Senior Project Reflection

1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and or/senior project why? 

Although this may sound mediocre, I am proud of the fact that I made time on my 2-hour. This is because of the situation that I was in. As I began to conclude my 2 hour presentation, Mr. Pang passed me a sticky note stating that I only had 14 minutes of talking time. This meant that I had 16 minutes of information that I had to present otherwise I would have to re-present. The problem was, my powerpoint was out of information, and I was blanking out of what I knew. Somehow I managed to pull through and make time, and in the words of Mrs. Pittman, "it's a miracle that you made it."

2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P-

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

In my senior project, my mentorship worked really well for me. This may be due to the fact that I have known my mentor for a few years, and the fact that karate has always been a passion of mine. I found it very easy to find the motivation to go to mentorship, that I believe I wouldn't have had if any other topic was my senior project. Because I enjoyed mentorship, it made other things such as interviews, surveys, and science fair easier for me to complete.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

There are two major things that I believe brought my senior project grade down. 

1. The first being my 2-Hour presentation. If I had the opportunity to, I would simply prepare more, so that it wasn't as bad as it was. Specifically, I would add more to the powerpoint, concerning research and amount of slides in general. I would also make sure to cover more specific points. 

2. Another thing that I struggled with was research. Although nearing the end of the year, I picked up on using books and good sources, at the beginning of the year I was using a majority internet articles. I also used blurbs, which didn't further my research at all. If I had the chance to go back and do it over, I would simply just jump straight into the good sources, to ensure my topic had a solid foundation.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples. 

This maybe very late, but I learned how to prioritize. Prioritizing is important as an adult because there are many important things that you may need to do that you don't want to, and finding the strength to prioritize them over things such as, watching T.V or taking naps is required. The fact that it's senior year was a big life lesson to me. How? Well, because of the senior atmosphere, I began to become too carefree, and in turn this let my work slip away. Eventually, I caught up, and began to prioritize and this allowed me to maintain a steady workload while at the same time, enjoy my senior year.

Independent Component 10: Family

     One of the biggest things I've acquired from karate is a second family. With this family comes a second home at the dojo. My karate family has been there for a majority of my life and behind my actual family, they are the most important people in my life. Putting karate aside, we have been through a lot. I'm not a fan of sappy, writing, but I genuinely wouldn't know what to do without them. They have anchored me and taught me much of what I know. They have built my confidence and have seen me evolve from a small pre-pubescent boy to the young man I am now. They have truly been my best friends from the beginning. Although I haven't really mentioned them throughout my project, their importance in my life is far greater than what I credit them for. 

Independent Blog Post 9: MMA Classes

     The karate studio I do mentorship at also offer mixed martial arts (commonly known as MMA) classes. Due to the fact that I am on very good terms with the owner of the studio, he allows me to jump into the MMA classes and sometimes even teach it. Because of this, my my basis of fighting knowledge has expanded greatly. MMA has many different techniques from karate, and having the opportunity to do both makes me feel very lucky. The basic differences of the styles are fairly simple. Karate focuses of strikes and forms, while MMA focuses on grappling and conditioning. Together these styles compliment each other and it helps to know both.

MMA Examples

Boys grappling match.

Girls grappling match. 

Independent Blog Post 8: Black Belt Classes

     Being a black belt comes with its perks and disadvantages. A black belt class is both. Black belt classes are extremely strenuous on your body, but on the plus side you are learning advanced concepts. The typical black belt class begins with a warm up. This warm up feels as if it was designed for spartans. You begin with the basic stretching, and go into 100 pushups, and follow up with 300 sit-ups. If that's not enough you do various exercises to ensure the legs are dead before the class starts. After the gauntlet known as the warm up, we do one of three things. We practice katas (forms), we learn advanced combos, or we spar. Although these sound fairly normal, they aren't. They are intensified versions of what the colored belts do. The forms are perfected to the tee, the combos are extremely hard to keep up with, and the sparring has much more contact. Like I said before, black belt classes are supposed to be one of the perks of being a black belt, but cause you suffering instead. After the suffering though, you only benefit. You become better as a martial artist, and one step closer to becoming greatness.

     

Independent Blog Post 7: Fun and Games

     Doing karate isn't always serious. Later on in the night when many of the students have already left, and there aren't any classes, the black belts come out to play. We use the mats to our advantage and practice our gymnastic and acrobatic moves. Although this is fun, it also requires us to learn how to use our bodies properly. There is a lot of technique that is required for these flips. You also need conditioned legs to leap at the beginning of these moves. Although we teach the students respect and life lessons, the black belts need time to release stress as well. We use these rare occasions to goof off and mess around. We turn on music and we have fun. 

