Perseverance in Krav Maga

This past Wednesday my mentor, Master DeJesus, invited me to his school to witness a Krav Maga rank test for a couple of his adults. I've just begun learning and practicing this very new art and am absolutely loving the new material in my training. I was very curious to see how testing would be done for something of this nature because it is a very different martial art.

Krav Maga, also known at Haganah which means "Defense" in Hebrew, is an Israeli martial art that is very brutal and very high level defense. Used in the Israeli army, the United States has an official organization run by a man named Mike Kanarek, and developed the F.I.G.H.T program (Fierce Israeli Guerrilla Hand-to-hand Tactics).

I walked in an the test had already begun. There were a lot of adults who participate in Master DeJesus's Haganah program, including three future instructors who I have had the privilege working with in my lessons with Master DeJesus. Two adults were testing. One man named Jim, another woman named Vivian. They began with a few rounds of "sparring" matches with head gear and gloves only. The blows they had to take were very real. You get hit, you GET HIT. But that's reality. If someone tries to harm you, they will.

After that they had to do several physically demanding rounds of drills and exercises they had to do. And the entire time, the instructors and Master DeJesus were very tough on them, trying their very best to break them down not only physically but mentally and emotionally. Just as if you were in an army bootcamp. They had to do maybe three minutes of three punches consecutively on the shield someone was holding and focus only on those three punches, while Master DeJesus or one of the other adults just threw shots at them. Shin kicks to the legs, uppercuts to the gut, punches to the face, and they did SEVERAL rounds of this and in between would have 30 sec to 1 minute rounds of either push ups, squats, burpees, planks, whatever they were asked to do.

Any outsider who never trained would look at this kind of test and be appalled and think it barbaric. If you are a sadist like me, you are thinking "When can I try!?" I absolutely LOVED seeing this kind of test for several legitimate reasons. One: the physical and mental demands that were required to get through a test like this was extremely challenging and if you can get through this kind of beat-down, you get get through anything in your life. As far as self-confidence in yourself, watching this test you can honesty say there is NO chance for fear to set into your mind if you were ever attacked. And you also learn and gain a lot of tolerance because you really are taking some heavy shots. Of course it's all in controlled manner (for the most part) but how many people are afraid of getting hit in the face? You won't be after this kind of test.

I really felt like I can get through a test like this as I continued to watch. But in the back of my mind, that little voice said to me "Pssh! You see those punches? You can't take a shot like that!" So of course what do I start thinking? I better be sure I can! I have already created an entire "to-do list" after my master's in pursuing this training and procedure of testing. It got me so pumped and motivated! And it was very admirable to see the level of perseverance these two adults had. They were really taking a beating, but by no means were they going to stop. And kudos to them!

The last thing they had to do was THE GAUNTLET. I heard a few people mention it, but had no idea what it was. So of course when the time came, Brian had asked me to come onto the mats and threw me a glove. And then I became a part of what was to be THE GAUNTLET. There were about a dozen of us with gloves on and six people on each side with a three foot gap between the two lines. Vivian and/or Jim would have to punch a shield all the way to the other side of the dojang while Master DeJesus pushed the holder against them for resistance while all of us on either side would punch Vivian and/or Jim going across to the other side.

To see the drive from these two individuals was awe-inspiring. Nothing could beat these two down. I was so proud of them and this was the first time I was meeting them! Vivian asked me if my tests her "harder." Tough question because I do a lot of everything that pertains to our training, not just the self-defense part, but watching this test, PHEW! Pretty brutal. And by the way: they were testing for yellow and blue belts! NOT Black or anything like that!

It was an awesome experience, and I know if I keep at it with my training I will be able to accomplish what these two have one day. I was privileged to witness this test and am looking forward to seeing where my own training will lead up to. And congratulations to both Vivian and Jim on their perseverance in their testing!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

A Spirtual Day

Sunday was a very spiritual day. After I taught my 10:15 Cardio Kickboxing class, I went to a Qigong Healing and Meditation seminar at American Taekwondo School, the school of my self-defense mentor Master DeJesus. I was accompanied by my spiritual mentor, Professor Lisa Sargese, and with my Black Belt and dearest friend Frankie Peracchio. The three of us were very excited and looking forward to seeing what was in store for us. Lisa had went to the first seminar last month and was thrilled with how it went. The seminar was run by Master DeJesus's wife's cousin, named Sal Canzonieri.

