sources

here are the links to the images I used in my blog posts:

- https://www2.nau.edu/wordpress-mu/plaid/files/2012/03/healthy_living-12rnho3.gif
-http://www.rafu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/soko_dojo-for-web.jpg
- http://madisoncollege.edu/files/users/wbessette/self-defense.jpg
-http://www.arikdaophotography.com/San-Jose-Buddhist-Judo-Club/Special-Events/Keiko-Fukuda-Sensei-Portrait/i-w7MMkTs/0/L/keikoFukuda201108040002-L.jpg
-https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1385829153/El_HaLev_logo._5x5.jpg
-http://www.clutchmagonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/black-woman-reading-library-book.jpeg
-http://sustainabilitymanagement2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bigstockphoto_middle_eastern_business_woman__39148281.jpg
-http://www.idonotwanttobeyourlawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Waiting_for_phone_call.jpg
-http://www.tptherapy.com/site/trigger/img/images_information_items/Trigger_Point_Front_body.jpg
-http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aisledash.com/media/2010/03/woman-lifting-weights-arms590wy031610.jpg
-http://kgi.org/sites/default/files/checklist.jpg
-http://www.self.com/blogs/flash/NotHateWorkoutClass-595.jpg
-http://www.growtallerkey.com/grow-taller-exercises/img/toe-touching-grow-taller-stretching-exercise.jpg
-http://splits59.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/3941735162_d4d72379ae.jpg
-http://www.associaliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/july2011neighborexercies.jpg
-http://media.onsugar.com/files/2010/11/45/4/192/1922729/5ecc2a37c8ab7311_gym-towel.xlarge.jpg
-http://0.tqn.com/d/running/1/0/J/4/-/-/treadmill-runner.jpg
-http://mommasaid.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/spin-class.jpg
-http://www.quickanded.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/graduation-cap-in-air.jpg
-https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXAul056wNO3DsP6LoNeEM1QlMdVdO7hGC4zFwnMd27vdTELnSWf3zKqVe9LmgHQ0IiDlLBcNuAeHVApowBBnTKB4FZN-uLSOGas-hebxlWAbE6pCFnGzPp-dmpz32FcH2O63341ZHE5FA/s1600/Walked+with+God.jpg

spiritual componenet

How could I forget!? Our spiritual component for Keystone was due today.  I wrote about the Jewish value of a healthy body. I found myself so intrigued by what the Talmud, Mishenh Torah and modern rabbis had to say about the value of physical activity. To my surprise, exercise is more then just a modern day fad but a Torah commandment. I think that this is really cool- I am not only  exercising to increase my health and increase my strength, but also, by exercising I am able to walk in more in the image of God (imitatio dei).

interview

After I worked with Yudit both on our Sunday workshop and JCHS workshop, we were emailing back and forth and we finally concluded the interview we had started on April 7th in the Judo club before our workshop. The major points I concluded from our interview was that martial arts/ judo/ self-defense held more value to her then just being a sport she did for physical fitness. She didn't used to be interested in self-defense at all; abrupt and violent moves weren't actions she felt she could do to an attacker, let alone teach to mass audiences. So how did she overcome that fear? Martial arts and self-defense came to Yudit in a way most people would never want to have to be introduced to a sport. It was not out of new love for this physical activity, it was out of fear for her safety. Yudit's marriage was rocky and Judo was something that was her's, as she said "Judo was mine". As she progressed, her admiration, appreciation, and passion for the sport grew, along with her physical and emotional strength, and she got out of her unwanted marriage. She founded El Halev in 2003 with the goal to "effect social change through empowering women of all ages and reducing violence against women, teens, children, seniors and people with special needs by means of training in the martial arts and self-defense." After spending time with her one on one, with a group, interviewing her etc I must say I think she has done a very good job of fulfilling that mission.

count down to keystone

Everything is really beginning to fall into place. Tomorrow I will be mailing my certification exam out (something I completed a couple weeks ago just didn't have the time/ motivation to fill out the personal information and mailing information criteria). I am really excited for this! My results should come back in a week (5-7 business days) and I will know if I am a licensed Fitness Kickboxing instructor. I am finishing my Keystone essay as well, adding edits my mentor gave me and feeling like I'm going to be in good shape for my Keystone presentation as it is now in 17 days.