     

Independent Blog Post 6: The Fight Scene For Drama

      In the middle of the year, Mr. Hogan asked me if I could choreograph a fight scene for a play he was holding and I told him that I gladly would. In my free time, I created a simple, yet cool fight scene for the drama play. This lead to me being in the play bill and being credited for my work. The fight scene is below. I personally think it turned out well.

     

Independent Blog Post 5:

     Throughout my competitive karate life, I always manage to get 2nd places. Truthfully, I do have 1st places, but a majority of my trophies are 2nd places. During my early days as a karate practitioner, a.k.a non-black belt divisions I dominated mostly all of my divisions. As soon as I got my black belt, my skills instantly became second rate. In a majority of divisions I competed in, no matter what the size was, there was always that one person that was better than me that took the first putting me in second. I am hoping that my senior project will help me break my habit of second place and put me on top.

Independent Blog Post 4: 

      One experience I had during competition was beating a highly respected fighter. During competition I had went to a tournament that I sparred in. In the first round, I dispatched a tae-kwon-do fighter, and was set to fight my second match. Unfortunately for me the second fighter I was fighting was one of my peers, as well as a fighter that had placed 5th in nationals the year before. I was out of luck. Going into the match, I promised to try my best, and with this the match begun. In the blink of an eye, I was already down in points one to zero. Then a miraculous thing happened. I caught on to his fighting style. He attacked, and I threw and landed a defensive kick putting me up 2-1. Again, he attacked, and again I threw a kick connecting with his head this time, 4-1. I was in a great situation, and planned to run the clock out, and because he was in a bad situation, he needed to be aggressive. As soon as he attacked once again, I connected once again making me the victor 6-1. I completely dominated. Although I lost my next match due to fatigue and bad stamina, I still believe this experience was a great one. I ended up with a 2nd place, but to me I had a 1st.

Match 1

Match 2 Head kick.

Match 2 Victory dance.

Independent Blog Post 3:

    

Karate Rules:

The different rules for different leagues: (My personal favorite is NBL)

http://www.naska.com/rules/naska-rules/sparring-rules.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/479779-official-karate-sparring-rules/

http://www.nblskil.com/pdffiles/section1rules.pdf

NASKA:

- Legal striking areas: 

       1. Entire head and face

       2. Front of the torso

- 2 Minute Rounds

- Landed Hand Strikes (1 Point)

- Landed Leg Strikes (2 Points)

- Penalty Points (1 Point to opponent)

- 7 Point Spread = Win

- Majority vote = point

- No grabbing/wrestling

- No coaching

WKF

- Same striking areas

- Only approved gear can be used

- Head kicks (3 points)

- Body kicks (2 points)

- Punches  (1 point)

- 2-3 Minute rounds

- No grabbing/wrestling

- Majority vote = Win

NBL 

- Same striking areas and groin.

- 2 Minutes

- 1 Coach allowed 

- 3 second grabs allowed

- Kicks and punches (1 Point)

- Head kicks and spinning kicks (2 Points) 

- Spinning kicks to the head and aerial kicks (3 Points) 

Independent Blog Post 2:

    

      Today I finished my 2-Hour, now the only thing left to do is to do my independent blog posts. Unluckily for me I stuck with the Ipoly mantra of procrastination. Due to that I have 9 blogs to catch up with the day before. Luckily for me, I have a lot of karate experiences I can share with the blog. 

This recent experience is one that taught me how to prioritize. Pretty much, I wasn't being very avid with my mentorship by not showing up to the studio very often. In turn, when my mentor saw me next he had a task for me that was completely unrelated to karate. I had to clean the grime off of tires. I had no say in whether or not I wanted to do it, I was just told to do it. This served as a punishment for not showing up to the studio. After I finished cleaning the tires, my mentor pulled me to the side for a lecture. He told me that he didn't care that I wasn't showing up to teach, because other black belts can do it. He stated that what bothered him was the fact that I didn't act like karate was important as a priority. From then on he wanted me to treat it like a job, meaning to call in when I couldn't go, as well as put it on top of my list of requirements. 

Sparring Wednesdays!  

Independent Blog Post #1

At my karate studio, Wednesdays are sparring days! Since my topic focuses on the sparring aspect of karate, if you take a look at my mentorship, most of the days that I'm at the studio are Wednesdays. This is because, they are great days to practice and fight other students who have their sparring gear. Although on Wednesdays, I typically beat on little kids for a while in the afternoon, later on at night the intensive fighting between the black belts happens. This is really aggressive as opposed to the non-black belt fighting. It's two different worlds. Black belts throw punches and kicks harder than they usually do, and although there is still control, and good sportsmanship, each black belt pushes each other by making sparring a challenge. I  personally enjoy coming home super sore from getting kicked in the ribs and punched everywhere, it's what makes karate, karate, and it also conditions my body to take damage. With the practice that I get on Wednesdays, I not only stay fit, but I also prepare myself, and learn firsthand about my essential question.

