June 23-27, 2008

Last week was one of the best weeks I’ve had in a while. Monday and Wednesday the class was doing Judo and Grappling which was well needed practice considering I was going to Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Friday with Mong. We also started doing Budokon conditioning workouts to start out the class. They’re pretty strenuous exercises that work your core as well as other parts of your body. Friday was the best part part of the week, though. For one, I’ve only been to Canada once and that was a family vacation trip to Niagara Falls. Plus, I was going to be able to meet Mohammed Khorrami and Fred Garcia, two experts in two different martial arts.

(left to right:Mong Phu, Master Fred Garcia, Sensei Mohammad Khorrami)

Mohammed Khorrami is a 3rd degree black belt in Judo and an Iranian wrestling champion. He is very skilled and I was glad to gain knowledge from. Master Fred Garcia is one of the first batch of Yawyan fighters from the Philippines and has 25+ years of experience in different styles like Arnis, Yaw-yan, and no holds barred kickboxing. He is an excellent stand-up fighter and was very happy to meet him. We arrived in Canada late afternoon and met Mohammed for a short training session before dinner. If you’ve ever seen Mohammed he’s a shorter guy packed full of muscle is definently a person that no one would want to mess with. Mong and Mohammed started by brushing up on old moves and learning new ones as I stood and watched the skill level of both of them from the side. I try to pick up as much as possible but it is sometimes hard because the move might require a higher skill level.

Fred Garcia met us toward the end and greeted us with great acceptance. Fred is a tall man that has a very nice attitude toward everything and believes in the ways of older traditional martial arts, which is having respect for people and having spirit and wisdom. After training, we all went out to dinner to a traditional Chinese restaurant where Sushi seemed to be the main thing on the menu. Mong’s friend Phil tagged along to eat with us and then do some training after dinner. After dinner, we all went back to the gym to do some sort of training. While Mong, Phil, Fred, and a couple others trained with Mohammed in Judo.

I went to participate in the Muay Thai class to gain more knowledge in the style and maybe improve some of the aspects of my stand-up fighting. The Instructors name was Kru Paul Tudlong. He has a great background in Muay Thai and is the founder of the Scorpion Kickboxing team. He was also very traditional and was nice enough to let me to join his class for the day. While I was training in the class I met alot of skillful fighters including a kickboxing champion.

(left to right:Master Fred Garcia, Zachary Brautigam, Kru Paul Tudlong)

It was a pretty intense class but was worth the sweat and tiredness. After we all finished, Mong received his Black belt certificate in Judo and it was a good moment to see my instructor achieve an accomplishment that most have not.

After that we all said good-bye as we started on the long journey back to America. It was a great learning experience and look forward to visiting Toronto, Ontario again.