Lisa has learned a lot and applied a lot of what she knows about spiritual energy from what Sifu (future master of mine) has taught her and applying it so well, and being very open with experiencing all she comes across being a professor of faith and spirituality. Frankie and I have always been very in tune with spiritual energy since we were very young, but never had been trained to manipulate energy and directing energy properly with our full intentional control. I've been exposed to it for the first time last July when I first met Sifu with Lisa. Since then I have skyrocketed with it. So needless to say, you have three pre-trained warriors coming for this awesome experience. And joined by Master DeJesus and his wife, you have MASSIVE QI flowing in the room.

Sal had us spread out and our eyes were closed and he had us perform many basic movements, explained what movements we should be doing, how our breathing should be, what we should be visualizing, keeping our awareness as focused as possible, and I felt the heat in my palms increase, as I have felt in the past. The energy was building up, but much quicker than I have ever had it done before. But then at one point he had our hands in front of our body and as we continued to do the breathing, you could actually feel this TANGIBLE ball of energy between your palms. It was absolutely incredible! I felt like Goku about to qi-blast somebody!

But that is exactly what I felt and I began to chuckle and Frankie did too. I chuckled because I was getting so amused at how the qi was forming in my hands. You can feel a ball but no see it! How amazing!! Then we went into a circle and one palm was above the person's palm to your left and one palm was underneath the person's palm on your right. We allowed the qi to flow through us starting from Sal.

Now understand what is happening: The Qi master Sal is sending Qi through ANOTHER martial arts master (who has awesome Qi as it is) who is sending it through Lisa who is has some awesome power Qi, who is sending it through ME, who is passing it along to Frankie. By the time all that massive Qi went through all of us, Frankie's palms were sweating profusely! So he was sending it to Master DeJesus's wife and she said she had never felt the energy so strongly before! Then he sent a thought to us and we all saw his pet. I have actually done this with Frankie before where I sent a thought from long distance in an hour of need. I blogged about it HERE.

Then we did this drill where we partnered with someone else and we were to feel each other's energy and follow the movements of the other. I partnered with Lisa and we did very well I think. We kept our imaginary butterfly between our hands, and we were either paying really good attention to each other or being very intuitive. I would like to think we listened to spirit's intuition. It was very kung fu (#awesome).

It was a fantastic experience and so awesome for me to have two of my mentors doing this with me along with one my my own students. The three of us went out for a little lunch and being so QI-ed up and energized we talked in length of all the things we want to learn through this and were already talking about the next seminar!

Then later on Lisa and I went to a mass in Hasbrouk Heights, NJ where my Uncle "Deacon" Tony does a musical mass and we went across the street where my aunt and uncle led a reenactment of the Passover seder Last Supper. I had been doing this reenactment of the Last Supper for perhaps 10 years, missing only last year (I was still going through my trauma last year). The entire Last Supper Dinner was held in the dark, by candlelight, reading from eleven pages we have always used to do the ritual. I always feel such strong spiritual presence when we do this tradition. It was beautifully done and beautiful energy in the room. Then a friend of my uncle's played a song "Beautiful City" from the Boradway show Godspell. She believed that as Christian's we were building a city by spreading "the good news." It was a beautiful song and I knew Lisa and I would be obsessing over it after this (#IknewLisaWouldDownloadItRightAway #SheDid).

All in all, it was a very spiritual day. A lot of good energy, a lot of good company, and a lot of good food!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

Healing Betrayal

"I have the courage to accept the truth."

-Way out from Betrayal

I knew I had a full day ahead of me, which involved a lot of traveling. I wasn't planning on stopping at my school this morning, but something made me stop by. I walked to my back door to drop something off and I saw a young lady in the back and I said in a cheery voice "HELLO!" But then I saw there were tears in her eyes. "Oh my gosh! What's wrong!?" I went right over to her and gave her a big hug, she looked like she needed one.

She began to tell me through her tears how she was fired from her job and her boss wasn't even going to tell her! She found out when she started picking up the phones at work and hearing other females asking about her job. She confronted her boss who was very arrogant and cruel to her, and all she could say was she felt betrayed. She goes to school at night, she has a young son to support, and he wasn't going to tell her until tomorrow without even a two week notice! How was she to find a job so soon? She was distraught.

I felt so bad and told her to wait one moment. I went into the school real fast and immediately grabbed for my essential oils. I took out FORGIVENESS oil. I told her to "let me be weird" and give me her left palm. I put two drops of the forgiveness oil and told her to inhale deeply. After her first inhale, the tears automatically came to a halt. "What is this?" she asked. "It's Forgiveness Oil," I explained.