BLOG 25: Mentorship

Mentorship Log

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak5pZms1OmNYdEVfOVFWRHRQb1F4ZnVEWXVQUXVYWXc#gid=0

1) What is your essential question and why? What is your best answer to your question and why?

My essential question is "What is key to winning a karate sparring division?" because coming into senior year I was looking an avid competitor in karate. My senior project was about karate, and as opposed to past years where people have focused on teaching karate, I wanted to focus on the fighting/self-defense aspect of it, as well as find out how to be more successful in my own competition. My best answer to this question was  the use of proper technique because of the fact proper technique is what separates the karate athlete from any other athlete. Proper technique can turn the tide in any situation, and although the other answers help as well, proper technique can help you completely dominate your opponent. With proper technique, you increase your efficiency in the ring, and when it comes to fighting efficiency is very important.

2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

Throughout my mentorship I was taught many different things. They involved speed and timing, knowing your opponent, how teaching can help you learn, but nothing covered more ground than the use of proper technique. Over time, I gradually saw that proper technique can really accomplish anything in the ring. It makes your strikes stronger and faster with less effort, and this is really important when the objective is to fight multiple rounds without getting tired. Overall proper technique seemed like the way to go.

3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

Research was a big problem for me. My research was very narrow, including only internet articles. Luckily, Mrs. Pittman/Melogno helped me out by sending me a list of karate books to take a look at, and that helped me expand my research base. Another slight problem was a turn of events that forced me to change my independent component two. My original independent component two was to compete at the biggest national karate tournament in southern California, which would have required hours of preparation. Unfortunately because of family matters, I had to change it to 30 additional mentorship hours.

4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My two most significant sources include my mentor and another one of my karate instructors. As for a printed source my most important source is the book "Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting: Part 3".  My mentor is obviously one of my most significant sources because of the fact that a majority of the hands on learning I did throughout my senior project was taught to me by him, as well as my other instructor. The book was very important to me, due to the fact that it gave me plenty of research with substance. Unlike many karate books, it went into detail on everything it said and provided information that many other sources didn't provide.

5) What is your product and why?

My product is my newfound preparation and confidence. Due to the fact that there is a huge skill difference between the youth and adult divisions, this is much needed preparation. Throughout my senior project I have picked up so much information on winning a sparring division, and I believe that this has prepared me to get into the ring and win. Hopefully I will be prepared for the adult sparring division, and this can lead to me being successful as an adult karate practitioner.

Blog 23: Junior Interviews


1.  Who did you interview and what house are they in?
      I interviewed a junior named Winter Dreschler who is in East house.

2.  What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
      Winter said she planned on doing underwear design or bathing suit design.

3.  What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?
      My interviewee Winter is a special case. She has taken the high school exit exam and is going    straight to college, therefore she has no plans for the 10 hour mentorship.

4.  What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?
     Due to the fact that she wouldn't be experiencing senior year, the interview took a gradual shift to a lighter side. Winter stated that she expected to see quote-unquote "the epitome of awesome-ness." She also stated that she had very high expectations.

5.  What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?
      Because Winter isn't going to be doing the senior project she had a witty response which could be perceived as an insult. She said "Why did you stay for senior year instead of graduating early?" To which I replied with attitude "Because I didn't know you can do that." After the joking Winter asked me what the hardest part of the senior project was, and I said the independent components. I told her that unlike previous components, these required at least 30 hours of work which set them apart from others. They were more strenuous, and although you could pick what you wanted to do, 30 hours of work is 30 hours of work.

Independent Component 2

Literal
(a) I, Rene Lacad, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) 1. Dustin Lenaburg (Mentor, 4th Degree Black Belt, 26 years of martial arts experience)
       
 Being my mentor, Mr. Lenaburg constantly kept an eye on me during my mentorship, and continuously corrected any errors I may have had, taught me things about karate sparring, as well as taught me life lessons. He had me either assisting him in class, teaching class, or helping students individually in sparring. On occasion he would have me jump into a class to see what it was like on the recieving end of being taught.

     2. Zachary Wagner (Fellow Practitioner, 2nd Degree Black Belt, 10+ years of martial arts experience.)
 
During my additional 30 hours on mentorship for my independent component, my fellow karate practitioner took it upon himself to help my learning process. Because of his experience advantage on me, in karate, as well as competition, he had many helpful tips and tricks when it came to fighting in and out of a tournament setting.

