Be inspired!

Happy New Year to all of the LMT readers, fighters and folks that just like to the stuff I write, which still blows me away. I hope you all are ready for a blessed and beautiful new year. I stopped doing resolutions a long time ago an started just creating goals regularly that way I am constantly in pursuit and never disappointed by unrealistic expectations. So on that note I had a great 2014 doing just that. I had a beautiful daughter.

Me and Nin

I was able to win my 3rd belt, compete in Jiu Jitsu,  watch my fighters bring home some awesome victories, and help some people reach their own goals in Muay Thai. I was able to get on Sean Fagan's kick ass Muay Thai Guy podcast and and make contact with Duke Roufus and Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu. I felt like i'm finally getting to be part of the bigger community furthermore I felt successful as a coach and a fighter but then something else happened. I got extraordinarily inspired by how hard they work at their art.

Duke Roufus

I am at the gym teaching or training an average of 5 to 6 hours five days per week and compared to what they have accomplished I feel like i'm going so slow that i'm moving backwards. I can do more and I can accomplish more so my goals for the future are to do just that. I plan on being inspired by those that work harder than me until I can inspire others the way they do. I have heard plenty of fighters talk about how they work really hard to promote the growth of the sport and as I look deeper I realize that as usual a lot of people just talk.

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

I have to say that though I write this blog, it's not enough. If we expect Muay Thai or kickboxing to become more mainstream so fighters don't have to work full time jobs while trying to train for a fight that might or might not happen because of the lack of promotions, we have to do more.

    Though I just ranted about growing our sport I want to remind all of you and on a daily basis myself, that we have to be inspired in our lives. Allow the passion you might find in others that are making steps to accomplish their goals be the spark that lights the fire in your own passion.

Sean Fagan

When I was on the Muay Thai Guy podcast Sean asked me how I deal with haters and I don't really have many but I try to ignore them when they do pop up. The truth is don't focus your energy on those that are offering negative energy but focus and embrace those that are providing a path to follow with their positive energy. It's a great thing to be challenged but don't be challenged by ignorance be challenged by constructive criticism. 

     So that's it the first blog of the new year is a thank you. Thank you Sean, Sylvie, Duke, my family, fighters and friends that provide me with a vision of passion fueled by hard work. My goal is to be more like you as I pursue my goals. Peace and blessings. Big fights and big things coming soon.

Here are links to Sylvie and Sean's websites:

Sylvie- http://8limbs.us/

Sean- http://www.muay-thai-guy.com/

Muay Thai and Race

My man Patee in Thailand

Hello all, hope this finds you all happy and healthy as we close out this year. It was an amazing year for us at Lucky's Muay Thai and I am so proud to be a part of such a great group of people. We are already scheduled for a couple of events in the new year and I am stoked. I wanted to touch on a subject that some find uncomfortable, and that's race relations in Muay Thai or Martial arts in general. Maybe it's a good thing that it makes people uncomfortable to talk about race or it could just be, the way that I see it, in Martial arts it just doesn't matter. It matters in other places in society e.g. politics, certain neighborhoods, social issues, etc, but in Muay Thai in my experience, it just doesn't matter.

Matthew from Switerland and Jihad from France

When you walk into a gym or dojo anywhere in the world the focus is on the discipline and technique. It's about uniting your mind, body and soul. Yes something about being hit in the face or kicked extremely hard is spiritual. I'm not sure why we don't think so much about race when we train in Muay Thai or Jiu Jitsu, or Taekwondo, or other arts. Possibly because we are spending most of our time trying to learn how not to get knocked out or choked to sleep. All of us seem to realize that we will progress faster individually if we work together as a group. We are more when we are training as one. Not to say we don't have our opinions on the social issues of society but the reality is when we get matched up at a tournament or in a ring or a cage the last thing we care about is the color of our opponent. We care about how well we trained, how hard we worked, how our coaches and team feel about the efforts we've made and can we express ourselves fully when the bell rings. What I find unfortunate is that some may read this and say, well you forgotten where you came from or you're not where i'm from. All of that couldn't further from the truth. I know exactly where I came from. I had great great grandmothers who were slaves, I grew up in Chicago where at times it was one of the most segregated cities in the country, I lived in Texas where I was called the N-word by cops and chased on more than one occasion by idiot racists with guns. So yes I get it things are not fair for everyone in society, particularly minorities but in every place i've lived and with every group I've had the honor of training with one thing rang true. Race was never an issue. From my Israeli friends that teach and train Krav Maga to my Brazilians that train Jiu Jitsu, all the way to my Thai friends that train Muay Thai and beyond.

