn't be doing this, and that is why you are feeling guilty!" Ehhhhhhh....I don't know about that. I am not dismissing that idea, but through my own experiences and the experiences I have witnessed with others, I do not see how guilt has been a positive alarm for anyone.

Remember, one can figure out if they are thinking positively or negatively by the way they feel. And you know which is which because one makes you feel good (the positive thoughts) and one makes you feel bad (the negative thoughts). So how does guilt make you feel? I don't know about you but it doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Guilt is a negative emotion. And when one feels guilty, it causes doubt and then fear can set in.

If we know right from wrong, nine out of ten times we will not feel the negative emotion of guilt. In the few times it is set as an alarm to tell you that you're doing something wrong, you can reassess and make a new choice. But I mentioned how guilt can be used as a weapon. This is something I strongly dislike and on two different ends: I dislike how people use guilt to make other people do things and I also hate how people ALLOW guilt to control their decisions for them.

I know people who play the guilt trip with snide remarks, the woe is me, or the you never do anything, to the point where you will never win. But I was told that RESPONSIBILITY means ability to RESPOND. So those who allow other people (whether it be your friends, your parents, your colleagues, your cousins, etc) take responsibility and don't let people guilt you in or out of what you want to do. Act because you WANT to, and because you feel it is RIGHT, not because someone else tells you.

When people try to get you to do something through guilt, it is usually because they have an agenda, and they are convinced of something, but not necessarily are right. I would say not necessarily wrong either, however, when people are doing the right thing, they don't guilt other people into doing things. They also step back and let people make their own decisions and when it is the right choice, I am told they always find their way. To work to convince would be counter-productive.

Make your own decisions because they are right. Not just because you are influenced by the ones closest to you by guilt. When people work to create negative emotions for a result, the results are usually negative in some form whether you see it or not.

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

My Last Session

Today just so happens to be my thirteen year training anniversary! I have been training in the martial arts for thirteen years and it is absolutely amazing what experiences I have had and the accomplishments and struggles I have had in that time. Some may say it is more than what most people have, and I am grateful for it all.

Today was also my last training session for the summer with Charlene. She looked at me and said "Okay, what do you want to do?" She knew I wanted to see how far had come, and if I had was happy with the improvement I wanted. We did five different things today, starting with the pull up.

 When we started our training sessions two months ago on July 5, I tried to do a pull up and could not do ONE. I just hung there as I struggled to pull myself up, which I failed to do. I remember thinking, oh no...I cannot believe how far back I fell. I was really upset, but Charlene only said "Great! Room for improvement!" So that made me feel better. Then she had me do them today. I did nine full pull ups before the body began to fight me! I was thrilled!

Then we went over to do one handed push ups, which I have never done before in my life! Well I did 10 one handed push ups on either side. And you know what, I felt I could have done more, but we were only check pointing where I was! If you remember from an old blog post, Charlene made me do a whole workout of just push ups, and I always had a poor attitude with push ups. Poor attitude meaning, I hated doing them! Well she has given me the confidence and motivation to continue doing them and to push myself even more with different types of push ups in my own training in this next upcoming year! I was so happy I did a ONE HANDED PUSH UP! Ten on each side, and never done that before!

Another particular push up I could not do two months ago was a push up doing down and then springing up onto a medicine ball. When we first did this, I did not have the courage of my convictions to do it at all. I was afraid my face would hit the floor first and failed at doing even one. Today I did three sets of 15!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was on cloud nine!

Then we bench pressed, another new thing I did. I never bench pressed before and Charlene started me out with just the bar which is 45 lbs when I started just so I could get the idea. And may I note, she is fantastic and fair at building me up. When I rocked a certain way with an exercise or didn't fully extend my arm or whatever the case may be, she wouldn't count it. She was giving me a very fair assessment of where the bar was for me, metaphorically speaking.

When bench pressing I moved up to 65 pounds and we kept going up by ten. As of today I did 95 pounds, 3 sets of 10, which I am very happy with! I told Charlene I did not want to become this big buff meathead, but did want to build up my chest a bit and cut it up a little and she did just that. Then the last exercise she chose which she thought I struggled with and those were "the dips" where I put my knees on a platform and I press myself up and down, working my back and triceps. I dipped against 40 pounds, so I was lifting the other 107 pounds of me. I think that is how she explained it.=P

So I am going to try to enjoy my Labor Day weekend. September is the start of a brand new cycle for me, and Charlene will be mentoring me in a different way. But I am eternally grateful to Charlene for helping me get out of bed in the morning, giving me the motivations and momentum I have been needing, and for pushing me physically and setting the ground stage for me to move forward. Thank you Charlene for the ONE thing I enjoyed this summer!! (BOWS)

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

Expectation vs Hope

So I had a conversation with a very good friend this past Wednesday and he got me to challenge my thinking further on the lesson of expectations. You can read my first post where I discuss my thoughts on when they are allowed and the repercussions of when expectations aren't met with other people, or yourself, or from a result of something. I wrote a second post on people's responses to expectations where they brought up a few more topics relating to expectations.

So while talking with my friend, we brought up "hope" a lot. And from what I am taught as a martial artist and what I teach my students, you should ALWAYS have hope. Hope brings us motivation to do what we need, the faith behind what we do, and when in times of darkness come upon us, hope gives us that shed of light that we need.

When you think things are impossible, or that there is no chance to accomplish something, that is when we need hope the most! And it is hope that allows us to find the solutions we could not find before, or the ones that were hidden. Hope is the determination to not give up on something. I teach my students that HOPE stands for:

HOPE = Hold On Possibilities Exist

I learned that years ago from a friend of Lisa's. But a thought came to my mind. Is there is a difference between hope with expectations? Is there a difference? I want to believe that hope is different but expectation but I am not too sure. I thought about this during one point in my conversation with my friend Wednesday when he said "I don't want to keep my hopes up." People have the notion that if we hope, we will get hurt. I must beg to differ. Because of what I just said here on HOPE, I must contradict this idea that keeping hopes up hurt us. However, expectations are a different story because when you EXPECT something to be a certain way or for some result to show up, then we get disappointed and hurt. 

So what happens when we don't for what we hoped for? What's the difference between when you don't get what we expect vs what we don't get when we hope for something? In my opinion, I believe when we hope, there are are more apt to bring into your life what it is you want because there is the underlying power of determination that comes with it. I don't think expectation is the same. When I think about expectations, I believe outside forces have to meet them for us to be satisfied. With hope, that is a power that lies within us. As long as we have hope, and hope can grow when many people hope together, I find it to be a more positive attractive force than expectation.

So I think I just found the connection between the two. Expectation and hope are both attractive forces. However, expectations we rely on outside forces to meet, and many times when they are not met, disappointment and hurt sets in. Hope, is a more positive force that comes from inside of our very being, and when hope are not met, I believe we are turned into a different direction to find a better hope. Expectations do not transfigure as positively as hope does. Am I contradicting myself? It is very thought provoking. What do you think?

Yours in service,

ANDREW TRENTO