(c)  Download Link:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B05pZms1OmNYWlY2cGRQMnJvWFU/edit?usp=sharing


(d) For my independent component I originally planned to train, compete, and hopefully succeed at a nationwide karate tournament. Unfortunately, there were family matters that I had to attend last minute, and I had to cancel on the tournament. My new independent component had then become an additional 30 hours, and that is what I had set out to do.

         My mentor was glad to hear this because it would mean I could be in the studio more. In the additional 30 hours, I was assigned and various tasks that my mentor expected me to do. These tasks included teaching sparring classes, assisting him teaching classes, sparring students and fellow black belts, individually working with students in sparring to better my technique, and staying later into the night to close up the studio. One thing I could consider an achievement is I now have a key to the studio.


Interpretive
One sure way to prove that I had put at least 30 hours of work into my independent component is the fact that I now have a key to the studio. It wouldn't make sense for a business owner to take the time and effort to create a copy of a key to give to a person they don't have faith in to complete a task. Other forms of evidence are the multiple pictures I took during my mentorship. The pictures consist of me teaching and lecturing students, me joking with my students and associates, and even a picture with Ipoly Alumni. (Below are pictures)


Applied
Due to my constant exposure to sparring, whether it be through teaching students moves, and training them for competition, or personal experience while training myself, I have picked up new knowledge on all three of my answers to my essential question. I discovered many different perspectives, as well as asked other black belts what they believe is the best answer and got many different answers. This component helped me widen my base of knowledge on karate, and pushed me to fully commit to the best answer.




Evidence:

Me teaching this little girl. She was adorable!

Being a karate teacher doesn't mean you can't have fun!

One of my instructors teaching karate. To rephrase, a student learning from one of the best.

Ouch! Busted lip from fighting... fun stuff.

Closing up the studio like a big boy

One on one drilling with one of the newer MMA girls. 

Lecturing my little group.

Messing around with Ipoly Alumni. He needs a sense of humor.

Teaching kids on a Saturday morning. Oh boy, this took some effort.

Blog 20: 3 Column Logic Chart

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19wp7_uNGPolnrzXeX2F5D9bek-KcquL0MMRX95UXfAY/edit?usp=sharing

Blog 19: Senior Project and ESLR's

BLOG 19
1. The ESLR I have excelled at the most is being an "Effective Communicator."

2. I believe that I have done the best at being an Effective Communicator because of the fact that I find it very easy to convey my message to others as well as find compromises that ensure everyone is happy. Although at some points I may be loud, I can find a way to settle down and listen to a person without interruptions. Also, teaching karate makes sure I communicate the message to the students well, otherwise they will not get the lesson.

3.



Unfortunately, I don't know how to turn this picture the right way.
This was me helping teach a class alongside two other black belts. You need to be an effective communicator to make sure that the lesson flows well and to ensure that you have synergy with the other black belts.

Independent Component 1

L

a) I, Rene Lacad, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents about 30 hours of work. 

b) One of the instructors at the studio, Chris Crisostomo helped me complete my independent component. He is probably the most important source I have because he constantly helped me teach, and corrected me when I wasn't doing something correctly, as well as gave me tips to teach better.

c) Don't have one.

d) During my independent component, I attempted to focus on training some students to become better than they already were. The students I chose were the ones constantly there, so I could easily show up and find them there ready to be trained. My first plan was to train these students to move up in rank, but due to the rank differentials it would have taken much longer because of the fact that they would each have to learn separately as opposed to a class that contained all of them. I reevaluated my goal to prepare these students for a tournament as well as make them better fighters in general. Initially I set a schedule to train them, and what days to be there. When the schedule was set to either 2 or 3 days a week give or take, and then broken up into 2 hour sessions each. When we started our training the students were already decent naturally, but they was lacking some basics and fundamentals that could easily be improved on. After about 12 weeks of training, many of the students had improved much more than you would imagine, and I was satisfied with my work. 

I

Although 12 two hour sessions only adds up to 24 hours of work, this does not account for me planning and creating a lesson plan for the lessons. The day before each lesson, I took about 25-30 minutes to plan what I was going to do the next day, so that the students would never have to repeat the same thing, as well as create variety in what they learned, although many classes did include the basics, no two were ever the same. Many of these students have improved, and I can say that my mentors and peers can vouch for me. In the upcoming tournament on February 23, many of these students will compete, and hopefully obtain a big win for themselves as well as for me.

