I have decided to start this new page as a blog.  As a place where I can add a note or two about my new journey through the "gentle art" of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  I suspect that this blog/page will reflect my thoughts and ideas about modern martial arts and about my future in the martial arts.   I fell in love with Jiu Jitsu in the mid 90's.  My first Instructor Pedro Carvalho was key to this.  At a fourth stripe white belt, I suffered an injury that could have changed my future for ever.  I injured both my knees putting me on light duty for several weeks at my place of employment for that time period.  This brought concerns because it could have affected the outcome due to the fact that I wanted to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. 

    I left Pedro Carvahlo and continue with my CMK training.  I never did forget about the feeling of "rolling and using leverage, timing and technique."  Many simple moves that I knew would and could incapacitate an opponent of a larger size.  To say the least, I retained many of the techniques and continued to pass them on at every opportunity I had.  I incorporated many of the grappling techniques on my Women's Personal Safety Seminars and others have borrowed them to add to their own programs. 

   I feel that in order to be a well rounded martial artists or to be able to safely and effectively defend yourself, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is necessary, a must.  Because of this, I have increased the BJJ I teach my students thus breaking the "tradition."  Though I intend on keeping the military style of CMK, I feel that my students would be better served if they learned more grappling than forms.  This idea of teaching more BJJ than forms has bothered me for 2 years.   I had to decide if I wanted to continue to teach 15+ forms for black belt or if I wanted to teach 1 form per belt level and add more ground fighting (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu).  I have finally come to the agreement that forms don't make a better fighter or give you the ability to defend yourself better.  Forms do carry their own benefits but in my opinion, not enough to be made the majority or priority of the training. 
   In the late 1990's when I came in contact with Great Grand Master Nam Suk Lee, I was on a quest to find the origin and legitimacy of the current forms I was practicing.  My world relied entirely on finding the true origin and accuracy of the "original forms.'  Thanks to the internet, I made contact with several "ChangMooKwan" practitioners around the country and the world.  We exchanged VHS tapes of forms as we compared them to one another.  No one had seen our forms and no one could say which where the originals.  Through my search, I located GGM Nam Suk Lee living here in the United States.  In San Pedro California as a matter of fact.  I wrote to him and asked him for guidance and he readily replied giving me direction.  I then announced this to Master Fullerton.  We both fulfilled the requirements for out next Dan and were promoted.  Later Master Fullerton asked me to share this information with Master Wiedenman.  Near that time, Master Wiedenman had a promotion test approaching and I asked GGM Lee if he would attend since the Promo test was in San Pedro California. From there, Master Wiedenman took over and formed the World CMK White Tiger association. 
I'm not absolutely why I have included this in my BJJ page but for now I felt it was necessary to do so.  I will be posting the letters from GGM Nam Suk Lee on here for everyone to view giving validity to my statements.  I did find the true and original CMK forms though GGM Nam Suk Lee.  That quest was completed.

  In the meantime, I am truly enjoying my new journey.  I am in better shape now that I was when I was in high school thanks to my consistent training in BJJ.  I have committed myself to pushing myself to achieve the purple belt level.  I obviously would love to achieve the rank of Black Belt in BJJ; this however, is a true journey that takes many years to achieve and complete.