I continued to tell her that because she kept saying she felt betrayed (I feel so betrayed! I feel so betrayed! etc.) to heal yourself of a negative emotion, you have to experience the opposite emotion. The opposite emotion of Betrayal is Trust! I told her to have the courage to accept the truth and allow herself to feel the emotions of TRUST. Trust that everything will work out, trust God is guiding her in the direction she needs in her life, trust that he will find a new job with ease, trust that there are greater opportunities for her to move forward because of this, and trust that she can have compassion for her miserable ex-boss. And the forgiveness oil is the oil to help bring about those feelings of Trust.

I am no stranger to the feeling of betrayal. I have experienced the emotion of betrayal a few times in my life, and those few times were MAJOR and threw me and my life into shambles. I wish I had someone to explain what I was explaining to this young girl to me during those times. I have learned from my mentor, Lisa Sargese, that we need to identify the emotions we are experiencing and then identify the opposite emotion. For example, many people experience the emotion ANGER. A lot of people would think opposite of anger is happiness. But you would be incorrect, because anger is an outburst of a negative emotion. So the opposite outburst emotion in a positive way would be LAUGHTER. Then with the proper essential oil, you can trigger the limbic system in the brain to release the chemical emotions throughout the cellular membrane of your body to shift your experiences. (How was that Lisa? LOL)

She thanked me and told me that I made a real impact and helped her, which made me feel really good that I could do such a thing. Like I said, I wasn't supposed to go to the school today, but something made me go there, and spirit works its wonders. I kept thinking of all the betrayal of my life (and there were some really heart wrenching ones for me) and thinking about how, watching this young girl's experience right now, how maybe I can change my former experiences by shifting my emotions about these past events in this same way. After all, knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power. Gotta use what you know, or it does nothing for you! (BOWS)

Yours in service,

ANDREW TRENTO

Proud Legacy

"Leadership Law #21: A leader's lasting value is measured by succession."

-John C Maxwell

 

When I was apprenticing under my old master at hi school, there was a lot I would do that I didn't have to do. When I was a color belt, I would come hours early before my class would even start and train and workout by myself before actually taking my class. I would assist classes if I could, which got to to begin teaching at a young age and rank. I would help students who needed help and give the attention they needed. I would stay after class with students and help them with anything they were struggling with. I would come on my own time to help students get ready for tests coming up or if they wanted extra training. I would even jump in on tests at pivotal moments of testing that were stressful or challenging.

 

Now as the chief instructor, and almost master instructor, my role changes and there are some things I can still do and then there certain things that I can't do anymore. I have to keep a particular composure to uphold my role as the master instructor and I can only hope the students I once did things for would do the same for the new upcoming students. 

Well last Saturday, my Black Belt, Robert, came in early before classes to help my junior Black Belt, Owen, to go over his forms. I was so proud of him. No one asked him to do it. No one pushed him. No one offered him anything. Robert just chose to come in early on his own time to help out a student in the school. I couldn't have been happier. I was so proud of Robert. It was what a true Black Belt would do. Offering his time to help another. 

They say you can measure one's true legacy by how one's students carry out the lessons they were taught by their masters. The continue to live on and share the experiences given to them by their master. To see Robert be such a servant leader, I couldn't have been prouder! Well done Robert. Well done. And thank you! =D

Yours in service,

ANDREW TRENTO

Roping in New Style

Bruce Lee jumping rope on his patio.

Years ago at my old martial arts school, under my old master, Kristin Barrett had to do jump rope 500 times and was allowed only five mistakes! If she made a sixth mistake, she would have to do them all over. After watching that, I made sure that I could do that. So for six months before my first Black Belt test, I was doing this every week several times. I was doing more than I had to by doing these double jumps in between when the rope had gone past under my feet. It was actually Master Bardatsos who showed me at the age of 12 that I was in fact, doing them wrong. Isn't that funny? Who knew I'd be sparring in his school Wednesday nights so many years later today!

Then on my Black Belt test, my master made me do 600 with only three mistakes allowed. I was prepared and did it well. Then he made mention of 1,000 with only two mistakes. Well once I heard that, I went right to work and before you knew it, I could do 1,000 mistakes with only two mistakes. Sometimes no mistakes!