A

This component increased my understanding of the foundation of my topic better by showing my the difficulties of teaching as well ass showing me the importance of basics. This also showed me the joys of teaching also, an example would be the end result. Although my students were never bad, they never stood out either. A short example would be near the end of training one of my students was in a class fighting and he did a move that none of the instructors had seen him do before. An instructor jokingly yelled "wow, I didn't know that DJ could blitz." (DJ was the student, and a blitz is a sparring technique.) This gave me a sense of pride because of the fact that I could say that I had accomplished something. These little improvements are what karate teachers live for. Another example of how this venture had helped was how it made me better. Before I started this component my basics were also a bit rusty, but through teaching them, I myself improved with my students. An example would be recently when sparring with one of my fellow black belts, I was easing my way to a win, when before this particular person would give me a hard time. Although teaching was not necessarily my main objective, I still became a better fighter, which IS my objective. This experience helped me as a whole teaching me that basics and fundamentals are just as important as complex and intricate techniques.

Interview #4 Questions

1. What is key to winning a karate sparring division?

2. What separates karate fighting with other competition sports?

3. How important is speed and timing when it comes to karate sparring?

4. What are some ways to increase your chances in karate sparring?

5. Does training for a karate tournament differ from average karate training? Why?

6. What are some things you've done to win a sparring division?

7. With enough training can anyone do the things you did?

8. What are some types of mental preparation?

9. With this in mind, how important is mental preparation?

10. Does knowing the opponents fighting style give you an advantage you wouldn't normally have? Why?

11. Are there certain moves that never fail? Why are they like this?

12. How helpful is intimidating the opponent before hand?

13. Are there ways to keep your fighting style unpredictable? If yes, how?

14. What is one way a fighter can ensure that he or she stays successful?

15. What should a person do when caught in a bad sparring situation? 

16. Does the sparring equipment such as pads and clothes have a helpful effect on the fight?

17. When fighting an opponent that is unfamiliar or unpredictable, what is the best strategy?

18. How does a fighter think quick when a problem arises in the ring?

19. Do coaches play a significant role in a fighters success?

20. Is it smart for a fighter to go into the ring with multiple game plans? Why?

BLOG 16: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #2

1. What is key in winning a karate sparring division?

2. My second answer to my essential question is knowing your enemy.

3/4. - When you can psych your opponent, you increase your chances of winning.  (WB, Source 18)
    - When you know your opponent, it makes fighting them easier. (Personal Experience)
    - When you know your opponent, you can prepare for their style a bit easier. (Examples, Professional boxers and mixed martial arts fighters get sparring partners that try to imitate their opponents style)

5. I plan to continue my study of answer 2 by finding more research as well as testing this answer first hand, by studying my opponents in an upcoming tournament, and preparing myself.

Blog 5b

Science Fair Hypothesis:

If the proper technique is applied in sparring, then the chance of the technique landing effectively will increase.

Blog 15 Independent Component 2 Part Approval 1) For my second independent component I plan on competing at a national tournament, and if possible winning a first place. 2) This plan will meet the required 30 hour work requirement, because the tournament itself will be at least 5 hours, and the other 25 hours will be needed to train in order to not die against other competitors. 3) My working EQ is about how to win a karate sparring division, so this independent component relates to my question because what is a better way to find the answer to a question, than experiencing the situation first hand.

Blog 13 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak5pZms1OmNYdGRXbHZOZ0dJNmx4enpOLUMwM2RZbEE

Third Interview Questions 1. (Still haven't had my EQ meeting) 2. What are some factors that contribute to how good a martial artist is? 3. Do black belts have these factors? Why? 4. Which factor has a heavier pull, the mental or physical? Why? 5. Can a person be successful if they only possess one of the traits? 6. How can a person be confident that they are a successful karate practitioner? 7. In a tournament setting, how can a person calm themselves down while in the ring? 8. If you were too pick whether you wanted to have experience or natural talent, which one would you pick? Why? 9. Does a martial artists trainer or teacher have an effect on how successful that practitioner is? 10. Is it possible for anyone to be a successful martial artist? Or do they have to have predetermined traits before they join Karate?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours Check 1. I am doing my mentorship at Champions Karate Dojo, in West Covina 2. Chris Crisostomo 3. 36 Hours (I am probably going to do a lot more soon) 4. Whenever I do my mentorship hours, I usually head down for 4 hours. During this 4 hours I do a variety of things. Sometimes I will train under the head karate instructor, at other times I will train and practice with fellow black belts. One more thing I do during my mentorship hours is teach. My mentor will either let me know to come in and help run some of the studios classes. 5. DONE! :D