Monday, February 16, 2004
Started attending Traditional Marital Arts (TMA) under the instruction of Master Jerry Galloway (5th Dan) and Mrs. Mary Galloway (3rd Dan). I am now a 10th gup marital artist.
A bit about the genesis of this... My wife, Lisa Hitchcock-Weber, enrolled in the martial arts and self defense classes (one of each) during this term at IU Northwest, where she is working on her associates degree in nursing (to become an RN). One day early in February, I stopped by the school (which was located at 8608 Mississippi St. / Merrillville, IN / 46410 at the time) to observe a class. I was fascinated and intrigued, to put it mildly, and was really itching to get out there and try everything. This class I observed was run by Mary Galloway. At the end of class the students were doing some board breaking, and Mary asked if I wanted to give it a try. I did, and successfully broke a half board (actually a rebreakable board that was half slid together). I was invited to come take a class for free to try it out, which I did shortly prior to joining. I was hooked right away.
Saturday, April 3, 2004
Participated in a demonstration at Hudson-Campbell Fitness Center in Gary, IN run by TMA. The Galloway's daughter, Sherri, was present and participated as well.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Competed in the Indiana State Championship tournament hosted by the Indiana State Taekwondo Association (ISTA) in Indianapolis, IN.
Sparring: I competed against a 9th gup (white belt with a horizontal yellow stripe down the center of the entire belt) with approximately 6 months experience. As I recall, we were the only two competitors in our division. My opponent kicked me on the knee, rendering me unable to continue the match, so I took the gold medal. (He would have won for points.)
Forms: Kigon Hyung Il Chol (Base Form I)
I competed in a division comprised of three people: myself, the same 9th gup I competed against in sparring, and my wife (also a 10th gup), who was given the opportunity to join us (myself and the 9th gup) since she would have been the only one in her division otherwise. I came in second, getting the silver, lisa took the gold. :) i rather solidly beat the other guys score.
Afterwards, we all went out to eat at a nice Chinese restaurant in Indy. As I recall, the party consisted of: Dr. Galloway, Mary Galloway, myself, Lisa, my brother Mike, his fiance Sara, my mom, Jim (step-father), Devin DePauli(sp?) (8th gup?), and Devin's girlfriend, whose name I have forgotten.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
MISSED the Indy Cup Tournament because we just took possession of our NEW HOUSE! Ya, I know, what a weak excuse... ;-P
June 2004
At the beginning of this month TMA moved from Merrillville, IN to the Hudson-Campbell Sports Center in Gary, IN (455 Massachusetts St. / Gary, IN / 46407). This was actually kind of scary at first, since Gary has a high crime rate and a bad reputation, but the facility is nice, and I'm simply loving this too much to let the location deter me.
Thursday, July 1, 2004
My first rank test, going for 9th gup. Taken with the IUN Martial Arts class's final exam for the summer term.
Thursday, July 22, 2004(?)
After missing about three solid weeks of class, finally got back to receive news my advancement to 9th gup (white with yellow stripe). Yay!
Saturday, August 14, 2004
MISSED the TMA, et al, tournament at US 6 & 51 in Hobart because of school. Another lame-o excuse. ;-D
I got there right at the end of the tournament, and met up with the Galloways. Turns out there were only a couple TMA students that took part, just Jonathan (1st Dan) and Venus.
Thursday, October 7, 2004
This afternoon Dr. Galloway & TMA will be having a demonstration/"group class" in the Savannah Center at IU Northwest in Gary, IN. I'm going to take part, even though I don't get off work until half an hour after the demo starts and I won't get there until about half an hour after that.
And in other news, my hamstrings are quite sore because I wasn't making it to class enough the last couple weeks. Serves me right! ;-)
But seriously, I'm going to have to ask Dr. J tonight about when at another rank test (for 8th gup), since he was talking about doing that around this time. I expect he will likely delay it a bit since we haven't made it to class much in the last couple weeks. I hope Lisa's up to a rank test soon, since we're trying to stay together with our rank advancement.
I got to the demo pretty close to the end, just in time to step in and get thrown (back bear-hug under the arms) by a couple IUN students and do a form and assist in the breaking demonstration. We all did Kibon Hyung Il Chol (Base Form I), and then the upper belts did a higher form and then Master Galloway did a couple advanced forms. Dr. J. did a form in which he broke a brick (with a downward punch), and he injured his hand pretty badly, he might have broken it.