When I left my old master in 2008, I gained a lot of weight and one of the first things I did when I began training again was jumping rope. I couldn't even get to 200 before messing up a sixth time. I was so discouraged. But one of the ways I began pushing myself was by changing my reps to time. I would do 15 minutes or 30 minutes straight of jumping rope. I could go for a very long time, but I never counted the reps. It is now four years later, and I can still jump rope for a very long time, doing 15-30 minutes straight several times a week. But I haven't tried doing reps.

Robert was training yesterday at the school and he decided to jump rope. As he was jumping I gave him the challenge to try 1000 with only two mistakes. It was challenging and he was getting frustrated at first. Finally he made it to, I think, 672 before making his first mistake. I don't now if he made it, but he did 15 minutes straight and he said that was "big" for him. LOL, OK!

Then he had me thinking.....can I still do it? It's been four years. I honestly had a little doubt in myself. That is why I had to do it and see if I could. When you count your reps instead of letting time go by, you become more focused, and your mind does not wander. So I decided to do it. I jumped my rope and made the commitment of doing 1000 with NO mistakes. I did 110 then a mistake. Then 145 then a mistake. I'm just warming up, I told myself. Then I made the commitment to get it done, even if I have to exceed my time.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.....up to 100....200....300....400.....500, half way there! Wow....I'm not doing too bad...let's keep it up....600.....more than half way....700....laughing at myself now, going back into time in my memory bank to how I would create short term goals for myself. I was allowed to give myself a mistake after 500 and 700, but I haven't made one yet.....800......Oh well now there is just no excuse, I'm going all the way! There's no stopping me......900.......96-97-98-99-1000!!!! I did it. WOOOOOW. It's been so long. I still got it.....Amazing.....

That was yesterday. SO today I was doing jumping rope again. I went over my 15 time limit yesterday. Today I am doing 30 minutes. So my goals was to do it again and exceed and see how far I can go. Long story short, it took me ten minutes to do 1,111 before making my first mistake. I was so proud of myself. Now I am just going to keep exceeding it and see where I get by the mock-test. It's funny how some of these exercises and forms bring me back into time to a different point of my life and I compare from then to now. It's really an amazing journey only another martial artist could really understand. But here's to the not accepting limits!

My goal =P

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

Increasing the Level of Difficulty

My favorite martial arts cartoon is the Dragonball series. The first series is called just Dragonball and in the series, two young kids train under the greatest martial arts master, the turtle hermit Master Roshi. Master Roshi agrees to take on these two students after many years of not training students and gets them ready for a world tournament.

The two young boys go through the turtle hermit's way of training. And they do the same thing for 8 months before their tournament. They do early morning training by getting up very early to deliver milk to the entire island by running through trees and over waterfalls, then they do mid morning training by digging for an agricultural ground with their bare hands, then breakfast, then they exercise their mind, then lunch, then early afternoon training is using heavy tools at a construction site, then they must swim across a large lake of sharks several times, and then dodge bees from a tree to work their dodging skills.

After the first day of doing everything, they asked "Master Roshi, are we going to have to train like this every day??" And the turtle hermit replies "Of course not...for the next few months you'll do the same thing but wearing 50 pound turtle shells!" Increasing the level of difficulty.

At one point the boys ask, "Master! When do you get to teach us fighting moves??" And Master Roshi reprimands them "There are certain basics of martial arts you need to learn before that and you're not ready!" He continues to say he can teach them fighting moves once they can move a gigantic boulder. The two of course try and cannot do it. But Master Roshi does it right before their eyes.

Several months later the two boys run up to Master Roshi "Come quick!" and they drag him to the forest and they both shock Master Roshi by moving these GIGANTIC boulders! Master Roshi could not believe his eyes! The two boys stare at the turtle hermit all excited, waiting to hear he will teach them fighting moves now! But Master Roshi says he is sorry to disappoint them,but he still won't teach them fighting moves. The Turtle Hermit Way of training is all about the training schedule which they do every day.to master these basics, and then increase the level of difficulty of these basics and push yourself past your limits. That is the whole secret to his martial arts.

"You boys don't realize but by repeating these basic exercises over and over again, you pushed your arms, legs, hearts, and even brains past their built in limitations. That is the whole art behind martial arts!" -Master Roshi

This was my training under my old master. I compare my training with my old master with Goku and his first master, Master Roshi. Training under him I was able to create phenomenal schedules for myself, and it was all about repetition. Repetition is the mother of skill he would tell me. And I saw the difference in it. It WORKED and it was true. He was very big on building up your basics because the basics are your foundation. When a house has a strong foundation, you can build on top of it. Very similar to what Master Roshi was trying to teach Goku and Krillin.