bring it back to school: check

As I said in my last post, on April 7th I organized a group of people to come to Yudit's self defense workshop and helped her facilitate the Sunday class which went very well, and I am very pleased with the outcome. The following Tuesday April 9th, I brought Yudit back to JCHS and had her teach a lesson (similar to the one on Sunday) with JCHS students in the music room. Again, I acted as her assistant. While I do believe it was possibly one of the busiest club blocks of the whole year, we still had a solid turn out, and I am so excited to have my friends learn what I had learned a couple days prior. The more and more I learn about kickboxing and its ancient roots the more interesting the sport becomes to me. While martial arts has self-defense purposes and fitness kickboxing doesn't, I am learning about the heavily focused fitness side of "fitness kickboxing" through my books and videos, but am learning more about the roots of the sport and the self-defense aspect by working with Yudit and reading books for my certification degree. I am really starting to see, especially as I go off to college (specifically as a woman in the world), how important it is that I know how to defend myself and protect my body against. Working with Yudit has really helped me see that.

community service: check

Keiko Fukud

I officially decided my Keystone presentation date. May 21, 8:50 AM. Wow, just writing that makes
me nervous. I never thought this day would come. Thankfully though I have mapped out a very careful plan so that hopefully everything will be absolutely complete by Sunday night (except for my presentation of course).

Let me bring you up to date on what I have been doing. In March I shared a ton of back and forth emails with Yudit, the woman I did community service with. With arranged when we would meet and on April 7th I helped her lead a workshop at Soko Joshi Women's Judo Club (1622 Castro St
San Francisco). Upon request, I arrived at the club at 11:30AM, and until our workshop which was at 3:00PM, the owner of the Judo club, the head Judo instructor/ sensei, Yudit and I sat in the folding chairs facing the studio. We talked about the previous sensei Keiko Fukuda who had just passed away two months prior to our gathering, we talked about the ancient sport of Judo and all different types of martial arts, we exchanged self-defense tips and techniques, and shared and listened to stories of rape and attacks. The experience was actually incredibly enlightening and enjoyable. I had been used to learning primarily about cardio kickboxing and not as much about the martial arts component. Sitting in this Judo club I was learning all about the self-defense component and even practicing different moves that would be used to protect myself, instead of what I was used to doing, which was combinations that gave me fitness benefits.

Judo Club where we did the workshop

By the time the class was supposed to start, I was ready. I had met Yudit, we had spent the last 4 hours together and now we could run through what we had practiced before the group arrived. The class went well, it was nerve racking because everyone who was there came to support me, and I knew them all and had personally emailed them and called them telling them to come to this event and now it was actually happening. Everyone seemed very into what we were teaching though (which was mostly self-defense moves, teaching the power of our voice in the case of an attack and learning how to maneuver our way though an unwanted confrontation. When the course ended at 5, I was so relieved. I had fulfilled my commitment of arranging a group to come take Yudit's workshop, I had worked as her assistant in the actual class and now it was over and the pressure was off.

The people at the workshop were talking about Yudit and her organization El Halev for many days after the event. I am still currently in contact with Yudit, providing her with contact info for different people in the Bay Area interested in her work, while I am also writing her a positive review of her teachings that she can use for advertising purposes. I am really happy that all worked out.

community service component

Part of my keystone project includes a community service aspect that ties my project to an area of community outreach. Not knowing what approach to take with this part of the project, I met with Roni Ben-David who is the head of community outreach at my school (she also does a variety of other great things for the school). The first thing she brought up, was a self-defense program for women called El Halev that was created by a woman named Yudit who lives in Israel. Ron forwarded me the email she had received Yudit. It looked perfect. A great mission- to help women protect themselves, a nice Jewish lady leading it, and a focus on some kickboxing moves. I quickly emailed her back, told her a little about myself, what this senior year project called keystone was, and that I'd love to help her out with anything she needs when she comes to the United States in the spring. She was super excited and emailed back, which made me happy after my first failed attempt to contact a new person.

Now we are in the process of organizing something- which should be great. I'll will update soon on how my paper is going, my certification process is going, and Yudit, my community service leader, is doing.