Chelsea Hughes blog 6

I got to Texas safely but got sick from an illness the seems to be going around the day after I have arrived. I am still recovering and have fallen behind on my physical requirements routine but can catch up easily as I have fallen behind before, just have to get better and rehydrated first.  I'm hoping I will be better in time to still catch a class at my dojo in Texas before I leave.

Chelsea Huges

Chelsea Hughes blog 5

This week as Sensei Paul was out of the country and Jared came to teach the classes in his absence I really enjoyed having another energy and personality to learn from. Although I have trained with Jared before its always nice to change things up to keep it fresh. I am looking forward to Christmas as I will be travelling home to Texas to visit family until Jan 8th. while I'm in Texas I may stop by my old dojo to see if I can jump in for a class or 2 and see how everyone is doing. I hope all my readers and fellow dojo partners have a wonderful holiday and new year.  I am excited to see what this new year will bring in my training and life. 

Chelsea Hughes blog 4

12/15/2103

This week has been interesting for me. I've found many newer books on my kindle app so I have been reading on various topics all week. I love reading about different things, keeps my mind stimulated and is great conversation material. The only drawback is I often have trouble finishing books I start as in the case of  the book Zen in the Martial Arts. It is a short book but the words are so wisdom-dense that if feels much heavier to absorb the meaning. I am continuing to progress on my guitar goal and am currently trying out different gyms in the area so I can start training for the 5k. My training at the dojo has been going well, I've been dealing with some health issues that can hinder my workout, but this week I feel I had 2 good moments where I showed my rank well. One in mastery class when we were asked to show various techniques, I feel I showed them well for my rank, and another drill when asked to punch some hand mitts my speed was noticeably increased as well as accuracy. I hope to continue to seek the good in my workouts and always continue to give it my best each class. Thank you for reading my blog and I look forward to updating you each week.

Chelsea Hughes

Chelsea Hughes blog 3

Now that we are in the holiday season I have been seeing more selflessness in my friends and family, strangers too. I wonder why it always seems to be more abundant this time of year rather than year long. I have found that in doing acts of kindness daily the world seems a little brighter than before and it is easier to see the positive in the world, even when watching the news even though they seem to show more things that get ratings like crimes, fires..etc. I am still reading the book Zen in the Martial Arts, I have been taking it really slow, trying to really think about each chapter after reading one. I have found this book to have much meaning and has been inspiring as well. Each chapter has given me lots to think about in learning the zen behind the words. I have been making great progress on my guitar goal with my new game, I'm actually starting to build callouses on my left fingertips as well as getting faster with chord transitions. I am in search of a gym in the area to start doing the couch to 5k program on a treadmill, it seems to be a good slow building program that should help me build up the stamina I need. I look forward to keeping you all up to date on my progress.  

Chelsea Hughes 

Chelsea Hughes blog 2

Hello fellow mastery team members! just giving an update to how this week has been. I recently purchased a video game that will help me with my guitar goal. You plug your real guitar into the game with use of a special cord and it teaches you chords, scales, all kinds of fundamentals and techniques. It will make my goal of 100 sessions on the guitar much more enjoyable and attainable. I'm really excited to have found a tool to help me with that goal. I'm making my way through one of the required books, Zen in the Martial Arts. I have read the book about a year ago but am taking my time as I go through it again, so far it has been very inspiring and applicable. I will make my next blog post about it when I finish the book. As far as some of our other requirements, things are going pretty smooth, I feel I am getting close to finally being able to do a full pull up and all of my other physical requirements are going well, since switching to the new style of push ups things have been a little slower because I have to rest a little longer in between sets but I feel I'm gaining strength faster than before. Overall, things are going well and I look forward to keeping you all informed as I progress in my goals and training.

                                                             Chelsea Hughes

Jacob Landgrebe Introductory Blog

Hello Mastery Team,

My name is Jacob Landgrebe. I am 14 years old, and I go to school at Natick High School. My first experiences with the martial arts were not very enjoyable, I started at a studio in Framingham, where my training lasted for one class. Everyone there was older and taller than me (considering that I was in elementary school at the time) and I was scared. About a year or two later, my mother and father had discovered Dragon Phoenix Martial Arts in downtown Natick. They signed me up because I was interested and I absolutely loved it. I train because it teaches me how to defend myself and it makes me stronger mentally and physically. It has given me skills I can use in many situations, and has also made me much stronger since when I first joined, almost 9 years ago. During this mastery program, I hope to become more flexible, stronger, and I also hope to gain more skills regarding my martial arts training. I am very excited to go through this with my fellow teammates and am looking forward to a great program building skills and muscle.

Introductory Blog

August 23, 2013 blog 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Chelsea Hughes and I just recently turned 30, I've been doing martial arts off and on since I was 6 years old. I started in Tae Kwon Do. When I was a teen I studied combat hapkido. When I was in college I studied Chayon-Ryu and am now studying a blend of kempo/ju-jitsu. Although I have studied all those styles I have never attained rank higher than intermediate level, I hope to change this and attain a black belt in my current style some day. This blog Is part of a mastery program I am taking part in in which we blog once a week. I have been doing the program for one week now and despite my regular attendance at the dojo my body is not accustomed to so much exercise. I am feeling sore and fatigued but glad that I've had the will power so far to stick with it. I know there will be days when I do not want to, but I know that with the support of my husband and my team I can break through any challenges that come my way. Some ask why I chose to take on this program when I will not be receiving black belt rank at the end, unlike my other team members. when I heard that it would be opened up to other ranks I was excited at first, I gave it much thought and knew I had to take on this challenge. I feel I have hit a plateau in my exercise  routine and general fitness and I knew this would be the jump i need to push myself to my next level of fitness. Also, I wanted to do this to prove to myself that I can, to know that I have it in me to take on such a huge challenge so that when my time comes for my black belt exam and year test that I have already overcome it once, the next time should be even better. During the first meeting of the mastery program I found myself looking around the room at the brown belts and saw all the young faces, I felt I would not be able to connect with people half my age and younger but as I have gotten to know some of them in this short week I feel that will not be an issue and look forward to working with each person and getting to know my team better. They will push me to be greater than I am right now, going against their advanced technique I will learn and get stronger and better. In this program one is to have 3 goals to work towards in the year. The goals I have chosen are as follows: compete in a 5k, get 100 15 minute practice sessions in on guitar, and write a 40,000 word minimum novel. The 5k goal is monstrous for me as those who know me know I am not a runner at all! I feel working towards the goal of a 5k will help me build my stamina as well as raise my overall fitness level. The guitar practice goal is because my husband plays guitar and I would love to be able to share in that and play songs with him, he even got me a new guitar for our anniversary but I need to push myself to be able to play more than basic chords to play duets with him so a dedicated practice routine will help with that. And the goal of the novel...I have been writing short stories and have all these great ideas for a novel but have never had the discipline to designate time to sit down and type them all out to form one long story, I hope to accomplish this to get my ideas on paper for all the world to enjoy them as much as I do. I hope you enjoy my blog as I write each week, thank you for taking time to read this.