Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Courage Corner

You never know what you're made of until you really put it on the line.

One of my students is a case in point with that sentence. Adam Chiplinsky, a computer animator, former Australian full-contact kung-fu competitor, and RKC candidate in the KBLA stable, recently suffered a serious injury to his skull and jaw. He's undergone at least a couple of corrective surgeries VERY recently and still struggles with difficulty breathing.

Today was his first real workout in months.

While Adam didn't exactly make his snatch test numbers due to a lack of endurance, his form was none too shabby. His legs were tired from a lack of training, but his effort was admirable... a solid 40 reps.

He's got bit to go before cleanly passing the RKC Snatch Test, but his spirit is all there. Instead of postponing his participation, he's going to San Jose as scheduled next week. He'll be training alongside his wife Grace, another RKC candidate.

Grace, by the way, like most of the KBLA women, did her snatch test numbers beautifully with just 1 hand. Like I told you, KBLA has the baddest (and hottest) chicks around. :-D

I have every faith that Adam will represent himself and KBLA with his utmost. He's gone from spitting out mouthfuls of blood and stitches to doing some serious snatching with minimal recovery time.

That's spirit. That's balls. That's KBLA.

1 comment:

Mark Reifkind said...

Nice story. Mark, can't wait to work with you this weekend. When I saw you were assisting in my group I was stoked!see you soon.