Present & taking part in the demo were Master Galloway, Kelly, Jonathan, Darnell, Lisa and myself.
After the demo we (Dr. J., Mary Galloway, Kelly, Jonathon, 2 IUN students whose names elude me, Lisa and I) went to Olive Garden in Merrillville, and the only one of us who ended up making it to class was Mary, and she left before we were even seated in order to run class.
I never did ask Dr. J. about rank test time, but given the circumstances...
Dr. J. did hurt his hand badly, he broke it, in fact! He shattered one of his finger bones (right ring finger, I think). ouch.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Jim Cray's Tournament. Went down to Jim Cray's tournament as the Galloways suggested. I still had my broken finger in the "buddy-sleeve," so I just did forms, no sparring. I was in the beginner young adult men (ages 16 or 18 to 35 or something) division, and went against four or five other guys, most of them probably closer to 18, one who was clearly older than I, and all of them higher in rank by one or two gups. I performed Kibon Hyung Oh Chol, and managed to win the division!
The only other TMA students there were Andrew, Victor and Nicholas. Their parents were with them, of course. I was suprised that nobody else was there, and hadn't even been entirely clear that the Galloways weren't going to be making it. All in all a good experience, despite the I was happy with the atmosphere, it was a nicely run tournament (much less confusion than state, but I'll take my share of the responsibility for that, since that was my first tournament experience), and I was happy with my performance.
December 2004
We were going to try to visit Kim Soo Karate when we were in Houston visiting Lisa's family, but weren't able to because their last class before the holiday break was over just hours before we made it down there.
December 2004 through early February 2005
During this time period our attendance was spotty, partly due to the holidays, and partly due to family emergencies in mid-January through the first week of February.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Rank test day! Tested for 8th gup (yellow belt). Material I was responsible for was Kibon Hyung Il Chol (Base Form #4), Palgue Il Jang (Palgue #1), Tightening Ways #2, Self-Defense: arm grabs, lapel grabs, back bear-hug over the arms, Practicals 1 & 2, and everything else I know. :-)
I'm pretty sure I passed the test, but of course nobody's officially said as much. Apparently the break required for the rank is a sudo-break (knife-hand), which is what I did for my 9th gup test as well. However Dr. J. decided I'd done that one enough and that I should do a different one, so he had me do a running front-kick break, which I've never even tried before. Mary Galloway and one of the IUN martial arts class students held, and it took two tries (the first time the board didn't break), but I got it. Sparred against Dr. J., Jonathon, and Jack (in that order). Used the new sparring gear for the first time, good stuff! (Thanks, hon!)
Afterwards Dr. J. was talking about Lisa taking her 8th gup test ASAP (once she gets back from being sick), and then hopefully both of us going for 7th gup (green stripe) around May.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
After missing class for a week because of work, finally made it back to class. I found out that I did pass my rank test (yay!) and was officially promoted to 8th gup when Mary gave me my new yellow belt. Good class, almost exclusively reviewing self-defense, as the class consisted of myself, Mary, and seven IUN students. So naturally I got bounced around quite a bit. :-) Sooooore neck.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Came to class today and unexpectedly found myself taking the written portion of my 7th gup rank test! (The practical portion of which will be held next Tuesday!)
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
We had a testing day today, and a number of us tested for rank. I tested for 7th gup (yellow w/ green stripe), and though I felt I could have done better, I passed the test and was advanced! For the test I had to perform Kibon Hyung Sa Chol (basic form #4) and Palgue Yi Jang (Palgue #2).
Saturday, June 4, 2005
Today I was planning to compete in the Indy Cup 2005 tournament, however I was quite ill and couldn't attend.
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
A sad day today. Today was the last class of Traditional Martial Arts. The Galloways are moving to Georgia, and so the school is closing down.
Class today included a somewhat brief workout, followed by Jonathon's rank test for 2nd Dan. Had my last chance to spar at the school, while waiting for someone else to get ready, Master Galloway set me up against Jack, but I was without sparring gear! That made it interesting!
Everything below this line is my future plans.
(Note: Master Galloway = Dr. Galloway = Dr. J. = Jerry Galloway)