Brews, Barbells, Badassery, and Bohurt

Squaring off with the Canadian Durham Dragons member for the first time One week away and I will be traveling to Springfield, IL to fight at the International Tournament of Chivalry II . It is probably the biggest event of its kind here in the US and possibly the world. Here in another week, top teams of fighters from all over the world will converge in Illinois to determine who is the best team in the World. Pretty awesome stuff if you ask me. There has been a tremendous amount of work leading up to this weekend. I cannot thank my wife for the many hours she has spent bent over the sewing machine to tweak my gambeson, alter my fittings, and create new padded leg under armor after the first design just didn't work for me. padded legs with new belt is a much better design There are a lot of other people I have to thank as well. First I wanted to thank my mother in law Sue who has been a huge supporter of me getting in this sport. She has helped offset some of the c...

Modern Day Knights Class I developed and started teaching a new program. Having a masters rank in Feng Xiao Zhang Kung Fu, and Sun Do Won Tae Kwon Do, and have a love for Western Martial arts (14th and 15 century); I created a program that mixes all my interests into one fun and effective self defense system. It truly is a fun class and has become very exciting as I am seeing new kids joining the program and having a blast doing it. Students will learn all the same great self defense and weaponless fighting techniques of most Eastern martial arts combined with the Western martial arts of longsword, dagger, polearm, and other fun Medieval Weapons. Kids will get physically fit, learn effective self defenses, learn to grapple and fight from the ground, and how to use a sword and many other weapons effectively. Our current website is:  Tactical Kung Fu and MMA I teach at Tactical Kung Fu and MMA in Durham, NC. It has the best training facilities in the Durham area and...

Me before stepping into the sweat lodge I have to say that I really, really wanted this to be a great experience for me. Since I was a child I was told by my mother that I was 1/16 Mohawk Indian. Being blonde haired, blue eyed, and mostly fat most of my life, at least I had some cool heritage to cling to.  Clearly tracing down my father's ancestry and other branches from my mother's, I am clearly English-Scottish (as accurate as we can tell from tracing the family tree WAY-WAY-Back).  Despite my clearly European characteristics, there was a warrior within. I wanted to be something despite my lackluster physical attributes. I wanted to be bad-ass. While this isn't a couch discussion and I am not going to talk about all my issues, it does however give you a glimpse as to why I did become such a high ranking martial artist and why I continue to pursue adventures and experiences. My pursuit of outperforming genetics, out shining my own God given natural talent, a...

HSC Palmetto Knights at Dragon Con I finally got a chance to fight! After months of preparation, tons of money spent on armor, weapons, and training; I got a chance to actually put it all together. Just two weeks prior, I had got the final pieces of my armor assembled and ready to go. I fought six matches at the HSC Tournament at Dragon Con. Hosted by the Armory and the Palmetto Knights, fighters from all over came in to not only fight in a tournament, but put on a show for a huge crowd at the convention. For several of us, this was the first fight or tournament we have ever experienced.  I have fought my whole life. This is the closest experience to getting me amped up on adrenalin like I experienced with full contact kickboxing in the nineties. My heart was in my throat most of the time which made breathing even more difficult. Imagine trying to breathe your head being  in a caged weighing seventeen pounds. It was a well run event,  and a ton of...