MMA class 08'

We all love each other just the same and putting our heart into getting better at our arts and using that to make us better human beings is the goal across the board regardless of race. As most of my readers know I have a new baby, she is now five months old and she is bi-racial or mixed, or whatever label people are using now but to me she is just my baby. I didn't even realize she was light skinned until people would ask me,"who's baby is that", or "is that your baby?". No joke, i've heard that and more. As she starts to get older the only place I feel really comfortable with her being and people I feel comfortable being with are those that walk the Martial path because those are the people I know will instill in her a sense of love and compassion not based on her color and I love that. I wanted to add some pictures of people I've had the pleasure of training with from different parts of the world and of all different races but it would just be a never ending collage. So I just added a few but know that I think of you all and have truly enjoyed meeting you, training with you and growing with you.

       Only one thing left to say and that is thank you for letting go of the insensitivity of the outside world to become more sensitive and aware of your true self. Peace and blessings through the holidays and much success in your training and fighting in 2015

Last night's training all colors, all creeds, all L-O-V-E

Out of the shadow of Senior

Hey guys, I am really happy to have all the support from my readers, students and friends, so thank you all. The last blog I wrote was my 100th post and as small as that might seem to some, for me it is awesome. I started writing the blog to just find another way to communicate my thoughts and reach out to others with similar interests and for some therapy. It turned out to be a pretty good idea and allowed me to give people insight into my personal life in a way that I don't normally. All that being said and in lieu of some recent happenings I think it's time to talk about my father and how martial arts taught me the lessons that he didn't, including how to accept him.
      I turned 41 years of age on September 14th of this year and on that day I received a message from my father saying that he apologized for our non-relationship etc.. I responded to that and it set the wheels in motion that has us meeting for dinner in Chicago when I go to watch the Glory 11 kickboxing event. I don't think I could possibly do justice to the rollercoaster ride that is my relationship with my father but I will try.

NCAA finals vs N.C. State

     My father whom from this point forward I'll call Senior. I am calling him Senior because we share a name and I was never fond of it because of our relationship and still feel uncomfortable with it at times. Senior was a basketball superstar in Chicago and had a very well known college career at Marquette University as well as playing the NBA.I would hear these legendary stories from people in Chicago in the neighborhood I grew up in as well as in Texas and in Miami from random people. Once I was working as a bag clerk at a grocery store in Texas and as the man whose groceries I was bagging saw my name tag he laughed and jokingly said, "You wouldn't be related to Lloyd Walton that played at Marquette University would you?.  I responded,"That's my father.". The man's mouth dropped as he went on to tell me how amazing he was and how he once held him to "35 points",  and that was as good job in his book.  I smiled as the man asked how he was doing and I gave him a generic answer because the truth was that I really didn't know. My father and I have always had a strained relationship. He was never married to my mother and was in and out of my life past the age of three or four. I never really knew when I would see him, but I would often hear stories of his greatness. The men in my family, my cousins, uncles, and grandfather had serious problems with substance abuse and Senior was no different. He had succumbed to his addiction and lost his NBA career along the way. I watched from a distance as my family structure crumbled and when I needed a male figure in my life there wasn't any available, but there was always martial arts. Even when my mom and I moved to Texas the lessons taught in Kung fu movies and Tae Kwon Do classes are the ones that stuck with me. Discipline, courage, hard work, and peace through connecting mind, body, and spirit. All of these lessons were fantastic however there was something missing. Not as a detriment or disrespect to my mother, aunt, grandmother, and other aunts and women in my life but there was no man around to teach me how to be a man. The women in my life worked tirelessly to teach me how to be a good person but I can honestly say that I am still a product of not having a father figure always around. I learned plenty about life while playing sports, and I have played plenty competitively growing up. However for a boy, nothing compares to having a male figure to look up to and emulate.

Milwaukee Bucks1979

       Where senior faulted, martial arts took over. From reading IRON FIST comic books, to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, to The Last Dragon, I was all in. I still am and always will be a martial artist, I devoted my time to it even if it was just reading about it and it carried me through every kind of pain you could imagine. It even carried me through the pain of having to let go of the idea of having Senior around. I suppose it sounds a little whiny, but I was constantly in the shadow of my father. He was considered a great ball player and he never was completely out of my life or the NBA. I would hear stories about him, see him on television, read stories in the newspaper, and for a time he was the director of the Jordan center in Chicago, a coach in the development league, he even ran for political office. He has always been in the spotlight and people would always ask about him and why I didn't play ball, and wasn't like him. It's damn hard to live up to a name you share but barely even know.

Me saying appropriately, "Finally".

      Over the years there have been chunks of time when senior and I didn't speak. five years here seven years there. Also, several times of reconciliation without serious commitment on either side to continue communications after. I always welcomed some sort of dialogue but it was never a consistent effort. As I began to fight and win I began to realize my true passion and create my own name. I have garnered the respect of my peers and no longer feel like I'm living in the shadow of Senior. Now when I have feelings of doubt, or depression, or uncertainty I train my arts, and they in turn help to calm my soul. So after all this time and finally reaching a place that I can accept myself, maybe I can also choose to accept him whether in my life or not. Time will tell.