When I began training solo almost four years ago, that was the key to my success. The training schedule! And that's what the secret to my success now, sticking to the schedule! I have to be very discipline with the schedule and keep at it. And as the drills are becoming easier, it's not time to do harder drills. You make the drills you have NOW harder. I do 300 calve lifts. They burn, but not to the extent they did when I first started. Now it's time to add resistance, put dumb bells on my shoulder. Instead of doing 3 sets of 50 squat jumps, do 150 straight. After that, add resistance. 1000 jump ropes straight? Now do 1500! Sparring drills on the bag good? Now add resistance bands. Too easy? Next level of resistance. THAT is the way to train. That is what I used to do with the old master, thats what I did alone, that is how I teach and train other people, that is what works, that is what I will continue to do.

I get excited when I see where my training will lead up to. It is also very important to stick to your course! It's very easy to want to do other things, and try what other people are doing. But stay focused on one thing and then you will see the success that follows in your training. We live in a society that gets so BORED so easy. But proper focus and motivation and proper repetition is truly the key!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO

Back to Training! Back to Burning!

I was taught by my former master and my current fitness mentor, Charlene, to learn to LOVE the BURN when you are working out! Embrace it! Be grateful you can feel the burn, and the burn is a good thing. The burn is what you want. And to be quite honest, I LOVE the burn. A lot of people confuse the "burn" with pain. Pain is a different and harmful to your body, or as my spiritual/psychological mentor, Lisa, would call it: inappropriate soreness. The burn is when you are sculpting your body to what you want, and building and using your muscles. Or as Lisa would say: appropriate soreness.

When I feel the burn, I am happy because I know I am getting even closer to my goals. There was a point where I stopped feeling the burn in my training and it was my opportunity to bring my training to the next level, but life's circumstances told me I wasn't ready. So I had to be knocked back a few steps and build back up before doing so, to get a clearer picture of the road the lies ahead. You never know where you're going until you get there, and when you get there you won't know where to go! =P

I have four months until the long awaited master test, three until the mock test. January was an excellent training month. February was terrible, from the Sorrow-bowl on. So I got my Qi cleared up, faced a few demons, and then called on outside reinforcement to take care of energy blockages. Now I feel great, organized, and motivated. I am working with the mentors consistently, And this week I got back to my routine. I am talking training, working, studying, eating, and sleeping. It's been two days and I feel FANTASTIC. And you know what else? I feel the burn! OY!

I have soooooo much to do before June. But I will do it all! A lot of reading to do, a lot of training, a lot of new material, a lot for TMAFC, and a lot of personal goals. Friday night I went food shopping with my good friend Dawn and I bought cheeses, eggs, fruits, orange juice, seltzer, all the things I used to eat all the time. Now I am getting serious. This is the direction I want to go. I did my cardio work, did work on my forms, jumped rope, and did my crunches. I have said before, I never cared about how my body looked, but I knew I was in excellent condition. But one thing I always wanted were my abs. For the first time in my life, at the age of 21, I had my abs. I was thrilled. Now I kinda have them.....that is on a good day.

Last night I am watching TV with Kristin, and she said she was feeling sore from class I taught last night. Then she says "I want abs by the summer." I looked at her and said "Me too." So we made a pact that we are going to promise each other to work and motivate each other to accomplish this goal by the summer. Uh oh. I always keep my promises to other people before myself (not necessarily a good thing) so now I have to do it! Well, here we go! You heard it here! Kristin Barrett and Andrew Trento are training for abs by the summer!

Besides my regular training and mentor training, I also have some major challenges BY the mock test to be able to do. My sparring mentor, Master Bardatsos, has already made me do 20 minutes straight sparring. That is a must again. Master Balon knows my goals for my 4 board ridgehand, 5 board sliding side kick, and 3 board hook kick speed. Charlene knows I hate push ups and expects 100 of 6 different kinds -___-, my self-defense mentor, Master DeJesus, just taught my over a dozen new Krav Maga self-defenses this past Saturday that I know I'm going to have to condition and train myself to do, and Lisa will have me so knowledgeable in the healing oils, hypnosis, and nutritional healing, and well read in psychology that going back to college will be a cinch! I have to be able to do at least 5,000 jumping jacks as well.

There can be NO interruptions or sidetracking now. It's all downhill now. I have waited so long to train to become a master. And I am already looking forward to master training. The Journey to Mastership is going to turn into the Lessons of Mastership! Are you excited? I am!

Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO